Lists of the best TV comedies ever made certainly include mentions of shows like The office, Control your enthusiasmand Arrested Development. The single-camera shooting style, sly self-awareness and comedic sensibility of all these iconic shows can be traced back to one key influence: The Larry Sanders Show. This sadly forgotten series marked a turning point in the history of the sitcom. The Larry Sanders Show had the same impact on situation comedies that Monty Python’s Flying Circus had on sketch shows.
In the early 1990s, the multi-camera sitcom reigned supreme. Shows like friends, Seinfeld, Frasierand Everyone loves Raymond dominated the ratings with their three-walled sets and live studio audience. When it premiered in 1992, The Larry Sanders Show went against the grain — not just because it didn’t have a laugh track and was shot with handheld cameras, but because it had a flawed protagonist. With all his weaknesses, insecurities, and frequent humiliations, Larry Sanders was a precursor to every fallible comedic character, from Larry David to David Brent.
The Larry Sanders Show was conceived when Garry Shandling was offered his own late-night talk show. Rather than take the deal, Shandling created a self-conscious sitcom about a version of himself who took the deal. Larry is a nighttime host who puts on a smile and chats with celebrities on one side of the curtain, but on the other is a terrified wreck with a messy personal life. The series denounces the dark side of show business. Entertaining people professionally requires a special combination of fear, neediness, self-effacing humor and uncontrollable narcissism, encapsulated in Shandling’s portrayal of Larry.
Shandling anchors the series, capturing the duality of a consummate showman on the air and a nervous miser 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 underrated assistant Beverly, and Janeane Garofalo plays his sardonic talent booker Paula. Additionally, Jimmy McGill himself, Bob Odenkirk, has a recurring role as Larry’s dowdy agent Stevie.
Everyone loves a show where famous people play exaggerated versions of themselves. A penny-squeezing Carl Weathers appeared on Arrested Development. David Bowie sang “Chubby Little Loser” for Ricky Gervais on Extras. Michael J. Fox joked about his Parkinson’s symptoms on Control your enthusiasm. Larry Sanders was the first show to experiment with this trope. The setting of a late night talk show in the workplace resulted in a revolving door procession of A-list talent. Beloved stars like Robin Williams, Drew Barrymore, Jeff Goldblum and Carol Burnett appeared as celebrity guests on Larry’s show. Larry battled an enraged Ben Stiller backstage, feeling emasculated in a relationship with sex symbol Sharon Stone, and Roseanne Barr moved into his home to help him overcome his painkiller addiction.
The falsity of nighttime 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 few minutes, the talk show’s friendly facade disappears and the guests tell Larry how they really feel (and vice versa). Larry Sanders‘ meta-analysis of the production process inspired every TV show behind the curtain on a TV show from 30 Rock until Extras until Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not only that; the show also pioneered walk-and-talk shooting technique in the workplace often credited to Aaron Sorkin.
During the run of six seasons, The Larry Sanders Show legitimized HBO and established its reputation as the home of prestigious entertainment. It was a precursor to shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the cityand later The wire, Game of Thronesand Euphoria. Larry Sanders is a classic case of a show getting rave reviews without ever becoming a ratings hit. Critics hailed the show as a milestone on television, blurring the lines between fiction and reality, but it never reached the broad 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 recognized the influence of Larry Sanders.
Without The Larry Sanders Show, TV comedy may never have gotten out of the rut it was stuck in. The traditional networks had found a winning formula with multi-camera sitcoms and they wouldn’t have done anything to shake up that formula if Shandling took his unique creation to the airwaves of HBO and rendered it obsolete. Viewers may still be bombarded with the same trite clichés, the same rigid formulas, and the same recorded audience reaction that tells them when to laugh. Thanks to Larry SandersTV comedy said goodbye to canned laughter and forced punchlines and embraced realism, subtlety and the awkwardness of human interaction.
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