A talk-show host with staying power

Speaking by telephone last month while on vacation in Hawaii, Garry Shandling had several observations to make about "Not Just the Best of 'The Larry Sanders Show,' " the new four-disc compilation drawn from his sitcom, which ran on HBO from 1992-98.

On first realizing he had something special in "The Larry Sanders Show."

I think it was in the "Hey Now" episode. That was the first one we shot, but not the first one we aired, because I thought it was a little too dark. The first time we looked at the film of Larry coming back through the curtain after the [talk] show, walking down the hallway and talking to Artie about the guest, there were two people who actually gasped. "It just feels and looks like something real."

On the idea for the box set and why it took so long.

This started with Steve Moskow , the president of Sony Pictures Television . He had been asking me every year to put out the DVDs after they released the first season [in 2002]. The DVD market wasn't understood then and there was no extra marketing. So it was with his encouragement and enthusiasm that I said maybe this is the time to do it. The "best of" was basically his idea. That sounded right to me. It could let us look back historically and bring it back into the present, which is what those [guest] visits do.

I think the plan is to go season by season after this.

On the visits.

Sony was really egging me on. They said we ought to do some special features, and I said, "Oh brother, what are we going to do?" So I tried this format.

I really wanted to do something that would be different, like the show was different. I think those visits are about reality and life, and I thought it was an attempt at a new way to study the past with a new, very present sensibility. They're intended to be long and real and drawn-out. It allows the time for people to get comfortable enough to be who they are. So you might get one glimpse or more of something you haven't seen before. It's really real and it needs to evolve in real time.

On the basic difference between him and his character on the show.

The sharp distinction between Larry and Garry is I enjoy and get the most satisfaction from the project as a whole. Larry is just about Larry.

On what Larry is up to these days.

He is trying to buy Johnny Carson's house, which is up for sale in Malibu. Larry is definitely trying to do that, yes.

MARK FEENEY