The question is not if The Larry Sanders Show is the funniest programme on television - because it indisputably is - but whether it is the best programme on television? Consider the evidence: it's easily got as much "sit" and "com" as Fawlty Towers; it's got the same drama-documentary feel as This Life; and in its own bizarre way it's as much a mini morality tale as anything that the combined forces of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 can summon up.
Why oh why, then, is it always surgically attached as an appendage to Seinfeld on the schedules and, worse still, why is it withdrawn from us with no notice for months on end only to reappear mysteriously with nothing by way of apology?
The fact that Sanders and Seinfeld are both American and both, broadly speaking, comedies shouldn't mean they can be packaged as a "two for the price of one" laugh-along, or that one logically and seamlessly segues into the other. By rights, Seinfeld belongs in the same place as similarly structured and similarly written US sitcoms such as Friends and Kramer - all three valiantly attempt to break out of the "enter character(s), build up comedy scenario, cue universal misunderstandings, resolve dilemma, roll credits" scenario, but seem magnetically attracted to the mainstream by a surfeit of "cutesy-wutesy" sensibilities.
Seinfeld, to its credit, at least reverses the normal convention of a stand-up comic writing a sitcom by positioning the stand-up at the centre of the sitcom action. Starring real life comic Jerry Seinfeld (he's big in Las Vegas) a lot of the action and script of Seinfeld is devolved to the supporting cast of his friend George (Woody Allen should sue about this character), his neighbour Kramer and his ex, Elaine.
With the same sort of character-positioning and profile that can be found in anything from Only Fools And Horses to Father Ted, it relies on a classic narrative that draws its humour not just from the interaction between the characters but from the plethora of misunderstandings and possibilities of comic confusion that arise when external agents impinge on the script. Tightly written, with an almost clinical laughs-to-lines ratio, it remains a good show, if somewhat hidebound by its own parameters and adherence to a text-book, college educated comedy ethos.
The Larry Sanders Show, by sublime contrast, draws from a richer seam of comic possibility by breaking all standard television comedy rules and instead being informed by the more theatrical device of "appearance vs reality". Garry Shandling (who plays the wonderful Larry) based the show on his own experiences when he used to guest host the American talk shows The Tonight Show and Late Night With David Letterman.
Intrigued by the Erving Goffman-like discrepancy between what is acted out in front of the cameras and what happens behind them (worries about the calibre of the guests, the competitors, the ratings, the monologues and office "politics"), the show uses the "play within a play" format and as such is layered, resonant and gleefully contradictory. From the incredibly realistic side-kick, Hank, who everyone hates but has to pretend to like, through to the sarky and belligerent, but curiously charming, producer Arthur (splendidly realised by Rip Torn), Sanders is not just refreshingly naturalistic in its portrayal of office life but also quite chillingly nasty when it wants to be.
Unlike the portrayal of women in Friends, Kramer and Seinfeld - all of the "nice but a bit ditzy" singular dimension - the women in Sanders are as lying, manipulative and deceitful as they come when the situation demands it.
When other sitcoms have "guest stars" (like Burt Reynolds in Friends) they are used in an as anodyne a manner as possible: the real life guest stars on Sanders throw showbiz tantrums, curse, lie, insult people and generally act the way they do in real life.
The contrast between the way the principal characters act when on camera and supposedly off camera (but not to the viewer) heightens the sense of voyeurism and the prospect of secrets being revealed.
The characters' relationship to each other is dictated by the amount of knowledge each has about the other, which is crucial in out-manoeuvring their opponents - and everyone in Sanders is everyone else's opponent, no Friends-style caring and sharing here.
The programme is as radical as they come in that it undermines the very medium it is transmitted on. The whole pretence of television, and particularly the sort of show Sanders parodies, is that come lights, camera, action, everyone smiles, is on their best behaviour and is ever ready with a blander than bland quip to establish the atmosphere. The fact that your average, affable and grinning host could behave in a manner more reminiscent of a mildly psychotic dictator and preside over an office that is a cauldron of backstabbing, escalating neuroses and general malevolence brings a much needed perspective to the whole exercise.
Quietly doing for American television what Chris Morris and his spoof documentaries are doing for British television, The Larry Sanders Show and all who sail in it are heroes for our time.
Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show go out on BBC 2 on Tuesday nights at 11.15 p.m. and 11.40 p.m. respectively.