The Larry Sanders Show was a dark, hilarious, caustic satire of the behind-the-scenes world of late night television. Conceived by comedian Garry Shandling, it ran on HBO for six seasons, from 1992 to 1998. With a brilliant premise—the show chronicled the goings-on of a fictional late night talk show—The Larry Sanders Show starred Shandling as Sanders, the self-obsessed host, and the onstage/back-stage structure of the thirty-minute weekly comedy provided for very provocative, innovative television. The show-within-a-show construct revealed the talk show world as the characters really wanted it seen, while simultaneously showing the back stabbing, ugly showbiz world in which they actually lived. None of the characters on the show ever seemed to learn anything from their mistakes, and there were no happy or moralistic endings anywhere in sight.

The show was groundbreaking on a number of fronts (though it certainly...