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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. |
