The Larry Sanders Show: A Twist to 'Reality TV'

There are a handful of places in the world where war is nearly a constant. From the 1990's to current time these places include Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East; most notably Iraq. There is one place in America where there is a constant war; the 11:30pm (PST) time slot, and the top prize isn't power or a new political system; it's ratings and revenue. Nations in the form of networks send out their generals in the shape of late night talk show hosts into a fierce battle for ratings. The stakes are high, the risk is millions of dollars and the bloodshed and casualties far outnumber the victors.

It is this bizarre combat that Gary Shandling was involved in as he was a general himself for a few years when he acted as a frequent guest host of "The Tonight Show." Shandling was able to take his experiences in this skirmish and apply them to an original show that he created for HBO.

During its time on the air "The Larry Sanders Show" picked up a slew of Emmy and CableACE Awards along with the acclaim of television critics and entertainment insiders across America. What most people, especially those in the industry, point out is the high amount of realism in each episode. HBO took after non-genre realist film by never anchoring a camera; every shot is hand-held with a Steadicam. This allows the camera to drift a little bit and actually gives a viewer the feel of being an invisible person within the scene. Even the lighting is very realistic due to what the sets are; which are usually in offices or on stage which calls for straight fluorescent lights or a full lighting grid. Of course the interactions between the different people working on the show and how the show comes together also has remarkable accuracy. Rather than observe these factors, what I am going to focus on is the ongoing story lines and how they play off of actual events throughout the history of "the late night talk show wars."

Being a fictional show in a real world, "The Larry Sanders Show," which was created by and stars comic Garry Shandling, has the luxury of taking real behind-the-scenes events from late night talk shows and applying it to their show. For example, when Johnny Carson was hosting "The Tonight Show" for his 25th - 28th years his rating started slipping. NBC was quick to panic due to the amount of money they had invested in late night television programming. Though they were never able to act on it, NBC's two top executives, Warren Littlefield, the President of NBC Entertainment, and John Agoglia, came to realize that they may not be able to wait for Carson to retire; they would have to "force him into retirement" and replace him. This was not the way a veteran and a staple in the network's lineup should be treated. For Larry Sanders it was his ninth season when his ratings started to drop, and it was at this time that the network executives assigned a creative consultant to improve the show. Larry's show was no longer his own and due to his slipping ratings, he was forced to go along with the changes or else risk not having his contract renewed. In both instances the host of the show was undermined and under appreciated by the network executives to the point where they felt uncomfortable working on a show that they themselves defined.

In another instance David Letterman owns his show and the show that follows his on CBS. When Letterman was creating his "Late, Late Show" to follow his "Late Show" he went through a number of known television personalities who could possibly serve as the host before he finally decided to pick Tom Snyder. Snyder had recently ended a short stint as a talk show host on the young cable network CNBC. Acquiescently, when Larry Sanders was going through his list of possible hosts for the show to follow his, which he also owned, he settled on none other than Tom Snyder.

This brings us to the much hyped, and rightfully so, "back-up quarterback" or permanent guest host. If the host is sick, on vacation, or otherwise on unavailable this is the one person who will fill in for the host. Frequently, another job of the permanent guest host is to get comfortable and prepare himself to take over for the host when there is a vacancy. When Carson's ratings were starting to slip NBC named Jay Leno the permanent guest host. Likewise, when Shandling's ratings were slipping Jon Stewart was named to that position. In both cases the permanent guest host was secretly being groomed by the respective networks and their executives to take over for the current hosts.

Here's where it gets really interesting:

In real life when Tom Snyder retired from "The Late, Late Show" that job was offered to Jon Stewart. Stewart turned it down and it was then offered to host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Craig Kilborne. When Kilborne left "The Daily Show" to host "The Late, Late Show" Jon Stewart replaced him. Also, as a fore mentioned, in the 1980's Garry Shandling (who plays Larry Sanders) was a frequent guest host for Johnny Carson.

Carson and Shandling both suspected and saw their permanent guest hosts as their likely successors, and they both knew that their work wasn't being appreciated. In order to get the last laugh Carson publicly announced at a correspondent's dinner that he would be retiring a year from that date. He hadn't told anyone on the show or within the network about his plans. When Sanders decided to step down he announced live on tape at the end of one of his shows that he would not pursue a contract extension. Again, Sanders told everyone at the same time, no one had any advanced warning. Both men, in one grand action shifted the power from the networks that were getting careless about taking care of their talent, back to them.

According to the book and movie based on Letterman's move to CBS (which, interestingly enough, HBO also produced), "The Late Shift," Carson's announcement led President of NBC Productions John Agoglia to say, "I'm standing in front of all of our advertisers and the press and my ass is hanging out." It was evident that Carson was again the one in control as he selected the date of his final show rather than even attempting to come up with an idea in agreement with the network. Concerning Larry Sanders, it came down to his contract not being renewed, but it ended up being Larry Sanders who decided not to pursue a contract extension, because he would rather have his show run the way he wanted it to. He ended the show on his own terms. On an interesting side note, the final hour-long presentation of HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show" started with the last ever closing of Jack Paar's version of "The Tonight Show," which Sanders modeled his final good-bye after.

When it comes to agents, things didn't initially work out too good for the hosts in question. At the same time it was the lack of an agent that hurt Letterman and Shandling. Both hosts were against having an agent until it was really too late for either of them to get what they wanted. It was Jay Leno's agent that ended up beating Letterman out in the race to take over for Carson on one of the most respected television shows in history. Eventually it was Letterman's hiring of super agent Mike Ovitz that landed him at CBS. Of course Letterman only hired Ovitz after NBC gave the job to Leno. After being put in a bind by the network over his contract Shandling finally hired agent Stevie Grant. Unfortunately for Shandling, after Grant saw how the network was grooming Jon Stewart to take over, Grant also signed on with him. The agent-less Letterman lost his dream job to Leno who had an agent much as the (mostly) agent-less Shandling lost his job to Jon Stewart and his agent.

Of course not all of the similarities begin and end with contract negotiations and the toying of network executives; some of the stories that blur the line between reality and fiction also take place in front of the camera. After Letterman moved to CBS, he beat Leno in the ratings contest for 92 consecutive weeks. Then one event happened and that shifted the trend towards Leno for the next several years. That event was when Leno had English heartthrob Hugh Grant on his show shortly after he was caught with prostitute Divine Brown in a parked car. Occasionally, television relies on one simple equation; Sex + Controversy = Ratings! The Larry Sanders version includes Ellen DeGeneres. At the time of this interview the world had just recently found out that the sitcom star, DeGeneres, was gay. It was also very up-in-the-air and of high debate as to whether or not her sitcom character would be coming out of the closet in the upcoming season. The only difference was that the Larry Sanders version ended with his attempt going down in flames.

When people look at the great dialogue and humorous conversations between different members of the staff and the guests, they are only looking at part of the reality of the show. Yes, it does encompass lights, camera, and script, but it also uses history.