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"Am I funny today?" Shandling asks Paul Simms, 27, Sanders' coproducer, writer, and font of late-night knowledge from his two years of writing for Letterman. "Yes," Simms says matter-of-factly. "Am I off today?" "No." "Does the show work?" "Yes." "Does the episode work?" "Yes." "Do you like these shoes?" Simms doesn't answer, so Shandling redirects his patented panic-attack act. Even as Shandling has been negotiating to join NBC, a camera crew from the network's embattled newsmagazine, Dateline NBC, has been following him around. They're doing a piece on Sanders, and the segment's producer is trying to sell Shandling on a cross-promotional opportunity-to have Dateline coanchor Stone Phillips simultaneously guest- star on Sanders. "Are you getting anything good?" Shandling asks NBC's cameraman. Then, turning back to Simms, he says, "I want to talk to you about having Storm Phillips do the show." "Who?" Simms asks. "That's Stone Phillips," the Dateline producer corrects him. "Oh, he's not a weatherman?" Shandling asks in mock bewilderment. "That puts a kink in the situation." It's only one of many NBC digs Shandling drops for the Dateline crew. When they accidentally step in front of one of Sanders' cameras, he jibes, "When you die, they don't say, 'You were on Dateline? You go up!'" Then, under his breath, he mutters, "NBC, network of the stars. Congratulations on those late- night moves." With such withering sarcasm dripping on NBC from Shandling's famously puffy lips, it's no wonder he eventually decided to turn down the network's tempting offer. Whether CBS can lure him away, however, remains to be seen. "My motivations for working have never been either money or awards," he says. "Although I wouldn't really mind seeing a thousand-dollar bill in a frame saying 'Best Show.'" He seems to back up his claim later when an HBO exec informs him that Sanders has been nominated for Best Sitcom in the first- ever American Television Awards. (It lost to Seinfeld.) He accepts her congratulations, then asks, "What are the American Television Awards? I've never heard of them." Shandling may not know his Emmys (for which Sanders and his previous It's Garry Shandling's Show have never been nominated) from his CableACEs (his shows have won 10 combined), but he has read the rave reviews showered on Sanders last season (for this season, see page 40) and realizes the pressure that universal praise can bring down on a high-quality television program. "When a show first comes on the air, there's a freshness to it," Shandling says, "but like anything in life, you can get used to it, and it can get boring if you're not careful." He's speaking from experience, having pulled the plug on his previous show in 1990 when he felt it had run its course after four years. One of the ways Shandling and his writers are trying to keep Sanders fresh is by bombarding Larry with new crises in the series' second-season premiere: David Letterman moves opposite his show; Chevy Chase takes away one of his stations; he's not nominated for an Emmy; and his second wife, Jeannie, leaves him. This caused an abrupt cast change: China Beach's Megan Gallagher, who played Jeannie, is gone. Shandling stresses that the decision was a creative choice, not the result of any personality conflict with Gallagher. (The actress declined to comment.) But Larry won't be lonely for long. I'll Fly Away's Kathryn Harrold joins the cast as Larry's first ex-wife, Francine, a journalist who reluctantly rekindles their romance on the condition that Larry stops being so self- involved and career obsessed. Ironically, Shandling first met Harrold when he, as guest host, interviewed her on The Tonight Show. "It wasn't a particularly brilliant interview on either of our parts," Harrold recalls.

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