Comedian Garry Shandling is remembered for creating two ground-breaking TV shows: “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” He was also a key mentor to Hollywood writer and director Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”; “Knocked Up”). After Shandling’s death in 2016, Apatow gained access to his mentor’s diaries. He draws upon them for his two-part HBO documentary “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling.”

Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers interviews Apatow about Shandling and his search for meaning. Apatow gives credit to his collaborators including producer Michael Bonfiglio, editor Joe Beshenkovsky and composer Mike Andrews. He also invokes Doug Block’s documentary “51 Birch Street”  as an influence on putting diaries into a documentary.

The conversation touches upon the #MeToo movement and references two articles by Janis Hirsch:

Comedy Writer Reveals Lurid Details of Sexual Harassment on Set – And Why it Cost Her a Job (October 2017)

I Worked for Garry Shandling, and Judd Apatow’s Doc Shows a Man I Never Knew (March 2018)

On Twitter: @JuddApatow @HBODocs @thompowers @PureNonfiction

Pure Nonfiction is distributed by the TIFF podcast network.