It's Garry Shandling's Show

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It's Garry Shandling's Show

It's Garry Shandling's Show was the beginning of comedian and sometime 1980s Tonight Show guest host Garry Shandling's ongoing exploration of lives led in front of the camera, while parodying the world of television; his magnum opus, the fruits of these years, is The Larry Sanders Show.

Shandling, with former Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, created It's Garry Shandling's Show, which was on Showtime from 1986 to 1988, and Fox from 1988 to 1990. The gimmick of the show was inspired by a device that hadn't often been used since the 1958 end of Burns and Allen's run: breaking the fourth wall. Shandling played himself, a neurotic comedian, and regularly talked to the camera, making observations, updating the plot, or interjecting a joke. The difference was that everyone else in the cast knew they were on television, too; sometimes other characters criticized Shandling for paying too much attention to the camera or to his appearance, or complained about not being featured in an episode. And, of course, the live audience was in on it, too. If Shandling were leaving, he'd tell the audience they could use his living room while he was gone, and they would. He would also go into the audience to get reactions, or "take a call from a viewer."

The sitcom took place in Shandling's Sherman Oaks condominium. The supporting cast included Garry's platonic friend Nancy (Molly Cheek), his mother Ruth (Barbara Cason), his married friend Pete (Michael Tucci), Pete's wife Jackie (Bernadette Birkett), their intellectual son Grant (Scott Nemes), and nosy condo manager Leonard (Paul Wilson). In 1989-1990 season, both Garry and Nancy acquired steady love interests: Nancy's was Ian (soap opera actor Ian Buchanan) and Garry's was Phoebe (Jessica Harper), whom he married before the show ended.

The format and premise allowed guest stars to drop by and play themselves, among them Tom Petty, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and the late Gilda Radner in one of her last television appearances. There was also a 1988 election special with Soul Train's Don Cornelius providing political analysis. Garry's "wedding" was attended by Bert Convy, Connie Stevens, and Ned Beatty. Besides covering Shandling's trials and tribulations with girlfriends, his mom, and his friends, It's Garry Shandling's Show lovingly spoofed television conventions and sitcom "rules" with parodies of Lassie and The Fugitive. Even the show's theme song winked at tradition: "This is the theme to Garry's show, the opening theme to Garry's show, Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song…."

The idea for the show originated in a sketch on NBC's Michael Nesmith in Television Parts that featured Shandling narrating a date with Miss Maryland to the camera. The sitcom was pitched to the three networks, all three of which turned it down. Showtime, for whom Shandling had done two successful comedy specials, Garry Shandling: Alone in Vegas (1984) and The Garry Shandling Show 25th Anniversary Special (1986), picked it up. Though other shows (such as Moonlighting and Saved By the Bell), came to break the fourth wall occasionally during the 1980s, It's Garry Shandling's Show's use of the device was fresh and innovative, providing the creators with an effective outlet to skewer their own industry.

—Karen Lurie