Garry Shandling Has Died

In surprise news that will send a punch to your soul, TMZ says that Garry Shandling is now up in heaven where he’s saying, “I said ‘Garry’ with TWO Rs, dammit,” to the angel working the door of the VIP section. Garry reportedly died at a hospital in the Los Angeles area today. Gary was supposedly healthy and wasn’t suffering from any kind of illness recently. His cause of death is not known right now, but TMZ is hearing that he died of a sudden heart attack. He was only 66 years old.

Back in the 1970s, Garry was in advertising before he sold a script for Sanford and Son (Google it, you young dumbfucks) and that led to him writing for other sitcoms, which led to him doing stand-up, which led to him being on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Garry filled in for Johnny many times and was in consideration to be his replacement, but we all know that gig went to Jay Leno. But that was for the best, because if Garry got The Tonight Show, he probably wouldn’t have created Showtime’s It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which my friend and I used to watch on her descrambled cable box. Fox also used to show PG 13-rated versions of the episodes. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show ran for four seasons. When David Letterman left Late Night on NBC to do the Late Show on CBS, the tricks at the peacock offered Garry that job. Garry turned it down.

To me, Garry’s magnus opus was playing Jack in Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, but to most, his masterpiece was The Larry Sanders Show, which ran from 1992 to 1998 on HBO and got him 18 Emmy nominations. The Larry Sanders Show pretty much put HBO on the comedy show map.

After The Larry Sanders Show ended, Garry acted in a few movies (Iron Man 2, What Planet Are You From?, Hurlyburly, The Dictator, Town & Country and Captain America: Winter Soldier) and he hosted the Emmys 3 times.

Garry was with actress/Playboy model Linda Doucett for a while, but he never got married and never had any kids.

Rest in peace, Garry Shandling…and Hail Hydra.