Have You Ever Watched Every Single Episode Of The Larry Sanders Show?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I have, having purchased all six series on old school DVD quite cheaply. Quite easy to watch loads in a row, as they're only about 22 minutes long, and the writing, most of the time is quite witty.
You can also do some Dad's Army- like corpse spotting while watching all of these shows on the trot. Not only Artie and Larry  themselves , but John Ritter, Bruno Kirby, Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Don Rickles, Peter Falk, Robin Williams,Steven Wright ( Oh, actually, he's still alive, it's his resemblance to Neil Innes that confused me), etc., etc.Gets a bit depressing after a bit, actually. Still, I'm glad that the likes of Carol Burnett are still around.

One thing I've noticed during this marathon viewing session though, is that the jokes from the monologue that Larry does at the start of the show are always crap. I know that there are episodes where the monologue jokes are supposed to be crap, highlighting the comedy writers having a problem or whatevs, but to me, these gags are indistinguishable from the ones that the audience have a right good laugh at. Are they all * supposed* to be crap jokes, and this is just subversive satire at work? Or is it just a case of lost in translation , a specific sub- genre of American Talk Show Monologue Humour? The young Sarah Silverman is on there too for a couple of episodes, playing one of the writers, and she gets to deliver a set on Larry's show which is absolutely awful, yet goes down a storm, and everyone's chuffed with her, saying " Great stuff, Sarah Silverman the writer! You really nailed it out there!", and the like. I'm genuinely puzzled by all this appreciation of rubbish jokes, find it a bit jarring, to be honest.

But, still, what a great ensemble cast. Her Who Plays Villanelle The slug on IASIP is on it, giving a great performance as a nervy member of Larry's staff, and Hank Kingsley is a fucking great comic character, Jeffrey Tambor is * such* a great comedic actor, it's a shame he's a bit # MeToo- ish nowadays ( as in being accused of being a bit gropey, not him saying he's been sleazed on himself). Hank Kingsley used to be a poster on ere, didn't he?

Post your thoughts on Larry Sanders ( and those crap monologue jokes) on here.

[checkoutgirl]

Yes.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Oh yeah, Tom Petty and Andy Williams, as well. That bloke who played Sid the Cue Card Feller too, I shouldn't wonder.


( dead people )

[DrGreggles]

In my top ten comedy shows of all time, and there's no higher praise than that.

Unless it was in the top one, obviously.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Angie Dickinson and George Segal are both still alive, too. That's not bad going.

[EOLAN]

To answer the question - No.

Is on my re-watch list from when I was about 12 and watching it at 11.35pm on Sunday night's (if the snooker hasn't over-run) or whatever times the BBC put it on. Jeffrey Tambor was my favorite back in those days and probably had a bit of a crush on him Janeane Garafalo.
I believe I found the monologues enjoyable but was probably more on the charisma and delivery of Garry Shandling.

Slight aside; but watching the Curb Your Enthusiasm pilot recently. I felt the stand-up quality was too good to fit the storyline. The episode itself was quite weak if the stand-up (and talking heads) were taken out.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Janeanne Garafalo's sassy character was good too, she played off well against Her Who Played Villanelle The Slug In IASIP 's awkward, more socially inept character ( alas, only for one show, as she was the replacement for yer woman JG, who wanted to leave). Like I said, great ensemble cast, quite the influence on " 30 Rock", I would have thought.

[gilbertharding]

I haven't. Watched every single episode of The Larry Sanders Show.

Perhaps I will now.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Well, perhaps you should. There's very few duff episodes.

Some are a bit " off" , though. The episode in which Larry sacks Jeremy Piven the Comedy Writer ends on an odd note, with a drunken Jeremy Piven calling Larry all the cunts under the sun outside the window of his office. It just ends with Larry trying to celebrate his birthday with the rest of his crew, with a pained expression on his face, no attempt at any kind of pay- off gag, or anything. A few of the shows end oddly like that.

[gilbertharding]

Like most people, I enjoyed it whenever I caught it as half of the double bill with Seinfeld (but unlike most people at the time I preferred Seinfeld).

[Jim_MacLaine]

I think it shares with Seinfeld two of the greatest comic creations ever.

Hank and George obviously.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Like most people, I enjoyed it whenever I caught it as half of the double bill with Seinfeld (but unlike most people at the time I preferred Seinfeld).

Tuesday nights, when you got home after karaoke (if you're my clone from a parallel world, anyhow).

I adore the show, have seen it many times, and it was the first thing I ever downloaded via torrents. Anyone who says it's less than amazing should be put to death, and it's easily in my top 3 best ever shows.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I remember the two shows being advertised part of a great comedy package for Autumn 1993 on BBC 2, along with the first series of " The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer". I even remember the joke Larry cracked in the clip on the ad, about earthquakes in LA making it difficult to shoot straight.
Yes  older readers might remember " Seinfeld" being shown at peak time 9:00 pm on BBC 2, or poss. 9:30 after Reeves and Mortimer. Larry Sanders must have been put on a bit later, because of the fucking swearing. Then, come 1995  Seinfeld was being shown on Saturday Nights, then BBC 2 thought " fuck this", and started doing the Seinfeld/ Sanders latenight after Newsnight double bill thing, all the way into 1999.

[Jim_MacLaine]

Didn't one of the ITV channels get the rights and would always put it on before Dream On in the 2000's. That seems to be the source of my downloads before I bought the box set.

[PowerButchi]

Yeah, it was on ITV 4 in about 2006 or so.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Yeah that's when I watched it. Mid to late 2000s on ITV4.

[checkoutgirl]

I can remember fuck all about it other than it being a brilliant show and loving the ending. Oh and "It was a back tooth, Hank".

[Cuellar]

Baby, I've never even watched A single episode!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I can remember fuck all about it other than it being a brilliant show and loving the ending. Oh and "It was a back tooth, Hank".

"Excuse us, Guy."
"Oh, is his name Guy?"
"No, he's just a guy."

[wosl]

I have [...] purchased all six series on old school DVD quite cheaply.

I've just done exactly the same thing (wish I'd known about the Shout! Factory version when it was available for a reasonable price; I'd like to see the extras that are on there and that aren't on the set I've just got).  Making my way through, slowly.  The three central performances are, as everyone rightly points out, brilliant, Tambor's in particular.  Just watched the episode where a party's thrown at Larry's house, and that little scene where Hank's angling for an invite from Larry by bullshitting about having boxing tickets and then pleading to be invited in a weirdly sotto voce way, abject yet somehow threatening, is extraordinary.  Artie/Torn is brilliant in that episode, too - becoming more stiffly gruff and declamatory when pissed at the party rather than less, at one point standing in front of one of Larry's paintings (a Diebenkorn 'Ocean Park', it looks like) that's half dangling from the wall and insisting that Larry down a salty dog ("Drink it, you pussy"); 'drunk' done differently and specifically. So many, good and original twists on character and expectation in this show.

[wosl]

Ha, coincidence!  The copy of Not Just The Best Of The Larry Sanders Show that I ordered because I believe it contains a lot of the extras that are on the Shout! Factory box, has literally just dropped through the letter-box.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Ha, coincidence!  The copy of Not Just The Best Of The Larry Sanders Show that I ordered because I believe it contains a lot of the extras that are on the Shout! Factory box, has literally just dropped through the letter-box.

Hey, Now!

[wosl]

Ah man, the menus on these just arrived ones are great: