| The Ben Stiller Show | 
 enlarge | Directors: John Fortenberry, Troy Miller
Actors: Andy Dick, Janeane Garofalo, John F. O'donohue, Bob Odenkirk
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.98
Buy Used: $3.23
You Save: $23.75 (88%)
New (43) Used (48) from $3.23
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 11471
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 299
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5.6 x 0.6
MPN: WARD24257D
ISBN: 0790775972
UPC: 085392425723
EAN: 9780790775975
ASIN: B00008PHCU
Theatrical Release Date: September 27, 1992
Release Date: December 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 12/02/2003 Run time: 299 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
For its brief and shining moment--12 aired episodes, to be exact--The Ben Stiller Show, which aired on Fox in 1992, recaptured the anarchic spirit and subversively funny voice of first-season Saturday Night Live and SCTV. More too-hip-for-the-room than ahead of its time, the show suffered dismal ratings and was unceremoniously cancelled. It then went on to win an Emmy for best writing and attract a fervent following, enhanced by the fact that the series has seldom been syndicated. This long-awaited DVD release fills not a void, but an abyss. To watch Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and a pre-Mr. Show Bob Odenkirk at the dawn of their mostly unconventional careers, romp in the show's opening is akin to watching the Beatles frolic on that football field in A Hard Day's Night. Stiller and company's pitch-perfect and intimately observed skewering of movies, television, and show business convention could be exhilarating, as witness "Woody Allen's Bride of Frankenstein" (you'll never watch another Allen film with a straight face again), "Cape Munster," with Stiller as a psychopathic and vengeful Eddie Munster, "Skank," a potent comment on the crass programming that was initially Fox's stock in trade, and even brilliant riffs on the seminal reality series Cops, which re-imagine the series in witch-hysteric Salem, Massachussetts, ancient Egypt, and medieval times. In addition to the cast's uncanny impersonations (Stiller's Bono, Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Bruce Willis, and Garofalo's Juliette Lewis), The Ben Stiller Show was home to a gallery of recurring characters--agent Michael Pheret, the No, No, No Guy--who, thankfully, SNL producer Lorne Michaels was not around to parlay into godawful films. The topical humor can't help but date some of the material (the show is a veritable Trivial Pursuit of pop culture references, from The Partridge Family to Beverly Hills 90210, but the brilliance of the writing and sheer abandon of the performances are still a joy to behold. --Donald Liebenson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 There's a reason it was 1 season May 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After 4 episodes I pulled the plug. Yes some funny situations but lots of "inside" jokes, repeated jokes, mumbled delivery. Stiller +company have definitely improved since then!
 Ben Stiller and Gang March 3, 2008
Totally 90's. This show has some wonderful skits, most of which were Ben Stillers'. For fans of Ben Stiller, watch a young Stiller, a native New Yorker, son of brilliant comedic Hollywood parents, begin his career. Though confident and cool, there is an awkwardness visible in the little cut scenes in between skits, where we see a Ben Stiller begin to find himself ever so innocently as it seems. The Cops TV, Bono and Springsteen skits are the best. At thirteen episodes, the whole series could be watched in a spare day or two. I think its worth a watch at $9.99 used, for nostalgic reasons, for Stiller reasons, for some surprise guest appearances and for a laugh or two. This is also a document of the famous, in only recent months it seems, Judd Apatow. For people who love language, only French and Spanish subtitles.
 Inspired, real comedy October 26, 2007
Ben Stiller is, of course, the son of Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara. He no doubt had a leg or two up when the time came to break into show biz, so let's hear it for nepotism! Had Stiller simply been a kid from Kansas stepping off the bus in Hollywood, hitting that town cold, we might have been denied some of the best, most inspired comedy ever on television. The material in "The Ben Stiller Show" is as good as, and very often better, than any ever seen on "Saturday Night Live," "SCTV" or, for that matter, "Monty Python ..."
This two-disc set, an HBO production, contains the thirteen episodes aired on the then fledgling FOX network from October 1992 to January 1993. An earlier version, under the same title, had aired briefly on MTV.
Stiller was the star and point man. Maybe it could be argued that Bob Odenkirk, Janeane Garolfolo, John F. O'Donohue or Andy Dick could have taken the title lead - who knows how these things work? What can't be argued is all the cast benefited from brilliant concepts, with writing to match. And maybe Stiller was just a little braver than his fellow cast members. His range, from Bono to Oliver Stone, is impressive and sometimes astonishing. The viewer is left with the notion that Stiller never shied away from any insanity that had leaked from a writer's head.
Far more often than not the skits, spoofs and bits are tight, well honed and well crafted. "Saturday Night Live" deserves leeway on those counts, since the show is performed live. Conversely, a taped show should take advantage of the editing and post-production tweaking available to it. Not all do. "The Ben Stiller Show" did.
Here's a small sampling of what you'll see. How do you lampoon "Lassie," a show so lampoonable that it's easy to blow the parody? You play it straight down the middle - the farmhouse kitchen, farm mom and farm dad and Timmy getting into a scrape, all taped in black-and-white. Do all that authentically, but change one factor of the equation. Just one. Replace Lassie the dog with Charles Manson the psycopath. Oh but wait that can't work ... can it? Yes, it can.
I want more than 13 episodes! September 9, 2007
Truthfully, I wanted more than 13 episodes from this Emmy award winning show. The Ben Stiller Show featured Ben Stiller who was up and coming along with Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and others. It was an only a thirty minutes show on television once a week. It would be shot in Los Angeles or Hollywood. He would bring on guest stars like Rob Morrow, Dick Van Patten, and others. The spoofs were hilarious and even better than Saturday Night Live. For example, he plays Bono with the guy who managed the Partridge Family. I love when he sings one in order to sell lucky charms cereal. I love the spoof of a Woody Allen film where Woody's character is a mummy, Mia Farrow's character is the bride of Frankenstein, and the plot is similar to the film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. The cast and crew of this show was first rate and this dvd version also has subtitles in French and Spanish. I loved the show going on location in Hollywood. This show really marked Ben Stiller's great talent and humor as well as his talent as a great satirist spoofing everybody from Tom Cruise to Bono to the kid from the Munsters. It was a great show and thank God, that the show is finally on DVD so we can preserve it for years to come.
I hate to say it... May 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sometimes the memory is much better than the reality. I had fond memories of this show. While reviewing the DVDs recently, I realized that the one or two sketches I remember as being hilarious were indeed funny, but just. The other sketches were of rather poor quality. I wanted badly to like it, but it was rather embarassing; It was one of those shows that you brag to all your friends about how much they'll like it, only to shift uncomfortably as it unfolds before your eyes. One of those 'rent-before-you-buy's for sure.
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