Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show

Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show
by Todd Holland, John Riggi

Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Rip Torn, Wallace Langham
Director: John Riggi, Todd Holland
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 579 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-17
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show

Movie Review: You can't argue with quality...
Summary: 5 Stars

I really want to dock this review one star over the extremely justified criticism of making this a "Not Just The Best Of" rather than "The Complete Second Season." Fans of the series bought that first volume. This should have been Volume 2. HBO knows that, of course, and doesn't care...so rather than punish the performers and creative team behind the show, let's just call these episodes what they are...5-star episodes.

It would have been extremely easy for The Larry Sanders Show to overstay its welcome. The central premise of the show didn't lend itself to an indefinite array of guests and plot twists. It left right around the time it should have, and the final episode was jam-packed with greatness. For starters, Tom Petty...and, of course, Jeffrey "Hank" Tambor...and the always-amazing Rip Torn. The "weasels" in the cast remained weasels right up to the end...especially Jeremy Piven's cameo as fired head writer Jerry and Wallace Langham as head writer Phil. Langham's character always seemed to be the most premeditated, unfeeling, self-serving character on the show. Larry's smack-down when "Phil" asks for the R-A-Y letters from the "Larry" sign is worth the price of admission.

Larry's agent Stevie Grant (Bob Odenkirk) gets caught in a backstage "snowstorm" while convincing up-and-coming Jon Stewart that he is destined to become "The Next Big Thing" (amazing how life imitates art, eh?)

In the The Larry Sanders Show - The Complete First Season DVD, Garry Shandling...in a "bonus" interview segment...discusses Johnny Carson's reaction to the show. He loved it, but said that he never felt the "behind the scenes" life was as "mean" as the Sanders show portrayed it. Whether that's the case or not, no one would have tuned into a weekly series about kind, loving and supportive TV people. We watched because of "Larry's" insecurities, his cowardice, his willingness to let "Artie" do his dirty work over and over and over again, the hardly transparent loathing and resentment "Hank" harbored toward "Larry" while kissing up to the tenth power...

...it was a five-star show, and now that it's off the air and HBO is making decisions about treating it like "merchandise," they are making less than 5-star decisions. That about sums it up.

Summary of Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show

Undeniably the hippest show to air on cable in the 1990s, The Larry Sanders Show takes you backstage at a fictional late night talk show with real-life guests from movies, music and television. The Larry Sanders Show was ahead of its time, becoming an immediate critical and audience hit for its satirical, tongue-in-cheek look at Hollywood. The series that combined documentary-like camerawork with a clever blend of fact and fiction set the standard of quality for HBO and influenced the development of shows like Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Office.

Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show features more than 8 hours of newly-produced material including Garry Shandling in personal and intimate visits with friends like Alec Baldwin, Tom Petty, Sharon Stone, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart and including the compellingly entertaining, feature-length documentary, "The Making of The Larry Sanders Show."


Garry Shandling wraps up the run of his groundbreaking HBO comedy series in definitive yet nostalgic fashion in this boxed set, wryly titled Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show. Now there's truth in advertising. Along with 23 of what Shandling felt were the best episodes of the show's run (89 episodes from 1992-98) comes eight hours of newly produced material, including a feature-length "making of" documentary, cast and star interviews, deleted scenes, commentaries, and footage of Shandling on personal visits with stars like Alec Baldwin, Jon Stewart, and Jerry Seinfeld. The personal visits are some of the most interesting moments (a breakfast with Sharon Stone is so strained and forced it's hard not to laugh) and the new features bring so much of Garry's personal thoughts and feelings into play that maybe this set would have been better named Being Garry Shandling. But it seems only fair to get such a subjective and in-depth personal view on the series from the man who made awkward self-consciousness a comedic art form.

The Larry Sanders Show was at the forefront of changing the genre of TV comedy, and influenced the development of many shows to follow, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, and both versions of The Office. The source of that inspiration is on full display here, as talk-show host Larry Sanders (Shandling) along with his producer Artie (Rip Torn) and his "poor deluded bastard" sidekick Hank (Jeffrey Tambor), struggles to keep his late-night talk show on the air despite dropping ratings, absurd notes from the network, and a hilarious tendency to self-sabotage his personal life. His guest stars, including some of the biggest names in show business, seem to enjoy lampooning their images and provide some of the sharpest comic moments. It's great stuff, and it's too bad all six seasons are not scheduled to be released on DVD. Shandling reportedly went this route with the release, rather than continuing with complete seasons, because of a desire to wrap it all up at once after a long legal battle with producer Brad Grey. While many fans might bemoan the fact that there will be no complete-season sets of The Larry Sanders Show released after this, there are episodes from all six seasons here to enjoy, including the first and the double-part finale. With a gem like this, it's better to savor what's available than to lament what might have been. --Daniel Vancini

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