Comedian and actor Garry Shandling, creator of “The Larry Sanders Show” which lampooned late night interview show hosts from Johnny Carson to this day, died of a heart attack at age 66. His death, which was originally declared to have been of natural causes was later ruled as being the result of a heart attack.
Shandling was born to a Jewish family in 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. In 1977, following an auto accident in Beverly Hills that left him in critical condition with a crushed spleen, he was inspired to pursue a career in comedy. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1981 and later substituted for Carson on a regular basis until 1987, when Jay Leno became Carson’s permanent guest.
In 1985-1990, Shandling and co-writer Alan Zweibel created the comedy series It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which ran for 72 episodes, with Shandling and the other characters on the show breaking the fourth wall in a manner reminiscent of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
In 1992, Shandling created The Larry Sanders Show, which ran for 89 episodes until 1998 on HBO. The series, which shed a merciless light on the pettiness and cruelty of shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, won 56 Emmy Award nominations and three Emmys.
Shandling’s real persona famously resembled the Larry Sanders character in 1994, when, after splitting with his partner, actress and onetime Playboy model Linda Doucett, who played Darlene, Hank Kingsley’s assistant, Shandling kicked her off The Larry Sanders Show. Doucett filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. The case was settled out of court in 1997 for $1 million.
We dug up this one Jewish reference in Shandling’s material: “I may discuss love, and I don’t mind if two men fall in love, fine. Two women, fine. But I flinch when I think of two Jewish women getting together and having a child because the idea of having two Jewish mothers makes my head explode. I have one; I couldn’t handle two.”