Throughout the series, the show brought many stars onto the set to play themselves. People like Sharon Stone and (a much slimmer) Alec Baldwin appear in the first two discs alone. What I found funny were people that have become stars since this show ended. When I first saw Janeane Garofalo, I thought she was going to be a speaker on the show within the show. But at the time, she wasn't all that known and she played Larry Sanders' assistant. The show also had stars like Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor as major characters (they played the show's producer and announcer respectively).
Some of my favorite episodes are in this boxed set. One such show was when Larry was charged with finding a replacement host for the series after his (the 12:30 spot). Tons of stars and semi-stars show up throughout the episode trying to put their bid in for the role and even funny man Bobcat Goldthwait, who is Larry's prime choice, shows up and auditions. If you ever wondered how he sounds and acts when he isn't performing, this is a rare time to find out.
My only real complaint about the DVD set was that the episodes didn't really seem to be in any particular order. In one episode, Larry would be dating his ex-wife, in the next he would talk about how they broke up again and then in the next, he would talk about them just getting together. Since the shows weren't in chronological order, it was very hard to keep track of what exactly was going on, so unless you are already a fan of series and remember the overall storyline, then you might find yourself a bit lost.
The special features come in two types of interviews, those with the cast in your standard interview format, and the "private conversations" that Garry Shandling recorded for this DVD. The conversations are the more interesting of the two by far. In these meetings, Garry goes out and arranges a meeting with one of the guest stars from the show (Jerry Seinfield, Jon Stewart, Carol Burnett, etc.) and they talk about what they remember from that episode as well as various other things. You get to find out interesting facts like apparently Garry and Sharon Stone dated at one point, Alec Baldwin was really intimidated because he felt like being on a comedy show was out of his element and tons of other stuff. My favorite of these would have to be the very first one. Garry and Alec meet up at a gym and box with each other. Neither of them are in great shape and Garry seems to push a couple of Alec's buttons that get him a bit riled up. Apparently this interview happened just after Alec's divorce and it was a bit of a touchy subject. He doesn't like Garry outright questioning his security and masculinity.
Anyway, this box set is a season's worth of the best episodes from the show. If you aren't planning on getting the seasons as they come out on DVD, but you were still a fan of the show, then this is a good purchase. If you aren't really interested in the show, or don't really remember it, then you might not want to get this, because even though it is the best of The Larry Sanders Show, the fact that the episodes aren't really in any kind of order really hurts it for first time viewers.
