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Why The Larry Sanders Show is still the best sitcom ever made

A new documentary about the show’s creator Garry Shandling shows how his humour was motored by darkness

By Sameer Rahim  
April 25, 2018

The 1990s were a golden age for comedy. Over here we had The Day Today, Alan Partridge, but also choice American imports. I don’t mean Friends, a show that has never made me so much as crack a smile, but the shows that nestled bizarrely in the post-Newsnight slot on a Tuesday night. At 11.15pm came Seinfeld. But that was merely a warm-up for the main attraction: The Larry Sanders Show, for my money still the best sitcom…

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Sameer Rahim

Sameer Rahim is Prospect’s managing editor. His novel “Asghar and Zahra” (JM Originals) was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. He was a judge for the 2020 Booker Prize

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