The Inside History Of The Larry Sanders Show

Continuing my Larry Sanders kick, I recently ran across this book excerpt from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. I've not read the book but this piece is a great oral history of how The Larry Sanders Show came to be on HBO, what the work environment was like and loads of behind-the-scenes anecdotes.. many of them not very flattering! Here's a particularly jaw dropping one about Rip Torn (Arthur) from Linda Doucett (Darlene).

Linda Doucett: One episode, they were cutting lines, and Rip didn’t like it when his lines got cut. He was getting really angry, and the AD comes into the writers’ room and says, “Rip is going insane. He’s smashing everything in his dressing room and he has a gun.” Everybody froze and Garry says, “Oh shit, we have a show to shoot. Send Linda in. He won’t shoot her.”

Obviously gun violence (or the threat thereof) is not something I condone or praise but it sounds like no one on the show did either! Holy moly that is wild.

If you're a fan, it's a Must Read.