In the early 1990s, the multi-camera sitcom reigned supreme. Shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, and Everybody Loves Raymond dominated the ratings with their three-walled sets and live studio audiences. When it premiered in 1992, The Larry Sanders Show went against the grain – not only because it had no laughter track and was shot on handheld cameras, but because it had a flawed protagonist. With all his foibles, insecurities, and regular humiliations, Larry Sanders was a precursor to every fallible comedy character from Larry David to David Brent.
RELATED: Larry David’s Original Curb Your Enthusiasm Ending Would’ve Been Perfect
The Larry Sanders Show was conceived when Garry Shandling was offered his own late-night talk show. Instead of taking the deal, Shandling created a self-aware sitcom about a version of himself who did take the deal. Larry is a late-night host who puts on a smile and schmoozes with celebrities on one side of the curtain, but is an anxious wreck with a messy personal life on the other side of the curtain. The series satirizes the dark side of showbusiness. Entertaining people professionally requires a special combination of anxiety, neediness, self-effacing wit, and uncontrollable narcissism encapsulated by Shandling’s portrayal of Larry.
Shandling anchors the series, capturing the duality of a consummate showman on the air and a nervous curmudgeon behind the scenes, but he’s surrounded by hilarious supporting players. Rip Torn plays his hot-tempered producer Artie, Jeffrey Tambor plays his unstable sidekick “Hey Now!” Hank Kingsley, Penny Johnson plays his underappreciated assistant Beverly, and Janeane Garofalo plays his sardonic talent booker Paula. Plus, Jimmy McGill himself, Bob Odenkirk, has a recurring role as Larry’s sleazy agent Stevie.
Everybody loves a show in which famous people play exaggerated versions of themselves. A penny-pinching Carl Weathers appeared on Arrested Development. David Bowie sang “Chubby Little Loser” to Ricky Gervais on Extras. Michael J. Fox poked fun at his Parkinson’s symptoms on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry Sanders was the first show to experiment with this trope. The workplace setting of a late-night talk show allowed for a revolving-door procession of A-list talent. Such beloved stars as Robin Williams, Drew Barrymore, Jeff Goldblum, and Carol Burnett appeared as celebrity guests on Larry’s show. Larry fought an enraged Ben Stiller backstage, he felt emasculated in a relationship with sex symbol Sharon Stone, and Roseanne Barr moved into his house to help him kick his addiction to painkillers.
The phoniness of late-night talk shows was ripe for satire and The Larry Sanders Show beautifully realized the potential of that satire. Whenever Larry calls a commercial break and the show goes off the air for a couple of minutes, the friendly facade of the talk show vanishes and the guests tell Larry how they really feel (and vice versa). Larry Sanders’ meta breakdown of the production process inspired every peek-behind-the-curtain TV show about a TV show from 30 Rock to Extras to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not only that; the show also pioneered the workplace walk-and-talk shooting technique that is often accredited to Aaron Sorkin.
During its six-season run, The Larry Sanders Show legitimized HBO and established its reputation as the home of prestige entertainment. It was a forerunner to shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City, and later The Wire, Game of Thrones, and Euphoria. Larry Sanders is a classic case of a show receiving rave reviews without ever becoming a ratings hit. Critics praised the show as a landmark in television, blurring the line between fiction and reality, but it never reached the wide audience it deserved. Fortunately, all the right people were watching. From Ricky Gervais to Tina Fey to Armando Iannucci, the biggest names in TV satire have acknowledged the influence of Larry Sanders.
Without The Larry Sanders Show, TV comedy might have never gotten out of the rut that it was stuck in. The traditional networks had found a winning formula with multi-cam sitcoms and they wouldn’t have done anything to shake up that formula if Shandling didn’t bring his unique creation to the airwaves of HBO and make it obsolete. The viewing public might still be getting bombarded with the same trite clichés, the same rigid formulas, and the same recorded audience response telling them when to laugh. Thanks to Larry Sanders, TV comedy bid farewell to canned laughs and forced punchlines and embraced realism, subtlety, and the awkwardness of human interaction.
MORE: Barry Has The Best Action Sequences On TV
