Garry Shandling died 5 years ago today. In thinking about him this morning, I realized the very first - and last - time I saw him involved the same kind of restaurant and the same exact joke. "The Cow Joke." Which became a 35 year running mock "argument" for us (well, for him). 
We met 41 yrs ago this week. March 20, 1980. I was a student stand-up in The UCLA Comedy Club. We'd each do a short set, then a professional headliner (we paid $50) would close. Garry was the headliner. He saw my set and asked if I wanted to try writing with him.
We went to The Good Earth in Westwood, where I pitched: "Why is it whenever people pass a cow on the side of the road they stick their head out the window and say 'moo?' Are they expecting the cow to be thinking: 'Hey, there's a cow driving that car?'"
Garry added the tags "How can he afford that?" & "He's driving a Mercedes, I'm out here eating grass" (the biggest laughs, BTW). After he did it on Carson, he began what became a 35 year "joke" about who actually *wrote* the Cow Joke. It came up (I'm not kidding) 5 times a year.
CUT TO JANUARY, 2016: I'm at Real Food Daily in Santa Monica, and I see Garry come in and sit with a few others. I call the waiter over and ask him to go up and say "Excuse me, Mr. Shandling, I'm a big fan of the first *half* of The Cow Joke." Garry laughed, then rose.
He came over and we talked for quite a while. We actually spoke about that first night. He said "You were right about that Albert Brooks thing." He was referring to the fact that on that first night at the Good Earth, we'd run into Albert Brooks, who was eating alone.
Garry introduced me to him, and on the way to our table, Garry said "My goal is to one day make 'Albert Brooks movies.'" 15 yrs or so later (1995?), Garry asked me to read a draft of his movie, "What Planet Are You From?" I commented that it seemed like too "big" a movie for him.
I referenced that first night, and said that at its core, WPAYF was a super personal story (in order to procreate, a man needs to learn how to commit to a romantic relationship). Now was his chance to do an "Albert Brooks movie." But Garry (and the studio) had a different goal.
We made a plan to connect, to which (in typical Garry form) he wouldn't commit. He said something like he was trying to be better about committing to things, though he wasn't sure he needed to. I said something like "Oh, so you can't even commit to whether or not you can commit?"
He looked at me without laughing (or even smiling) and said: "I'm laughing hard right now." I think those were his last words to me. And now, as with The Cow Joke, I can't really come up with an ending for this. So I'll leave it at that. (His last words were better anyhow.)
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