Jeremy Piven on the legacy of The Larry Sanders Show

Now that sign says…‘Applesauce.’ No, we’re kidding, but just about anyone who has seen The Larry Sanders Show will applaud not only what it did for television but what it did for comedy as a whole. And one who still appreciates what it meant for his career is Jeremy Piven, who had had a few small roles in movies prior to landing his role as writer Jerry, but knows that The Larry Sanders Show did wonders, allowing him to constantly learn on the job.

Jeremy Piven recently appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, where he recalled the place that The Larry Sanders Show has in his career. As he put it, “I was right out of college and I understood immediately that I’m on the bench and that I’m witnessing greatness and that I need to soak it all up. And they were incredible. [Garry Shandling] was an absolute genius. I was so lucky to be a part of that…I was a series regular, playing the head writer and I played that character as if I thought I was not funny at all, but I was the head writer. So I played him in this very tragic way and it was a blast.”

But The Larry Sanders Show wasn’t just important for a number of up-and-comers (in addition to Piven, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and more had pivotal early roles) – it set a tone for HBO. As Piven noted, “This kicked off original programming at HBO. So there are people doing the show who thought it was a talk show. They didn’t know it was a fictional [show]. No, literally. And it was incredible. My job on that show was to not break. That was my only point of concentration, was, I have to get through this scene and look at Jeffrey Tambor and not laugh. That’s all I was thinking…because everyone was a genius on that show. Everyone was crushing it.”

More than 25 years after it went off the air, The Larry Sanders Show still feels like one of the most innovative TV shows ever, blending fiction and reality in a way that stands unmatched. I was very late to it, but when I finally binged the show a few years ago, it felt as fresh as ever; yes, we dearly miss Garry Shandling (and the too-many actors featured on the show that we’ve lost since), but it is absolutely timeless and worth discovering – or rediscovering – decades later.

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