Die Larry Sanders Show

The award winning Larry Sanders show is subtle genius. Brilliantly written, superbly acted and hilarious, it took the documentary style comedy of Spinal Tap and re-tuned it to define a new sitcom style that inspired many other shows including Brit comedy The Office.

It ran alongside Sienfeld during the 90s but seems to have been overlooked by the mainstream and is in danger of slipping into obscurity.

The series follows the days in the lives of everybody involved in the production of a popular late night American talk show. The action centers around the three main characters, Larry Sanders the star and host of the show, Rip Torn's hilarious producer, Artie and the wonderful Hank Kingsley, Larry's sidekick.

The action is split into two styles, the behind the scenes docu-drama and the actual broadcast talk show. The two formats cleverly cut to tell the story of the characters. I don't know how they do it but the show is subtle and understated but at the same time fast moving and in your face.

I haven't seen the American version of The Office yet, but I strongly suggest that you don't even bother with it - just watch this instead. There are at least 7 or 8 series of it and you have to watch them in sequence too, because the stories cleverly develop and come to almost apocalyptic climaxes.

Do it!

The Larry Sanders show was the best, nastiest, and funniest comedy program on either side of the Atlantic during the 1990s. Filmed without a laughter track, it features Garry Shandling as TV talk show host Larry Sanders (motto: "No flipping!"), who we follow on and off camera.

On camera, the Larry Sanders Show is slick, professional, and vacant, as celebrities appear pretending to be best of friends with Larry and delighted to be on the show when all they're really doing is plugging their latest product and when everyone in the paranoid entertainment industry actively hates everybody else. Exactly like real talk shows, in fact. As a parody, Larry Sanders is extremely subtle, aided by the fact that many A-list celebs from real life appear, showing a surprising willingness to send themselves up (David Duchovny, for example, features in one episode where the main storyline centres on his crush on Larry!). It's bad, but not obviously: you can really imagine it on air (in sharp contrast to Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge, who in real life would never make it even to hospital radio).

But the funniest material comes backstage. The leading characters (Larry, his loser sidekick Hank, and his alternately tough-talking and sycophantic producer Artie) are all so horrible, the main joke is basically that everyone continually behaves in a manner both in character, and yet also worse than you could possibly expect. The sheer unpleasantness of these individuals is jaw-dropping... you continually wonder "did he really just say that?" Hank, for example, after his agent has been hospitalised and he hasn't been allowed to visit, comments: "It's so unfair! I mean so much to him!" then immediately starts phoning potential successors. The character of Hank is perhaps the best of all, his role on the show is to appear talentless and genial alongside Larry, a role he fulfills with partial success because he is naturally talentless but not in the least genial! But all the cast (including many regulars) are wonderfully portrayed, Shandling is great but at the end of each brief episode you almost wish you had seen more of the others... in fact this is probably just another sign of the show's strength, instead of wheeling out our favourites each week for a familiar laugh, this show is always looking for fresh ways to make us uncomfortable.

In some ways this is a very un-American program (there's not an ounce of sentiment, or a hint of redemption for its characters). In the UK, Peter Kay's "Phoenix Nights" is perhaps the closest thing to a successor. But the Larry Sanders show remains a major loss from the late-night schedules.

The Larry Sanders show may be the finest American television show. The comedy always has the perfect precision and they take such great care to small details. In one episode, Larry visits Hank's office, which he rarely does, and Hank puts his jacket on to try to look his best, that's the level of detail you don't see in most crap sitcoms. No American show since has held no punches and has been so bitterly cynical yet hilarious.

The three main actors really make the show. Garry Shandling as the good natured but selfish and cowardly Larry Sanders really plays the perfect vain talk show host. Jeffrey Tambor as Hank Kingsley really fleshes out the talentless asshole sidekick who you still root for, similar to George Costanza. Rip Torn masterfully portrays the over the top obsequious producer with a dark streak. The simple pleasure of seeing these three men interact is entertaining enough on its own.

The show is actually based on talk shows, you see all the politics and show biz phoniness unvarnished. The ugliness and hypocrisy in Hollywood will really surprise the uninitiated viewer. One wonders how much of Larry was in Johnny Carson and how much of Hank was in Ed McMahon.

This show is a true gem that is not nearly as popular as it should be since it doesn't pander. Any fan of intelligent programming owes it to himself to watch this.

The comedy is on point 90% of the time. The characters are believably insane. The stories are understandable and to the point. The series maintains it's quality (albeit it does get kind of dark in the last season or two). Really a fun watch for the incompetence and insecurities on display. Easy to watch as a main focus and passable for background (you will miss much of the performance, there are a surprisingly large amount of site gags). Recommend to really anyone.

Larry Sanders has a broad range of humor. When on camera, the humor comes from how unfunny these characters actually are in front of the camera and how funny the audience finds it. Anyone who watches late night talk shows can relate to the "mock show" portion of each show. The behind the scenes, which makes up most of each episode relies on the situations as well as the dialogue which is usually very funny and well written, like something that would actually be said.

The characters were all very different and well written. Larry Sanders, played subtly and brilliantly by Gary Shandling. Larry is always smiling, whether he's happy or not. He's self centered, but not too much of a jerk. His manager Artie (Rip Torn) is more over the top rude and loud, but he's not an unbelievable character. Then there's Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) who plays second banana to Larry and the talk show, but on this show, often steals the episodes, taking many of the main plot lines, and he is hilarious as the alternate universe Ed MacMahon. Along with these three, there are many other less important characters, all very funny.

Overall, Larry Sanders was usually hysterical, but when not, it was still one of the most brilliant shows on television.