I remember watching It’s Garry Shandling’s Show on Fox when Fox had just become a network. My brother had just come back from a plane trip, which was exotic for us then (I think it was his eighth-grade trip to Washington, DC) and remembered seeing it as a promotion of the network. Garry Shandling would air along with Tracy Ullman. This was before The Simpsons had become a show of their own; they were still just little shorts on Tracy Ullman, and they had a real different flavor.
Garry talked to us as if we were his special neighbors, kind of like Mr. Rogers did. It was weird, but a lot of fun. This first episode is interesting, and a different sort of television, but the best moment happens in the middle. It won’t work unless you a) remember the 1980s, and b) watch at least the beginning of the show. I think it’s worth the whole thing, but I like Garry Shandling’s humor. It’s a nervous, self-deprecating sort of humor, but different from the Woody Allen style: instead of telling us that he’s a piece of shit, he pretends that he believes he’s a bit above mediocre, and acts a bit below. In short: perfectly human and easy to relate to. It’s a lot of fun.
Why did this show change my life? It broke rules, both with the self-consciousness, and the sense of humor.
For example, this:
The audience is participating in this in a way no one has ever used them before. They are an entity in the show that Garry gives personality to. I’d never seen anyone do that before. More than just having soliloquies, he grants them life and personality. And bread as a prop. Genius.
There are times in writing when I’ve seen a writer do things I’d never seen anyone do before and realized, “Oh wait; I can do that?” and my world gets a little bit bigger. This show had a few moments like that in it for me.
Here’s the first episode. It was produced for Showtime, so there’s a notice at the beginning that it might be inappropriate for all audiences. It’s hard to think of this as being racy now, but I think the “penis” bits might have been racy in 1985.
“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Season 1, Episode 1,–The Day Garry Moved In (Part 1)
If you really, really can’t wait for the best part, it starts around 10:50. It’s not as good without the setup of the first ten minutes, though.
“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Season 1, Episode 1,–The Day Garry Moved In (Part 2)
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