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.

Before Fox became the #1 most watched network with shows like "American Idol" and "Glee", it was best known for offbeat shows, especially comedies, that came and went. Although shows like "Married With Children" and "The Simpsons" went on to become among the longest-running sitcoms of all time (With "The Simpsons" recently taking the #1 spot in that category), countless other shows on Fox got the ax early, thereby establishing Fox as a second-rate network for nearly 20 years."The Ben Stiller Show" was indeed offbeat, and it had a laid-back quality to it that made it fun. Many other reviewers are crying out that it should not have been canceled, but the main cast members of this show went on to bigger and better things. Ben Stiller is now an A- list comic actor, Janeane Garofalo went on to become a household name, Bob Odenkirk created "Mr. Show" for HBO and is now sure to get an Emmy nomination for his role as Saul Goodman in "Breaking Bad", and Andy Dick . . . well . . . was funny on this show before becoming victim to his own demise. And of course, the co-creator of this show, Judd Apatow, would go on to create "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" among other memorable comedies.Sketch comedy shows were nothing new at the time this show premiered, but Odenkirk came to this show after a four year stint as a writer on "Saturday Night Live", whereas Stiller came after a four episode stint (literally). The 1994-95 season, considered even today to be among SNL's biggest drought of funny material, was awaiting Garofalo. It's too bad too, because I thought she was among the stronger members of this show. Meanwhile, these guys put together a solid show that even today seems fresher than SNL and more free.Like many other sketch comedies, the sketches themselves were hit or miss. I didn't think the recurring sketches with the sock puppet Skank were very funny, personally, but I loved the Amish Dating Game, the "Tonight Show" auditions (with Apatow doing the best Jay Leno imitation I've ever seen, and Garofalo gut-bustingly hilarious as Sinead O'Connor), and Woody Allen's version of "Bride of Frankenstein" to name a few.In fact, in the latter sketch, Andy Dick did a dead-on impersonation of Allen that was among the best I had seen. It surprised me because Dick is now a second-rate comedian and actor, and I expected him to be the weakest link when first purchasing the DVD set of this show. However, in most sketches, he proves to be a solid cast member who works well off the remainder of the cast. The same was true for him during the six year run of "NewsRadio". However, since "NewsRadio" ended, he's been better known for his inappropriate antics and excessive drug use than for his comedy. In this show, he was completely void of obnoxiousness, and (surprise!) he was actually funny!More than the sketches, though, I actually liked the in-between sections with Stiller talking to the writers, or introducing cast members. It really emphasized the show's freedom, and helped to avoid the "in your face" feeling of other comedy shows. These segments felt as though Stiller was welcoming you into his world, and such efforts felt sincere.In fact, it may have been these efforts that coaxed many guest stars to make appearances on the show. It's great to watch the show in the 21st century and see celebrities who were stars at the time such as Roseanne and Tom Arnold (who were then married), Garry Shandling, and Mark Wahlberg (back when he was "Marky Mark"). It's even more exciting to see some people before they were stars make appearances, such as Judd Apatow, David Cross, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.So there were a lot of noteworthy qualities to this comedy show. The fact that it aired at 7:30 on Sunday nights opposite "60 Minutes" on CBS and "America's Funniest Home Videos" on ABC was probably not a good sign. Still, while this show may not have been meant to last, it lives on thanks to reruns on Comedy Central and a much-deserved DVD release. In fact, I hope Andy Dick re-watches these episodes so he will see what he did correctly in his career, and hopefully change his obnoxious ways.

Thirteen episodes... one season(well, half of one, by typical American airing standards). That's how long this lasted. Over the past three months and one week, a Danish network has aired one episode every Friday night, and I haven't missed a single one. I don't have any particular attachment to Ben Stiller... he can be very funny, yes, but he also did make Zoolander. That, alone, costs many points. I gave this show a chance, and found myself enjoying it more than I usually enjoy sketch-shows. When this show was good, it was really good. Unfortunately, it could also be somewhat average, and while the form was definitely interesting, it also felt loose... in search of a voice. Sadly, it was cut short, and never found it. The team is magnificent... Andy, Ben, Janeane, Bob and John are all fine comedians, and they work together well. The acting on the show ranges some. The material can be quite good, but some gags go on for too long, and more often than not, the crew would keep using the same characters or setting for several jokes, where only the first one worked well(one example being Stiller as the "Latin lover" singer). I would have to say that the movie parodies were the shows high point; with faux trailers, current(at that time) Hollywood productions were made fun of. Ben's Bruce Willis is spot-on, and his Tom Cruise isn't bad at all. The commercial spoofs tend to be fun. Some of the repeated gags also work remarkably well; the prime example being the "Cops" bit, where they set the well-known show in various older times. The guest stars were occasionally fun, but often(as much of the material of early episodes) simply helped to convey Stiller's brand of self-irony(bordering on self-deprecation). This show wasn't always funny, but it was seldom annoying, and usually watchable. One final thought; Dennis Miller appeared in one of the last episodes, and he(as he does tend to be difficult to silence) spoke his mind on what would help the show... half-way through it, it cuts away, and he doesn't appear again on the show. The irony of this notwithstanding, several of the points he brings up are valid. One would wonder if(given that all the material is scripted, in spite of the way in which it is presented would lead one to assume that it was not) this was Stiller(or the team)'s way of acknowledging the show's shortcomings, as well as completely and utterly disregard them. A sort of semi-silent protest... sadly, the show was axed mere episodes later. I recommend this to any fan of sketch and spoof comedy, as well as any fan of one or more of the comedians. 7/10

I first heard of the Ben Stiller Show when I saw the Emmy Awards when it won for best writing of a variety show (I think they showed the "Counting With Bruce Springsteen" sketch). Anyways, Stiller was overjoyed at this, and he was saying what a great show this was, and what we were going to miss, as it was only on for 12 episodes. And from that time, I was like, "Damn, I want to see that!" Well, finally, through the magic of DVD, I did get to see it! All of the episodes are great (though I have the sneaky suspicion that the earlier episodes were funnier). Well, where can I start about my favorite episodes? OK, I'm sure everyone has different opinions, the highlights for me were Rescue 411, Manson, Skank, Amish Studs, U2: The Early Years, and Beverly Hills 90210240 (and also bonus points for the deleted scene on the DVD with the High School Mascot competition with Stiller as Ron Perlman and Janine Garaefolo as Mary-Lou Retton, Garaefolo can't stop laughing during the commentary for this)