DVD Box Set Review: "Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show" (2007)

I have spent far, far too much time this weekend sitting on the couch and watching the new "Not Just The Best of the Larry Sanders Show" box set.

If you're not familiar with this very unique and irreverent comedy, which ran for six seasons from 1992-1998 on HBO, it stars Garry Shandling as the awkward host of a late-night talk show, along with Rip Torn as profane, hard-boiled producer Artie and Jeffrey Tambor as chronically insecure announcer/sidekick Hank. Basically, the show is a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood, with rivalries, failed marriages, and all the other BS that accompanies show business uproariously satirized. Personalities from the era are written in to each episode's script and usually get caught up in some shenanigan or awkward situation involving the principal characters of the show, and this four-disc set, just released and running over eight hours in length, contains over twenty of the best episodes of "Sanders", along with numerous extras.

Here's a clip which will give you a taste of what the show is all about. To set it up, a couple of the writers go looking for snacks in Hank's office after smoking pot one night, and they come across a sex tape of Hank with two hookers. Before long, it's all over town, and everyone is talking about it, including the show's guests, much to Hank's chagrin.

Other classic moments include when Larry tries to determine if Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian and ends up sleeping with her, the "Hankerciser 200" (see here and here), and the Sharon Stone episode.

Unfortunately, this set has a few misses to go along with the hits. First, from what I've seen of the extras, which is admittedly not too much, a tightly-wound Garry Shandling has some real problems which I believe require some heavy-duty psychiatric intervention. He's clearly not come to grips with his work almost ten years after the fact, and so he goes and speaks to some of the show's guest stars like Alec Baldwin, DeGeneres and Stone. Much navelgazing psychobabble ensues - in other words, the "not just the best of" part. This isn't totally surprising given the painful advance press that Shandling did for the release of the set (see here and here for examples). Also, towards the end of the episodes, things veer towards "dramedy" as the gang faces the fact that Jon Stewart is about to be tapped by the network for Larry's timeslot, forcing the show off the air. Overall, though, in my opinion, this show is funnier than current must-see "The Office", and I've heard that there are a lot of other sitcoms on the tube right now which I don't watch that borrow quite liberally from the groundbreaking "Sanders".

This set is well worth the $55 despite Shandling's neurotic wanking, and for this viewer, "Sanders" is right up there with "Seinfeld" as probably the two best-written and well-acted comedies of all time.

Overall rating: 9/10