See This Blog? It Says Applesauce

I’ve been a Johnny come lately many a time. There was my resistance to cell phones and iPods, there was my refusal to watch Nip/Tuck and of course there was my complete and utter denial of the Harry Potter books. In all of these cases I’ve manned up and admitted pride and stupidity got in the way of me enjoying these pleasers earlier on in life. In the case of The Larry Sanders Show however, its really sheer laziness that has kept me away. If you’re even worse then me I’ll give you a quick run down on the genius that is The Larry Sanders Show. Created by star Gary Shandling, the show takes a behind the scenes look at a late night talk show (think Leno, Letterman, etc). The show alternately played between scenes on the soundstage and off stage and played host to a number of famous or soon to famous actors as both themselves and as characters. Shandling shined as a self deprecating comic who was addicted to working on his own show. The storylines were never too absurd but the characters often treated them as if they were which somehow made everything more real. Sanders was HBO’s first real consistent success. The critics hailed it as a breakthrough comedy highlighting the lack of laugh track and the seemingly single camera set ups. All this praise and I still didn’t watch. I didn’t have HBO but there were tapes to be had, then DVDs and even syndication. Still, I did not watch. Then last month I read about a new box set of the show, Not the Best of the Larry Sanders Show. Perfect now I didn’t have to involve myself in multiple seasons and sit through some lackluster eps. I immediately moved it to the top of Netflix and now like with many HBO shows I’m having Netflix remorse. This DVD set not only contains great episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, but it’s truly worth seeing for the extras. As I mentioned a lot of people got their start on the show (Jeanine Garofolo, Sarah Silverman), while others had a career renaissance (Jeffrey Tambor, Rip Torn). The extras feature interviews done with much of the cast and some are actually conducted by Shandling himself and these interviews are almost worth the price of purchase alone. Take for example Gary’s interview with Alec Baldwin while they box a few rounds. You can see how Alec developed into the comic actor he is today in large part due to his brief interaction with Gary and the show. The commentaries are great too and you learn things like how the show was really shot with 3 simultaneous cameras on 4 wall sets but that the style gave the impression it was single camera. I think shows are too often hailed as forerunners and comics too often hailed as geniuses but now whenever I watch an episode of Arrested Development, The Office, or 30 Rock I’ll think of Gary Shandling and how much of today’s comedy is in his debt.