The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

Garry Shandling: What's the date today?

- Is it April 1st? - All: The 30th.

- March 30th? - Woman: The 30th.

It is March 30th.

It is March 30th and I have just come-- and it's about 3:30.

I've just come from my series that I'm working on.

I've just been writing scripts.

We start shooting May-- the first week in May,

and so we haven't been out here

shooting anything about the house

because I've been working on scripts,

because that's how I make my fuckin' living.

- ( music playing ) - So the house

has been coming along

and they've already been doing the framing.

- Tom, how's it going? - Tom: Pretty good.

- You wanna say hello? - No.

- ( laughing ) How are you? - Fine. How are you, Garry?

Tom's doing all the framing.

- Mm-hmm. - It's going excellent.

You can tell from the frames

that are just around his sunglasses

what a good framer he is.

How we coming along? You have any suggestions?

Tom: Gettin' done what you want.

- That's all I care about. - OK.

You wanna discuss this kitchen in there?

The ceiling, what you want in there?

Yeah, I got decisions on that already.

And what you wanna do with the skylights.

- Yeah. - 'Cause they're telling me

put the skylights in.

You don't want any skylights.

OK, we'll take care of it today.

We're gonna get it done, aren't we?

- Seriously? - We're OK if we get

some answers today we should be--

We're gonna do all the answers today.

- Please. - Yeah.

- Murphy. - ( Murphy barks )

- Tom: Shake it. - There you go.

David Letterman, eat your heart out.

David Letterman: Garry, what were we talking about?

Can I ask you about your involvement in this show?

In, uh, ( stuttering ) in "Late Night"-- NBC?

- Oh, boy. - Letterman: Yeah.

Because it seems to me

when at first it seemed like I was going away,

Dana Carvey was gonna host the show--

- All hell broke loose. - Oh, yeah, that's right.

- I'm sorry. - ( laughter )

And, uh, Dana Carvey was gonna be the guy.

Now let me say that you said,

"Well, Mr. Big Shot passed on 12:30."

- Oh, no, no. - Which was very funny.

- Yeah, no, I said-- - But you're leaving.

- ( stuttering ) I said-- - Well, you're leaving

- the 12:30 spot. - That's right, yeah.

Conan O'Brien: When I was being considered

for the "Late Night Show"

and I was this long shot unknown in '93

the other name was Garry Shandling.

Letterman: Did they make you a big offer

- to take this job? - They made me an offer

that was-- it was gigantic.

- Yeah? - It was one-third of yours.

- No, no, no. - ( laughter )

That's funny. Thank you. All right.

All right, we're all enjoying a good laugh at my expense.

O'Brien: And I remember people reporting that

like that's just going to happen.

- ...how much? - I'm your biggest fan--

not your biggest fan.

There's probably some nut

who has posters of you up, but...

Me being told, in confidence,

"Look, it's not gonna be you.

It's gonna be Garry, but you did--

you had a great audition and this is gonna--

something good's gonna happen for you."

And I remember thinking at the time,

"I don't see Garry Shandling doing the same thing,

more or less, night after night after night."

But did you ever seriously consider

this all could now be yours.

Take a look around.

This studio full of fabulous prizes

could all be yours now.

Well, I like the clock.

Yeah, peel that off of there for him.

Can you-- can you just...

O'Brien: He was approaching comedy

- as an artist. - Letterman: Conan can get

his own clock.

And the people who

look at it as an art, as I think Garry did,

it's an artistic journey for them.

That's what makes them great,

but it also means they can't crank it out for all of eternity.

Shandling: I thought,

"Is there a way that I can learn

about myself and the world

and people and get down into that shit

and the essence of people's lives and how they cover it

on a talk show?

Or can I do it on a show

about a guy who hosts a talk show?"

And realized that it isn't about a guy

who hosts a talk show.

It's the ability to have that world

within which you could tell the story of human beings.

- Woman: Hank? - Hey now.

Look, I'd like to make sure

you have everything now before the show

'cause there won't be time

for you to go back to your dressing room.

Fine. Thank you. Thank you.

Make sure that they have

a pillow and Drambuie on the helicopter.

- Woman: Sure. OK. - Mm-hmm.

- Okay. - ( music playing )

It's like she's living in the seventies.

She's definitely gonna catch someone.

Someone. Something.

Shandling: Ah, you improvised

and it caused you some trouble!

- I'm so sorry! - Uh-huh!

- I was focused on-- - Knock yourself out.

Beverly: You want the door closed?

Larry: I'll tell you what.

Oh, leave it open.

- Oh. - Close it.

That's fine. Close it.

You want it open or closed?

- Closed. - I'm getting you some coffee.

- OK? - She is real.

- Man: Yeah. - ( music playing )

- Man: Oh, anytime? Oh, OK. - Shandling: Yup.

Man: Let's talk about

"The Larry Sanders Show." We're here on the set.

- It's beautiful. - So, actually,

I had an idea about five years ago

to do a show about a guy who hosts a late night show.

I always thought that would be fun to do

'cause I find the personality

of these guys really fascinating.

I mean, it's like-- this is how I think of it--

the only thing worse than being on TV every night

is wanting to be on TV every night.

- ( laughter ) - Hank: And now because

his Uncle Ray owns the place

Larry Sanders!

And C. Calling mark.

Shandling: I had made the mistake in my first series

"It's Garry Shandling's Show."

I got lazy because it's very hard work,

and I started to let the show

get out of my hands and it turned into a bit of a cartoon.

Larry, you might not recognize this little girl...

Shandling: That was what motivated me

to do "Larry Sanders," is I needed

to do a show where I could be allowed to explore reality...

Stand-up comics who think

they're fuckin' actors make me sick.

You're absolutely correct.

Shandling: ...and have that support system

and everyone understanding.

That's what we're doing here, everybody.

Are you in or you out?

- Man: Episode 209... - Larry: Is there any way

the sound guy can help me with the sound?

It feels a little weak.

All right, thanks for the help.

Man: Slating the off camera.

OK, so this is a talk show segment.

I'm gonna start and then stop

and then start again, but you'll understand

what I'm doing 'cause I'll explain it as we go.

My next-- well, we'll pretend we're right in the middle of the show.

Man: Just a second, I think we're slating some cameras.

- We all slated? - Man #2: I'm done.

- I'm slated. - Slated all around.

Larry: You guys should know we have

three video cameras and we have

four film cameras and we have actually

- two slide projectors. - ( laughter )

It's a very complicated show. I'm not kidding.

But Jesus, did you see the way Hank was all over Hefner?

Shandling: Some people mistakenly think

that's a dark show about people trying

to get what they want.

How in God's name can they not nominate

this man for an Emmy?

Shandling: No, it is a show about

people trying to get love

and that shit gets in the way.

It hurts, Hank.

- It really hurts. - Shh shh shh.

Shandling: We were there on that stage

in a really kind of experimental lab kind of way.