Dial file: ‘Sanders’ candor is sitcom at its subversive best

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 9:34 a.m.

REMEMBER: No flipping.

At least not on Sunday, when Larry Sanders' patented plea to clicker-crazed viewers -- delivered in Garry Shandling's exquisite deadpan whine -- will dribble past his fleshy lips for the last time. In first-run, anyway.

Shandling's brilliantly bitter and uproariously savage knife-in-the-heart-to-late-night-TV, "The Larry Sanders Show," is bidding bye-bye on HBO.

Among the quartet of "quality" comedies tap-dancing off the TV stage this spring, "Sanders" may be the classiest. Unlike "Seinfeld" (too much hype), "Ellen" (too much controversy) and "Murphy Brown" (too much apathy), "Sanders" departs to still-strong critical kudos and an understated dignity, a by-product of its slightly snooty cachet as a superior cable show.

No crass commercialism of the Seinfeldian sort here. After all: "It's not TV -- it's HBO!

Unlike "Seinfeld" (a bit past its prime), "Murphy Brown" (way past its prime) and "Ellen" (never reached its prime), "Sanders" pulls a perfect DiMaggio, bowing out while still sporting TV's creative equivalent of a .350 batting average and a gold glove.

And while the "Seinfeld" sayonara was a cacophony of self-congratulations -- network TV worshipping itself as pop culture Masters of Their Domain -- "The Larry Sanders Show" plays the aloof iconoclast, its arched eyebrow speaking satirical volumes about mainstream media run amok.

As the festival of finales heads toward the final fade-out, it's a role that suits "Sanders" perfectly, for while "Seinfeld" saluted its own cleverness, "Sanders" celebrates subversion -- with TV itself playing the poor, subverted saps.

What a refreshing counterpoint to that Jerry Jubilee. (Delivering one last dash of irony, Seinfeld will show up on the "Sanders" swan song).

The second HBO series to penetrate the public consciousness -- "Dream On" was the first -- "Sanders" piggybacked on the rocket ride of late-night TV from merely entertaining to monumentally melodramatic thanks to the Goodbye Johnny/Hello Jay/Goodbye Dave (NBC)/Hello Dave (CBS)/Conan Who?/ Arsenio "I'll Kick Leno's Ass!" Hall hysteria of the early '90s. Never before was media mockery so ready-made and TV self-obsession so ripe for razzing. And never before did the medium send itself up with such utterly unsentimental, unforgiving glee.

"The Larry Sanders Show," focusing on a fictional talk show fronted by an incredibly insecure, neurotic nebbish who was surrounded by a staff of sniping sycophants, took us behind the stage and the lights and the sunny smiles to expose -- often profanely -- rabid show-biz egotism with a wicked wink and a sly smile.

Front-and-center among the outstanding ensemble were sniveling sidekick Hank Kingsley (played to pathetic perfection by Jeffrey Tambor); hilariously profane producer Artie (Rip Torn, in the role of a lifetime); and Larry Sanders himself, played cannily by Shandling as an emotionally tangled mess of a man who only seemed to exist for the camera -- even when he was off-camera. Shandling's Sanders was a hugely successful, world-famous loser who knew how to be "Larry Sanders" but not Larry Sanders: A guy who could see his reflection in the TV camera -- but not his bedroom mirror.

And credit a calvacade of famous faces (Carol Burnett, Roseanne, Ellen DeGeneres and David Duchovny among them) for showing up as Larry's guests and poking fun at the cynical system -- contrived banter and occasional lies on stage, their own moodiness and temper tantrums off-stage -- that keeps their stars shining in the Hollywood heavens.

With late-night decorum a dim memory, at least as practiced by Steve Allen and Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett, this was the poster series for our post-modern media age. This is the era, after all, in which the self-absorbed vanity of our stars -- so scrupulously private years ago, so painfully public now -- became just as entertaining and, sadly in some cases, more entertaining than their on-stage talents. "Sanders" was the first true insider series for an "Entertainment Tonight"-tinted culture -- heck, don't we all read the Hollywood trades these days? -- in which even the bag boy at Vons knows about Dave's ratings, Jay's demographics and Conan's contract.

And, given its cable cachet -- and while series such as "Ellen" suffered for storming the walls of societal standards on broadcast TV -- "Sanders" got away with everything from pithy profanity to, in a recent episode, a lengthy, lusty same-sex smooch between two men.

But mostly, the fearlessly funny "Larry Sanders Show" will be remembered as a blistering reality check -- "Yoo-hoo, America? This is INSANITY!" -- for a society drunk on celebrity gossip and worship. A well-timed, desperately needed needling of raging Hollywood paranoia, narcissism and neuroses.

It seems entirely appropriate that, in this merry month of TV May-hem, "The Larry Sanders Show" is the last of the comedy quartet to tip its hat to America. With its cynical-to-the-bone clarity, no series is better suited to have the last word.

THIS & THAT: Finally, Channel 21 has new call letters: KVWB. After dumping the UPN network for the WB (Warner Bros.) the station was still stuck with KUPN until it could petition the Federal Communications Commission for new call letters. The new VWB moniker stands for "Vegas Warner Brothers." ... After a 16-week run on Channel 21, the locally-produced show "The Entertainment Files" with Nick Lewin and Sean Ross has been signed for a yearlong run on Channel 33. ... UNLV's KUNV 91.5-FM is bulking up its jazz programming at the expense of its alternative rock programming. "Rock Ave." has been booted, and the station is now playing 'round-the-clock jazz on weekdays. Weekend programming, with a potpourri of folk, blues, bluegrass, reggae and Spanish-language shows, remains unchanged. ...

University Medical Center will benefit from the 16th annual Children's Miracle Network Telethon, which will air live from Disney World from 6 p.m. Saturday through 3 p.m. Sunday on Channel 5. It will be anchored nationally by Mary Hart, Marie Osmond, John Schneider, Marilyn McCoo, Merlin Olsen and Mary Lou Retton. Local segments, originating from Channel 5, will be hosted by new Channel 5 news anchor Angelica Urquijo and the station's Lillian McMorris, Jack London, Christine Mahoney, Colleen McCarty and Daryl Hood. Also participating: Channel 3's Kendall Tenney, Andrew Smith and Sue Manteris; KXNT-AM's Jay Casey; Fred Lewis of K-News Radio; Michele Berk; Susan Anton and her husband, Jeff Lestor; Bo Jackson of KLUC Radio; and Sonny Charles and Sweet Louie of the Checkmates.

CROON A TUNE: It wasn't just my imagination, runnin' away with me -- Alex Jeanos actually was the first reader to contact Dial File because he knew that the recently-concluded "Murphy Brown" used the catalog of Motown Records to provide alternating theme songs each week.

Thanks, Big A, for being able to STOP! In The Name Of Love, Before You Croon A Tune.

Next? What sitcom theme acknowledged that ""makin' your way in the world today takes everything you got"? Why don't you take a break from all your worries -- it sure would help a lot -- and get away to your phone or computer to call or e-mail us with the correct answer. Be the first and hallowed be thy name in next week's Dial File.

Amen.

HOT 'LIPS': Always a hotbed of innovation, local news is now mouthing off in a brand new way. Miami's WAMI-TV will feature a one-minute 11 p.m. newscast called "Lips at 11" featuring a tight shot of a sexy pair of lips reading the day's headlines. If the feature catches on, the hunt will be on for "celebrity lips" to give viewers the nightly kiss-off.

Imagine the day that TV goes seriously interactive: With every newscast, stations will provide viewers with breath mints, a bottle of Listerine and this disclaimer:

"Keep your tongues to yourselves."