The Ben Stiller Show

The Ben Stiller Show was a short-lived sketch comedy show that aired on FOX in the early 90's, a time when FOX only had 1 or 2 hits and was not as big a network as it is now. However, they still canceled this show. Some things never change.

The unique thing about this show is that it was not filmed live, which was rare at the time because probably 98% of all comedy shows had a live audience or laughtrack. This allowed for better production values because of the freedom to shoot on location, and for sketches that were movie parodies, they actually looked like movies because they didn't have that live look.
To bring up its flaws, some of the humour was outdated and stale, and some of the sketches went on far too long. Also, the format of the show included interstitials featuring Ben talking to cast members and guest stars between sketches, and those were often unfunny and the worst part of the show. But there are some funny sketches peppered throughout the series (see below). The writing staff consisted of some brilliant comedic minds, including Stiller, Judd Apatow, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, and Dino Stamatopoulos, who you might know as Star-Burns on Community. It may be an uneven series, but it's an interesting look at weird 90's humour and some talented people who were mostly still at the beginning of their careers. Andy Dick actually did some solid character acting and accurate celebrity impressions, and Stiller had some great ones too, often donning prosthetic noses and chins to help him look more like whoever he was doing. Judd Apatow even got in there for a surprisingly good Jay Leno impression. It was clear toward the last couple of episodes (and confirmed on the commentaries) that everyone was starting to run out of steam at episode 13, but it would have been interesting to see this show go on longer, and perhaps even change the format to remove the dragging interstitials.

Best sketches: I'm not going to choose a best episode for this one, since they're just a mix of clips anyway. Instead I will simply point out my favourite sketches from the series.

-Melrose Heights 90210-2402 - A parody of prime time teen high school soaps where Stiller plays two characters who are exactly the same except for different sideburns, and Odenkirk plays a student who dresses in gay S&M leather but somehow nobody knows he's gay.
-Advantage Agassi - A trailer for an action movie starring tennis star Andre Agassi (Stiller) as the racket-wielding action hero.
-Information 411 - A parody of Rescue 911 (remember that show?) hosted by Adam West that documents stories of people needing to call the information hotline in times of crisis.
-Bomb Squad - A sketch starring Andy Dick as a guy trying to diffuse a time bomb, but constantly stopping to do other time consuming things as the clock ticks for a seemingly endless interval, poking fun at movies where the bomb should have gone off but had to wait for exposition or character drama.
-Die Hard 12: Die Hungry - A trailer for a Die Hard sequel where John McClane (Stiller doing a hilariously exaggerated Bruce Willis impression) is fighting bad guys in a grocery store and cracking food related jokes.
-Woody Allen's Bride of Frankenstein - A weird but clever sketch idea that is basically what it sounds like: a Woody Allen movie where the characters are Halloween monsters. Andy Dick plays the Woody Allen role (a mummy with Woody's big glasses) quite well.