Garry Shandling Dead at 66.
Goddammit, 2016! Stop it! Stop taking entertainers I care about!
Reports out of LA say that Garry Shandling died suddenly earlier today. He wasn’t known to be sick, so whatever it was–heart attack, aneurysm–it was sudden. Apparently all was normal this morning. He was declared dead at an LA hospital.
I was a big fan of The Larry Sanders Show on HBO, a precursor to so much of the meta-laced semi-reality shows of today, including The Office, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family, Veep and many others. If you have time over the long weekend, binge watch as much as you can. It’s really good.
I have so many favourite scenes from the series, but my all-time favourite is when Hank met Elvis Costello in the hallway before a show. Years later, a PR person introduced me to Elvis (I’d met him many times before, but she didn’t know that). “Alan, this is Elvis.” To which I replied–well, you’ll see. (Elvis had the courtesy to laugh at my lame attempt at meta-ness.)