“Nice guys finish first. If you don’t know that, then you don’t know where the finish line is.” So wrote Garry Shandling in his What I’ve Learned piece for Esquire. Shandling died unexpectedly at the age of 66. If you like the high quality content you see on television today, then you owe some gratitude to Garry Shandling.

+ His last interview was on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It’s title: It’s Great That Garry Shandling Is Still Alive.

+ Amy Wallace: The last email Garry Shandling ever sent me.

+ We also lost Ken Howard this week. A good actor and, by all accounts, a great guy. And as Tim Goodman explains: For a certain segment of TV viewers, Howard will always be remembered as The White Shadow.