mrs_show The writing on this show was incredible and of course the acting by Bob Odenkirk, Ben Stiller and Andy Dick was brilliant but I don't think Janeane Garofalo is an actress at all she's terrible in everything she does. How the heck did she get roles? She's awful! Apart from her the show was beautifully written and excellent. I enjoyed it very much, lots of fun and laughter. Parodies are classics! The Metallic skit, The Monkees skit, too funny. I've not been much of a fan of Ben Stiller purely because I think he plays the same characters and he isn't really funny so when I heard about this I was a little skeptical until I found that Bob wrote the show so its gotta be awesome if he wrote it. I purely watched it for Bob Odenkirk but also thoroughly enjoyed it. So it was all pluses, only thing that annoyed me was Janeane Garofalo's terrible acting skills. Never been a fan of hers either.

GrigoryGirl This is one of those "legendary" TV shows that first appeared in 1992, but then got canceled almost immediately. It gathered a reputation that far exceeded what it actually was, because so many people hadn't seen it, so they thought it was something brilliant that the evil studio networks didn't get. Well, it turned out that the network (in this case Fox) was correct in canceling it, as it is not a particularly good show, but in fact, a lousy one. I saw this show (well, the first 8 episodes) a few years back, and it was painfully bad. The material is mostly parodies from the 1990's (like Beverly Hills 90210, Studs), and unless you're an expert on pop culture from that era, you're not going to get the references. This is always a problem with topical comedy, as it dates immediately and can never been seen outside the time it was made. Even if you do get the references, it's still not particularly funny. There are a few laughs here and there (the B-minus time traveler sketch is the funniest, with Janeane Garofalo playing the not too bright time traveler. Janeane is probably not the best person to play an idiot, as she is quite brilliant in real life), but mostly it's tired, dated, and very full of itself, a quintessential quality of comedy in the smug, "ironic" 90's.It was probably better if it had stayed in the vault. It did jump start the career of four people (Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk). Ben has gone on to playing neurotic nerdy types that constantly get dumped on. Andy Dick went on to sitcoms and now is indulging in typically idiotic, drug induced celebrity behaviour. Bob Odenkirk went on to Mr. Show (a better show than this one, but a bit overrated). Janeane Garofalo (who I think is the most talented of the bunch) went on to star in many films and TV shows, most of which are not particularly good. It's a waste as she is the best thing in many of her projects. Overall, The Ben Stiller Show is a major disappointment.

Syl The Ben Stiller Show proved that good comedy exists out there. Unfortunately, Fox never gave the show a chance and it was cancelled after only airing twelve episodes. In fact, the show earned an Emmy award in the following year. The show is brilliant satire of television and modern culture of the early 1990s. I love Melrose Heights 902102104 etc. which fuses the shows of Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, and the Heights (which was shortly canceled) all into one. I love Janeane Garofalo who was in her element whether playing wife to a sock puppet named Skank, a prim and proper telephone operator, or spoofing Shannen Doherty. Andy Dick is also memorable as is the show's star Ben Stiller who is on the verge of stardom. I love the pilot episode where they spoof the group of U2 and Bono is singing for a cereal and at a Long Island Bar Mitzvah. The fact that they got the same manager from the Partridge Family is genius as is Paul Dooley who shows. They spoof Monkees with the Grungies in Seattle, Washington. I love the DVD and I wish there was more of Ben Stiller Show to go around.

General_G Ben Stiller had something going for him here. He had pretty good cast members like Janeane Garafolo, a great actress in comedy movies, Bob Odenkirk, future host of Mr. Show with Bob and David along with David Cross and Andy Dick back when he used to be funny. Now hes just weird and completely unfunny. Ben Stiller was okay himself. I'm not very familiar with John F. O'Donohue's work so I can't really say much about him. I think David Cross should have been a cast member. He was already the top writer on the show. This show should have lasted a little longer then it did. I don't know why it did. It was on Fox though and they don't give anything a chance. I'm surprised it wasn't more like SNL seeing it had two SNL patrons on it (Ben before the show and Janeane after). The show was more like Mr. Show with Bob and David probably being Bob Odenkirk and David Cross both did work on the show. RIP The Ben Stiller Show.