Stand-up Comedy Greats: Garry Shandling - 1983

Reaganite Republican ^ | March 9, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

"Sold my last house for $85,000... 
my landlord was real upset about that"

Garry Shandling (11.29.1949) is an American comedian, actor and writer best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Chicago, Shandling was then raised in Tuscon, AZ. Later as a young adult he moved-on to LA, starting out a creative career at an ad agency, writing scripts. 

Garry soon broke into TV by successfully submitting an unsolicited script for a Sanford and Son episode (this became the one where Fred turns his junkyard into a Japanese restaurant lol). He came  to write for other top network TV shows such as Three's Company and Welcome Back, Kotter. 

Later Shandling made a successful stand-up performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and subsequently became a frequent guest-host on the show throughout the early 80s. Shandling eventually evolved into the leading contender to replace Carson as host upon his pending retirement, a position that instead went to Jay Leno. 

In 1986 Shandling created It's Garry Shandling's Show for the pay cable channel Showtime, which was nominated for four Emmy Awards- it ran four seasons.

His second effort at a series -The Larry Sanders Show- hit the air on HBO in 1992, and was considerably more successful. Shandling was nominated for and impressive 18 Emmy Awards for the show and won in 1998, along with Peter Tolan, for writing the series finale.

During his three-decade career, Shandling has been nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, 11 CableACE Awards, a BAFTA Award, three American Comedy Awards, two Writers' Guild of America Award nominations, and two Satellite Award nominations, and more.

I myself was fortunate enough to have caught the stand up act live cca 1984, and he just killed- imo Garry Shandling's a comedy genius. Here's an appearance on the then-new Letterman show... he really shook-up the formula and inspired many other stand up acts that followed to think outside the box a little bit:

[video]

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Wikipedia

Previous RR Comedy Greats features archived -here-

[lbryce]

I loved the Larry Sanders Show. Rip Torn as Artie, Jeffrey Tambor as Hank were magnificent in their roles. My second favorite show after the Sopranos.

[brivette]

this is trully sad.

[WayneS]

“Elton John... ...is a gay!”

[max americana]

Plus he was outstanding as the lib “senator” from Pa. who grilled Tony Stark (Iron Man 2) on CSPAN to give up the Iron man suit to the federal gov.

[aquila48]

Thanks for that post!

I was laughing so hard I was crying. He’s one of my all time favorite.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Uh, he’s not dead.

[lbryce]

You know, I had it in mind to post exactly that but got sidetracked and neglected to mention it.

Senator Stern.The final scene posturing for the shot of Tony, and the other guy (forgot who it was) was quintessentially Gary. (Middle finger gesture). Thanks for mentioning it.

[Venturer]

Where is Tuscon Arizona, I can’t find that on the map.

[brivette]

oops, my bad.

[dfwgator]

Where is Tuscon Arizona

Right next to One-scon.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

It's Garry Shandling's Show is one of my all-time faves. I'll never forget the episode they did as a musical - had me rolling on the floor.

[I Buried My Guns]

"...I loved the Larry Sanders Show..."

I loved the "It's Garry Shandling's Show. I really digged the theme song, which uis now stuck in my head. It was written by Randy Newman, and it is just stupid. So stupid it is now stuck in my head.

[backwoods-engineer]

I never liked Shandling. I always thought he was a nancy-boy.

[discostu]

Never liked Gary’s standup, I’d already kind of had my fill of the affable shmuck routine. But It’s Gary Shandling Show was brilliant, meta before anybody know what the hell meta was. And you knew exactly what you were getting into the minute you heard that opening theme:
this is the theme to Gary’s show
the opening theme to Gary’s show
this is the music that you hear
as you watch the credit
we’re almost to the part
when I start to whistle
this is the theme to Gary Shandling’s Show.

Amazing stuff.

[Reaganite Republican]

Right next to “Lybia” like they spelled it on Whitehouse.org lol

Thx for the heads up

[Reaganite Republican]

What is a nancy boy?

lol- forgive my ignorance

[Leo Farnsworth]

Whew!

If you have to ask...

What color are your lofers? Light colored?

[x]

RIP Garry Shandling.

I guess the news about Hank being a woman was too much for him.

I'll miss Garry and wish we'd seen more of him when he was still around.