Larry Sanders (character)

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Larry Sanders
First appearance	"The Garden Weasel"
Last appearance	"Flip"
Information
Gender	Male
Age	42 (as of the 1993 episode "The Breakdown (Part One)"), 43 (as of the 1993 episode "Larry's Birthday")
Occupation	Host of The Larry Sanders Show
Family	Jerry Sanders (father) Stan Sanders (brother)
Relationships	Francine (divorced) Jeannie (divorced)
Portrayed by	Garry Shandling
Created by	Dennis Klein & Garry Shandling

Lawrence "Larry" Sanders is a fictional character played by Garry Shandling on the American television series The Larry Sanders Show.

1 Personal history
- 1.1 Career history
2 Personality
3 Relationships
4 References

[edit] Personal history

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Larry Sanders has been hosting his own late night talk show, The Larry Sanders Show, since 1987. It airs at the 11:30 PM timeslot, five days a week, on an unnamed network.

[edit] Career history

In "The Garden Weasel," Larry shows his wife Jeannie a commercial that he did for Pan Am in 1979, in which he played a male flight attendant. Also in the episode, Jeannie mentions that Larry once auditioned for the game show Make Me Laugh.

In the episode "Larry's Partner," it is mentioned that Larry began his career as a standup comedian and as part of a double act with his friend Stan Paxton. Larry and Stan recorded a comedy album together and had a bit called "The Man on the Street Meets the Man on the Moon." Larry broke up his act with Stan 15 years ago because Stan had a serious drinking problem and only joined the business to "get laid."

In "The Promise", it is mentioned that Larry's first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show and that he later appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Also in the episode, Larry mentions that he discovered comedian David Spade while he was performing at the Comedy Store and gave him his first television appearance on his show. Spade went on to appear on the show at least six more times. Larry feels betrayed by Spade when he learns that Spade had appeared on The Tonight Show recently, but he forgives him when he recalls that he did the same thing by appearing on The Tonight Show after The Merv Griffin Show.

In "Out Of The Loop," Larry says he was a writer on Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop.

[edit] Personality

Larry is neurotic, self-involved, and is always concerned about the size of his ass, thinking that it is too big. Larry enjoys watching his own show in bed every night, which is something that frustrates his second wife Jeannie.

Larry really likes frozen yogurt and often sends his assistant Beverly to get it for him.

[edit] Relationships

[edit] Hank Kingsley

In the episode "The Breakdown (Part One)," it is mentioned that Larry and Hank first met in the spring of 1985. Larry does not respect Hank and thinks that Hank is not very bright. Larry constantly avoids Hank because he does not like dealing with him. However, Hank sometimes acts as a voice of reason for Larry and solves his problems for him, whether intentionally or not.

[edit] Artie

Larry depends upon Artie to protect him from the network executives. Larry says that he can't do the show without Artie because Artie is so loyal to him.

[edit] Jeannie Sanders

Larry's second wife, Jeannie, leaves him to go to Chicago because she thinks that he is too involved. After she leaves him, Larry takes things very hard and has a minor heart episode.

[edit] Francine Sanders

Francine is Larry's first wife, who he begins dating after Jeannie leaves him. Hank and Artie strongly dislike Francine.

[edit] Jerry Capen

Jerry serves as the head writer for the show from 1992 to 1993. In the episode "Larry's Birthday", it is mentioned that Larry discovered Jerry when Jerry was performing at the comedy club Catch a Rising Star and hired him as the head writer for his show. Jerry was doing poorly as a comedian and was just about to quit the business before being hired. Due to budgetary reasons, Larry has to fire Jerry and he is unhappy with how bitter Jerry becomes after being fired.

[edit] Beverly Barnes

Larry depends upon Beverly to do many simple tasks for him and she is very loyal to him. In the episode "The Breakdown (Part Two)," Larry sleeps with Beverly. Afterwards, they both agree that it was a mistake to sleep together.

[edit] Stevie Grant

Stevie Grant is Larry's agent, who he hires in the episode "Larry's Agent." Larry becomes unhappy with his previous agent Leo, so he hires Stevie. Stevie is very obnoxious and Artie does not seem to like him very much. However, Stevie is good at what he does initially and he is able to negotiate Larry a very high contract. Larry is impressed by the fact that Stevie represents many high-powered clients. In the episode "The Beginning of the End," Larry fires Stevie after finding out that he double-crossed him by becoming comedian Jon Stewart's agent. Stewart, at this point, is in a position to replace Larry on his talk show; and Stevie negotiates for Stewart rather than Larry before being fired.

[edit] Melanie Parrish

Larry feels contempt for Melanie because he tends to dislike network executives. In the episode "The Garden Weasel", she makes him do live commercials on the show against his will. Larry gets into an argument with her afterwards and she punches him in the face.