Garry Shandling

The comic, who died Thursday, told Fresh Air that it took him years to develop a style — and then he got dumped. "That was really the beginning of the Garry Shandling dating years in stand-up."

Garry Shandling parodied TV talk shows on The Larry Sanders Show, which ran on HBO from 1992 to 1998 and is now out in a four-DVD box set. It's called Not Just the Best of "The Larry Sanders Show" — in part because it features eight hours of extras, including essentially unedited conversations with stars who made guest appearances on the Larry Sanders sofa.

He starred in HBO's parody of talk-shows, The Larry Sanders Show. It featured Shandling as a veteran talk-show host. His guests included Robin Williams, Howard Stern, and, actual talk show host, David Letterman playing themselves. The show went off the air in 1998, but reruns of the show are currently airing on the network Bravo. Shandling also starred in It's Garry Shandling's Show. Shandling also appears in the new Seinfeld documentary, Comedian,which shows in theaters now.

Judd Apatow was a teenager when he first "met" comic Garry Shandling in a phone interview for his high school radio show. Years later, their paths intersected again when Shandling, who was hosting the Grammy Awards, hired Apatow to write jokes for him.