Garry Shandling Died Five Years Ago Today

Five years ago today, comedy legend and Marvel Cinematic Universe baddie Garry Shandling passed away at age 66. During his career, Shandling did stand-up, wrote a feature film (What Planet Are You From?), and created and starred in not one but two genre-defining TV series with It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show. Early in his career, he wrote for shows like Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter. He also served for a time as Johnny Carson’s permanent substitute on The Tonight Show — a job he surrendered to Jay Leno when It’s Garry Shandling’s Show was proving too demanding for the performer to do both.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shandling’s Senator Stern appeared in only a pair of movies — Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier — but his role was memorable. In the latter film, he was the one who memorably whispered “Hail Hydra” into Jasper Sitwell’s ear, a revelation that would change the course of the Marvel movies for years to come as well as a moment that would be memed to death on social media.

One of Shandling’s longtime friends and collaborators, Bill & Ted co-creator Ed Solomon, shared a story on Twitter today about a long-running joke that the two had between them. Solmon was one of a number of people interviewed in a 2018 documentary about Shandling’s life and work for HBO.

Earlier this year, we cited It’s Garry Shandling’s Show as one of the TV series most likely to have served as an influence on cultural acceptance of a high concept like WandaVision.

By the time It’s Garry Shandling’s Show debuted in 1986, the notion of breaking the fourth wall was far from unknown. George Burns used to do it on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, making it something with roots dug deep into the history of television. Shandling took it to another level entirely, though.

The series broke with the standard sitcom format by having some of its characters acknowledge that they were all part of a TV show, even incorporating behind-the-scenes elements like the crew, audience, and visible sets to sell jokes and even occasionally drive story. It also featured “theme” episodes, such as an episode-length tribute to The Graduate and another one where an actress played a contest winner who was a key player because she had won a walk-on role on the show.

The success of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show on Showtime — edited re-runs were also syndicated on FOX — helped to mainstream a lot of the crazier concepts in the show. It helped inspire The Simpsons and Curb Your Enthusiasm — writers on the show included Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure co-creator Ed Solomon, Al Jean and Sam Simon from The Simpsons, and Curb creator Larry David — as well as 40-Year-Old Virgin filmmaker Judd Apatow, whose long working relationship with Shandling was explored in the four-hour HBO documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. Through those shows and people, you could say Shandling has influenced nearly every off-kilter comedy of the last thirty years.

It’s easy enough to follow the thread of the fourth-wall-breaking, theme-episode-loaded It’s Garry Shandling’s Show to high-concept comedies like Community, which had specials like a paintball war, a claymation episode and an animated homage to G.I. Joe. Even then, some audience members found the series to be off-putting, but similar gimmicks on shows like DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — a couple even saw them “channel-surfing” between Legends versions of popular series, including The A Team, Charlie’s Angels, Friends, and Downton Abbey.

While It’s Garry Shandling’s Show is not available at a reasonable price point, you can watch its first season on Amazon Prime. The Larry Sanders Show, as well as the documentary film The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, which was directed by Judd Apatow, are available on HBO Max.