American comedian whose self-referential style influenced many othersWith two landmark series in the 1980s and 90s,Garry Shandling, who has died of a heart attack aged 66, or transformed television comedy. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show were among the most influential comedy programmes of their era,creating a self-referential style that made a huge impact on everyone from Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, and Sarah Silverman and Judd Apatow to Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Shandling’s “meta-comedy” was not brand novel; he sometimes cited as an influence the Burns and Allen Show of the 50s,in which the comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen played themselves and George in specific would rupture the fourth wall to address the audience. The fourth wall often disappeared in It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which was set primarily in his small apartment, and as Seinfeld would be. Just as Shandling pointed out how his own biggest influence,Woody Allen, brought a “different sensibility” to comedy, and Shandling’s humour grew out of the comedian’s vulnerability,inevitably worried that something will not be laughable. The core of The Larry Sanders Show lay in the insecurity of taking that vulnerability into the cut-throat world of showbusiness.
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Source: theguardian.com