Product Description

For The First Time On DVD, All 72 Episodes Of Garry Shandlings Groundbreaking First Television Series

. . . audacious, satirical, hip, sophisticated and wonderfully silly, and often miraculously all of the above at the same time. TV Guide

Before the Internet, before reality TV, no one saw what television could be more humorously and with more vision than Garry Shandling. In 1986 Garry Shandling was poised to become a permanent guest host on Johnny Carsons The Tonight Show. Instead, he took a chance on an offer from fledgling cable network Showtime to create his own television series. No questions asked.

A surreal look at the daily life of a young single man who is a comedian, Its Garry Shandlings Show was not a typical sitcom: Shandling would break the fourth wall to include the studio audience and the viewers at home in on the actual making of the show. Experimenting with the sitcom form meant inviting the audience onto the set, playing with the passage of time and generally exploding the genre and making art of the debris.

Teaming up with Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, the two men put on a fourth-grade play every week for four seasons. With a crew of talented young writers (including Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Al Jean, Michael Reiss, David Mirkin, who would go on to write Seinfeld and The Simpsons, and Ed Solomon, who wrote Men In Black), television history was made. Over the years, guest stars (playing themselves) included Tom Petty, Rob Reiner, Vanna White, Red Buttons, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Mull, Gilda Radner (in her last TV performance), Carl Reiner, Chevy Chase, Red Buttons, Jeff Goldblum, Don Cornelius, The Turtles, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and more.

From its unforgettable theme song to its closing credits, Its Garry Shandlings Show was award-winning, mind-bending television for four seasons, and its influence is clearly seen in the best TV comedies through the decades to follow.

Bonus Features:

* 6 Featurettes With Cast, Crew and Writers
* It Only Looks Easy: Episode Outtakes
* Original Promos
* 18 Commentaries
* And More!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13534 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2009-10-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 16
• Running time: 1860 minutes

Amazon.com
It doesn't get more meta than Jerry Carbone's irresistible theme song to this game-changing 1986 sitcom that paved the way for The Simpsons and Seinfeld (several of the writers went on to work on those series), Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, and others. Broadcast on Showtime to critical acclaim and later on Fox to abysmal ratings, It's Garry Shandling's Show is an audaciously original self-reverential sitcom starring Shandling as endearingly vain, insecure, and whiny standup comedian Garry Shandling, whose life is a sitcom. ""You must lead a very interesting life,"" someone observes in season 4. ""No, I don't,"" Shandling responds, ""and it's been a stumbling block through the whole series."" From the opening monologue in each episode to asides that thoroughly demolish the fourth wall between performer and the audience (""You didn't get to meet Jackie last week because we hadn't cast her yet""), It's Garry Shandling's Show turns the sitcom format on its head. Most times the actors go about their business, and other times, their characters, too, get in on the postmodern act. ""Thanks a lot for the big part in the show this week, Uncle Garry,"" a character sarcastically comments in one episode. In other surreal developments, Shandling one time departs for New York to star in a new cop series, leaving his show to be fronted by venerable comedian Red Buttons. At one point, audience members make themselves at home on the set while Shandling is out, and at the beginning of season 4, the network president (Richard Fancy, the future Mr. Lippman on Seinfeld) disapproves when Shandling announces his new girlfriend (the charming Jessica Harper) will be joining the cast. He suggests instead that Shandling hire a butler (a comic premise to which Seinfeld later paid homage when Jerry and George pitched their own sitcom to NBC in the fourth season).

Comedy greats, old and new school, from Steve Allen to Martin Mull and Chevy Chase, appear as themselves. An episode to cherish is ""Mr. Smith Goes to Nam,"" which features the last television appearance of Gilda Radner, whose final wink to the camera is perhaps reason enough to purchase this set. Others include the prodigious bonus features, including outtakes, a series retrospective, and very honest commentaries (writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss likewise express reservations about giving Shandling a steady love interest, ""a conventional sitcom move for an unconventional sitcom""). It's Garry Shandling's Show enjoys a mystique among comedy buffs, but it has not been seen in syndication or ever been released on home video. How does it hold up? As Shandling's mentor, comedy club owner Mr. Peck (Danny Dayton), describes Shandling's first stage appearances, ""It's as good today as it was in those days."" He did not mean it as a compliment; we do. --Donald Liebenson"

Customer Reviews

Great At ANY Price
What's the problem here?

Not sure why anyone could think the listed Amazon price is too high. Here's the facts:

1) This is a 16 disc complete set loaded with brand new extras.

2) It's from Shout! Factory who always produce high quality box sets.

3) It retains all the guest stars and music. For every guest star that walks into Garry's home, the producers of this set have to negotiate with them or their estate. This costs a lot of money. Now they could have gone the inexpensive way and eliminated scenes, certain music, even entire episodes. But they didn't.

4) It's a landmark cult TV series that probably wouldn't be seeing the light of day if not for the folks at Shout! Factory.


I agree that it is a lot to shell out. But as a fan who has very fond memories of this blowing my mind 20+ years ago, it's a small price to pay to have the the entire complete series in one big box with Shandling's participation. This set is certainly a specialty item and not one to appeal to a mainstream audience. It's aimed at the serious collector of the offbeat and unusual.

With all that in mind I'm looking forward to this set and have no problem shelling out around $100 to show my support for this wonderfully creative show. Who knows, maybe good sales will encourage Shout! Factory to tackle 'The Complete Larry Sanders Show' next?

This is the review of Gary's Show
Obviously this isn't out yet, so this review isn't about the set it's about the show. I remember some of Gary Shandling's standup from specials I had watched on late night tv. So when I heard Fox was gonna run episodes of this after Married With Children I figured I'd see what the show was about. He didn't seem like the perfect choice for a show, he was hilarious in standup but I wasn't sure how an actual show would pan out. I didn't have cable at the time so it wasn't until Fox started showing it that I got my first glance. Some people I had heard talk about it, said it was hilarious, while others said they just didn't get it. Gary's humor can be a bit dry at times, but he's usually pretty funny. So I decided to find out for myself. I'm glad I did. The sitcom within a sitcom idea was a bit quirky but worked. Generally, though if you watched the series week to week you would be rewarded with more running jokes/gags. Stuff casual watchers may not pick up on. The only other series I ever watched that got rid of the fourth wall was the Monkees and they were funny too. But, this show picks up on that idea where it left off and pushed it to the limits without really being over the top. The jokes were great, the actors were all in on the joke, and gave great performances. There really isn't much to dislike by the show. If you are a fan of comedy, I mean a true fan you will at least enjoy this show if not love it. Gary's jokes, like I said can be a bit dry, but they are clever and hit the mark every time. Usually when a joke doesn't hit it's intentional and watching the reactions of a bad joke can be just as funny as the really good jokes. I do not understand why anyone would say at $2 an episode it's not worth it. Not because of the show itself but because tv shows can be overpriced. Seeing as this is four seasons, a complete series with extras, I can't really say the price is all that bad. i remember when tv shows came out on dvd for the first time, i was just glad they did and had paid way higher prices than I would pay today. I love a good deal too, but one can't complain too much for what you are getting for the price. Besides, without this show shows like Seinfeld never would have been dreamed of. It's the clever little twists on the classic sitcom genre that sells this show the most, it was very inventive, and has been imitated in many ways since it went off the air, so much that you might think this show isn't all that original, but it is THE original. I would highly reccomend this set at any price. You'll be laughing so much you won't remember how much you paid for it

The show is worth the money
A few misconceptions:
(a) first of all, there are 72 episodes, not 62. Not sure if that makes a difference to those waffling on price, but there are 72 so that makes it less than $2 per episode.
(b) $120 would average individual season sets at $30 each, which is hardly unreasonable.

I did get Good Times for a much cheaper price but there are no extra and the packaging is just a pile of discs on top of one another. This packaging looks much better (we'll see for sure on Oct. 20).

If you're that concerned about price, buy it from Amazon.ca. It's $112 Canadian there.