The Larry Sanders Show (TV series)
The Larry Sanders Show is a groundbreaking television series created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein that aired on HBO from 1992 to 1998. The show stars Shandling as Larry Sanders, a late-night talk show host, and presents a satirical look at the behind-the-scenes dynamics of television production. It cleverly juxtaposes Sanders's on-air persona with his personal and professional struggles, including tumultuous relationships and the pressures of celebrity culture. Key characters include his sidekick Hank Kingsley, played by Jeffrey Tambor, and producer Artie, portrayed by Rip Torn, who navigates the chaos surrounding the show.
The series is notable for its irreverent humor and willingness to tackle sensitive subjects such as sexuality, racism, and personal relationships, often highlighting the contrast between public and private personas of celebrities. While it did not achieve high ratings, The Larry Sanders Show received critical acclaim and is credited with influencing the evolution of premium cable programming, paving the way for future series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Sopranos. Its unique blend of humor and social commentary has solidified its status as a landmark in television history.
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Subject Terms
The Larry Sanders Show (TV series)
Date Aired from 1992 to 1998
As a satirical look at network television, this series presented the medium in a way it had not been seen before.
Comedian Garry Shandling had already poked fun at the television business with his first series, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986-1990). Still, the neurotic, self-obsessed character he created for that Showtime series was merely a warm-up for the hugely egotistical yet profoundly insecure antihero of HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show, created by Shandling and Dennis Klein. Featuring Shandling as Larry Sanders, the Johnny Carson-like host of a late-night television talk show, the program shifted between Sanders’s on-air interactions with guest stars, his backstage squabbling with writers and network executives, and his very messy personal life, including a wife (Megan Gallagher) who left him after the first season, a former wife (Kathryn Harrold) almost as neurotic as he, and several girlfriends.
Striving to hold both the show-within-the-show and his star together was producer Artie (Rip Torn), who tried to smooth talk his way through various dilemmas. Other regulars included Sanders’s clueless sidekick, Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor), his unfazed assistant (Penny Johnson), the show’s talent booker (Janeane Garofalo), the head writer (Wallace Langham), and Hank’s sexy assistant (Linda Doucett).
The broadcast networks had offered comedies about television workplaces, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Murphy Brown, but without the irreverent edge of The Larry Sanders Show. Guests such as Carol Burnett and Robin Williams adopted one persona while on the air and another when the camera was turned off, as the famous dropped their friendly facades. Sanders even had affairs with such guests as Sharon Stone, while Alec Baldwin discussed on the air his relationship with Larry’s former wife and David Duchovny seemed to have a crush on the host. In an era filled with entertainment news programs, The Larry Sanders Show made fun of the carefully controlled images of celebrities by showing behavior that would horrify their publicists.
The program dealt not only with show business but also with such topics as homosexuality, racism, religion, and sexual peccadilloes. While broadcast network shows had been doing this since the 1970’s, they usually treated these subjects didactically. Working under the assumption that 1990’s audiences had a greater awareness of irony, The Larry Sanders Show simply saw issues as a source of provocative humor.
Impact
While earlier HBO series Dream On (1990-1996) titillated with nudity and sexual situations, The Larry Sanders Show illustrated that the greater freedoms given premium cable programs could result in quality equaling or surpassing that of broadcast network shows. Despite modest ratings, it helped pave the way for such rules-breaking series as Sex in the City, The Sopranos, and, especially Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Bibliography
Friend, Tad. “Garry Shandling’s Alter Ego Trip.” Esquire 120, no. 1 (July, 1993): 35-40.
Shandling, Garry, and David Rensin. Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders as Told to Garry Shandling. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Steinberg, Jacques. “Hey Now: It’s Garry Shandling’s Obsession.” The New York Times, January 28, 2007, p. 1.