Trivia / The Larry Sanders Show

• Hostility on the Set: Along with the troubles between Shandling and Linda Doucett mentioned below, Rip Torn very much lived up to his reputation as a world-class Cloudcuckoolander, proving very difficult to work with.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The series was released in Fall 2010 after its post-Season 1 run was in release limbo due to a dispute between Shandling and Brad Grey, his former manger and producer of the program.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • "Office Romance" has Larry get involved with Darlene causing any amount of backstage trouble for the show. The actors playing Larry (Garry Shandling) and Darlene (Linda Doucett) were dating at the time, which is art imitating life. However, at the end of season 3, Shandling and Doucett split up and Shandling fired Doucett from the show. This resulted in a lawsuit from Doucett, who was paid $1M, so it became life imitating art.
  • "Broadcast Nudes" dealt with Darlene being asked, and eventually agreeing to appear, in Playboy Magazine. Linda Doucett agreed, during the making of the episode, to pose in real life for the September 1993 issue with the show airing that same week as the magazine's release.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Both Brian and his actor Scott Thompson are gay.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Linda Doucett (Darlene) was fired from the show after the third season. In real-life, she and Gary Shandling were in a long-term relationship, but they broke up after the third season. Doucett sued Shandling and producer Brad Grey for wrongful termination. The case was settled out of court and Doucett received one million dollars.
• Write What You Know: Garry Shandling based the show on his experience as the Monday night guest host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1986 to 1987. Shandling was offered numerous deals to host his own late-night talk show, but turned them all down. A key moment in defining the show's theme of the contrast between a television personality's on-air persona and their Real Life demeanor was an incident that director Ken Kwapis witnessed when he was hanging out with Shandling backstage when Shandling guested during Carson's final weeks as host: laid-back bandleader Doc Severinsen talking to a show staffer and complaining very loudly and vulgarly about some coyotes that had trespassed in his backyard.
• Write Who You Know: Artie was originally based on longtime Tonight Show producer Fred de Cordova, who was a very friendly, gregarious man. However, Rip Torn struggled with that characterization, and Shandling and the show's creative team realized that Torn's own irascible Real Life personality was a funnier fit for the character, so Artie became much more based on Torn himself.

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