'It's Garry Shandling's Show': Just as Influential as You Probably Don't Remember

[TMC]

http://splitsider.com/2013/02/its-ga...dont-remember/

Garry Shandling is one of the most innovative and influential comedians of all time. However, when Shout Factory released the entire Larry Sanders Show on DVD in the winter of 2011—concurrent with IFC’s decision to rerun the entire series—it seemed to set off a “Garry Shandling renaissance” that has carried over for the past 2-3 years; buoyed by Garry’s ever-bizarre and hilarious Twitter feed.

No matter how staunch of a Shandling supporter you’ve been over the years, you have to concede that there has been a certain heightened re-appreciation of his talents over the past few years. As a child of the 90’s I was slightly too young to appreciate Larry Sanders when it originally aired, so to me, Garry Shandling was the slightly odd-looking version of Jerry Seinfeld. It wasn’t until I was given the DVD set Not Just the Best of Larry Sanders during college that I was truly initiated into the world of Garry Shandling.

And that is a unique world indeed. Though, amid all the praise heaped on Larry Sanders in this “Shandling renaissance,” there seems to be a lack of attention paid to the show that paved the way for Shandling’s greatest achievement; the show that perhaps more than anything else truly exhibited the heart of Garry Shandling’s comedic sensibilities. Of course, I’m talking about It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.

[TMC]

http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.co...g-show-tv.html

I'm a big fan of metafiction -- stories and movies about stories -- and certainly the most metafictional TV show of all time was It's Garry Shandling's Show.

Shandling had started out in Hollywood as a writer, contributing scripts to Sanford and Son; Welcome Back, Kotter; and Three's Company. After an automobile accident, he decided to go into standup and became so successful that he became a regular guest host on The Tonight Show.

Why a duck? So, like many comedians, he decided to do a sitcom. Joining with Saturday Night Live veteran writer Alan Zweibel, they created It's Gary Shandling's Show.

The show was a sitcom about Garry Shandling's sitcom. Garry and the rest of the cast knew they were in a sitcom, and could do various sitcom tricks with the conventions of the genre. Take, for instance, the well-remembered theme song:

Gary would do his "time thing" to cut to a later time of the day without showing it. He would talk to the audience, of course*. The studio audience was an integral part of the show (I recall one show where he talked about big band music, and the cameras showed the studio audience, all with little toy trumpets, moving back and forth in unison in time to the music. Gary commented, "That's a really big band.").

The show was an early success on Showtime (one of their first original series), but gained many more fans when the new Fox Network picked up the reruns and ran them on Sunday night starting in 1989**.

As a sad footnote, the show was the last TV appearance of Gilda Radner before her death. In a funny but poignant exchange, Shandling asked why he hadn't seen her in awhile. Gilda replied, "Oh, I had cancer. What did you have?"

Eventually, the show ended and Garry moved on. He scored a big success with The Larry Sanders Show, but times since then have been difficult. After the notorious flop What Planet are Your From?, he seems to have had few credits, returning to standup.

The show has been overshadowed by Larry Sanders, but it was a funny take on sitcoms with an audacious premise that always delivered.

[Sonny Carson]

Originally Posted by TMC

http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.co...g-show-tv.html

I liked It's Garry Shandling's Show, I actually didn't care for Larry Sanders Show!