The "Hey Now" Episode of The Garry Shandling Show

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The "Hey Now" Episode of The Garry Shandling Show

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The Larry Sanders Show: “Hey Now”

Kyle Ryan Aug 28, 2011 • 12PM
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The Larry Sanders Show
“Hey Now”·S1 / E13
“Hey Now” (season 1, episode 13, original airdate Nov. 7, 1992)
Opening credits guests: N/A
Hank’s introduction of Larry in the opening credits: N/A

In the featurette that accompanies the season one DVD, Garry Shandling mentions “Hey Now” was the first episode they shot for The Larry Sanders Show after HBO gave them a 13-episode order. “The tone was a little heavy, but good I thought,” he says.

Netflix Instant starts season one with “Hey Now” (and closes with “The Talk Show”), and that order actually makes more sense thematically. “The Talk Show” sets up the end of Larry’s marriage in season two, and “Hey Now” just feels like more of an introductory episode. It seems like Larry would voice his objection to Hank’s catchphrase—and his excessive work outside the show—at the start of the series, not the end of Larry Sanders’ first season.

Other telltale signs of the “Hey Now” coming early in the production: Hank’s “I’d like to fuck her” comment about Darlene. It’s completely out of character; yes, Hank is a dirtbag (remember the stripper from his good-bye party?), but he has a much more of a paternal relationship with Darlene. Granted, he eventually makes a pass at her in a later season, but his comment is jarringly crass.

The scene where Larry goes over the jokes with the writers feels introductory as well, like it’s establishing his relationship with them—it also features Jerry, who’s the lead writer but doesn’t appear until the second episode, “The Promise.” It’d make more sense to see him here than when we meet Piven the first time, when he, Larry, and Phil are trying to sell Shatner on the Star Trek sketch.

Beyond Piven’s introduction, that scene gives us the sense that Larry’s comedic chops have atrophied since his days as a standup. There’s great moment where Phil asks if it’s true Janet Jackson is going to be on the show...

The Larry Sanders Show: ?Hey Now? · The A.V. Club

In trying to find the actual first instance of Hank using the expression, "Hey Now" I was continually left grasping at smoke until I read the column cited here. Apparently, this episode is and isn't the first episode of TGSS. (Read the article to understand what I mean.)

So, if it IS the first episode of the series, it is also the first introduction of Hank's catchphrase.

If this isn't the first episode of the series then he still, unconfirmed by me either way, may have uttered the phrase on air in an earlier episode.

Anyway...

This is probably the episode which marked the beginning of the now familiar catchphrase.

It entered the national vocabulary thanks not only to this series, but due to one dedicated fan of the show using it on the nationwide Radio airwaves regularly, himself.

That dedicated fan being one, Mr.Howard Stern.

Howard uses the phrase so much, in fact, it has become HIS identifying catchphrase too!

Howard's use of it is, of course, an homage, of sorts, to Hank Kingsley. But it is also in reality, a sign of how well the show was written by Shandling and the show's co-creator.

So, enjoy!

Hey Now!