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Garry Shandling.

No

Stop dying, everyone!

That is sad, sad news. The Larry Sanders Show is to me the greatest show of all time.

This is not okay. One of the greatest to ever produce television in history, and one of the more interesting, mercurial people in showbusiness.

I'm just finishing up the fourth season now, literally in the middle of an episode when I read it. Awful news

Were his final screen words "Hail Hydra"?

starmanof51 wrote:Were his final screen words "Hail Hydra"?

Sweet Jesus, I didn't realize he was in Captain America.

mfunk9786 wrote:This scene from Freaks and Geeks is very difficult to watch right now but is an almost essential eulogy

Very touching - Judd Apatow was not only a fan, Shandling basically got him into the TV/film business with "Larry Sanders" - it was a big writing break for Apatow and he got his first directing gig on an episode or two during the very last season.

It's worth noting that it's around $20 for the entire series of The Larry Sanders Show on Amazon right now. It's Garry Shandling's Show is closer to $100, but it's worth it, of course.

mfunk9786 wrote:It's worth noting that it's around $20 for the entire series of The Larry Sanders Show on Amazon right now. It's Garry Shandling's Show is closer to $100, but it's worth it, of course.

I was just going to ask about that The Larry Sanders Show set. It appears to be old-school flippers. Can anybody confirm that? Anybody have any firsthand knowledge of the quality of this set? All the reviews I can find are for the old Shout! release.

Jesus, I didn't realize they reissued it at a fraction of the Shout Factory price.

This was posted in a Q&A thread on Amazon's page:
RE Mill Creek set: The video is still pretty lousy (admittedly this series never looked very good even in original broadcast..soft and low-resolution). Looks very "VHS" although the quality seems to improve a bit around Season 3. Note, I have discovered there are some episodes mislabeled/missing in my Mill Creek set and am waiting to hear back from them to find out if this was a pressing error or what. [They did indeed press corrected discs, so make sure you get the right ones.]

Man, I figured it was just a repackaging of the existing set without the booklet. That's unfortunate. Will definitely be clutching tight to the one I have.

neal wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:It's worth noting that it's around $20 for the entire series of The Larry Sanders Show on Amazon right now. It's Garry Shandling's Show is closer to $100, but it's worth it, of course.

I was just going to ask about that The Larry Sanders Show set. It appears to be old-school flippers. Can anybody confirm that? Anybody have any firsthand knowledge of the quality of this set? All the reviews I can find are for the old Shout! release.

So, it looks like they're not flipper discs-- just more episodes crammed onto each disc.

One thing the special features did a great job with was examining the giant influence Roy London had on Garry's sensibilities, and how those sensibilities led to the style of acting and concept that Larry Sanders pioneered.

With all due respect to Garry I guess, you may now flip. RIP.

I always liked him a lot. He walked to his own drumbeat. He will be missed. RIP.

Watching The Larry Sanders Show tonight [through tears at times] has reminded me of what a great job Shout! did with this set, and how sort of reverent it still makes me feel about something when I can't stream it and can only watch it by popping discs out of a beautifully made box set. I'm glad it didn't take Shandling's death for a studio to realize the treatment that Shandling's work deserved, both with this and It's Garry Shandling's Show. Hell, even that Best Of DVD that preceded this was fabulously put together. Shandling respected his own work in a way that few artists did, and obviously cared about its perception over time re: how it was presented to fans and newcomers alike. That's a beautiful thing on its own.

I only ever saw the first season of Larry Sanders but snapped up the complete Shout! set before it went OOP and have been saving it like a fine wine. I will begin watching in earnest!

It is a wonderful set with the 'visits' in the special features a particular highlight. I've gone back to it tonight with the wife, and we're struck not so much by the writing, but by the interplay between the actors, not just the trio of Tambor, Torn and Shandling, but the superb Penny Johnson and her scenes with Shandling. He strikes me as someone who was creatively generous and knew when he was working with someone special.

swo17 wrote:I only ever saw the first season of Larry Sanders but snapped up the complete Shout! set before it went OOP and have been saving it like a fine wine. I will begin watching in earnest!

I did the same with It's Garry Shandling's Show the moment I heard yesterday - it's something I'd been putting off forever because of the price tag but was a no brainer of course when I realized it might be very close to being OOP. As for The Larry Sanders Show though, that's something I've watched through a lot of times at this point, and I am very jealous of you having your first experience with it. It really is something.

Hah, I saw this mentioned in the New York Times obituary. The fact that Shandling has died soon after this was released seems like a joke he would have liked. I can hear him saying with mock sarcasm "Wish I was around to enjoy that."

With assistance from Shandling and Sony, The Larry Sanders Show will return to HBO, after spending numerous years on other networks (and usually edited for content on basic cable networks).

I liked him in Iron Man 2, mostly for my mom's shocked reaction that he would even be in it. I recently saw Hurlyburly too, which he's good enough in but didn't quite make the impact of Penn, Spacey and Palminteri.

In a similar way to Conan O'Brien's tribute to Shandling, Shandling also played a part in lifting my spirits during a low point in my life. Back in the early 2000s, I had dropped out of college, was unemployed, and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. One of the local TV stations in my area ran 2 or even 3 The Larry Sanders Show episodes back to back starting at 12:00am on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I had lost interest in most of what was running on TV at the time, and DVDs weren't yet available in such large quantities in most libraries as they are today. I discovered the show almost purely be accident, and was addicted right away. I even started recording the show, which I rarely did for any TV show anymore by the 2000s. It was a tough year overall for me, but the weekends were consistently something I looked forward to that year--the show was that damned good. I went back to college and got back on my feet later on, but I'll always owe a personal debt to that show, and everyone involved in it.

In light of Shandling's unfortunate death, I decided to finally watch his one attempt at writing and starring in a feature film, Mike Nichols’ 2000 comedy What Planet Are You From? (for those interested, it's currently available on Encore Play). It's a bizarre effort given Nichols and Shandling's sharp comic minds yet feels cheap and not thought out. In terms of comedy and sexual politics, you'd think they took the first draft of some low-rent off-off Broadway farce from the 1960s and gave it the cinematic treatment. In real life, Shandling was close friends with Warren Beatty and the film seems to want to recapture the rhythm of a Beatty film like Shampoo or Heaven Can Wait, with Shandling doing his best to capture Beatty's balance of Lothario and aww-shucks uneasiness. Add Annette Bening's role as the love interest and I'd bet the film was either written for or inspired by Beatty. The movie never comes together but like any Nichols film it's cast with a strong ensemble who keep the film watchable if not entertaining.