The HBO comedy The Larry Sanders Show was doing meta long before it was cool, with star and co-creator Garry Shandling playing the titular late-night talk show host in a role based on his own experiences filling in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
“Garry was such a great observer of people that while hosting The Tonight Show, he noticed all of the neuroses in that show,” Judd Apatow, who wrote for The Larry Sanders Show, told The Ringer last year. “He didn’t want to be a host. He wanted to comment about the world of talk shows, the people who work there, and what we all have in common. He was mainly interested in the show explaining what keeps people apart. … Garry said the show is about people who love each other, but show business gets in the way.”
Along for the ride were Rip Torn as Larry’s producer Artie and Jeffrey Tambor as his on-air sidekick, Hank Kingsley — alongside Wallace Langham, Penny Johnson Jerald, Janeane Garofalo, and Scott Thompson as staffers on the fictional talk show. With the show turning 30 years old on August 15, here are updates on those cast members…
