Some Thoughts on Garry Shandling

For years now, whenever the family gathers for a photo or my husband tries to photograph me (a story for another day), I invariably ask someone, "How's my hair?"  I'm not a particularly vain person, knowing that the breeding ground for cowlicks that I call "hair" will always be askew.  I couldn't recall when that question became part of my photo routine until I heard the news about Garry Shandling's death.  It came from him.  I wasn't asking it about me, but rather, I was imitating the fictional "Garry" of the "It's Garry Shandling's Show."  In almost every episode, he'd ask that question out of anxiety, as if having every strand in place would mean that the rest of his life would be just as neat.

I didn't know much about Garry Shandling before the Showtime series, but from the minute I heard the theme song, I was in love.  That catchy, goofy, self-aware wink at the audience was all it took to hook me -- that, and my strange crush on Michael Tucci, as his neighbor "Pete Schumacher."  It was one of my "appointment" TV shows (what they now call "Must-See TV"), and my husband and I would watch, singing along with the song, swaying and boucing like two kids around a campfire. 

One of the most poignant and heartbreaking episodes was what we didn't know then to be the final appearance of Gilda Radner on TV.  We saw it as her comeback to comedy after ovarian cancer, little knowing that a short time later, she would be gone.  The scene involved her returning ta wagonload of books to Garry that he had lent her to read.  When he asked her why he hadn't seen her on TV for a while, she chirpily responded, "I had cancer.  What did you have?"

After that show ended, and Garry went to HBO with his "The Larry Sanders Show," I felt deprived.  My husband no longer worked in the cable TV trade and we had to drop our premium channels (First World Problems, yes, I know.)  This was in the days before one had other options, like waiting months for the DVDs or piggybacking on a relative's HBO GO account. Everyone was talking about it, and I had no frame of reference, except from occasional promotional clips when Garry appeared on (real) talk shows.

Many comics are hailed to be geniuses, but there are only a few who truly qualify.  Garry was one of them, doing on TV what others wish they thought of first.  He will be missed.

"How's my hair?"