I've never had anyone put on a puppet show to convince me of anything. And I've done a lot of stuff. I don't know that I would put the puppets on when I was pitching a show. This was the head of the studio putting a puppet show on. And I'll tell you, he wasn't bad.

On November 2 2010 Shout! Factory released The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series on DVD. In 1993 NBC offered Shandling $5 million[citation needed] to take over the late-night talk show Late Night when host David Letterman announced his highly publicized move to CBS but Shandling declined. He had an older brother Barry who died of cystic fibrosis when Garry was 10.

Garry Shandling (born November 29 1949) is an American comedian actor and writer. His second show The Larry Sanders Show which began airing on HBO in 1992 was even more successful. Shandling was for a time considered the leading contender to replace Carson (other hopefuls were Joan Rivers David Letterman and David Brenner).