- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
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- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
The Larry Sanders Show
No flipping!
In August of 1992, HBO aired the very first
episode of The Larry Sanders show. The
premise of the show can be described as nothing
short of brilliant. Instead of creating just
another talk show for a pay-cable network, HBO
took on the idea of creating a sitcom about
Larry Sanders, a talk-show host. It was a show
within a show exposing the true demons that run
in entertainment circles.
The show was an instant success, and became the
most talked about show on television.
Each episode usually started with "The Larry
Sanders Show", as Larry (Garry Shandling) gives us
his daily monologue, introduces the day's guests,
and then as the talk show ends, we go behind the
camera and up to Larry's offices where he interacts
with Paula (Janeane Garofalo), the shows booking
agent; Jerry (Jeremy Piven), the shows writer;
and Larry's Producer and guardian angel, Arthur
(Rip Torn). Least I forget Larry's bumbling co-host,
Hank (Jeffrey Tambor), the show's most memorable
character.
In essence, every week the show examined the
fictional life of Larry Sanders both on and off
the set. Some of the greatest names in show business
appeared in its 6 seasons, including William Shatner,
Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, David Duchovny, Billy
Crystal, David Letterman and so on and so on. When
Larry wasn't seen in front of the camera during his
show, we got an intimate look at the problems plaguing
his personal side from troubles with his love life
to problems with his staff, to guests that walk off
the show.
By the year 1998, the show was still at its peak,
but Shandling and company decided to go out on a
high note, and a piece of television history soon
went into retirement.
How is the transfer?
I'm afraid I have good and bad news. The good
news is that the audio on this DVD sounds very
good. Presented in 2-channel Dolby, I became
part of the show as the action remained in the
front soundfield and audience applause clearly
rose in the rear channels. Sadly, it seems that
the only time we hear any rear activity is during
the talk show sequences.
The bad news is the transfer. Being that the
show was originally shot on both video and film,
the talk show sequences (shot on tape)look much
better than the backstage sequences (shot on film)
which are slightly unfocused. There is also a
noticeable element of grain in the filmed portions.
Was this intended to be presented this way? With
the talk show sequences having a more polished look,
I would tend to think so. However, the rest of the
show just looks so "blah" when compared that I tend
to think there were some mastering problems.
Special Features
First, let me talk a little about the packaging.
The Larry Sanders Show opens up to a
3-gatefold package that looks and feels rather
cheaply produced. It's basically thin cardboard
with black plastic housing inside that stores each
of the 3 discs.
The 3 discs hold four 30-minute episodes each
with the exception of disc #3 which has a fifth
episode. A total of 13 episodes comprise Season 1.
Inside the packaging is a small card that gives
a summary of each episode and its guest stars.
I was a bit upset to find that original airdates
weren't even listed.
The only extra feature in this set appears on
Disc #1. Garry Shandling Talks is a very
candid 27-minute interview with a Washington
Post reporter. Garry talks about how the idea
of the show came to be. Since Garry was a regular
co-host on the original "Tonight Show", he had
years of talk-show experience on his belt. He
decided to take that experience and do a show
about a talk show host. Garry talks about how if
he had done just his own straight talk show, how
much different it would have been from his alter-ego,
Larry Sanders.
Garry reflects how much experimentation went into
the show before the airing of the very first episode.
Also, just as interesting is Gary talking about
how difficult and time consuming it was to shoot
the show on both video and film. Using footage
from the show, Gary shows us the many camera tricks
and techniques used to produce the show.
One of the most interesting stories of this
interview is the Rip Torn story. Garry reflects
upon his first meeting with the renowned actor
who refused to read or audition for the part.
Garry tried to ease this situation by arranging a
one-on-one meeting with Rip, which ended on quite
an interesting note.
Final Thoughts
My overall impression of this set is that
it's "okay". It seems to be a set that was
thrown together without really complimenting
the show itself. The packaging is very plain,
tells us nothing about the show itself, and
whose transfer is somewhat questionable.
I think the problem is that we have seen
studios like Fox and Artisan do far better with
their television product from menus that go
beyond being basic, to packaging that really
compliments the product.
Still, this is Larry Sanders we are
talking about, and it is really nice to see that
Columbia chose [/i]this[/i] show as their very
first DVD television entry. There's nothing like
revisiting old friends and hearing Hank belt out
his infamous "HEY NOW!"
Available NOW!
