Garry Shandling (born
November 29, 1949) is an American
comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in
It's Garry Shandling's
Show and
The Larry
Sanders Show.
Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms such as
Sanford and Son, and
Welcome Back, Kotter. He made a
successful stand-up performance on
The Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson and became a frequent guest-host on the show.
Shandling was for a time considered to be the leading contender to
be Carson's eventual replacement (other hopefuls were
Joan Rivers,
David
Letterman and
David Brenner). In
1986 he created the show
It's Garry Shandling's Show for
the pay cable channel Showtime, which was nominated for four Emmy
Awards (including one for Shandling); it lasted until 1990. His
second show, "The Larry Sanders Show," began airing on HBO on 1992,
and was a bigger success than his first show. Shandling was
nominated for 18 Emmy Awards on the show and won one in 1998 for
writing the series finale, along with Peter Tolan.
Through his three decade career, he has been nominated for 19
Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, two Golden Globe Award
nominations, 11 CableACE Awards, a BAFTA Award, three American
Comedy Awards, two Writers' Guild of America Award nominations, and
two Satellite Award nominations.
Early life and career
Shandling
was born in Chicago
, Illinois
, the son of
Muriel, a pet store proprietor, and Irving Shandling, a print shop
owner. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona
and had an older brother, Barry, who died from
cystic fibrosis when Garry was
10. Shandling attended Palo Verde High
School
. After graduation, he attended the University of
Arizona
, at first majoring in electrical engineering, but
eventually completing a degree in marketing and pursuing a year of post-graduate studies in creative writing.
In 1973,
Shandling moved to Los
Angeles
, California
, and made contact with comedian George Carlin after catching one of his
shows. He worked at an
advertising agency for a time, and then
sold a script for the popular
NBC sitcom Sanford and
Son. Shandling's script became the November 21, 1975
episode titled "Sanford and the Rising Son," in which Ah Chew
(played by
Pat Morita) turned junk-yard
owner Fred Sanford's house into a
Japanese restaurant. In addition to
"Sanford and Son," Shandling wrote scripts, for the sitcoms
Welcome Back, Kotter
and
Three's Company.
In 1977,
Shandling was involved in an auto accident in Beverly Hills
that left him in critical condition for
weeks. He later turned the accident into part of his
stand-up comedy act.
Although born into a
Jewish family, Shandling
has been a practicing
Buddhist since the
80's in association with
Thich Nhat
Hanh.
Stand-up comedy
In an interview, he said that he became a stand-up comedian because
he was frustrated by situation comedy's formulaic writing.
In 1978,
Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at the Comedy Store
in Los Angeles. His persona was that of an
anxiety-ridden, grimacing, guarded, confused man who seemed always
on the verge of losing control. After a couple of years on the
road, a talent scout from
The Tonight Show
Starring Johnny Carson caught his act and booked him to
appear as a guest host on March 18, 1981. Shandling began
substituting for Carson on a regular basis along with Joan Rivers
until 1985.
In 1984, he made his first stand-up special, "
Garry Shandling: Alone in
Vegas," for
Showtime, followed by a
second televised special in 1986, "
The Garry
Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special," also for Showtime.
In 1991, a third special, "
Garry Shandling: Stand-Up," was
part of the
HBO Comedy Hour. They can
be seen on You Tube and other Internet sites.
TV series
Early career
Shandling began as a television writer in shows such as
Sanford and Son, in which
he wrote three episodes, one episode of the sitcom
Welcome Back, Kotter, and one
episode of
The Harvey Korman
Show.
It's Garry Shandling's Show
Shandling and co-writer
Alan Zweibel
went on to create the surreal comedy series
It's Garry Shandling's Show
in 1985, which ran 72 episodes on the
Showtime cable
television network through 1990, with edited reruns playing on
the
Fox network beginning
in 1988.
The series, a popular critical hit, became known for its
Brechtian use of what is known in theater as
"breaking the fourth wall", a concept in which characters turn away
from the action and comment directly on the proceedings or make
asides to the audience. While
Groucho
Marx was a pioneer of the technique in the 1930s movie
Animal Crackers, and
television had occasionally broken the fourth wall since at least
the 1950s TV series starring
Ernie
Kovacs and the team of
George Burns
and
Gracie Allen, and sporadically
afterward, Shandling's series employed the idea as a central
concept, and influenced such future wall-breaking series as
Malcolm In The
Middle,
The Bernie Mac
Show and the UK's
Sean's
Show.
Shandling wrote 15 episodes on the show. The show was nominated for
four Emmy awards, one time for Shandling. He won the American
Comedy Awards for Funniest Male Performance in a Series, and won
four Cable ACE awards, two for Best Comedy Series, and another two
for Shandling. It also won a Outstanding Achievement in Comedy in
the Television Critics Association Awards.
On October 20, 2009,
Shout! Factory released
It's Garry Shandling's
Show: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 16-disc set
features extensive bonus features including featurettes,
commentaries & outtakes.
The Larry Sanders Show
In 1992, Shandling had another critical and commercial success
creating the mock behind-the-scenes
talk
show sitcom
The Larry
Sanders Show, which ran 89 episodes through 1998 on the
cable network
HBO, garnering 56
Emmy Award nominations and three wins. In an
interview, he stated that he based the show on his experiences
guest hosting the
The Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson.
In 1993, NBC offered Shandling $5 million to take over the
late-night comedic talk show
Late Night when host
David Letterman announced his highly
publicized move to
CBS, but Shandling declined.
The Larry Sanders Show later spoofed the network's efforts
to find a Letterman successor, making it appear to be
Tom Snyder.
Shandling wrote 38 episodes of the show and directed three in the
show's final season and has been nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for
the show; five for acting, seven for writing and six for being
co-executive producer with
Brad Grey. He
only won one Emmy Award for
Outstanding
Writing in a Comedy Series for the series finale
Flip. He has also been nominated for two
Golden Globe Awards for
Best Actor in 1994 and 1995. He won two
American Comedy Awards for Funniest
Male Performance in a Comedy Series, Eight
CableACE awards and a
BAFTA
Award.
It is the most successful show Shandling has created. The show also
influenced other shows to use the same concept of
The Larry
Sanders Show, in which guest stars play (often spoofing)
themselves in episodes of the series. These include
Entourage,
Extras and
Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
In 2002,
TV Guide named
The
Larry Sanders Show as 38th Greatest Show of All Time. In 2008,
Entertainment Weekly
ranked the show the 28th Best Show of the past 25 years. It was
also included on
Time Magazine's 100
Greatest Shows of All Time.
The first season was released in 2007 along with a
Not Just the
Best of the Larry Sanders Show which are Shandling's pick of
the best 23 episodes.
Awards and nominations
Shandling has been nominated for nineteen Primetime Emmy Awards
through 1988 and 1998 by his two sitcoms, It's Garry Shandling's
Show and The Larry Sanders Show and has won one time: Outstanding
Writing in Comedy Series for the series finale of The Larry Sanders
Show. He has received five for acting in The Larry Sanders Show,
six for producing The Larry Sanders Show and seven for writing on
The Larry Sanders Show and one for writing for It's Garry
Shandling's Show. Additionally, he has been nominated for two
Golden Globe Awards for acting on The Larry Sanders Show. He has
also won two British Comedy Awards.
He has also been nominated for seven American Comedy Awards, two
for It's Garry Shandling's Show and four for The Larry Sanders Show
and one for hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning one for It's
Garry Shandling's Show and three for The Lary Sanders Show, overall
of four wins. He has also won eleven CableACE Awards, seven for The
Larry Sanders Show and four for It's Garry Shandling's Show. He has
also won a BAFTA Award for The Larry Sanders Show. Also, he was
nominated for two Writers' Guild of America Award for The Larry
Sanders Show.
Other work
Shandling has appeared occasionally in
movies, beginning with a cameo as dental patient Mr.
Vertisey in
The Night We
Never Met. He played supporting roles in the 1994 films
Love Affair and
Mixed Nuts (a.k.a.
Lifesavers),
Dr.
Dolittle (1998) as the voice of a live-action
pigeon, the
David Rabe play
adaptation
Hurlyburly (1998),
and
Trust the Man. He wrote
and starred in director
Mike Nichols'
What Planet Are You
From? (2000), and co-starred with
Warren Beatty and others in
Town & Country. Again
voicing an animal, Shandling co-starred as Verne the turtle in the
computer animated comic strip adaptation
Over the Hedge (2006)
Shandling hosted the
Grammy Awards
from 1990 to 1995, and the
Emmy Awards
in 2000 and 2004. At the first Emmy hosting job, Shandling cracked
up the audience by saying "I auditioned to play the Vice President
on
The West Wing, but they said
'No--too Jewish'", a reference to real-life Vice Presidential
candidate
Senator Joe
Lieberman during the 2000 Presidential campaign.
In 2006, comedian
Ricky Gervais
interviewed Shandling for a British documentary citing him as a
comic influence. The reviews of British TV critics were mixed – one
Guardian reviewer described it as "the
uneasiest interview ever", another as Gervais' most interesting but
the general consensus was that it felt "awkward", a hallmark of
both the artists' comedic styles.
Shandling starred as himself representing
Fox
Mulder alongside
Téa Leoni as
Dana Scully in
The X-Files season 7
spoof episode "
Hollywood
A.D.".
Shandling, along with co-author David Rensin, wrote the book
Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography
of Larry Sanders written in the voice of his alter ego, Larry
Sanders.
In 2008, there were rumors that Shandling will be appearing in the
next Iron Man movie, as Senator Stern. The rumors appear to be true
and he will be appearing in the film. The trailer officially aired
at the 2009 Comic-Con, and the movie will be released in May
2010.
In 2009, Shandling will return to the stand-up circuit.
Shandling (although not participating in the movie itself) went to
the premiere of old Larry Sanders Show writer and friend Judd
Apatow's new movie,
Funny People.
Personal life
Shandling is unmarried and shares little about his personal life.
He shared an apartment with girlfriend and Playboy model Linda
Doucett from 1987 through 1994. When they broke up, she filed a
lawsuit for sexual harassment. To promote "Not Just the Best of The
Larry Sanders Show," he appeared on the
Late Show with David
Letterman, where he explained that he plays a lot of
basketball and has just started boxing. He was one of a few people
to attend
Farrah Fawcett's funeral.
He has also mentioned on
The Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson that he has a pet snake.
In popular culture
In the
Butthole Surfers song
"Revolution Part 2,"
Gibby Haynes sings
a long chorus of Shandling's name interspersed with those of other
famous actors.Butthole Surfers. "Revolution Part 2."
Pioughd. Capitol Records, 1991. Haynes said that Shandling
was "just one of those people who haunt me."
References
- http://www.filmreference.com/film/43/Garry-Shandling.html
-
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/arts/television/28stei.html?pagewanted=3
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