''The Ben Stiller Show'' is an American

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series that aired on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

from 1990 to 1991, and then on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

from September 27, 1992, to January 17, 1993. The Fox program starred

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 ...

Andy Dick Andrew Roane Dick (born Andrew Thomlinson; December 21, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and television and film producer. Known professionally as a comic, his first regular television role was on the short-lived but influential ...

Janeane Garofalo Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''. Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...

and

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

Character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

John F. O'Donohue John F. O'Donohue is an American actor and former police officer who played Sgt. Eddie Gibson in the television series '' NYPD Blue''. Career A twenty-year veteran of the New York Police Department, his first acting role was that of an armed g ...

also appeared in every episode. The program featured numerous filmed comedy segments, many of which parodied middle of the 1980s to beginning of the 1990s pop culture. Despite mostly positive reviews, Fox canceled the series after only 13 episodes, due to low ratings. Unlike most sketch comedy programs, ''The Ben Stiller Show'' did not use a studio audience, and was the first ever Fox sketch comedy program not to use a

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

. The semi spinoff, ''

The Andy Dick Show ''The Andy Dick Show'' is an American sketch comedy series that aired on MTV from February 2001 to May 2002. The series was created by and starred comedian Andy Dick. Synopsis Every episode of the series was written and directed by Andy, also pop ...

'', used the same format. After cancelation, the series won the 1993

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program.

MTV series

The original

version of ''The Ben Stiller Show'' aired in 1990 to 1991, and ran for 13 episodes. It is not available on DVD, although excerpts from the program are featured as a bonus on the release of the Fox series. Produced by Jim Jones, who would go on to produce the Fox series and starring Ben Stiller and co writer Jeff Kahn, it was a self effacing show within a show format. Part of MTV's pre-'' Real World'' and experimental Vid-Com season of 1989 to 1990, it was interspersed with music videos that Ben and company would introduce in their short comedy sketches. Regulars included Harry O'Reilly and Ben's sister Amy Stiller. Guest stars included Ben's parents

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 ...

and

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 ...

, as well as

Melina Kanakaredes Melina Eleni Kanakaredes Constantinides ( el, Μελίνα Ελένη Κανακαρίδη Κωνσταντινίδη; born April 23, 1967) is an American actress. She is widely known for her roles in U.S. primetime television dramas as Dr. Sydn ...

, Al Lewis and MTV regular

Martha Quinn Martha Conrad Quinn (born May 11, 1959) is an American actress and Radio personality, radio and television personality, best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV (along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter (VJ), Alan Hunter ...

Episodes

Home media

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

released all 13 episodes of the Fox version of ''The Ben Stiller Show'' on DVD in Region 1 on December 2, 2003.

Reunion

In November 2012, there was a reunion at the

New York Comedy Festival The New York Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival co-founded by Jarrod Moses and Caroline Hirsch in 2004. The festival is produced in association with Comedy Central, the Huffington Post, and Carolines comedy club located at Times Squar ...

with the original cast members. Apatow hosted the reunion which featured Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick and staff writers Robert Cohen and Jeff Kahn. Bob Odenkirk also appeared via

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

video chat.

References

External links

''The Ben Stiller Show''
IFC page * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Stiller Show, The 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1992 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings Fox Broadcasting Company original programming MTV original programming Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series English-language television shows Television series by HBO Independent Productions Television series created by Judd Apatow Television shows set in Los Angeles