I know everyone has been waiting with baited anticipation for my post on The Larry Sanders Show (haha, just kidding, I think I know like one other person who has even seen any of it), so here goes! Wait no longer, friend.
The Larry Sanders Show starred Garry Shandling as a late-night talk show host, and ran from 1992-1998 (yes, my Wikipedia bookmark works!). It covered the filming of the show but was mostly about backstage details and Larry's life. He has a sidekick, Hank, played to creepy D-list perfection by Jeffrey Tambor, and a producer/hetero life partner named Artie, played by the brilliant and inimitable Rip Torn. The celebrities that show up on Larry Sanders are too vast to mention, but the regular cast includes plenty of familiar faces (Janeane Garofolo, Jeremy Piven, Wallace Langham, Mary Lynn Rajskub). The Larry Sanders Show was also where a lot of big behind-the-scenes names built their resumes, including Judd Apatow and Steve Levitan. This is just to show you that in terms of comedy quality, this show isn't essing around.
Larry Sanders was the original Entourage. In fact, it's a lot like Entourage except without the homophobia and the boobs and the terribleness and the (mostly useless unless adorable counts as useful) Turtle. You've got Vince (Larry), E (Artie), and Drama (Hank). There's even a perfect asshole Ari-ish agent played by Bob Odenkirk. What I mean by this is that the show deals very heavily with the showbiz machine (and television and handling the networks in particular), what it's like being a celebrity and having relationships (be they work or friend or romantic, with regular people and with other celebrities), and with the immense amount of ego coddling that can go into being the person who does the least amount of work with the most amount of benefit. Entourage has covered all of these topics (substitute "network" for "movie studio"), but the problem with that show is that, even when it was good, it felt too much like an inside joke. Also, sometimes the entire plot hinges on "Will someone get some really special, expensive thing/vacation/pussy?" and that is boring and no, not aspirational. I would rather see a celebrity pretend to have been to rehab in order to get out of being embarrassed and then develop an actual addiction and have to be guided through detox by Roseanne any day.
TLSS was one of the first scripted comedies to be done for HBO (the intro credits still referred to it as Home Box Office for 83% of the show), and I don't think it could have been done anywhere else. Not only did this mean that they could realistically throw curse words around and do lots of other "adult" things without having to worry about standards and practices, but it allowed the show to parody and take to task the whole broadcast network machine. There's a great episode in the 5th or 6th season where Wallace Langham's head writer character quits to create a pilot about a grunge band in Seattle - but the network wants to cast Dave Chapelle, who wants to turn the main character into a DJ who lives in Baltimore...and the project falls apart from there, due almost entirely to the network's meddling. This leads into the way that The Larry Sanders Show ultimately ended.
It seemed that the ending had been being built up to for years. From the very first season there was talk about how the network didn't like this or wanted to change that; how Larry didn't appeal to the younger demographic. There are several episodes about Larry being very threatened by guest hosts, be they Dana Carvey or Sandra Bernhardt or Jon Stewart, and eventually it became clear that Stewart was indeed being groomed as a younger, hipper replacement (Seriously, it's worth watching this show just for the young Jon Stewart. I mean, he's always been great, but he's definitely gotten better with age (sexy-wise, too)). Having Larry announce his retirement on his own terms (after bending over backwards to give the network what they wanted and still getting fucked) allowed The Larry Sanders Show to say goodbye to itself in a meaningful yet hilarious manner. After five seasons watching Larry being coddled like a child, using his show to get dates with actresses and models, and being so egocentric that the highlight of his night is watching his own show air on TV, it's not hard for the audience to wonder what Larry will do with his life. We already saw his failed Montana retirement; this is a man who thrives on the spotlight and the spoils of fame, and though sometimes we are disgusted by him (and rightly so), we can't help but be concerned with what will happen when the cameras are off him for good.
Garry Shandling is, of course, hilarious all the way through the season. Though there are a few episode duds (mostly due to topical '90s stuff that doesn't hold up very well), the entire series remains highly watchable. But I want to give heaps and heaps of credit to Rip Torn, the heart and soul of both the fictional and the real Larry Sanders Show. His performance as the gruff, focused Artie never lags or grows wearisome, and the times that we see him open up and show a little emotion are really quite magical and incredibly touching. He is spectacular at his job (a fact questioned by nobody) and even though Larry can be a pain in the ass, it's clear that he loves the guy. Any time Artie is on screen, Torn's unique charisma shines through, enhancing (if not completely carrying) the scene.
Tambor's Hank is a different story. Although I love the guy and think he's a brilliant comedian, the character of Hank is very, very difficult to like. Obviously it's supposed to be that way - he is a buffoon, and all the people on the show pretty much view him as such. For every endearing moment, there are twenty that make you want to punch him in the face. However, that's the point. People like Hank exist - even more so in our current reality TV-driven culture - and they are narcissistic assholes with an unrealistic sense of their own self-importance. Think Spencer Pratt. Think The Situation. Think The Paul Reiser Show. Hank Kingsley, from the very first episode, is a sad man, with absolutely nothing going for him other than people recognizing his face. So he puts his face out there in any way he can - but even when he's trying to boost his career, his natural dickishness and delusions of grandeur often get in the way. Hank is yet another example of The Larry Sanders Show doing Hollywood satire to perfection.
This show is so much better than Entourage it hurts me a little inside.
What I Learned About Late-Night From The Larry Sanders Show:
- Producers do a lot of work
- The writers are almost always white and not very talented
- In fact, almost everyone in show business in the '90s is white (except Eriq LaSalle), and if they're not, they're on Arsenio
- Dana Carvey does not hold up very well
- Be nice to the guy who makes the cue cards
- The networks are very hard to please and almost always wrong
- You really don't need a sidekick, except sometimes you REALLY need a sidekick
- Carol Burnett is The Best
- The show runs continuously for 1 hour with commercial breaks built in, so if you have to pee, do it before Noah Wyle takes his pants off
- Mandy Patankin is The Best
- Sometimes people get bumped, and then they're mad at you
- If Jason Alexander invites you to a Lakers game, just say yes
- Janeane Garofolo is The Best and doesn't want to date you
There's probably more, but I think those are enough lessons for today, eh? The moral of the story is that if you are at all interested in how television is produced, especially late-night, or if you wish Entourage was a better show, or if you just really love to see comedians being funny, or if you want to see Jon Stewart with dark hair trying really hard to be Jerry Seinfeld, or if you just miss the '90s, The Larry Sanders Show is for you. It's all on Netflix, so go check it out before you cancel your Netflix account in a few weeks.
Images via Collider, The Right Profile
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