DVD Review – The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series

Two years after the success of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Garry Shandling moved from Showtime to HBO and created The Larry Sanders Show, another semi-autobiographical sitcom. After a false start with Sony Home Entertainment, Shout! Factory has finally given us all six seasons of Larry Sanders in one big box which you’ll be able to bring home on November 2. I just so happen to have it in my hands, so let’s take an early peek backstage, shall we?

The Show

I’ve always considered Larry Sanders the more famous brother of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show. While I found the latter to be funnier personally, Larry Sanders went on for six impressive years and won a total of 24 awards (86 nominations), including 3 Emmys. It’s also made at least two separate “best TV shows of all time” lists (Time, TV Guide). Although I’ll always have a soft spot for its predecessor, I can’t deny that Larry Sanders far surpassed it in critical attention and acclaim.

Once again, Shandling is playing, by and large, himself as he portrays late-night host Larry Sanders (perhaps a callback to the fact that Shandling was at one point in favor as a guest host for Carson’s Tonight Show before he created It’s Garry Shandling’s Show). The show started the “celebrities playing themselves, often in self-parodying ways” trend that series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage later borrowed as it depicted both life on the talk-show set and off for Garry, his guests and his eccentric staff.

Aside from Larry, the two major characters were his blowhard producer Artie (Rip Torn, playing pretty much what he always plays) and announcer Hank (Jeffrey Tambor in fine form). However, I’ve always been more impressed by some of the people who made up Larry’s staff: Jeremy Piven plays head writer Jerry for the first 25 episodes, before he’s replaced by Wallace Langham as Phil, Kids In The Hall‘s Scott Thompson plays one of Larry’s many personal assistants, and a trio of 24 alumni (Penny Johnson Jerald, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Janeane Garofalo) appear as assistant Beverly and talent bookers Paula and Mary Lou respectively (Rajskub actually succeeded Garofalo). 24 fans will no doubt be surprised and impressed by Sherry Palmer’s ability to play the comedic “straight woman” role.

That was just the regular cast. Celebrities playing themselves included former Garry Shandling‘s frequent guest star Bruno Kirby, John Ritter, Billy Crystal, Jon Stewart, Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey – a veritable who’s who of funny people. They were graced by wonderful writing from people like Shandling and the now-infamous Judd Apatow, ensuring that there was no way Larry Sanders wouldn’t be funny. It ended up being very funny for a great six years, well before HBO became a part of the daily TV conversation. Much like Garry Shandling’s, Larry Sanders broke ground while still being a rollicking good time.

The DVDs

There are seventeen discs in this collection; seasons one and six, due to their abbreviated nature, only get two discs while the other four get three, plus a separate bonus disc. Unlike Garry Shandling’s, Larry Sanders merely has the cardboard slipcase with the eleven plastic cases (the first two discs of every season share a case), so grab it or set it the wrong way and you might dump the entire thing on the floor. Packaging-wise, however, you get the same thing as with that set: a list on the back of each case showing you episodes and special features, if any.

There’s also a sixty (yes, you read that right) page full-color guidebook that contains not just an episode guide, but remarks from various people and scans of actual script pages complete with notes all over them. The most handy feature is that this book lists which guest stars appeared in what episode, so if you only happen to know an episode by who was in it or you’re looking for a particular celebrity whose appearance you missed, you can find it without much hassle.

The discs have a forced trailer, but since it’s for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, I’m not complaining for once. The menus may confuse people at first, as there’s a bit of warped sound but you come to realize that’s just the menu audio of various production noise. Like the previous release, you get a play all and episode selection here, though the menus aren’t as fun as Garry Shandling’s.

Video quality-wise, like its predecessor, you get a full-frame presentation that holds up well in comparison to the show’s overall age. There’s a considerable amount of grain in some scenes, but it all goes back to how old the show itself is. Thanks to reader Freddy for pointing out that there is closed-captioning available on this release; you just have to activate it through your TV, rather than the traditional way of going through an audio or episode set-up menu.

The Special Features

Once again, Shout! has raided the cupboards when it comes to DVD special features. You get what you’d expect (deleted scenes, outtakes – which when Rip Torn is among your cast, look out, and interviews with the majority of the regular castmembers) but there’s also some unique stuff here as well.

The commentaries, of which there are a few, are still funny (Shandling is still self-deprecating) but there’s one quirk: select the commentary on the pilot, and you get a video clip of Shandling and Peter Tolan preparing to record a track. If you’ve ever wondered how actors and crew record commentary, now you know. The commentaries are fun, too. For example, in that first one you’ll learn the alleged pilot is actually Episode 104.

Besides those, you’ll see a feature-length documentary on the making of the show, a featurette on the writing process with Garry and Judd Apatow, a visit between Garry, Rip and Jeffrey in Garry’s living room, and a gallery of the show’s sixth-season Emmy print campaign.

You also get Garry’s personal visits with a number of people who appeared on the show, including Carol Burnett, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfield and Ellen DeGeneres, and a nifty recording of his lecture at USC. I only wish he’d been lecturing at my school when I went to college!

Presumably because this show went on longer, there are less special features per disc than with Garry Shandling’s: the first two discs of season two, for example, have nothing whatsoever, but then the third has only three episodes and a few featurettes. The special features aren’t spaced out as they were with the earlier release. The last disc of each season is where you’ll find most of them, except for some which have their own disc at the end of the set.

The Bottom Line

Fans of The Larry Sanders Show were frustrated with the half-hearted (and now out of print) releases from Sony; now they can rejoice because their frustrations will more than be assuaged by this impressive box set. If you didn’t see this series when it aired, now you have the perfect opportunity to pick it up: Amazon has the set for $85 (or just over $14 per season). It’s well worth the wait.