Just one of the tragedies of Gary Shandling's death is that, as far as comedy is concerned, he was always ahead of his time.
The late comedian -- who died on Thursday after a "medical emergency" -- helped birth so much of the life-imitating-art-imitating-life meta-comedy that we love today. Case in point, this home tour Shandling gave ET's Leeza Gibbons in 1986 to prove the set of his Showtime series, It's Gary Shandling's Show, was "almost identical" to his real home.
"All kidding aside, those people who have seen my show on cable -- it's designed after this house," Shandling explained. "It's a pathetic thing. Since basically I can't act, the thing to do is get me in an environment where I can just be like this."
If for no other reason, watch the tour to remember how hilarious Shandling always was -- like when he jokes that he decorated the clutter-filled loft himself or details the mirror he's going to hang above his bed, explaining, "Objects are larger than they appear." And this was all before Cribs, too!
In January, Shandling appeared on an episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee -- unfortunately named, "It's Great That Garry Shandling Is Still Alive" -- and was asked about how his other show, HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, influenced future shows like The Office and Modern Family.
"I knew when I explained to HBO what I wanted to do, I couldn't say, 'It's a little bit of this show and a little bit of that show.' I couldn't even do that," he recalled. "Let me tell you something, I was crazy. I said, 'This doesn't even exist! The world doesn't even exist! What are you doing?'"
Find out more about Shandling's unexpected death in the video below.