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The Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, the show ran…
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Investigate this subjectThe Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, the show ran for six seasons and 90 episodes on the HBO cable television network from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998.
The Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, the show ran for six seasons and 90 episodes on the HBO cable television network from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998.
The show stars Shandling as late night talk show host Larry Sanders, along with Jeffrey Tambor, and Rip Torn and features celebrities playing exaggerated, parodic versions of themselves. The show has its roots in Shandling's stand-up comedy background, his experience as a frequent guest host on The Tonight Show, and his earlier sitcom, It's Garry Shandling's Show. The program has had a marked and long-lasting influence on HBO as well as on television shows in the United States and United Kingdom, particularly shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm (which also aired on the same network), 30 Rock, and The Office. The supporting cast includes Janeane Garofalo, Wallace Langham, Penny Johnson, Linda Doucett, Scott Thompson, and Jeremy Piven.
The show received universal critical acclaim and is often regarded as an influential and landmark series. In 2010, it ranked 38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and was also included in Time magazine's 2007 list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time". The show won 24 major awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, five CableACE Awards, four American Comedy Awards, two British Comedy Awards, two Peabody Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Satellite Award. It also received 86 nominations, including 56 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, five Directors Guild of America nominations, six Writers Guild of America nominations, six American Comedy Awards nominations, three Golden Globe nominations, three Satellite Awards nominations and a GLAAD Award nomination.
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, a stream of American stand-up comedians found success in sitcoms on broadcast network television, including Bill Cosby, Roseanne Barr, Richard Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Paul Reiser, Tom Arnold, Brett Butler, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey, Kevin Brennan, and Ray Romano. Garry Shandling took a slightly different path with the cable network sitcoms The Larry Sanders Show and its forerunner It's Garry Shandling's Show.
In It's Garry Shandling's Show, Shandling makes use of the George Burns technique of directly addressing the audience. He speaks to the studio and home audiences as well as the other actors, often in quick succession. In both shows celebrity guests appear as themselves and Shandling essentially plays himself: a star of a television show and stand-up comedian with a distinctive "comic persona and rhythm". Shandling said, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "The idea for doing something about a talk show host actually came out of an It's Garry Shandling's Show episode in which I was the guest on an LA morning show ... I thought I could make the talk show look very real so the audience would buy that part and then slowly suck them into the realities of life once Larry goes behind the curtain."
In 1981, Shandling performed his first appearance doing a stand-up routine on The Tonight Show. He subsequently became a regular guest, particularly being able to appear on short notice to fill unexpected gaps in the Carson show's schedule. He also began appearing as a guest host and, in 1986, replaced Joan Rivers as the "permanent guest host" when Carson was away from the show for vacation or illness. Shandling was considered a possible, although unlikely, successor to Johnny Carson. After Jay Leno replaced Carson in 1992, Shandling was offered his own late-night (1 a.m.) talk show but preferred instead to create "a show about a talk-show", which became The Larry Sanders Show. The series has similarities to The Player, The King of Comedy and classic Hollywood back-stage musicals with their "let's put on a show" theme, but the links to The Tonight Show are so strong it verges on parody. Alex Pareene commented "Shandling turned down hosting a network late night show to do a brilliant cult hit sitcom about a version of himself who took the deal."
The show follows the production of a fictional late-night talk show The Larry Sanders Show. It chronicles the daily life of host Larry (Garry Shandling), producer Arthur "Artie" (Rip Torn), sidekick Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor) and their interaction with celebrity guests, the network and others. Episodes focus on the professional and personal lives of the principal characters, with most focusing on Larry. Ancillary characters are also featured, among them the writers Phil (Wallace Langham) and Jerry (Jeremy Piven), talent bookers Paula (Janeane Garofalo) and Mary Lou (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and the personal assistants Beverly, Darlene, and Brian. Larry's wife, ex-wife, and girlfriends are frequent sources of conflict, and his home is a secondary location for the show.
Episodes often focus on power dynamics. Supporting characters commonly struggle for status or power, both within the structure of the show's staff as well as within the broader Hollywood community. These struggles almost always end with the character receiving their comeuppance from Larry, Artie, or one of the episode's guest stars.
A typical early episode opens to the titles with the sound of Hank's audience warm-up routine in the background. This is followed by the talk show's titles and an excerpt from Larry's monologue. Episodes vary after this, sometimes continuing with the studio recording, but often cutting to a back-stage shot or to the production offices.
The Larry Sanders Show is a satire on show business that mixes fact with fiction. It featured real-life celebrity guests as they performed on the talk show and as they appeared behind the scenes. For example, in the final episode Larry interviews Sean Penn who, once they cut to a commercial break, gossips freely about Shandling's acting, insecurity, and behavior towards Penn's wife (Robin Wright) on the set of Hur
Source: The Larry Sanders Show (CC BY-SA)
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