MovieChat Forums > The Larry Sanders Show (1992) Discussion > Paula's departure and episode order

Paula's departure and episode order


On the new dvd set, it seems that maybe some epiosdes are out of order. I didn't write down the details, but in the DVD set, in season 5:
- Mary-Lou appears in an episode by herself
- 1 or 2 episodes later Paula is breaking Mary-Lou in as a bumbling new booker, on the verge of being fired any time
- another episode or 2 later comes the one where Paula almost quits to produce a daytime show, but Larry makes her assistant producer to Artie instead. And when she tells Larry she's leaving, she says Sally and Susie are ready to take over (those weren't the names she used, but she definitely didn't say Mary-Lou) Artie makes such a stink that Larry instead fires Paula after all, only to see Artie talk Paula into staying on as his assistant at the very end of the episode

Then we never see Paula again. I think the nebulous nature of Paula's fading out of the show had something to do with Janeane Garafalo having other career commitments. But does anyone know if the order I described above was the order in which the episodes were aired originally? And, is that the order they were shot? I know they changed the order of some episodes in season 1, but have never read about it happening later. But the order of the 3 Paula/Mary Lou episodes I described seem to be backwards, or mixed up somehow. Can anyone shed some light?

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I can picture every move
that a man could make

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I'm just watching them myself. I'm only in Season 2 and what I don't understand is why Paula (Janeane Garofalo) wasn't the booker for the show. Instead a new character was introduced, Kiki. So weird :(

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I think Kiki only appeared in a couple of season 2 episodes, again because Garafalo was unavailable (maybe due to SNL commitments?) But the show never explained why Paula was away then, just as they never spell out why she left during season 5.

Jerry the writer (Jeremy Piven) had a good farewell episode, Darlene sort of had one, though she wasn't in it (Hank gets a telegram from her saying she won't be back), but Paula never had a proper goodbye. I guess we are to assume that she left her job to go produce another show. They also didn't bring back Paula in the finale episode, whereas they did bring Jerry, Darlene, and Sid's brother back.

Part of it is that a real life talk show would have a much bigger staff than what was portrayed on Larry Sanders. One of the directors or writers says that in one of the dvd commentaries.

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I can picture every move
that a man could make

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I was surprised J.G. didn't return for the Series Finale.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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Bump as a companion to the other Paula thread.

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No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity

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No, she wasn't missing due to SNL commitments. When she went to SNL she left the show. She was also standup and may have had some commitments along that line.

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Janeane Garafalo had long been done with SNL when she left this show. She was fairly big name in Hollywood in the late 90's. The Truth About Cats & Dogs was a pretty big hit. She left exactly when that movie came out, so I'm assuming it's because of bigger projects coming up.

Look at all these dudes. I knew I smelled sausage.

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