Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, Rip Torn, Wallace Langham, Penny Johnson,
Janeane Garofalo, Linda Doucett, Jeremy Piven | Created by Dennis Klein & Garry Shandling
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £29.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 322 minutes | Directed by Todd Holland
If you think about it, we have an awful lot to thank The Larry Sanders Show for. It was the first big international hit for the HBO cable network – and without it, we probably would never have got shows like Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Sex and The City, The Wire, Entourage or Deadwood. It was also an influence on comedies such as Seinfeld, The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But most of all, The Larry Sanders Show is smart, funny, clever and very, very watchable.
If you've never seen the show before, it's an incredibly sharp take on showbusiness and celebrity. Larry Sanders is a late-night talkshow host in the vein of Leno and Letterman. Perfectly portrayed by Shandling, Sanders is an insecure but very conceited egomaniac, pandered to by two-faced producer Artie (Torn) and sucked-up to by lame sidekick Hank "Hey Now" Kingsley (Tambor). In perfect mockumentary style, the show mixes on-air scenes – with real-life celebrities playing themselves as guests on the fictional talkshow – with the behind-the-scenes banter, bitchiness and backstabbing that takes place in the show's production office.
It's pretty foul-mouthed stuff (and heavily censored when it was first show on network TV in Australia back in the mid-90s), but is sidesplittingly funny at times – particularly Torn, who comes out with classic lines such as: "That's why I refuse to watch the local news; two kittens fell in a well, who gives a shit?" Making early forays into TV in this first season are the wonderful Garofalo, as talent booker Paula, and Piven – now widely loved as agent Ari Gold on Entourage – as joke-writer Jerry. There's also a pretty good line-up of celebrity guests – Carol Burnett, Dana Delaney, Robin Williams, William Shatner, Mimi Rogers, Peter Falk and, Billy Crystal. But it's the trio of Larry, Artie and Hank that form the heart of the show, and the comedy – three men that, despite their bickering and bitterness, do seem to have a genuine affection for each other.
There are 13 half-hour episodes here, each one comedy gold. It's been a long time coming to DVD – the show was produced between 1992 and 1998 – but it's here now, and it has to be said that with a high repeat value, The Larry Sanders Show is an absolute must-buy.
EXTRAS Disappintingly, none at all.