ROANOKE TIMES
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993                   TAG: 9305290718
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEE WINFREY KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long


SHANDLING BACK FOR 2ND SEASON

The best new situation comedy of 1992 begins its second season on cable television this week: "The Larry Sanders Show."

"The Larry Sanders Show," starring Garry Shandling in the title role, is, among its many virtues, the best sustained satire of TV talk shows ever concocted. The insecurity, vanity, hypocrisy and tension that pockmark this distinctively American type of entertainment have never been so deeply and entertainingly etched on the little screen.

Tune in at 10 p.m. Wednesday on HBO and you'll see a cast of characters who play together with the speed, flash, and intensity of a championship-level professional basketball team:

Larry Sanders, 42, who strives with mixed success to live sincerely and decently in his private life. The problem is that his working life as a network talk show host is so steeped in lies, backbiting and double-dealing that he can't keep that atmosphere from seeping into his home.

Sanders' sidekick, fawning Hank Kingsley, portrayed with utter debasement by Jeffrey Tambor. Playing this ripest of second bananas looks like the role of a lifetime for Tambor, best-known previously as Judge Alan Wachtel on "Hill Street Blues."

Sanders' producer, Artie, played over-the-top by superlative character actor Rip Torn. Hard-driving and salty, Artie devotes his every working moment to stroking Larry into some semblance of contentment and calm. Perhaps half of the time he succeeds.

Sanders' elegant assistant, Beverly, played by Penny Johnson, and Hank's assistant, the ditzy Darlene, portrayed by Linda Doucett. Beverly is the sane center of this zany workplace, while Darlene looks like a fitting companion for the semi-competent Hank.

Fans who have followed "The Larry Sanders Show" since it premiered on Aug. 15 will notice a big name missing here: Sanders' second wife, Jeannie, played by Megan Gallagher. The complication that kicks the plot of Wednesday's premiere into motion is Larry and Jeannie's drift toward divorce. Gallagher has left the cast and will not be seen this season.

But Hank is unchanged, still warming up the studio audience with the same explanation that kicks off each episode: "That sign says, `Applesauce.' No, I'm kidding: it says, `Applause.' " And he still introduces himself as "Hey, now! Hank Kingsley."

Shandling started in show business as a scriptwriter for 1970s sitcoms, including "Sanford and Son" and "Welcome Back, Kotter," and in the 1980s substituted for Johnny Carson as a guest host on "The Tonight Show" many times. Recently, he reportedly turned down an offer to replace David Letterman at NBC, and was mentioned as the possible host of a late-night show that would follow Letterman's new program on CBS.

So if there is anything Shandling doesn't know about TV comedy in general and talk shows in particular, it must be minuscule. Inside jokes abound on "The Larry Sanders Show," as on this episode when Larry demands that Artie show him "the trades," which is Hollywood lingo for the trade journals Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter.

"I haven't read the trades yet," Artie lies. "I'm not going to the bathroom for another two hours."

How many viewers will know that this is a reference to the widespread perception that the trades are toilet-time reading in the TV and movie industries - essential to scan, but too trivial to deserve dignified attention? Doesn't matter. If one "Larry Sanders" wisecrack goes over your head, soon enough another comes along that you can catch.

Artie tries vainly to hide the trades because they include stories about the Emmy Award nominations, which once again failed to include "The Larry Sanders Show." Larry correctly predicts that Letterman and Billy Crystal are among the nominees, but he is aghast at another nominee: "A Jackie Mason Hanukkah"?

Larry is worried that his show is adrift, an opinion substantiated when Melanie Parrish, his network's vice president for late-night programming, tells him about "the Phoenix problem," where "they're dropping you for Chevy Chase." Artie is furious that the glacial Parrish has dropped this bomb on his star, demanding to know, "How'd she get past security?"

No change there, either, since Artie has always hated Parrish, a cameo role played to perfection by Deborah May. One of the most memorable lines of "Larry Sanders"' first season was Artie saying, "I killed a man like her in Korea."

A staple of "Larry Sanders" is that the talk show guests are real people playing themselves. Since Jeannie has left Larry, Artie lines up a series of actresses as guests, hoping he'll start dating one of them. But for differing reasons, nothing works out for Larry with Dana Delany, Teri Garr or Helen Hunt.

Artie compares Larry's two marriages to bad luck at the race track: "Jeannie pulled up lame and that crazy filly Francine should have been shot in the infield." The second-season premiere concludes with the worst possible news for Artie: Larry and his first wife, Francine, played by Kathryn Harrold, are seeing each another again.

Before this series premiered, Shandling said, "We intend to take an honest look at the hypocrisy that goes on on talk shows." He said "Larry Sanders" would be "based on what I know really goes on backstage, not a sitcom version of it." Seldom has a TV star delivered so solidly on his promises.

Despite its cutting edge, "Larry Sanders" is not cruel, callous, or cold. After the first season, Shandling said that Letterman, Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall all told him they liked his show, "So I don't think anybody is insulted about it."

If you watch "Larry Sanders," one of the things that will not be insulted is your intelligence. This week's script, jointly written by Shandling, Chris Thompson and Paul Simms, is up to the high standard this series has established for itself.



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