Garry Shandling had
already cut his teeth in the talk show world by guest hosting The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
during the 1980’s. When he created The Larry Sanders Show, he had a good
idea on how the talk show world operated.
He was able to learn from the man everybody in the business called the
best. In the process, he created his own
version of the work place sitcom, but in this sitcom, celebrity cameos actually
made sense. He created a show based on
his own view of Hollywood relationships and the darkness but also camaraderie
they entail. In short, the people love
each other, but Hollywood gets in the way (Lloyd). Thus, the show displayed how Sanders and the rest
of the cast and crew dealt with each other and their guests. An important aspect in these relationships
was how they interacted with gay guests and gay co-workers. Homosexual characters played a significant
part on The Larry Sanders Show by
having to deal with all of the Hollywood nonsense that everyone else had to
work with. The Larry Sanders Show had a progressive view on homosexuality and
presented its gay characters in a positive non-stereotypical fashion. For that they should be commended, or at the
very least have an essay written about them.
One of the first episodes of the show to deal with a homosexual character is an episode from the second season called “Performance Artist”. In an appeal to look edgy and fresh, Larry
and Artie book gay performance artist Tim Miller for the show and then after
watching his set, nix the show.
The rest of the episode deals with the backlash they face due to
their decision. Tim Miller is a performance
artist whose act deals with his experiences being a gay man in America and who
the mainstream press usually refers to as an “aggressively homosexual” (Johnson
139). The real life writers of The Larry Sanders Show booked him
because he was hot at the time and was coming off a huge controversy where he
was denied a grant from the Arts Endowment, despite the fact that he had been a
successful performer for two decades (Johnson 137). He had little mainstream exposure and
had never appear on a talk show before. This was most likely due to his reviewers calling his act aggressively
homosexual. In putting him on the show,
the writers of The Larry Sanders Show
had already showed a progressive view.
They had booked an act that was unfairly labeled as controversial and
had given him some mainstream exposure.
They even showed some of his act on the show. For many viewers, this had probably been the
first time they were directly exposed to Tim Millers’ art. No matter how they viewed it, his act had
been given a salience that was not shown on television at the time. Since it was on HBO, the show could get away
with displaying one of the more graphic parts of his piece My Queer Body. Just from a
casting stand point, the show has already taken a progressive stance towards
homosexual performers. They book an
original and proud gay artist on the show to do his act. They let him do his performance the way he
sees fit and gave him the exposure he had been denied in the past. They let the man act true to himself and they
did not mock him for it.
All of the previous events happened externally. In the context of the show, Larry Sanders and
Artie first welcome the performer with open arms. After a booking agent describes Miller’s act
as “a provocative monologist who talks about his own life as a gay man in
America…Anecdote, humor, observation, and social comment…channeled through life
experience.” (Johnson 140), the only question Sanders asks is if he is
funny. No mention at all about what the
act will specifically entail. All
Sanders cares about is whether he will be good for the talk show and make with
the funny. In the beginning there is a
view of open-mindedness and tolerance of an act that is a major departure from
the show’s norm. After Tim Miller
performs his act on the show, Sanders defends him from the hecklers in the crowd discussing how in America we have a right to freedom of speech. Up until this point, the home-viewing audience
believes Larry Sanders is on the side of tolerance and understanding, but this
quickly changes when he and Artie decide to pull him from the show. The first thing they say when they want to
pull him from the show is that they are not pulling him because he is gay, but
because the network would feel uncomfortable about his act. This is a weak reason to pull Tim Miller, and
the show admits that when the network reviews the episode and reveals they
don’t have a problem with his performance.
The decision of intolerance and censorship falls on Artie and Sanders. They then fail to adhere to the values of
free speech they previously espoused.
Now The Larry Sanders Show shows why it has a progressive view
of homosexuality. Immediately after the
censorship of Tim Miller, everything fall aparts for Larry
Sanders. He is criticized by everyone
from Roseanne and Tom Arnold to even Jay Leno.
His decision to go on the censorship and homophobic route are instantly
treated with scorn by the surrounding community. He loses very badly and the show is
unflinching in its depiction of how wrong Sanders’ decision was. Roseanne criticizes him as a comic for
supporting censorship and the show doesn’t even give Sanders’ good rebuttals to
her points. He gets chewed out and
rightfully so. He tries to extend the
olive branch, but Tim Miller does not bite and instead goes on Jay Leno’s show
to perform the same bit to acclaim. This
is a major indictment of Sanders’ action.
Jay Leno is seen as the blandest and safest television host. He is anything but controversial and is
the farthest away from the edge as one can be.
He sometimes admits this when he is not tinkering with his millions of
cars. Once Miller performs My Queer Body, Leno goes up to him and
says “I can’t believe that’s the same piece of material they wouldn’t let you
do” (Johnson 138). To have Jay Leno say
something is not controversial and right for everybody on The Tonight Show, highlights the wrongness of Sanders’ decision. The final insult to Sanders has been thrown down. Jay Leno once again succeeds
where others fail.
Starting in season four, the show added a gay secretary
for Hank Kingsley to compensate for the loss of his old secretary, Darlene. Scott Thompson was cast in the role of Hanks’
gay secretary, Brian. Scott Thompson
said he sought to make sure the character was not a stereotype and the writers responded
by making him just a normal part of the staff.
The only real stereotypical gay behaviors he exhibits are that he is
very organized and used to work for Barbra Streisand. The show does not treat his gayness with any
animosity or as something to be mocked.
He is treated as a valued member of the staff who is gay. The show does later discuss workplace
harassment with Brian, but in his appearances on the show, no lingering
hatred is shown. Hank Kingsley shows
some problems with him, but that is quickly swept under the rug when
Brian displays his competence. Kingsley
threatens to fire Brain and the show takes another opportunity to mock a
homophobic action. Artie and Sanders
both tell Kingsley he cannot fire Brian because of he is gay and they challenge him to come up with a phony reason to fire him, confident that Kingsley
will probably fail in the action. Since
it is Hank Kingsley it is very easy for the writers to come up with areas to
show how foolish the character can be. The ploy is
successful and Hank comes to his senses and decides to put his prejudice aside and
let Brian continue to work for him.
Kingsley realizes that competence is much more important than sexual orientation in a working environment.
By
making Brian a competent non caricatured character, The Larry Sanders Show puts forth a positive gay character on
television. He is not a flamboyant queen
character. The staff quickly accepts him
for that and works along him with no real qualms. The staff also interacts with Brian outside
of the workplace as shown with Brian and Hanks’ night out in the episode “Matchmaker”. Hank has no problems going out to gay bars to
try and help Brian rebound after his break up.
The show presents the situation as any other show would have with
straight characters. They go to bars and
hit on people. There is no dramatic change
in the depiction of the characters at the gay bar. They are shown as the normal people they are;
there is no mocking depiction of them.
The only time that gayness becomes a problem is when the media starts to
assume Hank is gay after his night out on the town. The show does not mock Brian; it again mocks
Hank’s homophobia. Hank is giving a
comeuppance in his attempt to be prove himself as a straight man by having him unknowingly date a
transsexual. Like Larry before him, Hank
has to pay for taking a homophobic move.
Any time a character acts homophobic; they get a comeuppance and soon
realize they were wrong to act in that way.
Hank’s comeuppance is done in a more dramatic way befitting of his own
hilarious ignorance and self-importance.
Of course he would try to dispel gay rumors by unknowingly dating a
transsexual. It only makes sense for it
to happen to Hank. The only surprising aspect about the scenario is that it happened so late in the series.
In
the second to last episode of the show, “Putting the ‘Gay’ Back in Litigation”,
the show starts to deal with the effects of Brian being the only gay person in a
work space. Brian sues head writer Phil
for sexual harassment due to the numerous gay jokes Phil had directed
towards him. The episode shows the
struggle that can entail being a gay man in an unfriendly environment. When Brian seeks support from Beverley over
his lawsuit, he thinks she will be on his side due to the prejudice she has
encountered as a black women. She
rebukes him by saying that his homosexuality is a choice and nearly tells him
that he should pray away the gay. A
previously gay-friendly character is shown to having unconscious homophobic
thoughts. Her comment is taken with
righteous disbelief by Brian as he walks away from her. The show displays the kind of casual
homophobia Brian has to deal with on a daily basis. Beverley does not get the usual Sanders’
comeuppance that happens once a character spews out an anti-gay sentiment, but
she loses some of the respect of the audience and Brian for her remarks. She turns into part of the problem rather
than a member of support. This isn’t to
say Beverley is a bigot. She has been
one of Brian’s’ closest friends on the show and all her goodwill does not go
away with an ignorant remark. It goes to
show that even people Brian thought were friends don’t really understand who he is. People still have a long way to go in fully
understanding and accepting gay people as a part of mainstream culture and this
small snippet displays some attitudes that need to be changed.
Phil’s
jokes around Brian form the main conflict in this episode. A sequence around the way Brian tries to
provoke Phil into making jokes presents the way Brian is not a stereotypical
gay character. Brian comes into the
office wearing pink booty shorts with a leather shirt and cap. Seeing Brian dressed like this is funny not
just because it is an interesting combination, but also because it is so out of
character for Brian. Never has Brian
ever worn anything that was even close to the outfit he wore in that brief
sequence. Brian is combating Phil’s
homophobia straight on with an outlandish caricature. He is fighting back against Phil by using his
own jokes against him. Phil falls into
this trap and his jokes lead to his being sued, but to an even larger
comeuppance later.
The
comeuppance for Phil occurs near the end of the episode where he and Brian
discuss the upcoming lawsuit. Brian
makes a plea that Phil represents every gay bully he has ever had to face in
his life. This is the first time we get
to delve into what it was like for Brian to be a gay man. He explicitly states that every joke is an
attack against him no matter how light-hearted the intention may be. Being part of a minority group has taken a
toll on Brian as he constantly has to fight for his right to be accepted. This suppression of his rights as a human
being has led to him drawing up this lawsuit.
The show does not make Brian into a villain for suing the
show. The villain is Phil for
potentially ruining the legacy of the show and more importantly hurting one of
the valued members of the staff.
Everybody on the show yells at Phil for abusing Brian. Nobody gets mad at Brian. They ask him to try and settle out of court,
but nobody acts malicious towards him.
The show justifies his actions in this way by showing him as a victim
trying to right a wrong, rather than as somebody trying to exploit the last
days of a cancelled talk show. The homophobia
Phil displays turns out to be a front for his own repressed homosexuality. His make out scene with Brian is the way the
show gets back at him for being such a homophobe. His anger and jokes are just masks for
repressed feelings. This may feel like a
cop out ending as it doesn’t make much sense for a gay man to make out with a
straight man who bullied him. Brian
making out with Phil may be explained as a way to say that they have gotten
over their difference and have decided to at the least stay friends. So, it is a happy ending for all.
In
conclusion, The Larry Sanders Show
puts forth a progressive view of homosexuality and treats its gay characters
and guests with dignity and respect.
They are not made out to be stereotypes or caricatures. They are as three dimensional as the medium
of television will allow them to be.
There are some problems with the depictions of these gay characters but
that is minor compared to the many good things that are shown. The show never lets any character get away
with major displays of homophobia because later in the episode they will be
punished for it. They learn from their
prejudice and enter the next episode smarter and more tolerant and ready to
make the same mistakes again next week.
After all it is a comedy show and they have to make with the funny. And The
Larry Sanders Show does make with the funny. Hopefully Garry Shandling can start making
with the funny again. He deserves a
comeback already.
Works
Cited
Copeland, Edward.
"Larry Sanders: Changing Television and Changing Lives." Chicago
Sun-Times. N.p., 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.
<http://blogs.suntimes.com/demand/2012/09/larry_sanders_changing_television_and_changing_lives.html>.
Day, Richard, Alex
Gregory, and Peter Huyck. "Putting the "Gay" Back in
Litigation." The Larry Sanders Show. HBO. 17 May 1998.
Television.
Johnson, Glen M.
"Preforming Access: Tim Miller, Larry Sanders, and Jay Leno." Text
& Performance Quarterly 18.2 (1998): 137-46. EBSCOhost.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=40124ee7-5f68-4d30-a108-8265e15852c5%sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=122>.
Lloyd, Robert. "'The Complete Larry
Sanders': Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor and Judd Apatow Remember." Latimes.com. Los Angeles Times,
30 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/10/shandling-apatow-and-tambor-on-the-complete-larry-sanders.html>.Shandling, Garry, Dennis Klein, and John Riggi.
"Hank's New Assistant." The Larry Sanders Show. HBO. 26
July 1995. Television.
Shandling, Garry, Dennis
Klein, and John Riggi. "Matchmaker." The Larry Sanders Show.
HBO. 8 Jan. 1997. Television.
Thompson, Chris, John
Riggi, and Drake Sather. "Performance Artist." The Larry
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