The Minor Marvel Actor Who Was Huge in Making WandaVision Possible

Last week saw the debut of WandaVision, Disney+’s first Marvel Studios/Marvel Cinematic Universe series. The project, which was formatted as a pair of sitcom episodes and saw The Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in surprisingly meta reinventions of their characters from the Avengers movies, may be Marvel’s most daring break with the norm since Guardians of the Galaxy. Deconstructing sitcom tropes while making constant callbacks to beloved TV classics has given WandaVision a voice that’s completely distinct among Marvel properties, which tend to be some of the very best formulaic action-adventure movies currently being made.

And of course, while it’s certainly daring in its way, WandaVision is at the same time part of a different type of formula — one that’s been proven out by years of clever and surprising projects like Community — where Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo worked — and even DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. One of the first, and arguably still one of the very best, of these fourth wall-breaking, boundary-pushing TV shows actually starred an actor who would go on to have a minor role in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

That would be Garry Shandling. Shandling, who played Senator Stern in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (you might remember him as the guy who famously whispered “Hail HYDRA” to Jasper Sitwell in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), appeared in a Showtime series in the ’80s called It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, and it isn’t hard to see some shared DNA between what Shandling created and the kind of wildly imaginative storytelling that informs things like WandaVision and Community.

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.

None of this is to take away from the boldness and creativity of WandaVision — or, for that matter, any of the shows name checked here or others that preceded or followed Shandling over the course of TV history — but it’s certainly fun to think about the important role that a Marvel actor played in helping to prepare audiences and networks for just this kind of meta approach to TV.

WandaVision debuts on Friday mornings on Disney+.