Stiller and Meara were a husband-and-wife

comedy team A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases fo ...

made up of

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

and

Anne Meara Anne Meara Stiller (September 20, 1929 – May 23, 2015) was an American actress and comedian. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer ...

that was popular primarily in the 1960s and 1970s. The duo made frequent appearances on television variety shows such as ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

''.

Career

Stiller and Meara were among the earliest graduates of the Second City improvisational comedy troupe to become famous. When variety shows became scarce in the late 1970s, they had a syndicated short program, only five minutes long, which ran on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

market immediately after ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

''. They also created comical radio advertisements. Their advertisements for

Blue Nun Blue Nun is a German wine brand launched by the company H. Sichel Söhne (Mainz) in 1923 with the 1921 vintage, and which between the 1950s and 1980s was a very popular international brand. For most of its existence, Blue Nun was a single Germ ...

were so effective that they boosted sales of the wine by 500%. During the mid-1970s Stiller and Meara made a couple of appearances together on the sitcom ''

Rhoda ''Rhoda'' is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns starring Valerie Harper that originally aired on CBS for five seasons from September 9, 1974, to December 9, 1978. It was the first spin-off of ''The Mary Tyle ...

.'' (Meara was a semi-regular during that show's third season, and Stiller appeared twice, playing her character's ex-husband.) Anne Meara played Veronica Rooney, a cook on ''

Archie Bunker's Place ''Archie Bunker's Place'' is an American television sitcom produced as a continuation of ''All in the Family''. It aired on CBS from September 23, 1979, to April 4, 1983. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough ...

'' from 1979 to 1982. She often made wisecracks and gave Archie a hard time. She insisted that Archie also hire her openly gay nephew Fred as a waiter to help him pay for law school. She was an alcoholic and privately pined to reconcile with her ex-husband, Carmine (who appeared in a few episodes, played by Stiller), but knew it wasn't going to happen. Meara appeared sporadically throughout the show's third season and left the show before the fourth and final year. Stiller and Meara's career declined, however, as variety series gradually disappeared. The duo's own 1986 TV

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

, ''

The Stiller and Meara Show ''The Stiller and Meara Show'' is a 1986 television sitcom pilot featuring the comedy duo Stiller and Meara (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara) as the deputy mayor of New York (Stiller) and his wife, a TV commercial actress (Meara). Cast *Jerry Stille ...

'', in which Stiller played the deputy mayor of New York City and Meara portrayed his wife, a TV commercial actress, was unsuccessful. Stiller had better luck with his next series, playing George Costanza's father in ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

''. Meara and Stiller starred together in A Fish in the Bathtub in 1998. In 1999 and from 2003 to 2007, Stiller and Meara reunited on several episodes of ''

The King of Queens ''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the show ...

'', on which Stiller played the supporting role of

Arthur Spooner Arthur Eugene Spooner is a fictional character played by Jerry Stiller in the American sitcom ''The King of Queens''. He lives with his daughter Carrie and her husband, Doug Heffernan, in Rego Park, Queens, New York. Biography Little is know ...

. Comedians and actors Amy Stiller and

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of the comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as ...

are their real-life children. In 2014, Stiller and Meara provided the voices of a married RV couple in the animated film '' Planes: Fire and Rescue''. It would be the final time they would work together before Meara's death in 2015. On May 23, 2015, Anne Meara died of a stroke in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York. Prior to Meara's death, the duo starred in a web series from Red Hour Digital, in which they discussed current topics. Jerry Stiller died of natural causes in Manhattan, New York, on May 11, 2020.

Recordings

* ''Presenting America’s New Comedy Sensations!'' (1963,

Verve Verve may refer to: Music * The Verve, an English rock band * ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve * ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album) * Verve Records, an American jazz record label Businesses * Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...

V 15038) * ''The Sex Life of the Primate (and Other Bits of Gossip)'' (1963, Verve V/V6-15043) * ''Ed Sullivan Presents the Last Two People in the World: Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara'' (1967, Columbia CL 2742/CS 9542) * ''Laugh When You Like– Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara'' (1973,

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

SD 7249, reissued 2005,

Collectables A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

COL 6591) * ''The Sullivan Years: Comedy Classics'' (1991,

TVT Records TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, ...

TVT-9432-2)

References

External links

''The Stiller and Meara Show''
at

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{Authority control American comedy duos Married couples