Editing Garry Shandling (section)

===Stand-up comedy===
Shandling said that he became a stand-up comedian because of an incident that happened one day at a story meeting for ''[[Three's Company]]'', in which one of the show's producers complained about a line of dialogue and said, "Well, [[List of Three's Company characters#Chrissy Snow|Chrissy]] wouldn't say that."<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/09/catching-up-with-david-mirkin.html| title=Catching up with David Mirkin| journal=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]| date=September 17, 2012| access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref><ref>[[David Mirkin]]</ref> He recalled, "I just looked. I said, 'I don't think I can do this.' And I stopped right there and went on to perform."<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.upi.com/Cathys-World-Garry-Shandlings-Larry/52871040860003/| title=Cathy's World: Garry Shandling's 'Larry'| website=UPI| access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref>

In 1978, Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at [[The Comedy Store]]. A year later, he was one of the few performers to [[Strikebreaker|cross the picket line]] when a group of comedians organized a boycott against the Comedy Store, protesting owner [[Mitzi Shore]]'s policy of not paying comedians to perform. According to [[William Knoedelseder]], Shandling "was the scion of a family with decidedly [[Union busting|antiunion]] views. He had not shared the struggling comic experience. He was a successful sitcom writer trying to break into stand-up, and prior to the strike, Shore had refused to put him in the regular lineup because she didn't think he was good enough. Of course, that changed the minute he crossed the picket line."<ref>{{cite book| last=Knoedelseder| first=William| year=2009| title=I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era| publisher=Public Affairs Books| url=https://archive.org/details/imdyingupherehea00knoe/page/262/mode/2up?q=shandling| location=New York| page=262| isbn=978-1-5864-8317-3}}</ref>

Shandling's onstage persona was an anxiety-ridden, nervous, uptight, conservative man on the verge of a breakdown.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://forward.com/culture/336992/why-garry-shandling-was-one-of-the-greatest-jewish-comedians-ever/| title=Why Garry Shandling Was One of the Greatest Jewish Comedians Ever| website=[[The Forward]]| date=March 25, 2016| first=Jason| last=Diamond| access-date=April 27, 2023}}</ref> After a couple of years on the road, he was booked by a talent scout from ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' to appear as a guest in 1981. Shandling substituted for Carson on a regular basis until 1987,<ref name=deadline /> when he left to focus on his cable show, leaving [[Jay Leno]] as permanent guest host and Carson's eventual successor.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

In 1984, Shandling performed his first stand-up special, ''Garry Shandling: Alone in Vegas'' for [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]],<ref>{{cite news| last=Erickson| first=Hal| url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/62749/Garry-Shandling-Alone-in-Las-Vegas/overview| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021213215/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/62749/Garry-Shandling-Alone-in-Las-Vegas/overview|url-status=dead| archive-date=October 21, 2012| department=Movies & TV Dept.| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| title=Garry Shandling: Alone in Las Vegas (1984)| author-link=Hal Erickson (author)| date=October 21, 2012| access-date=June 23, 2009}}</ref> followed by a second televised special in 1986, ''The Garry Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special'', also for Showtime.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363631| title=The Garry Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special (1986)| website=[[IMDb]]| access-date= June 23, 2009}}</ref> In 1991, a third special, ''Garry Shandling: Stand-Up,'' was part of the ''[[HBO]] Comedy Hour''.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://tv.nytimes.com/show/48296/Garry-Shandling-Stand-Up/details| title=Garry Shandling: Stand-Up| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=June 23, 2009| archive-date=February 25, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225200519/http://tv.nytimes.com/show/48296/Garry-Shandling-Stand-Up/details| url-status=dead}}</ref>