I don't remember this well enough to rate it.

The Larry Sanders Show, on HBO
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Well, I never got HBO, but I did see some of this series, on CBC. I was aware of it being loved by critics, and I thought it was good, but I definitely never loved it. I should also say that I originally put my review under "comedy," but when moving to the new frames format, I reconsidered. I almost put it there, but also considered things like "quirky" and "weird." Though ultimately I think of it as a sort of dramedy. It was mostly comedy, but... it's the sort of "awkward" comedy that I usually find somewhat hard to watch, and not necessarily funny funny. (I'm not saying it's "funny strange" as opposed to "funny ha-ha," because technically it's the more the latter than the former- though it is a bit of both- I'm just saying, it's not the kind of humor I'd generally expect one to laugh at, so much as put on a kind of strained smile, much like the title character himself often did.) So, I'm not sure how much, if any, of the show was actually dramatic, per se... but it had a vague feeling of drama. I guess.

Anyway... it starred Garry Shandling as Larry Sanders, who was the host of a talk show within the show. We got to see bits of the talk show, as well as behind the scenes stuff, dealing with the lives of the people involved in making the talk show. There were always guest stars, who appeared as themselves in both the fictional talk show and the actual show. Aside from Larry, some of the main characters included his producer, Artie (Rip Torn), his sidekick, Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor), Larry's assistant, Beverly (Penny Johnson), the show's booker, Paula (Janeane Garofalo), and various other people who I don't remember so well, now. (I vaguely recall at least one of Larry's ex-wives, maybe both, sort of. They were played by Megan Gallagher and Kathryn Harrold.) Anyway, I thought all the actors were quite good, and of course I've seen them all in other things, before or since. But I'm not really sure what to say about any of the characters, except that for the most part, I didn't find them all that likable. Nor can I really think of anything more to say about the show. It was high quality, and somewhat amusing... just not exactly something I'd call fun to watch.


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