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Ben Stiller: Saturday Night Live
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In the life span of comedy sketch shows, "The Ben Stiller Show," at twelve aired episodes on Fox, was a mere drip in the ocean of comedy. And yet the twelve episodes were instrumental in cutting through the stranglehold of "Saturday Night Live" and twist television sketch comedy in a new direction.
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In the late 1980s, Stiller made some guest appearances on TV; he ... made his big screen debut in 1987 in Empire of the Sun. In 1989, however, he got his first real break when his Money spoof was purchased by Lorne Michaels (1944–), longtime producer of the late-night comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL). Michaels also hired Stiller to join the show as a writer and cast member. Stiller, however, was not happy at SNL, primarily because he was not allowed the freedom to create his own short films. After less than one season he quit the show and headed to Los Angeles where he was hired by MTV. At first, Stiller directed a comedy program called Colin Quinn: Back to Brooklyn, but MTV executives were so impressed they pulled Stiller off the show to develop a series of his own.
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Stiller utilized his connections to land his first professional acting job in the 1985 Lincoln Center revival of John Guare's dark comedy "The House of Blue Leaves" (his mother was in the original production) after two years of struggling. During its run, he made a short comic film with the play's cast (which ended up airing on "Saturday Night Live"). In 1987, Stiller reprised the role of the son, Ronnie Shaughnessy, a would-be papal assassin, for the play's PBS "American Playhouse" production. In that same very productive year, he ... made his film acting debut in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" and his TV writing and acting debut in a ten-minute short parody of Martin Scorsese's "The Color of Money" for NBC's "Saturday Night Live", in which he offered a devastating caricature of Tom Cruise. He subsequently remained as a featured player and apprentice writer on "SNL" for about a year. (Stiller reportedly left due to creative frustration; the show had limited interest in him directing film clips.)
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Stiller made his professional acting debut on Broadway in 1985 starring opposite John Mahoney in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. While appearing in the play, Stiller persuaded Mahoney and fellow cast members Swoosie Kurtz, Stockard Channing, and Julie Hagerty to appear in a short comedy film, his first true directorial effort, The Hustler of Money. A parody of Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money, the film eventually aired on Saturday Night Live where it was so well received, Stiller was subsequently hired as a featured player and apprentice writer for the NBC comedy series.
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