the Larry Sanders Show

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https://twitter.com/DPD_/status/713217965555073024

is it ever specified what network the Larry Sanders Show is actually on? They reference other networks that the show is definitely *not* on (NBC, for example) multiple times, but I can't recall if they ever specified that they were on a fictional network or a cable network or ABC or what...

i would bet they didn't. it's the smart thing to do to just call it The Network.

I was just trying to work it out via process of elimination

all shows like that exist in a parallel universe

like the Harold & Kumar one where N.P. Harris is heterosexual

yeah, by process of elimination, it couldn't have been any non-cable network in the 90s

NBC ruled out due to being against Leno, Letterman and Conan
ABC ruled out due to being against Nightline
CBS ruled out also due to Letterman starting in the mid 90s (not to mention Tom Snyder)

Arsenio Hall's show was syndicated, and I can't remember which local network ran it when I was growing up. I recall jokes about FOX on the show (tho can't recall any off the top of my head -- so maybe Fox?). Best bet is that it would have to been some fictional non-cable broadcast network.

you both need a TV enema

been rewatching from the start and in one of the early episodes someone mentions going to work for cnbc which gets mocked by artie so i assume larry is on network tv.

that's what I thought too but then there was this S1 episode where Arthur was disparaging any show that wasn't on one of the big three networks as being not worth watching lol

idk it doesn't really matter, obviously the show has its cake and eats it too in this respect, all well and good I was just wondering

xp

xp non-cable network that is.

someone mentions going to work for cnbc which gets mocked by artie

yes this is what I was referring to! Hank claiming he's got an offer to do a show with Dick Cavett

right... i couldn't remember exactly who it was.

it's something like "my TV only gets three channels, like a normal person"

lol yes! he's like "cnbc... what is that?"

i still miss grodin's show

it's been awhile- was there ever a scenario dealing w/ other shows on the network that maybe alluded to say friction between snl and the tonight show (both w/ carson and leno) or letterman frustrations w/ cbs prime time tanking during the 90s? iirc though yeah, it was just 'a network', and it was understood to have been on for awhile. it wasn't like w/ 30 rock where they were actually on nbc.

I don't remember ever thinking there was a specific network that was home to the show, or that certain clues pointed in a particular direction. I recall a specific reference to the story recounted in The Late Shift about Leno hiding in the closet. I'll probably watch the box for the third time over the summer.

I don't know that the network was ever specified, but I'd always assumed the show basically took place in an alternate universe where there was one more big television network.

Norns OTM on this. It was always referred to as the network but every existing network and some cable were all dissed on the reg

Norms???? Autocorrected from Morbs

I'm from the UK....what was Grodin's show like?

I love Grodin

it was a format closer to tom snyder or costas' later, generally a one on one conversation, no studio audience, only odd cuz of grodin. i just miss that format in general, costas would have one guest for an entire week.

lol Hank rehearsing his lounge act in the studio with Doc and Tommy late of the Carson show... and wearing tap shoes around the office. Opens with "Spinning Wheel." Artie: "You don't open with a showstopper, Hank."

lol

man I gotta watch all these again

also extremely young Bob Odenkirk as the hotshot snaky agent for whom Larry tosses aside his oldtimer (who takes all his lunches "at Musso's")

yeah I love when Bob shows up this series. Scott Thompson too!

Artie in the Doubt of The Benefit episode I watched the other night: "Charity begins at home .. except in Hollywood where it begins at 7pm every night at every fucking hotel ballroom in town"

I'm as far as "The Party" in my rewatch of the box. One of the things I appreciate is that (much like with the early Simpsons) I am just old enough that all of the 1992 references all make perfect sense to me. Like, can people even five years younger than me why anyone would have been afraid of Dana Carvey stealing their show?

*get* why

Carvey came v close to getting one of those shows... musta been when Conan was hired

carvey tried to do movies and then did his primetime show which was occasionally inspired but has become overrated in some quarters due to having a writing staff that approached caesar's in terms of talent on hand (maybe even louis ck = carl reiner, smigel = brooks, charlie kaufman = woody?). then he had health issues and his moment passed.

Wasn't aware he had health issues. I just noticed that at some point his career became Master of Disguise, and I assume that anyone who wasn't around for SNL and Wayne's World just has no idea who he is now.

lol was just thinking of the chevy chase show (still one of the more amazing things i witnessed on tv live - it's been forgotten how much hype there was beforehand and ppl thought - reasonably! - that chevy could win the late night war) and trying to think of another snl castmember that could host a talk show and o, right.

Oh! There's actually a ref to how Chevy Chase could never do a talk show on a '92 episode of LS (when Larry is making awkward small talk with Catherine O'Hara).

i just read about the Carvey primetime show in the Nesteroff book

show was considered as a disaster in the industry tho

Carvey came v close to getting one of those shows... musta been when Conan was hired

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, April 8, 2016 12:34 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc, Carvey was in fact offered Late Night, but turned it down.

holy crap

In 1997, Carvey underwent heart bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery, but the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. The blocked artery was deeply buried in muscle and thus hard to find; another artery, though not blocked, was clearly accessible, so the surgeon bypassed it. Carvey, later suffering from angina pectoris, sued for medical malpractice and was awarded $8 million in damages. He donated the money to charity.[23] He has had to undergo additional surgery to correct his heart problems.

trio of 20th anniversary pieces from 2012, quite exhaustive, by Edward Copeland (who died a few months ago). Some great cast stories in the third one.

http://www.rogerebert.com/demanders/the-ten-best-larry-sanders-episodes

http://www.rogerebert.com/demanders/larry-sanders-the-show-behind-the-show

http://www.rogerebert.com/demanders/larry-sanders-changing-television-and-changing-lives

Forgot about the s2 ep centered on Tim Miller, "The Performance Artist," and him doing bits of his monologue My Queer Body. I took a class from him (lol '90s)! Him being given free reign on Leno is a good punchline.

I am just old enough that all of the 1992 references all make perfect sense

These shows are also old enough that sometimes nearly all the guests are dead. :/ One had John Ritter, Gene Siskel, Warren Zevon, Elizabeth Ashley -- only she survives. (Presumably still humping Rip Torn in the wardrobe closet.)

Another classic Artie line: Hank rediscovers his Jewishness and explains how a "spirit filled him" in a recent trip to a temple and is renouncing casual sex, drinking and gambling.
"Why don't you just lie down there and I'll get you a cold cloth, you poor bastard"

Since I just watched it, "The Party" wasn't one of my most fondly remembered episodes, but it does have a lot of moments of Larry being made uncomfortable, which are never not hilarious.

"jurassic park changed my life"

is there any news on when this is actually coming to HBO

Ride a painted pony let the spinning wheel WAAAAAH!

"Hank, meet Elvis."

"Iiii don't thiiiink so..."

first time watching thru larry sanders here. in the first episode i died at this

larry: "i dunno artie, it seems a little unethical don't you think?

artie: "unethical? oh jeez larry, don't start pulling at that thread. our whole world will unravel"

oh you are in for a treat

have a hard time choosing a favorite out of the troika, they're all such perfectly realized characters, but I find Artie the most endearing I think

Artie is such a classic and he is just as funny till the 6th season, there ain't no drop off in quality.

"i can't go to New York; as a young man, i did some things for some people... Have you ever seen a Scorsese film?"