The Larry Sanders Show [tv series]

Originally aired in the ’90s, this might be my favorite comedy series of all time, and close to my favorite TV show of any kind, ever. Garry Shandling is a funny guy—”It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” was cute and very entertaining, but I think he’s generally regarded as a second-stringer of his era behind guys like Seinfeld, and doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his excellent writing and work behind the scenes in a lot of things. (For instance, ending Judd Apatow’s “The 40 Year Old Virgin” with an absurd musical number was Shandling’s idea.) “The Larry Sanders Show” was his crowning achievement, and to me one of televised entertainments’s crowning achievements, full stop. An amazing show-within-a-show focusing on the production of a talk show hosted by a fragile, selfish narcissist (Shandling playing completely against type), his craven and insecure cohost (played in another stellar turn by the doesn’t-seem-like-an-actor-who-has-star-turns Jeffrey Tambor), their gregarious but mean-when-drunk veteran TV exec producer played with absolute comic genius by Rip Torn, and a host of other faces who are still around (Janeane Garofalo, Jeremy Piven, Wallace Langham, Mary Lynn Rajskub) as the beleaguered writers and office staff supporting them, plus a bunch of celebrity cameos who are more than happy to play embarrassing versions of themselves (a la “Extras”, another great tv-behind-the-scenes series.) I think this show ran for six seasons and was incredibly smart and funny the whole way through. An absolute must-watch, to me outstanding even among must-watch shows. Just unbelievably inventive and painfully funny.