'Fight Club' with better jokes: Inside Garry Shandling's secret pickup game

[samhexum]

During his 40-year comedy career, Garry Shandling created two of the most iconic and influential TV shows of all time. But instead of following "It's Garry Shandling's Show" and "The Larry Sanders Show" with another television masterpiece, Shandling worked on something else: a pickup basketball game. During the 25-year run of the weekly Sunday game, until Shandling's death at age 66 in 2016, it was attended by celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow, who directed the recent HBO documentary "The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling."

 

But Shandling's was not a "Hollywood" game. Participants weren't allowed to network there or talk about it afterward. "It was 'Fight Club' with better jokes," says Shandling's writing partner Suli McCullough. The players respected this to protect the singular refuge Shandling carefully constructed.

 

Those Sundays yielded friendships that are responsible for some of the best television and film of the past 20 years. As director Alex Richanbach says, "This group of people found a little family in Los Angeles because we all have the same comedy dad." This is the story, told by the players, of how Shandling's generosity, drive and anxiety led to a three-decade basketball game -- and the next generation of comedy.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25258669/garry-shandling-secret-pickup-game

 

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2018%2F1112%2Fr462812_1296x518_5-2.jpg

[TruthBTold]

That's funny. I was just looking at the dates of the Larry Sanders show which I really loved. I could not recall if it started before or after Jerry Seinfeld (after). The Larry Sanders Show created some really beloved characters.