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'Garry Shandling' (born November 29, 1949) is an American comedian. He is best known for his work in ''It's Garry Shandling's Show'' and ''The Larry Sanders Show''.

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Stand-up comedy

TV series

Other work

Shandling in popular culture

Footnotes

References

External links

Biography

Early life and career

Shandling was born to a Jewish American family in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. He had an older brother, Barry, who passed away from cystic fibrosis when Garry was 10. He attended Palo Verde High Magnet 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, made contact with comedian George Carlin after catching one of his shows, worked at an advertising agency for a time, then sold a script for the popular NBC sitcom ''Sanford and Son''. Shandling's script became the November 1975 "Sanford and the Rising Son," the episode in which Ah Chew (played by Pat Morita) turned junk-yard owner Fred Sanford's house into a Chinese restaurant. Shandling continued to do comedy scriptwriting for sitcoms including ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' and ''Three's Company''.
In 1977, Shandling was involved in an auto accident that put him in critical condition for weeks. He later turned the accident into part of his stand-up comedy act.

Stand-up comedy

In 1978, Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. His persona of 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 Jay Leno until 1985.
He is ranked #30 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time.

TV series

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 conceit, and influenced such future wall-breaking series as ''The Bernie Mac 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 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.

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.
In 2006, comedian Ricky Gervais interviewed Shandling for a British documentary citing him as a comic influence.^[1] The reviews of British TV critics were mixed – one Guardian reviewer described it as "the uneasiest interview ever",^[2] another as Gervais' most interesting^[3] but the general consensus was that it felt "awkward",^[4][5][6] a hallmark of each man's comedic style.^[7][8]

Shandling 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.^[9][10] Haynes said that Shandling was "just one of those people who haunt me."^[11]

Footnotes

1. Gervais to meet more comedy idols
2. TV quick!
3. Something to get your teeth into Flett, Kathryn
4. Television and Radio: Television French, Karl
5. No, I don't fear death - I'm just frightened of dying Billen, Andrew
6. By George, we salute you for your indefatigability Deedes, Henry
7. Ricky can't quite curb his enthusiasm John, Ian
8. Hey Now: It's Garry Shandling's Obsession Steinberg, Jacques
9. Butthole Surfers. "Revolution Part 2." Pioughd. Capitol Records, 1991.
10. Television: The Larry Sanders Show
11. Journey To The Sphincter Of Your Mind Or… Cowabunghole! Orr, Peter

References

★ AllMovie.com: Garry Shandling

★ Museum of Broadcasting: ''It's Garry Shandling's Show'' / ''The Larry Sanders Show''

★ ''The New York Times'' (Jan. 28, 2007): "Hey Now: It's Garry Shandling's Obsession", by Jacques Steinberg

★ The BBC.co.uk Guide to Comedy: ''It's Garry Shandling's Show''

★ Filmbug.com: Garry Shandling

★ ''Newsday'' (April 15, 2007): "Fast Chat - Garry Shandling", by Frank Lovece

★ ''Jewish Journal'' (March 3, 2000): "What Planet is Garry Shandling From?", by Naomi Pfefferman

External links

★

★ TV.com: ''It's Garry Shandling's Show''