In a move to boost sagging ratings, MTV began in the early 90's to expand into more traditional programming, and in most cases, with terrific results. Their stable of unknown stars almost reads like a who's who of comedy today.
They had shows like The State (with Tom Lennon, Kerry Kenny and Robert Ben Garant of Reno 911), Singled Out (Jenny McCarthy), Remote Control (Colin Quinn), The Jon Stewart Show and You Wrote It, You Watch It (Jon Stewart). These were all really good shows, but my favourite was The Ben Stiller Show.
The Ben Stiller Show was cast with Ben, along with Janeane Garafalo, Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show), and Andy Dick (along with writer and fellow producer Judd Apatow). The show was good enough to be moved to Fox, who then dropped the ball and cancelled the series after only a couple of months. I was surprised that in a world full of Facts Of Life reunion specials, America's Next Top Model, and Law and Order marathons, that Stiller's show never seemed to be found anywhere on the hundreds of cable and satellite channels.
That is until now.
IFC, in it's attempt to expand it's programming with an increasing amount of smart comedies (Portlandia, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Comedy Death Ray, Onion News Network, among others), is going to start rerunning this classic (20 years ago, that counts as a classic to me) on January 5th.
Check it out. This show was awesome.
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