List of minor characters on The Larry Sanders Show

This is a list of recurring minor characters on the American comedy series "The Larry Sanders Show".

Melanie Parrish

Infobox character
name = "Melanie Parrish"
first = "The Garden Weasel"
last = "Adolf Hankler"
gender = Female
age = 40s
occupation = Vice President of Programming at the network
portrayer = Deborah May
creator = Peter Tolan

Melanie Parrish is a network executive who often gets into conflicts with Larry. In the episode "The Garden Weasel," it is mentioned that Melanie has recently been made the Vice President of Programming at the network, which makes her in charge of late night programming. Also in the episode, Melanie forces Larry to begin performing live commercials for products that sponsor the show. Larry tries to get out of it and ends up being hit in the face by Melanie.

Melanie is tough and often uses foul language to prove her point. Artie mentions that Melanie reminds him of a man that he killed in Korea.

heldon Davidoff

Infobox character
name = "Sheldon Davidoff"
first = "The Garden Weasel"
last = "Larry's Agent"
gender = Male
age = 60s or 70s
occupation = Network president
portrayer = James Karen
creator = Peter Tolan

Sheldon "Shel" Davidoff is the president of the network. He is close friends with Artie and they associate together outside of work.

An old school executive, Sheldon carries himself in dignified manner, never swearing or raising his voice around the office. In stark contrast to other executives at "the network", he seems to displays genuine care and compassion for the people he deals with at work.

Norman Litkey

Infobox character
name = "Norman Litkey"
first = "A Brush with the Elbow of Greatness"
last = "Flip"
gender = Male
age = 40s
occupation = Publicist
portrayer = David Paymer
creator = Maya Forbes & Peter Tolan

Norman Litkey is Larry's publicist throughout the series.

He's a bald, slightly neurotic showbiz insider who seemingly derives enormous amounts of personal satisfaction from exploiting anything and everything for publicity purposes.

Norman makes his first appearance in episode #12 in order to handle the fallout following an incident involving Larry that occurred at a supermarket in Larchmont Village. Local newscast runs a piece in which shopper named Carol Biederman accuses Larry of knocking her into a magazine rack by pushing in front of her in the checkout line. Larry doesn't remember doing any such thing and maintains his innocence saying he only recalls having a splitting headache that night and quickly running into the supermarket to get some Excedrin and artichokes. Naturally, due to Larry's celebrity, the story generates some media interest that quickly goes into overdrive once the supermarket's security camera footage suddenly surfaces. The tape is obtained by "Entertainment Tonight", however, Artie gets a copy before it airs and watches it with Larry thus realizing that contrary to Larry's recollection, the late-night star clearly did bump this woman into a rack. Depressed about the tape airing in a few hours, they summon publicty man Norman Litkey who's surprisingly cheerful about what happened, referring to it as "publicity bonanza" and repeatedly exclaiming in delight: "Gentlemen, I'm wetting myself". Norman mentions to Larry that instead of publicly apologizing to Ms. Biederman like she demanded, thereby immediately nipping the whole thing in the bud, he should ride the wave of publicity and enjoy the increased viewership this extra attention will surely bring. Or as Norman puts it: "let's not kill this cow before we've milked it", before drawing comparisons to the 1990 Roseanne Barr incident at a baseball game that projected her show from number twelve to number one in the ratings. Reluctantly, Larry agrees to hold off the apology and see how the thing plays out over the next few days. Depressed from the relentless beating he's taking in the media for what he did, Larry spends most of his time locked in his office saying he wants to quit show business and move to Montana. He finally reaches a point where he can't take it any longer and decides to apologize. Norman supports his decision, seeing it now as "the right, human, and only thing to do", however, in order to maximize the publicity effect he suggests Larry do it by having the woman on the show, which Larry reluctantly agrees to again.

Norman makes a comeback when Larry and Sharon Stone begin to date, looking to exploit his client's relationship with a major Hollywood star for publicity. His advice to Larry is to "get his head right in close to Sharon" when the paparazzi are taking her photos outside of restaurants. As Larry is rolling his eyes at the suggestion, Norman proceeds to explain "the second law of thermodynamics" to his client: "heat always passes from a hotter body to a cooler body, and never the other way around - see, you're getting her heat, and that means the show is getting heat, and that means my kids will eat". Surprised Larry asks: "You have kids?", to which Norman has a ready retort: "There're some kids in my neighborhood, who give a shit".

tevie Grant

Infobox character
name = "Stevie Grant"
first = "Larry's Agent"
last = "Flip"
gender = Male
age = late 20s to early 30s
occupation = Talent agent
portrayer = Bob Odenkirk
creator = Garry Shandling, Paul Simms, Maya Forbes, and Drake Sather

Steven "Stevie" Grant is Larry's obnoxious agent. High-strung and cajoling, he often uses a combination of profane and ostentatious language to punctuate his points.

His appearances on the show are always accompanied by great turmoil and tension, such as: contract negotiations, network sale, walk-off threats, new host takeovers, etc.

Unlike with his previous agent Leo, Larry maintains a strictly professional relationship with Stevie, without any socializing.

Stevie, a young aggressive hot-shot Hollywood agent on the way up, is introduced in episode #18 as Larry's contract is being renegotiated by his longtime agent and friend - Leo. Seemingly unrelated to the ongoing renegotiation, Stevie stops by the show and greets Artie and Larry backstage following the director Barry Levinson's segment on the show. Stevie says he's only there to "hold Levinson's hand" because he signed him the previous week, but doesn't miss an opportunity to ask how the renegotiation is going while encouraging Larry to keep on by telling him he's got the network by the balls. Stevie then suddenly leans in and says: "Hey, if Leo's having a hard time with this thing, I sure would like to take a shot", to which somewhat flattered Larry politely replies that Leo's got it covered. As Stevie leaves, Artie expresses displeasure at Stevie failing to shake his offered hand at the beginning of the brief encounter while slightly impressed Larry says he thinks Stevie is the next Michael Ovitz. Despite Larry's denials, Artie is already sensing he wants to fire Leo and lets him know as much in front of his girlfriend Francine who even frowns upon the very thought. Soon, however, Larry has lunch with Stevie Grant at Spago and afterwards informs him that he's signing with him. Stevie immediately goes in very aggressively at the network. After running into him in the elevator, Larry is informed by the network president Sheldon Davidoff that Stevie drives an extremely tough bargain. Sheldon also tells him he's surprised Larry would be willing to leave the network and move the show to New York City, all of which Larry hears about for the first time, but plays coy anyway despite just realizing Stevie threw that bluff without even consulting him. Sheldon concludes the brief conversation by saying: "That Stevie Grant has no fears", before trailing off: "Oh well, it isn't his career he's playing with". Larry immediately confronts his new agent for performing such a stunt without keeping him in the loop, but Stevie reassures him it's all about the leverage, telling Larry he'd even be willing to take the syndication deal from King World if he doesn't get the money from the network. Rapidly cooling on Stevie's punch-in-the-gut style, scared Larry confides in Artie that "Stevie Grant is totally out of fucking control". The thing that makes Larry finally decide to dump Stevie is a conversation in which he pushes the New York thing like a real possibility because his agency apparently has good relationship with King World, and "King World is sweet on New York". Talking things over with Artie at the office again, Larry calls his new agent "a prick", "a liar", "two-faced", and "weird" just as Stevie is coming into the room with a new offer from the network written on a piece of paper. Artie excuses himself from the room, while Larry is so sick of everything that he's determined to break things off with Stevie right there before even hearing the offer. As he's delivering his "Listen, Stevie, I've been thinking about a lot of things...." spiel, Stevie hands him the piece of paper and Larry glances at it after a few moments but crucially before getting to the gist of his speech already in progress. Obviously ecstatic with the offered figure, Larry does a complete turnaround on the spot and decides not to get rid of Stevie.

Stevie's next appearance is in the episode #31, which was the second season's finale. After meeting Richard "Dick" Jermaine who represents the foreign beer producer that's about to buy the network, Larry is so displeased with the overall vibe he gets from the man and particularly with his idea to overhaul the show into a "late night news magazine wrap-up of the day's events with a hip MTV sensibility" that he immediately contacts Stevie about his options to leave, citing his inability to work for "this fucking beer nut" as the reason. Stevie's immediate reaction is one of rehearsed loud jubilation: "Yesss, fuck that beer baron! We're fuckin' outta here!" Upon being told by Larry to keep it down, Stevie apologizes by saying "I live for this shit. It gets me all hot and wet." Stevie then informs Larry that he already talked to Ted Harvard at ABC where according to Stevie "they'd kill their grandmothers" to have the "New Larry Sanders Show After Nightline", which, as he also tells Larry, is "unfortunately the title they want to use". In addition to all of the above, Stevie informs Larry that the ABC people want him to do the show from New York City instead of L.A.. Larry is receptive to all of it except for the move to NYC that at one point even prompts him to deliver his by now usual threat of moving to Montana, which Stevie takes half-jokingly by quipping it would make a great sitcom. Faced with a difficult decision under severe pressure from his girlfriend Francine as well as the show's staff who are scared for their jobs, Larry is soon informed by Stevie that the ABC deal is almost locked up and is shown a one year contract figure. Unhappy with the lack of a long term commitment on ABC's part, Larry wonders out loud to Stevie "if Harvard is such a big fan, how come the deal is only for a year". In his retort, Stevie flippantly points out that "these guys never last", adding: "he'll be out of a job within a year and we'll renegotiate". Larry doesn't like any of it, while Stevie attempts to reassure him: "Larry, don't micromanage, let me handle the details". Larry's response verges on anger: "You know what your problem is, Stevie? You're talking to me like you think I believe you", before he goes on stage to do a show at the end of which he announces his retirement and intention to spend the rest of his life in Montana.

In the episode #36 Stevie is livid after finding out Larry agreed to host the People's Choice Awards as a favour to Artie who's producing this year. Stevie is beside himself that Larry made a decision without consulting him. Instead of hosting by himself, which is what he thought he was agreeing to, Larry is angrily informed by Stevie that he actually agreed to co-host with Rita Moreno and Dean Cain. To further drive his point home Stevie makes Larry repeat the following out loud: "Co-hosting detracts from my essential specialness in the marketplace".

When Larry gets addicted to painkillers in the episode #48, thus missing a week of shows and forcing the staff to call Pat Sajak into guest hosting action, he's cared for at his home by old friend Roseanne Barr, and Stevie pays him a visit with a fruit basket in tow. However, while talking to Larry alone, Stevie's much more interested in Roseanne's agent situation at the rival William Morris Agency - at one point even asking Larry whether he knows if she's happy with the representation over there. As jittery and distracted Larry reaches for the wrapped-up fruit basket on the table, Stevie informs him that it's actually for Roseanne while also telling him that his basket won't be ready until tomorrow because "you like that sugar-free shit, right".

In the episode #58, Stevie starts dating the "Larry Sanders Show" talent booker Paula, which soon raises suspicion among the staff that he's only doing it in order to use their relationship as a way to get his lesser known clients such as Ed Begley, Jr., Sally Struthers, Jake Johansen, and Andy Kindler booked on the show.

Leo

Infobox character
name = "Leo"
first = "Larry's Agent"
last =
gender = Male
age = 50s
occupation = Talent agent
portrayer = John Pleshette
creator = Garry Shandling, Paul Simms, Maya Forbes, and Drake Sather

Leo is Larry's longtime agent. He gets dumped by Larry in the middle of contract negotiations as Larry decides to pursue a big money contract with the help of high powered agent Stevie Grant.

Leo is introduced as a good-natured, personable individual whom Larry socializies with outside of work. Although generally happy with Leo's representation, Larry wants to go after "the Letterman money" in the latest contract negotiations as he feels he deserves it after doing the show for six years. However, he can hardly hide his disappointment with the latest offer Leo comes back with after lunch with the network's head of business affairs. Leo explains that Letterman had to leave a network in order to get the kind of money Larry wants, while Larry insists that "we can do better". Asked by Leo how much better, perplexed Larry says "I want you to tell me" before Leo whispers another figure into his ear to which Larry immediately starts shaking his head in disappointment followed by an instruction to Leo to pass on the network's latest official offer. As he departs, Leo good-naturedly asks him "how much of a fight do you want to put up here", to which already somewhat irritated Larry responds "I don't want a fight, Leo, I want you to fight". Couple of days goes out to lunch with Stevie Grant and decides to sign with him, thus dumping Leo. Leo is predictably devastated when broken the news at Larry's home during a dinner also attended by Artie and Francine, but Larry maintains this is strictly a business decision and doesn't want Leo to take it personally. Leo naturally does and their longtime friendship gets ruined.

Dennis

Infobox character
name = "Dennis"
first = "Life Behind Larry"
last = "Everybody Loves Larry"
gender = Male
age = 40s
occupation = Network executive
portrayer = Doug Ballard
creator = Peter Tolan

Dennis is a network executive who favors the idea of cutting costs by replacing Larry with a new host, which would enable the network to dump Larry's huge salary.

Dennis' first appearance took place during episode #20 where he was one of two executives involved with filling the 12:35am spot after Larry's show (the other one being Melanie Parrish). Two of them suggested Bob Saget and Dave Coulier while Larry pushed for Bobcat Goldthwait only to see the job eventually go to Tom Snyder.

In episode #65 (season 4 finale) while he and a fellow executive Melanie Parish discuss guest host Sandra Bernhard's ratings vs. Larry's, Dennis is the first to put forth the idea of replacing their highly paid star. He reasons that since Sandra Bernhard is able to pull the same audience share as Larry and also get a younger demographic, the network would save a lot by bringing in a fresh face that would be willing to work for a lot less than Larry's current salary. Asked by somewhat surprised Melanie if he specifically wants Sandra as a host, Dennis says that it could be anybody (Jon Stewart, Rosie O'Donnell, etc.).

In the next episode, as Jon Stewart gets ready to guest host another week, Dennis, backed up by Melanie, says to Artie that they want to bring Jon in as the permanent guest host or as he puts it: "we want to make sure we have a backup quarterback".

Mike Patterson

Infobox character
name = "Mike Patterson"
first = "Larry's Birthday"
last = "Headwriter"
gender = Male
age = 30s
occupation = Staff writer on "The Larry Sanders Show"
portrayer = John Riggi
creator = Maya Forbes

Michael "Mike" Patterson is a writer who is brought onto the staff before Jerry is fired.

Roger Bingham

Infobox character
name = "Roger Bingham"
first = "Larry's New Love"
last = "The Beginning of the End"
gender = Male
age = mid-to-late 30s
occupation = executive
portrayer = Bruce Greenwood
creator = Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein

Roger Bingham is a slick network executive who favours Jon Stewart to be the host over Larry.

Roger is first mentioned by another network executive Dennis in episode #66 as being someone who "feels very strongly about Jon Stewart".

Roger's first actual appearance on the show is in episode #78 when he steps in along with Kenny Mitchell to retool the "Larry Sanders Show" after it starts to slip in the ratings.

Kenny Mitchell

Infobox character
name = "Kenny Mitchell"
first = "Another List"
last = "Adolf Hankler"
gender = Male
age = 30s
occupation = executive
portrayer = Joshua Malina
creator = Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein

Kenny Mitchell is a network executive brought in to administer major changes to the "Larry Sanders Show" in order to make it appeal to a younger demographic.

Kenny is first introduced tagging along with Roger Bingham, when they drop in to Larry's office unannounced in order to talk to him about "doing a little finetuning to get the numbers up" since he's losing to "Keenan" in certain key cities. To that end, Kenny starts to inform Larry and Artie about the ideas/suggestions that the network's research department has come up with (a more enthusiastic Leno-type opening with running through the audience and shaking their hands, different hairstyle for Larry), but is repeatedly interrupted by disinterested Larry. As the fifth an last suggestion/idea Kenny lists a snappier theme song at which point he plays a tape with the funky number done by "the guy who did the "Singled Out" theme".

Very soon afterwards, Kenny gets assigned to the show as the creative consultant to oversee the implementation of the various changes. Not surprisingly, right from the start he's despised by everyone, especially Artie who calls him a "pimple-faced chaperone".

References