The Larry Sanders Show is still such a great, great show

Submitted by BigEvil621 t3_116ytqw in television

I watched it for the first time when HBO GO originally came out years ago, and now I make it a point to rewatch it once a year. Just incredible writing and it was a show that was ahead of it’s time in just about every category you can think of. Not to mention, tremendous performances from Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor and especially Rip Torn. So many great running jokes and recurring characters. It’s the first show I can think of that had celebs playing meta/alternate versions of themselves (David Duchovny was especially great in his guest spots).

If you’ve never seen it, definitely give it a shot!

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the____can t1_j999i6t wrote

The Garry Shandling show was also ahead of its time

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Greempa t1_j99cvmf wrote

Great show with one of the best theme songs ever.

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KnotForNow t1_j9cvo50 wrote

Another show sorely missing from the streamiverse.

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idunnobutchieinstead t1_j99q9b6 wrote

The whole “David Duchovny is not-so-secretly in love with Larry Sanders” plot was so genious, I still almost can’t believe it.

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krissym99 t1_j9b2dz0 wrote

And Hank buying Elvis Costelllo's car. The whole episode makes me laugh outloud thinking about it.

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[deleted] t1_j9ax0v6 wrote

“What about the time I chipped my tooth on the bathroom urinal? What the fuck is so comical about that?!”

“It was a back tooth Hank.”

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DrProduct t1_j9dko5h wrote

Fucking hell that shit was funny. The sex tape episode was one of the funniest episodes of tv Ive ever seen.

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bravetailor t1_j9azn2e wrote

Jeffrey Tambor was an amazing character actor for so many decades and Hey Now Hank is his best role. A shame how his career ended but his body of work still stands up.

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DethKlokBlok t1_j9gyqnm wrote

Boy he got cancelled and seems to have stayed cancelled. So many others came back from it, i guess he's retired.

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collinsmcrae t1_jadh736 wrote

Not a lot of new television comedies being developed at the moment, and it would probably be hard to land a part as an old guy at this point, even without his controversies, so it’s hard to say.

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CarpenterAndSuch t1_j99uemn wrote

Best show ever!

The Office and Arrested Development owe it a huge debt.

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smalltalkbigwalk t1_j9a7vta wrote

Don't forget 30 Rock! Larry Sanders and 30 Rock are two of the very few comedies that I have saved to offline media. Larry's comedy is potent enough that I expect some random Garry Shandling scene to offend some fringe niche group horribly enough for episodes to be removed, which was what happened with 30 Rock.

Also I feel like some early Conan has been very heavily inspired by bits from this show.

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CarpenterAndSuch t1_ja0zugn wrote

I never thought about the early Conan / Larry similarities before! Conan has always played "himself" as a perpetually unpopular and transparently needy talk show host so there's definitely a tonal overlap between his Late Nite persona and TLSS.

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collinsmcrae t1_jadhmz6 wrote

Don’t know about that, as Conan started around the same time as TLS. It would be awfully strange to draw inspiration from a factionalized talk show from a sitcom that was on the at the same time as your own real talk show. And Gary was parodying cliches from actual talk shows, and the backstage environment. The fictional TLS didn’t really do much that set itself apart from traditional talk shows, and Conan’s show, while a bit edgy and crass compared to other contemporary shows, was still very much a traditional talk show format, so naturally there would be some similarities.

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Bald_And_Bankrupt t1_j99crsr wrote

One of the best comedy shows ever for sure. I'm so glad it's streaming these days because for like 2 decades the only way to watch it, well outside of the US I guess, was late night VHS recordings from ITV2 (crap English channel)

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Deducticon t1_j9b4ofw wrote

His paranoia about young, hip, up and coming John Stewart was hilarious.

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bugspotter t1_j9blyc9 wrote

“You See That Sign Flashing There? It Says…Applesauce.”.

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Joel227 t1_j99zrkg wrote

‘Did you shit on my car, Hank?’

‘Oh no yeah I heard him say he didn’t want to go for the whole neurotic jew thing…’

Gold.

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rkd2999 t1_j9bdcr7 wrote

So many memorable lines… I haven’t seen the show in years, so apologies for the inevitable inaccuracies in the following:

[From the episode where Hank’s sex tape gets out…]
Larry: Is it me or is Hank really well hung?
Artie: Well, don’t forget the camera adds 10 pounds.

[From the series finale]
Tom Petty: (whining) Aw, but I wanted to be your Bette Midler!
[OP: How many people nowadays would get this is a reference to Midler singing on Carson’s last show?]
[From the same episode]
Artie: Sorry, the show is running late, we’ll have to bump you to next week. Bruno Kirby: Are you crazy? There are no more shows. This is the last show dammit.
Artie: (Choking up) I know it is son, I know.

[Larry having to piss badly as his previous attempts at leaving during the show breaks were thwarted]
Larry: Artie, at the next break, clear the hallway to the bathroom. Warn the staff that it’s going to be out, and it’s going to be spraying.

[When a show is going particularly badly]
Larry: Artie, if I had a gun now I’d put it to my head, and stand close to you so that hopefully just the one bullet would take us both out.

[Edit: fixed line breaks]

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BigEvil621 OP t1_j9be31f wrote

My personal favorite line delivery is when Roseanne is helping Larry overcome his addiction and she brings his staff to his house for an intervention and Larry asks what everyone’s doing here on a work day.

And Artie with his usual happy and caring but somehow dismissive tone goes “Hey ya sport it’s Saturday.”

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b1gmouth t1_j9apmbg wrote

Use hey now in a sentence!

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BigEvil621 OP t1_j9atr1s wrote

“Here’s my friend Hank Kingsley………..Hey Now!”

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Kent_Didlio t1_j9ba3ay wrote

If I had my druthers...there'd be no world hunger.

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Bippy73 t1_j9d1dn7 wrote

Hey now! Absolutely amazing show. Brilliant. And still hasn’t lost a beat. RIP Garry Shandling

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Gorf_the_Magnificent t1_j9d78pj wrote

My favorite episode is when Larry Sanders dates Sharon Stone. The clash of the two Hollywood egos was amazingly insightful. And the way they finally broke up was hilarious.

EDIT: And here is the episode:

https://youtu.be/feALDIaXqpc

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BigEvil621 OP t1_j9d7jq4 wrote

And I hate to take this thread there, but Sharon Stone in that episode? My god.

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Few_Clue_6086 t1_ja2n9yj wrote

I've just started watching this for the first time. Fuckin brilliant from the beginning.

I'm still midway through season 1, but I've read Jeremy Piven leaves the show. I wish they'd used him more.

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collinsmcrae t1_jadffly wrote

I love the show, but like with a lot of shows that were ahead of their time, it’s pretty inconsistent imo. There are some really strange episodes and moments that don’t quite work for me. At times, it seems like it almost wants o go for a more realistic approach, but it ends up still feeling like a multi-cam sitcom half the time, in a weird way. It exists sort of between the worlds of what TV comedies have become over the last couple decades (The Office, Curb, Sunny, Arrested Development) and traditional sitcoms. That leaves it feeling a bit dated but still quite good (imo of course), with moments of genius here and there.

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