Larry Sanders

[avram]

I’ve just seen a couple episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, Garry Shandling’s show from HBO about life backstage at a late night talk show. It’s showing up in syndication late Saturday nights on channel 5 (NYC’s Fox affiliate, but I don’t know if it’s local or network programming), where Stargate SG1 used to. I’d heard lots of good things about it, but I found it only mildly amusing; pretty much the only reason I might watch it would be to stare at Jeanane Garofalo. I think it suffers from comparison with Sports Night, another TV show about a TV show, written by Aaron Sorkin, with really tight comic pacing and good writing.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Janeane Garofalo! Yay!

Sports Night! Yay!

(Sorry for the zero-content comment, just felt like cheering for the mention of two very, very good things.)
(By the way: Both seasons of Sports Night will be released on DVD November 5th, 2002)
(There is a stunning/disturbing fandom out there for Sports Night, by the way: Theorizations on whether Sorkin intends it and "The West Wing" to be co-universal, fanfic visions of the third season, and some pretty cool stuff.)

[avram]

Both seasons of Sports Night will be released on DVD November 5th, 2002

YAY!!

There is a stunning/disturbing fandom out there for Sports Night, by the way: Theorizations on whether Sorkin intends it and "The West Wing" to be co-universal, fanfic visions of the third season, and some pretty cool stuff.

I've seen the Season 3 fanfic, and I think I linked at some point to a page that listed similarities between the two shows. I keep hoping for, say, Isaac Jaffee (or even Judy Reston-Taylor) to show up at a Bartlett fundraiser. I wonder if Simon Donovan (CJ's Secret Service agent at the end of 3rd season) has a brother named Sam who's a TV ratings expert.

Shandling yay!

[(Anonymous)]

I always enjoyed the Larry Sanders Show -- I wonder how much it's cut down for broadcast tv? the original It's Gary Shandling's Show (http://www.usatt.org/magazine/00july-aug/ttontv.html) sitcom was also a fave, for its self-referential theme song, tom petty appearances, and platonic girl friend character.

Re: Shandling yay!

[(Anonymous)]

the above written by Anita Rowland (http://www.anitarowland.com/).