To one generation, Ben Stiller is the leading man in all those Meet the Parents movies and the director and executive producer of Severance. But he’s also the son of one of the most beloved comedy duos of the Sixties and Seventies. And he’s honoring his family history with his latest film venture.
On Thursday, Apple TV+ debuted the trailer for Stiller’s new documentary, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which explores the lives of his parents together and the history of his family.
More from Rolling Stone
Long before he was known as Frank Costanza on Seinfeld and she as Steve’s mom on Sex and the City, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were tossing barbs back and forth as mainstream America’s favorite comedy team. Emerging from the influential Second City comedy troupe, Stiller and Meara were never considered hip comics of the time, unlike George Carlin or Cheech and Chong. But their recurring shtick — she the wise-cracking half, he the befuddled one — resonated with the so-called Silent Majority on bits like “After Dinner Argument” and “Constructive Fighting.”
Using home movies, rare interviews, and commentary from Christopher Walken, Stephen Colbert, and Ben’s sister Amy, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost explores the complicated dynamic between the two, who continually balanced life on and offstage. The two met in 1953, married a year later, and continued as a performing duo into the Eighties, which included working on a failed sitcom, The Stiller and Meara Show.
But as the doc promises to chronicle, both Ben and Amy Stiller grappled with their parents’ fame and off-camera relationship. As Jerry Stiller is heard saying in the doc, “We are to stop doing our act … Success can get in the way of marriage.” As Ben Stiller said in a statement, it is a “project that is very personal to me and my family.” Meara died in 2015, and Stiller five years later.
The documentary will open in theaters Oct. 17, followed by streaming on Apple TV+ a week later.
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
