Garry Shandling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Garry Shandling | |
|---|---|
 Garry Shandling at the 39th Emmy Awards |
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| Born | November 29, 1949 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Medium | stand-up, television, film |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1978 - present |
| Genres | Observational comedy, Satire |
| Subject(s) | self-deprecation, human sexuality, everyday life |
| Influences | Woody Allen, Johnny Carson |
| Influenced | Ricky Gervais, Judd Apatow |
| Notable works and roles | Garry Shandling in It's Garry Shandling's Show Larry Sanders in The Larry Sanders Show |
| Emmy Awards | |
| Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series 1998 The Larry Sanders Show | |
| BAFTA Awards | |
| Best International (Programme or Series) 1999 The Larry Sanders Show | |
| American Comedy Awards | |
| Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series 1988 It's Garry Shandling's Show 1996, 1998, 1999 The Larry Sanders Show |
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Garry Shandling (born November 29, 1949) is an American comedian. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Shandling was born to a Jewish American family in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. He had an older brother, Barry, who died from cystic fibrosis when Garry was 10. He attended Palo Verde High Magnet School. After graduation, he attended the University of Arizona, at first majoring in electrical engineering, but eventually completing a degree in marketing and pursuing a year of post-graduate studies in creative writing.
In 1973, Shandling moved to Los Angeles, California, made contact with comedian George Carlin after catching one of his shows, worked at an advertising agency for a time, then sold a script for the popular NBC sitcom Sanford and Son. Shandling's script became the November 21, 1975 "Sanford and the Rising Son," the episode in which Ah Chew (played by Pat Morita) turned junk-yard owner Fred Sanford's house into a Japanese restaurant. Shandling continued to do comedy scriptwriting for sitcoms including Welcome Back, Kotter and Three's Company.
In 1977, Shandling was involved in an auto accident in Beverly Hills that put him in critical condition for weeks. He later turned the accident into part of his stand-up comedy act.
[edit] Stand-up comedy
In 1978, Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. His persona was that of an anxiety-ridden, grimacing, guarded, confused man who seemed always on the verge of losing control. After a couple of years on the road, a talent scout from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson caught his act and booked him to appear as a guest host on March 18, 1981. Shandling began substituting for Carson on a regular basis along with Jay Leno until 1985.
[edit] TV series
Shandling and co-writer Alan Zweibel went on to create the surreal comedy series It's Garry Shandling's Show in 1985, which ran 72 episodes on the Showtime cable television network through 1990, with edited reruns playing on the Fox network beginning in 1988.
The series, a popular critical hit, became known for its Brechtian use of what is known in theater as "breaking the fourth wall", a concept in which characters turn away from the action and comment directly on the proceedings or make asides to the audience. While Groucho Marx was a pioneer of the technique in the 1930s movie Animal Crackers, and television had occasionally broken the fourth wall since at least the 1950s TV series starring Ernie Kovacs and the team of George Burns and Gracie Allen, and sporadically afterward, Shandling's series employed the idea as a central concept, and influenced such future wall-breaking series as The Bernie Mac Show and the UK's Sean's Show.
In 1992, Shandling had another critical and commercial success creating the mock behind-the-scenes talk show sitcom The Larry Sanders Show, which ran 89 episodes through 1998 on the cable network HBO, garnering 56 Emmy Award nominations and three wins.
In 1993, NBC offered Shandling $5 million[citation needed] to take over the late-night comedic talk show Late Night when host David Letterman announced his highly publicized move to CBS, but Shandling declined. The Larry Sanders Show later spoofed the network's efforts to find a Letterman successor.
[edit] Other work
Shandling has appeared occasionally in movies, beginning with a cameo as dental patient Mr. Vertisey in The Night We Never Met. He played supporting roles in the 1994 films Love Affair and Mixed Nuts (a.k.a. Lifesavers), Dr. Dolittle (1998) as the voice of a live-action pigeon, the David Rabe play adaptation Hurlyburly (1998), and Trust the Man. He wrote and starred in director Mike Nichols' What Planet Are You From? (2000), and co-starred with Warren Beatty and others in Town & Country. Again voicing an animal, Shandling co-starred as Verne the turtle in the computer animated comic strip adaptation Over the Hedge (2006)
Shandling hosted the Grammy Awards from 1990 to 1995, and the Emmy Awards in 2000 and 2004.
In 2006, comedian Ricky Gervais interviewed Shandling for a British documentary citing him as a comic influence.[1] The reviews of British TV critics were mixed – one Guardian reviewer described it as "the uneasiest interview ever",[2] another as Gervais' most interesting[3] but the general consensus was that it felt "awkward",[4][5][6] a hallmark of each man's comedic style.[7][8]
Shandling starred as himself representing Fox Mulder alongside Téa Leoni as Dana Scully in the X-Files season 7 spoof episode "Hollywood A.D.".[9]
[edit] Shandling in popular culture
In the Butthole Surfers song "Revolution Part 2," Gibby Haynes sings a long chorus of Shandling's name interspersed with those of other famous actors.[10][11] Haynes said that Shandling was "just one of those people who haunt me."[12]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Gervais to meet more comedy idols. BBC News (April 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ TV quick!. The Guardian (February 24, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ Flett, Kathryn (December 31, 2006). Something to get your teeth into. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ French, Karl (December 23, 2006). Television and Radio: Television. The Financial Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ Billen, Andrew (March 22, 2007). No, I don't fear death — I'm just frightened of dying. The Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ Deedes, Henry (January 5, 2007). By George, we salute you for your indefatigability. The Independent. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ John, Ian (January 6, 2006). Ricky can't quite curb his enthusiasm. The Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ Steinberg, Jacques (January 28, 2007). Hey Now: It's Garry Shandling's Obsession. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ "The X Files" Hollywood A.D. (2000). IMDB. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
- ^ Butthole Surfers. "Revolution Part 2." Pioughd. Capitol Records, 1991.
- ^ Television: The Larry Sanders Show. Philadelphia Weekly (October 14, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ Orr, Peter (September/October, 1991). Journey To The Sphincter Of Your Mind Or… Cowabunghole!. Reflex Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
[edit] References
- AllMovie.com: Garry Shandling
- Museum of Broadcasting: It's Garry Shandling's Show / The Larry Sanders Show
- The New York Times (Jan. 28, 2007): "Hey Now: It's Garry Shandling's Obsession", by Jacques Steinberg
- The BBC.co.uk Guide to Comedy: It's Garry Shandling's Show
- Filmbug.com: Garry Shandling
- Newsday (April 15, 2007): "Fast Chat - Garry Shandling", by Frank Lovece
- Jewish Journal (March 3, 2000): "What Planet is Garry Shandling From?", by Naomi Pfefferman
[edit] External links
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