Garry Shandling Interview Part 1 of 2 - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

hi my name is John Dalton it is June 9 2011 I'm here with Garry Shandling to do the interview for the archive of American television in Los Angeles California then we never see him again right Gary the first thing I'd like to do today how you're starting yeah Wow is to take a few minutes they don't know that right before but you started rolling I said just be yourself and then I'll let you get one word out like a what that's how you're going to be that's your choice for my my very special what is it that I'm doing that's the choice for everybody that's what we do with everybody well it makes me feel special we're going to take a few minutes just to get some information about your early years and influences sure what was your name it for it well I don't know exactly what you mean because no one called me by my name at birth what was on your birth certificate Oh only Donald Trump knows what's on my birth certificate it says Gary two R's Emmanuel Shandling and then under sex it says C long-form where were you born well again that's personal unless you mean the city or something the city of your bra Tucson Tucson Arizona did you grow up in Tucson grew up in Tucson I went to the University of Arizona and then moved when I was in 22 23 something like that it was your father's name Irving Shandling and what did he do for work printer owned a big my dad owned a big printing company lithography company he had like three presses and he did all the books for the University of Arizona and and things like that sort of a noted a printer within the printing industry which is eventually going to be obsolete I suppose but he's passed away so he's not missing anything what is your mother's name my mother's name was Muriel and the same last name and what did she do she owned a pet shop and she had her name my mother was a little um special a little loopy and she had her name above the pet shop so it was the animal ferret pet shop in a strip mall in Tucson but it said Muriel Shandling's animal fair like the name above the title of the movie if you're a big star and you don't you know if you think about it you normally don't see the person's name who's the owner above the name of the store you're going into except for Ralph's were they funny which but your parents your mom oh my mom was humorous in a way that was unintended and my father had a kind of a dry wit but not overtly funny really were there other traits that you inherited from them that you can recognize ah a concern for no reason I would say inherited that trait a kind of desperate concern for what others might think but I think that I've worked at stopping that cycle this this go around with some self-awareness hopefully what do you think I think God that seems to be working so far yeah right how did you have siblings I had a brother who died when I was 10 he was 13 he had cystic fibrosis which is a lung disease so while I was born in Chicago we moved to Tucson because it was a dry climate dry heat unlike the Miami Heat I always thought the Phoenix team should have been called the dry heat but they chose the Suns I guess what did you want to be when you grew up at that time well you know looking back on it it always fascinates me to be honest it fascinates too too unimportant a word I find it even bigger than that but it seems like as a young boy of 12 or something I would say I want to be a veterinarian or a comedian and that makes no sense growing up in Tucson Arizona nothing of showbusiness around me no you know I wasn't in theater wasn't in the arts but I listened to comedians and I really didn't think that I could be a comedian it really wasn't that wasn't a reality I find it interesting that I said that perhaps the subconscious does know more as my analyst says but what does he know who knows what he's really thinking what activities interested you when you were growing up uh well we were just joking about this because of Twitter is it I actually was a kind of I would say half nerd because I also played baseball and all the sports and football and basketball and things like that but then I had a ham radio set when I was 13 and I would sit in my room and talk to people all around the world so I think I was just ahead of my time because that's what Twitter basically is and so I find it comfortable to sit there and I use it mostly like the ham radio set think you were 13 when you started ham radio yeah so it gave me a great sense of geography in space and made me question early what the relationships were with people all over the world there was a sense of oneness there because I would talk to them every day but I don't find that in interviews kidding kidding what what were your favorite TV shows when you were growing up oh I don't know if X for sure recall I remember sort of being wanting to stay up late to watch Steve Allen a Jack Parr and all those sort of groundbreaking early talk shows otherwise sports I don't know probably some sitcoms that were around they don't leave me with a sort of staggering memory I would I would say the the for some reason I was aware as I find all comedians that I know say the same thing I was somehow aware of comedians and would get their albums like George Carlin and I saw Woody Allen the first time which will probably work our way around too in this and I would watch The Tonight Show or head Sullivan or something and see comedians and I was fascinated with it in a way that I was sort of unaware of because I was shy as most actually are and one day in about 8th grade 7th or 8th or 9th grade I got up in front of class and did a Mel Brooks piece from one of his albums and to me it's still astonishing that I would do that I wouldn't do that now I couldn't go to a seventh grade class now and perform for fear still that I would get beaten up after the class did you find that you were sort of more interested in what Jack Paar was doing or what George Carlin was doing were you more interested in the hosting aspect or sort of the stand-up comedy aspect that's a great question because it gets into the acting part versus the sense of self and where you're coming from in your own observations and feelings and I would say I probably didn't have that sorted out then comedy in general was an interest and you know I would actually say as I'm hearing me say that which happens frequently I Sam almost the same today while I can have a masterful masterful hand in a script and sometimes an awful hand in a script I also can just write a joke and while I have a good sense of story I can sometimes I could host a and did guess those the The Tonight Show so I think that that sort of dichotomy of point of view has always existed within me I'm seeing this interview from both perspectives sorry sorry you have to go through this so if Carr was interviewing a politician maybe you weren't as interested as you were he was interviewing Bill Cosby that's probably right and in hindsight there you know I still get these old DVDs from wherever they're available and I look at par and still the amazing thing about par is when he is talking to Castro for one thing and he's Jack Paar I it's really astonishing because he's not sliding into just being an interviewer there was a guy who possessed both an awkward sense of a comedic character and an interviewer what an interesting thing he had going really very subtle some people wouldn't maybe notice it I agree uh-huh what uh would you study in college well I was an electrical engineering major seriously for three years and one day I walked out of the lab I was working in this engineering lab designing circuitry and I walked out to get some water and I couldn't walk back in I just literally like in a movie just couldn't I just didn't want to do that it sort of been a and that has been a sort of model of what I have felt every time I've changed directions in my career as I've moved along as you're thinking that did you have an idea of what you did want to do well I'll tell you I'll tell you what happened I am I didn't mean to overlap I got genuinely excited to tell you is a so at 19 I had three years of engineering under my belt which included introduction to atomic physics and 21 units of math and a lot of work yeah I mean it was a struggle to maintain a C average and that's my cell phone ringing because you probably won't edit that out and probably years from now people won't know what that is that's why I want to explained it that's it we appreciate that that you get cancer from yeah which by the way being a ham radio operator and an engineering major I can assure you that radio waves going through your head cause problems we were always told to stay clear of RF energy so when I see these news stories about cell phones and whether they cause cancer I'm not saying they cause cancer I'm saying 30 years ago in college I said stay away from RF energy and sugar in fat so there I was unable to walk back into that class and I thought I can't do this the rest of my life and I went home I lived with my parents and I went into my bedroom and I don't know what happened but I sat down and I actually thought what am I going to do okay and I really had no guidance and I hadn't read any really books about it so there I was thinking about it and it struck me that well I like comedy and I had that point high school and so forth through high school I used to write funny essays and they I would read them in class or that I would it was clear that I could write to some degree so I thought this is what I like to do and I seem to be able to learn I didn't think that I had any specific talent or I didn't think that I had any gift or that I automatically could do something but I thought I could learn I had the ability to learn I was a good student and I thought what if I took that ability and applied it to something I liked which of course that you read about that's what you're supposed to do so I just got lucky and I had the nerve to then say okay I'm going to check this comedy thing out and apply myself the way I did with my engineering background which teaches you such discipline which is what I always try and impart to impart on a young comedian starting the discipline is really beyond comprehend or engineering background help I think the engineering path one spent working on it yato I mean you couldn't take a minute out to have fun and then pass that exam I mean I took one examiner in a math class taught by a MIT professor where the average score was ten out of a hundred the average score was ten out of a hundred I got twelve I thought good that's it they were grading on a curve I thought good I got a C and he came in and he said I'm failing everybody and you just had to it was just working on those equations sure it prepares you for that script can be better I think it doesn't add up on this side there's no getting around it and then I worked with Al Jean who's a writer he worked on my first show and then he worked on The Simpsons runs The Simpsons I think basically and he was a math major at Harvard and so we talked about how kind of a certain knowledge of math can help understanding some formulas of comedy and I think probably Stephen Hawking has a great sense of humor when you can get him loosened up and so when you decided to try your hand at comedy is that what made you move to LA so uh so somehow again looking back I I don't understand it myself because I I see myself as shy but I sat down once I switch to the business college at the University of Arizona I found it so easy that I had free time even in class so I started to write monologues like I wanted to test myself and I wrote a George Carlin cup whew George Carlin type monologues around 70 right when he was going through this new phase of what he was doing and I work up the nerve to drive up to a club in Phoenix where he was playing and I'd never been in one of those clubs or anything that oh they didn't exist there were no comedy clubs and I managed to find him in the in the club and asked him if he would read my material and he said well and he was really nice he said I I write my own material and I said I I assumed which I did and I said but there's nobody to give me feedback buddy I remember I had a writing professor because I went to graduate school in the writing program and the professor said Gary I really don't know how to compare this to you know it's very specific and I remember giving him a Woody Allen maybe without feathers maybe was getting even so Carlin said I'll read your stuff come back tomorrow night I went back to the club the next night and he took me backstage and there was my material on it on his table he said I looked at everything we sat like you and I are now he said I looked at everything you're very green but I think you're funny I think there's something funny on every page and I think you should pursue it if you're if you're thinking of pursuing it I think you should and that's what gave me the kick to move to LA because he was very since here and I was not the as I say the confident arrogant type that thought oh man I think I'm funny I mean I still think there's a very fine line in that confidence if arrogance why did did you keep up with Carlin over the years or did you lose touch and then did he remember having dealt with you early on er no the the humorous part probably is is it that happened him probably in every club in hindsight that some kid came up to him however I think he got an American Comedy Award which was a thing that was happening about ten or twelve years ago and they asked me to present it to him because everybody in his group there knew that story even though I hadn't really kept up with George which is something I regret and I told that story and he got up and I was able to give him this comedy award after saying what he meant to me and the first thing he said is he said to the audience I'm sorry for encouraging Gary it's my fault I'm sorry and if he got such a big laugh and then when he died which is as we sit here it's about two years ago I become very good friends with his daughter and her husband and that's a great relationship and that connection has in the long run been a great relationship more with his family now than when George was here because he was also a removed guy and existed completely there there is a gifted prolific man there's a guy who's done I don't know how many HBO specials and his last one was brilliant his last one was brilliant and yeah there's a couple of them that are pure genius I remember being in this house laughing my ass off by myself and growing I mean that's a guy who changed his style change his style and a good example of changing your style and growing and my story about him helping me reflects the kind of upon him the kind of man he was so getting back to the 70s oh when did you start writing for sitcoms well I am I graduated from the University of Arizona ah I had a football scholarship actually and I moved out to LA not knowing anybody I mean I had no connection no anything I was scared to death and naive as hell and I went to some comedy writing class and there was a kid there that his father was a writer and we wrote a script together and somebody saw that and then I wrote a script by myself and somebody saw that who worked on Sanford and Santa Sun and said try writing aspects Sanford and Son and I wrote wrote it and sent it to this guy so I had a direct connection now and I would have been 25 maybe and he called me up and he said you know it's not good enough for me to give to the producers of the show this isn't up to the level of your other spec scripts that I've read and all my writer friends said don't rewrite it they'll never look at it again and I asked him what was wrong with it would you give me the notes Ted Bergman who deserves more credit than I could ever pay him for for helping me as a writer sat down with me and gave me the notes on that script and I rewrote it and sent it back to him and he called me up he said this is the best outside script we've seen and then I met with the producers and pitch stories and I wrote ended up writing three three that they shot and while I was there I walked across the hallway to Welcome Back Kotter and said hey I'm writing on Sanford and Son would you read this spec Kotter and there was this kid kid to me now 25 and they read that and they said this is great you should write a Welcome Back Kotter and I didn't have an agent and somebody gave me the name of an agent and Norman Kurland who's a kind of a renowned agent television agent and he didn't know who I was and I said well I'm a I'm a new writer and he said aha and he was clearly bored on the phone he said what did what have you written I said well three Sanford and sons and a Welcome Back Kotter and he said well have you gotten them submitted I said no they they shot them he said wait I don't understand you're saying what are you saying I saying that he I submitted them and they bought them and they shot them and his intact own it was like a like a man coming alive hearing some gigantic like financial offers I think for the that he had won something he said you're saying that you you actually you've written three Sanford and sons in a Welcome Back Kotter and they've shot them and you don't have an agent can you be in here at noon I was surprised he didn't just pop up right then and there like one of those commercials you know Anna and I went in and he just had me set up for meetings all over town and that that began my writing career do you remember anything about that first Sanford and Son script and what it was about and when you first saw it air and is there any memory of that being exciting for you or uh yeah uh you know it's it's very odd and that would have been in the top ten show at the time it might have been a top five show at the time so it was weird because uh I mean I didn't watch those a lot of those sitcoms so I had to watch it to write it and I couldn't get a clear perspective when I saw my name come up written by Garry Shandling because I had just been in Tucson two years ago and then about half of it was maybe rewritten which is a really good percentage I mean usually a script is rewritten did it bother you at all at the time that you got rewritten no somehow uh no because I never had an attitude about that stuff I was more happy when I saw stuff that I had written and usually the story would be intact and some of the lot of the jokes and I mean really speaking now we or I would rewrite a script that comes in a lot it's very rare when somebody from outside gets it close and close enough to say hey we'd like you to write another one and so that was more my my signal that I was doing the job it's also where I learned what the job really entailed because the producers of that show they were reading my second script that I submitted and giving me notes and they said you know the ending isn't right and I said but I said but you know other than the ending is there a lot of stuff which now do we stop or do we stop now is this is this on but III was saying that so I turned in this first the second script and they said well the ending isn't right and I said but but other than that I remember looking at them I said but other than that I remembered the feeling everything I mean that was there's some good stuff in there and they said yes but that's your job and I have always taken that with me so you know when I'm in the position to being the boss and a guy turns in a script or a writer turns in a script and because there's no ending and they go well but what about the rest I mean some great stuff in here but we got to get the end so it's sometimes a people can fall into a bad habit of thinking odd the staff will rewrite it and find what needs to be found when like an engineering major you've got to really solve the problem so it was three Sanford and sons and one welcome back kotter as I write yeah and then you did harvey korman then I got then I got job offers to write shows so then I got job offers right shows and then I was writing scripts and then they wanted me to write a pilot script and I started writing a pilot and I became a young hot writer sexually and then I got bored the same way I did in that engineering class I kind of froze and I looked at when the assignments were due and I called up my age and I said I don't think I can do this it was exactly the same turn is not walking back into the lab and I said I gone onstage once at the Comedy Store in Amateur Night and maybe got three laughs but it was enough to hook me and it also made me realize I didn't any idea what I was doing on stage and it would be of if I didn't start now to learn I had never learned so I was about 27 and I just said to my writing agent I can't I can't I can't do that I can't do this and he said what do you I mean do you think you can make it as a comic I said I don't know but if I don't try now I won't know I got shifted me into stand-up and you were in a a pretty bad car accident yeah right about that time I had a car a bad car accident here in LA was really critically hurt and had kind of a death experience that I don't like to talk about except on bigger shows than this I understand yeah even though this is like a memorial kind of thing we're doing like a time capsule graveyard speaking to thing do you think that I'm used would you say the accident made you going to stand up yeah I think we their life be different without the accident I wouldn't have a scar that goes from here to there and then from here to there but yeah the accident gave me some actual insight into life and its impermanence and that there is something else to it than what meets the eye that was my actual experience and so I realized I best try to figure out who I authentically was and that I could do that through stand-up and that's what attracted you to stand up that's what attracted me to stand up is I can't do this because for some reason I don't know quite who I am and I have to find out so it was a parallel path it was a true life path and then the professional path really was secondary do you remember your first time doing stand-up on television oh no because I did a lot of shows I mean not to diminish them but what I remember vividly which is everybody's I mean everybody says the same thing is your first Tonight Show and and I it just is different than all the other TV shows at the time so all the early ones sort of blend in all the early ones blend in to pre tonight's show right and even though I mean if I broke them down they're all special in the wrong way but the big change is I always thought they were preparation for the Tonight Show or preparation for continued growth and my first Tonight Show well how were you discovered first do you remember yeah you know I'll tell you the interesting thing about that is that so the talent Booker for the Tonight Show Jim McCauley was in the back of the Comedy Store watching and I had this great set at The Comedy Store to the degree that he actually came up to me and said that was so good that I have to come back to make sure it wasn't a fluke I'll never forget that and he said I'll come back next Tuesday and he came back the next week and you know those things I say are in the hands of God because it's the crowd at you it's like an athlete playing a game you know what you're going to have that day what the and it just connected again and he said how's next Tuesday for the Tonight Show and you know that's sort of in hindsight everything I don't I don't know that I had a goal beyond that professionally to be honest what was your act at that time that the guy from The Tonight Show was watching what was that style what we what kind of humor were you doing I had just myself broken into a more personal style talking about my girlfriend just broke up with me because she moved in with another guy and I said that's where I draw the line and I dumped her because I don't I don't even know guy around the house and that came out of a real breakup and then I went on and I talked about my father and my parents and camping and my some actual experiences with the jokes that I write off of those that are very organic and that first Tonight Show landed just like it did in the club and what do you remember about that night I think everything I think everything and that night did you just do the stand-up act or did you get interviewed by Johnny Carson oh just the stand-up act I remember being upset later like my fifth or sixth time that Johnny still hadn't asked me over to the desk and by the time he did ask me over to the desk I was within weeks of them saying do you want a guest host and I remember being gassed over to the ED to the desk and Carrie Fisher had preceded me and was talking about her parents Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher at that at the time and I sat down and I said Johnny maybe you know my parents Irvin Muriel Shandling and that made him laugh real hard I thought that's where he decided he'd give him a shot because it was very organic how was it working with Johnny you know as everybody says it's it's great I mean it's great I mean you want to do well for him he wants you to do well you used to have to step up your game to be present with him and he isn't going to take a swipe at you and a wink of the eye really did mean you're on course yeah what do you remember about the first night that you guest-hosted The Tonight Show I'd never have been on I've never hosted anything on TV at least Letterman who had done it was the last new guy to do it before me at least he'd been a weather in Indiana I had never really been on TV never hosted anything and I said I I wrote in my journal well your only chance is to be at one with the Tonight Show I mean it wasn't like I could force anything so I better be at one which is a Zen approach organic organic and I did my preparation then I dropped it and I'm sitting behind the desk and then I realize my first guest is Joan Embry from the San Diego Zoo who brings on an elephant into the middle of the stage and I'm just holding on to that desk like you know I'm at sea and this is my life raft at least I've got this that's solid and now I have to walk into this big empty space and I walk over and I realized the elephant was here and Joan Ambria from the San Diego Zoo is they on the other side of the elephant and um she was making it do tricks and I was shouting across the elephant and you can still see it on tape like I shout for about a minute and a half before I realize I'm on the wrong side of the elephant and I just make some move to get on the other side and then I'd written some jokes and then I was I'm a good I'm a good ad-libber I'm good on my feet so to say there I was on my feet and I said well John what tips do you have for you know other elephants that might be watching who want to get into show business and how come only big animal stampede you ever see a bunch of squirrels running it like it's big big animals only go hey everybody let's go together so so what I'm getting is uh on some level hosting can't really be learned you can either do it or not would ya I think that's not true yeah I mean you can always improve right um would you say that in those in those first few weeks of guest hosting was there anything that you did learn as you know as it went on they had one talk with me the producers did about I had a friend on Martin Mull at the time and they said you got you started to talk to inside with Martin just remember you're still on TV that's the one note I actually remember otherwise to be honest I remember pierless Ali who's still with us God love him and he's a fantastic man said to me I don't understand how you do this you haven't hosted anything right I said right he said I don't understand how you do this and I understand what he's talking about what in your opinion when you're watching TV makes a good talk show of Oh a completely organic a person who's not selling anything but listening and talking and is only funny in context of the conversation who do you think now is particularly good I think Jimmy Fallon is on his way to something really big interesting I mean we can go through all the others but as the art goes I think he's on to something big I want to talk a little bit about your first Showtime special in 1984 it was called alone in Vegas yeah I found a quote from you at the time which was Michael isn't to not do anything that isn't true to what I am I spent years shedding any artificial technique the Gehry you see on stage is the same as in the living room I'm not out to become a show business personality what made you sort of arrive at that so well Leon in your career yeah I think you go back to the Ottawa accident and when I said I experienced what life was about I knew there was something more important and I still say today I think I'm just barely professional you know because a you know I haven't jumped on anything that has a big mass appeal really it's interesting to hear that quote then it sounds a little self-conscious but you know a man who's struggling to be free do you remember anything specifically about that first alone in Vegas special or what you were trying to accomplish there well I mean there was the stand up which nobody had really seen for any like the time so that was a very broad 25 minutes to stand up very broad Vegas you know strong me really Delta get away that some people have never seen me like that but then also I the other half was the technique where I talked to the Cameron took the audience with me and to me that was the interesting part of starting to explore something deeper about the medium and playing with it a bit and ultimately led really to my first series where I talked to the camera which is which is not unique Woody Allen did it in his movies and I was certainly influenced by that and I was not influenced by George Burns who was before me because I was too young to remember his show but in hindsight he talked to the camera and Jackman he may have it during his stories during his sitcom I don't quite remember but that had been dropped in the in the day what what is it about sort of the deconstruction of these jobbies things that fascinates you so much well I think it has to do with my interest in deconstructing life you know and the idea that life and death are two sides of the same coin and I wrote something about the Dalai Lama told me that life and death are two sides of the same coin and I said just put it in the meter man you always on but I think it's a deconstructing life I think exploring life and what it's about and you know you can't walk around in life constantly deconstructing it but you can on TV because it's step away from life who's where I wonder alright London's a god and his hmm I think Roy London taught me everything about art and organic acting being writing more than I ever learned from anybody acting teacher unspeakable how how much insight he had how many people he helped really understood the core of what human beings deal with and cover and struggle with in their life is there a way you can sort of sum up his philosophy before he died he said it's all about love he said every choice comes from one from trying to connect with love that's what he said in his dying breaths in class he said can you bring your vision of life and what you want life to be in the world to be into your work even as an actor in other words much bigger than what the dialog would be do you have the courage to discover something new about yourself while the cameras rolling and absorb what that really means how willing are you to in that scene actually discover something new about yourself that would normally be in private and that's what great actors do I think I can't say how well or not I do that it's something I just try my best at was it was it one didn't that kind of piqued your interest in acting versus stand-up comedy yeah yeah yeah he's a genius yeah you know that's the mentor that is the mentor who says you've got something in there that and with each person he could see the essence he said you must bring that essence and that's not stuff you brought up with you're supposed to fit into society you're supposed to do this act this way be this way you know do you have the courage to be just the opposite of that maybe a lot of the interesting deconstruction came from studying with him on some level why he really you know he worked on every script of its Garry Shandling show which was not necessarily a deep show but we worked on deeper themes as an actor in it I was playing much different things and was in the script and every week we'd work so he'd have this talk with me every week and he would deconstruct what's happening there and how that applies to your personal life and what are you bringing personally when you're saying that line you're not really saying we can jump to Sanders but he also helped me with the first two years you're not really saying - Hank you're an idiot you're saying you love him you're desperately trying to tell him you love him you idiots so it doesn't come out like you idiot like yeah like a mean guy saying you idiot if there is something else going on there because I'm trying to get him to understand that I love it let's say that's Roy London so before we get to it's Garry Shandling show let's just touch a little bit on the Garry Shandling show 25th anniversary special what why did you choose that specific format you know I had done one special for show time and they said come in and pitch another one we're going back to like the Sanford and Son style of what what patterns replicated themselves in my life and it was pitching and honestly I had all these ideas for specials that I don't remember now and I was in the bathroom and the in the building or Showtime was and I thought why not do an artificial 25th anniversary special and I think that would have been before anybody I think Letterman has played with time and gone back and I don't think it was um from that at all or I'd be happy to say I was influenced by that it just struck me and I see in hindsight how these pieces of the puzzle fit together because there's a guy who's pretending like he hosted a talk show for 25 years and I thought I know I can pull that off and make it look real and that would be fun to write really funny sketches about things that failed as you look at the highlights I don't know it just happened I mean the idea just came out of the blue in the bathroom we're not very many good ideas come on yep in many ways it was sort of a parody of the tonight shows you know anniversary specials and yet you got Carson to do a cameo yeah have any memories of that of filming that with him it's a you know I don't look back enough you would think I that's all I do I think this is what people think is all I did is sit around and look back so you're making me think about it for really the first time in a week well if you watch it now I I watched it a few weeks ago again what point did I think you got to remember that Johnny just wouldn't never did anybody else's anything so the fact that he said I'll do something meant I like this guy it meant he respected the the talent I mean I could barely fit that together I mean if I thought about it too much I would it wouldn't be what I do but I mean I was gigantically grateful because he didn't he didn't do it it make you really and really mean something I think I tend to do things that actually mean something to me which becomes both limiting and then limiting so just before it's Garry Shandling show Joan Rivers left the the spot as permanent guest host on The Tonight Show is that something you were interested in going after at all well I'd hosted Tonight Show maybe I just don't even know 15 times or something probably but oh and a week at a time right and I was exhausted after every one of those weeks and then like the engineering class like the Sanford and Son scripts I went do I want to do this the rest of my life which is by the way a great job and the guys who can do it every night are have a gift I thought I would get bored eventually because I wouldn't be able to explore my acting and my writing probably some fear of success but you know I would break it down to you know 30 30 30 and whatever that last 10% is you can you can call it out so I was asked to alternate with Jay Leno to be the guest host on Monday nights or whatever it was but I had already started it's Garry Shandling show so I ran the show so I couldn't run the show write the scripts rehearse and then on Monday night go in I'm not that guy who could then go and give a hundred percent on The Tonight Show let alone if I was going to do it every Monday night or every other Monday night and I had to call Johnny on the phone and said I can't do it and he just gone through the Joan Rivers thing where she didn't call him to say I'm leaving to do my own show so when I called Johnny I said it's Garry Shandling Johnny I have to I can't I can't host the show and he said here we go again and he was totally joking and you know III don't think of these things it's a I don't I don't you know yeah they're terrific moments in their own way for sure so obviously if you don't think about them necessarily you have no regrets about not doing that or not taking the letterman spot when he left for CBS I think I don't think about them because there's so many regrets I would be devastated I think I made a mistake seven feet let's let's get on to it's Garry Shandling show what we're about I wasn't about making another big mistake just one mistake after the other that's what it's gonna say on the tombstone another mistake uh which show did you ask about it's Garry Shandling show well I just couldn't do NBC was very interested in me doing a sitcom so I went in NBC and I said I'd like to do a sitcom where I play a comedian and I have a platonic girlfriend and it's just about my life and they said that no one's gonna watch that do you have to be a comedian and I said well I'm not going to refer to it like in an inside way it's just that I'll be relating to people in life and that's what I do for a living it's not going to be about me consumed with the witch club I'm working or anything and he said no could you be hardware salesman I remember this really well and I said I want to talk to the camera they said no no no no you can't talk to the camera can you talk to a dog and then it brought up a call my memories of writing sitcoms which I had already done so I didn't need to write another sitcom so Showtime said well you can do anything you want we'll we'd give you a series of anything you want no one knew what Showtime was no one knew what cable was but I heard the phrase you can do whatever you want and that's what I jump on so women should know that if they want to have a relationship with me that's the key so NBC sort I'll give them back and I will do them well I will do well by them they don't need to worry I'm a tougher critic than anybody that's a Silurian it was good that I never thought about this until now that's what's hilarious is that they're there they think they want something just the way they want it when in reality I'll give them exactly what they want if they just stay relatively clear because I'm the kind of guy that wants to do the his best so Showtime can you tell that to them for me it'll be on tape they can see it on my on the inter good this should be and then we'll cut it into other things so I did it showed isn't that a good observation Bruce yeah that's my buddy Bruce that's one of my best friends is really one of my very best friends who's happens have done my makeup today and you look great well we should thank Bruce thanks boys and that's actually and that's a guy who does my hair calling me that is not bringing in a second there goes that message says I don't know where I am that's what the message says I used to my favorite message phone message I have it and these are all becoming obsolete as people have different kinds of answering devices of course I got my parents to make one when they were visiting that said I'd answer that this is Gary's dad and my mom said this is Gary's mother and we both love him very very much leave him a message they'll call you back something like that it's good to have that validation on your answering machine yes last time I had like parents on any project well let's let's talk a little bit about show times so they allowed you to come on and basically do whatever you wanted and they never interfered that's right and I am my own toughest critic I remember getting a TV critics award and my opening no one hates me more than I do so you know ease up right I am a very tough critic on myself so I wasn't about to do something well I tried my absolute hardest not to do something cliche and bad and something new and different that would be that they wanted for cable so those two met at the right time same with Larry Sanders which we'll get to so so called cable television allowed me the opening the freedom to do what I want and I was lucky that they trusted because I'd done two specials for them and you know they talked to me as we are I can look you in the eye and say I'm going to do the best I can and I have a vision and then we'll go from there and I'm very open to notes and stuff like that there's sometimes you need to be reinterpreted but I know how to do that from experience a very experienced it was very experienced writer by the time I got to these shows all my shows I was the most experienced writer the stay on the staff right it's a very unique position how close was the Garry Shandling in that show to the person that you were that time I think they're all I I think it's an exaggeration I mean I was at the South by Southwest festival in Austin and they showed each show and said then and I took questions and someone said which which is closer to who you are Larry Sanders Garry Shandling and I said they're both stretches of a guy that's not exactly the guy you're seeing in front of you talking now and I guess that would be the best way to think of it is look at me now and look at the either of those shows it's just not exactly this variations on a theme sure I mean I'm playing different emotional lives and I'm I mean that show was just balls out funny I don't think we ever tried to make any deep meaningful life point the theme itself was the structure of the show which was breaking the conventions and breaking the fourth wall and talking to the studio audience and yeah and I mean there was some clever stuff we let the audience vote on where I should what I should do in the story so you know I think it changed things because you know it was like bringing it all out on all the conventions out and saying here's how it works usually by this point you marry the housekeeper so she can stay in the country do you guys think I should do it because I am not so quick to get married and they would vote and you know we had our tricks up our sleeve to go either way I don't remember you know a great integration of a talk show sitcom kind of thing mm-hmm talk a little bit about the theme song that theme song does the theme to Gary show this is the theme to get I remember Miami really I have the the complete point of view and concept of what that show was from the ground floor up what it represents what it is what it is about so when it came to the theme song I knew because I didn't I never do a project unless I know what the heart of it is about so then it's easy once you know the heart of it you go the theme song and I remember because I can't sing or anything I said no the theme song has to be something like this is the theme to the show this is the theme to the show this is the theme this is the theme this is the theme to this is the opening theme to the show and I didn't even know more I didn't even want to know more than that I said you follow me and Alan Zweibel jumped right on that and I think he wrote 90% of those words we wrote some together and he he took that lead and just went with it and then we had two different guys come in to sing it and one was goofier than the other and we played it for somebody and they said well you can't use that one because it's so goofy that's all we needed to hear so you uh you kind of you know had the theme song to this show that was a deconstruction of sitcoms just have it be a deconstruction of theme song yes yeah once you start to deconstruct you might as well go all sure we're going to take a break to change it okay good

Channel: FoundationINTERVIEWS

Views: 140,185

Keywords: Garry Shandling, Performer Writer, Garry Shandling Show, Larry Sanders Show

Id: mvwyLSwR51c

Length: 58min 39sec (3519 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 25 2016