60 best sitcoms of all time

12. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show

Before he was Larry Sanders, Garry Shandling played a fake version of himself in this little gem of an off-the-wall half-hour comedy. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show destroyed the fourth wall well before other series made that cool, with all the characters being aware that they were on a TV show and Garry often messing with plot elements to move things along, or just because he could.

That rule-breaking, self-effacing tone was what made the series so hilarious from start to finish. For example, there’s an episode where Garry tells the audience to make themselves at home and then the main set appears as if they’ve thrown a raucous party in his absence. This is also the series that gave us the best theme song that’s ever made it to TV – Bill Lynch’s appropriately titled “This is the Theme to Garry’s Show.” It was as if the entire series was taking itself just seriously enough, and lo and behold it worked.

It’s fun now to talk to the audience or to make meta commentary. We have an entire Sharknado franchise of TV-movies based on the idea of seriously portraying ridiculous things. But It’s Garry Shandling’s Show did that decades ago and still has done it better than almost any other project after. If nothing else, you have to give it credit for making possible The Larry Sanders Show, which found its own acclaim two years later.

Next: 11. The Larry Sanders Show