I sometimes wonder if we underestimate the value of Garry Shandling within pop culture. That’s not to say that anyone with any taste who has caught Shandling’s stand up, or his two groundbreaking television shows, doesn’t find him at minimum funny. Only a Philistine would think otherwise.
It’s just that his career for a lot of people boils down to four things. Guest-hosting the Tonight Show, not overly frequent comedy club work, and two shows that are fairly cultish in regard.
Judd Apatow’s two-part, better than 4-hour, documentary for HBO, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling aims to consecrate his subject’s status as legendary. That’s not to say Apatow’s film lacks representation of warts. Not at all. Through frank interviews of those who knew him best, and the seemingly endless journals Shandling kept, The Zen Diaries makes it clear that Shandling was anything but easy.
All of his anxieties, petty grievances, and sometimes brutal perfectionism are laid bare. That’s doesn’t mean you will find Shandling to be a bad person here. Far from it. He was extraordinarily generous. While he had falling outs with friends, he often made up for them. One thing you will certainly gather from the film is that even those who had difficulties with him had a deep and abiding affection for him, if not out-and-out love. Like most of us, he was complicated.
It’s fair to say that much of what shaped his comedy and life can be traced to a single event. The death of his older brother of two years, Barry, from cystic fibrosis at the age of 13. His kind, but somewhat stoic father, shut down any conversation of Barry’s passing, while his eccentric mother became so attentive to her remaining son as to become overbearing.
In many ways, Shandling never quite found his footing after his brother died. He had a couple long-term relationships, but when it came time to take the next conventional step into marriage and/or children, he could not make the transition.
It was as if the hurt of Barry’s far too young departure would only allow him so much intimacy. This plays out most hurtfully in the second half of the documentary as his relationship with his Larry Sanders Show co-star Linda Doucett goes south due to her desire for a child. Not only did they split, Shandling fired her. A move that eventually resulted in a settlement for Doucett.
Apatow largely sticks to a straightforward timeline. The first half deals with his childhood, first steps into comedy as a writer for sitcoms like Sanford & Son, and Welcome Back, Kotter, to his own creation, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.
Of his two television series, his first is often thought of as his second best. Which isn’t necessarily wrong. It is however, an incomplete evaluation. It may have been thirty minutes, and full of laughs, but it wasn’t so much a sitcom as an anti-sitcom.
It’s Garry’s Shandling’s Show was subversive as hell. Long before shows like The Office had characters talking to the camera, and being self-referential, Shandling not only invented the format, he perfected it. The show was just popular enough to last four years and 88 episodes.
Brian Eno once said of The Velvet Underground, “They didn’t sell many records, but everyone who bought one started a band.” Which is pretty much how comedians and comedy writers view It’s Garry Shandling’s Show. It’s a touchstone. Before it, people had a smaller view of what was possible.
Shandling probably could have kept doing the show for several more years. His mercurial nature would not let him though. He bored easily. So, after breaking all the dishes in the sitcom kitchen, he moved on.
There was a point in his career when he was a top contender to replace Johnny Carson. Remarkably, he passed to put more time into It’s Garry. Furthermore, he didn’t even want to be considered. He simply couldn’t imagine doing the same thing every day. Even if it meant untold riches, and a place in the TV pantheon. He was more interested in creating something new.
So, he did.
Part 2 turns its attention to the most lauded production of his career. Shandling didn’t need someone else’s talk show. He would create a show about a talk show.
The Larry Sanders Show is on the short list of the greatest programs in the history of the medium. While it was somewhat meta, and certainly self-referential, it didn’t break down the third wall like Shandling’s previous comedy. It didn’t need to. It was so sharply written., so funny and human, it’s a bit of a miracle.
Larry Sanders had massive laughs, pathos, and the sort of uncomfortable humor that is a bit of a staple of today’s comedy. Only not quite as good.
Here’s an example:
Larry’s “Ed McMahon”, Hank (played pathetically and artfully by Jeffrey Tambor), is exasperated by being the butt of everyone’s jokes. He turns to Larry and laments…
“What about the time I fell and broke my tooth on the urinal? What was so fucking funny about that?”
Larry replies:
“It was a back tooth.”
I mean, really? Who writes stuff like that?
The on and off camera talent was an embarrassment of riches. Apatow, Peter Tolan, Carol Leifer, Rip Torn, Janeane Garafolo, Jeremy Piven, Bon Odenkirk, and many others. To say nothing of the celebrity guests. Sharon Stone, Robin Williams, and perhaps most memorably David Duchovny.
It was a who’s who of who was hot and or relevant at the time. Somehow, it never got in the way of the show itself. All of those guest stars subverted their egos and served the storyline. I think they did this mostly because it was so damn good, and they just wanted to be a part of it.
The show ran from 1992-1998. 89 episodes. Just one more than It’s Garry Shandling’s Show. It was the greatest triumph of his career, and it was still going strong when he decided to walk away. His break up with Doucett and more so, his bitter split with his long-time manager Brad Grey over where the money went had sapped him of his joy and energy for the program.
Then once again, at the peak of his powers, he walked away. It was the last triumphant moment of his career.
Shandling attempted to move into film as a leading man. He wrote What Planet Are You From? A film about an alien, played by Shandling, who comes to earth to impregnate a human. Despite a cast with Annette Bening, John Goodman, and Ben Kingsley – among others, and the great Mike Nichols in the director’s chair, it was an unmitigated disaster.
After that, Shandling muddied through the rest of his career. Random, and often hilarious, guest appearances on late night, some award show hosting duties, a bit part in a couple of Marvel Universe movies, and occasional stand up. That was pretty much it.
A serious illness known as hyperparathyroidism probably robbed him of any chance to make a serious comeback. He was never quite the same after having surgery.
Even so, he found a way to make more of his life by doing less. Shandling meditated for years prior and became more steeped in the practice in the latter portion of his life. Becoming close with Buddhist monks and other spiritual leaders in the area of eastern thought.
He made amends with many of those he felt he harmed. He did wonderful things like show up unannounced in Hawaii to support a recently fired from the Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien.
Mostly, he found a way to just be, and then just like that, he was felled by a heart attack and gone.
Over the four-plus hours of The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, many a great anecdote is told. Comics like Jim Carrey, Bob Saget, and Jay Leno attest to Shandling’s genius and peculiarities. They do so with reverence and humor, and sometimes pain and tears. This is one of the more revealing and complete documentaries you will see this year or any other.
My favorite moment came from Sarah Silverman, who did a handful of episodes on The Larry Sanders Show before she made a name for herself in her own right.
Silverman talks about Shandling’s quest for balance. In doing so she says “Garry wasn’t Zen. Garry desperately needed to be Zen.”
Which are equal parts funny and a little sad. Obviously, desperation is no path to Zen. Still, somehow, despite all his angst and agita, you are left with the feeling he gained at least some measure of such before he died. Which now that I think of it, was perhaps his greatest triumph of all.