For the Last Time, Here’s ‘Larry’

This is a finale!

A real smasheroo, in fact, as Garry Shandling’s remarkable HBO comedy series about the weird universe of an egoistic, two-faced, insecure, neurotic TV talk-show host (is there another kind?) departs Sunday as unforgettably as it arrived nearly six years ago.

What a show, what a send-off. It’s this way: Larry, Artie and Hank wind up in jail.

But seriously. . . .

May is bowing out as Boot Hill for some of TV’s wittiest, meatiest comedies. The humdrum conclusion of NBC’s “Seinfeld” lit a bonfire of publicity, with a few embers drifting over to this season’s worthier farewell episodes of ABC’s “Ellen” and CBS’ “Murphy Brown.”

When it comes to wild and artful humor, though, “The Larry Sanders Show” is about to humble them all in front of its usual clubby segment of America.

The series has never averaged more than 2 million viewers an episode, a mere closetful even by pay-cable HBO standards and the paltry equivalent of “nobody’s watching” in the skewed lexicon of the major commercial networks. As a favorite of the entertainment media and show-biz folk here, though, it has always resonated much more loudly than its audience size would dictate.

Add to that din the headlines generated by Shandling’s noisy, ongoing legal tiff with his former manager, Brad Grey, an industry scuffle that itself seems almost tailored to “The Larry Sanders Show,” where Larry’s double-dealing agent, Stevie Grant (Bob Odenkirk), has gone behind his back to sign his successor, Jon Stewart. “He’s a [expletive] horse and buggy, that guy,” Grant says dismissively of Larry.

A more savage group of back-stabbers hasn’t been seen since the Third Reich.

For those who haven’t kept up, Larry’s decision this season to relinquish the host’s chair came as network suits pressured him to step down in favor of the younger, prettier Stewart. So as it turns out, Shandling’s last show is also Larry’s last show.

It all happens in a star- and laugh-laden double-sized hour--written by Shandling and Peter Tolan and directed by Todd Holland--that includes Warren Beatty, Greg Kinnear, Bruno Kirby, Clint Black, Tom Petty, Sean Penn, Tim Allen, Carol Burnett, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and Stewart. And some especially fabulous bits of nonsense with that untamed jungleman, Jim Carrey, and David Duchovny, whose last appearance with Sanders was quite memorable.

Again playing himself as sexually ambiguous, the star of Fox’s “The X-Files” appears to flirt with the stupefied Larry while in a revealing (oops) bathrobe. No other show has ever been able to entice celebrities to mock themselves this way.

There are lumps in the throat Sunday and the usual pains in the ass. There are egos to stroke, tears to dry, thank-yous, emotions and neuroses to sort out, and a green-room snit over which superstar guest gets to deliver the Bette Midler-esque serenade to the departing host. And Beatty, pressed by Larry to appear on his final show, wonders why he can’t say goodbye to him in the studio parking lot.

“The Larry Sanders Show” has always been cast meticulously, from VIP guests to such supporting regulars as Penny Johnson as Larry’s personal assistant, Beverly, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who succeeded Janeane Garofalo as the show’s talent booker. Returnees Sunday include Shandling’s former girlfriend, Linda Doucett, who played Hank Kingsley’s assistant before she and Shandling broke up, and Jeremy Piven as the head writer fired by Sanders in 1994. Still bitter after all these years.

Meanwhile, Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor are exceptional as always as, respectively, Larry’s producer, Artie, and his smarmy sidekick, Hank, their own sharply crafted kiss-off epitomizing the edgy mix of cynicism, anger and tenderness that throughout has given “The Larry Sanders Show” its brilliant wattage.

Shandling is two for two. In “The Larry Sanders Show” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” whose original episodes ran from 1986 to 1990 on Showtime, he has helped create two distinctive series that rank in TV’s all-time Top 50, with the HBO comedy very near the top. “The Larry Sanders Show” has been not only a big, booming howl much of the time, but also no less than miraculous in its ability to size up and portray the nasty side of the entertainment business without losing its sense of fun. The writing has been superb, at once subtle and sharp, even brutal sometimes. Regardless of how grandiose, no prisoners taken.

“The Larry Sanders Show” was never as consistently funny as “Seinfeld.” But it didn’t have to be, because it had other attributes that held your attention. When “Seinfeld” wasn’t funny, there was no reason to watch. Even when not yielding laughs, however, Shandling’s series captivated you with its acid realism and the way it raked the raw psychoses of its muddied characters.

The show got ever darker while winding down this season. The next-to-last episode found Larry’s acerbic head writer, Phil (Wallace Langham), mercilessly ridiculing the homosexuality of Hank’s openly gay assistant, Brian (Scott Thompson), only to end up necking with him. And in the previous episode, the show’s kindly cue-card holder (Sid Newman) chose suicide after being cruelly dressed down by Hank, who may be TV comedy’s most loathsome, pathetic and complicated character ever, as well as one of its funniest.

Credit Shandling with not only moving up the food chain as an actor during this series but also with appreciating the extremely gifted players at his side, and often stepping back to give them the stage.

Based on Sunday’s finale, Shandling and “The Larry Sanders Show” have the juice to endure much longer. It’s the American way, after all, for strong TV series to linger on life support well past their prime until they’re hanging on as brain-dead cabbages.

But here’s one vote endorsing Shandling’s decision to ring down the curtain perhaps prematurely, while his show is sound of mind. Not that its brand of brainy, biting, sophisticated humor will be equaled any time soon. “You made me laugh,” Artie tells Larry. “That’s what I’m gonna miss.”

And for old times’ sake, no flipping.

*

* The last original episode of “The Larry Sanders Show” airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO. A “Larrython” featuring all of this season’s episodes will air on Monday through Wednesday from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. each night.