EntertainingThings.com

The Ben Stiller show is one of those short running Fox shows that people wish had a longer run. Although it went on to win an Emmy in 1993 it only lasted 13 episodes before it was canceled. The amount of comedic talent on this show is ridiculous. The main four stars are Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick and Janeane Garafalo. Judd Apatow was also a creator/writer/executive producer on the show. All of these people went on to be successful in the business.

The show is named after him so obviously Ben stars in almost all of the sketches. He has a repertoire of impressions he can do like Tom Cruise, Bono, Bruce Springstein and so they kind of forced sketches where he could use them. In the last few episodes they got away from this and it improved things. Maybe not a coincidence that the show improved when David Cross joined the writing staff in episode 9. Although I’m sure both brought stuff to the show Andy Dick and Janeane Garafalo didn’t get any credit for writing the show. The episode it won the Emmy was episode 10. The first 10 episodes they would separate sketches with Stiller walking around LA and talking with cast members or a guest (who would not be in the shows sketches) such as Bobcat Goldthwait, Dennis Miller, Gary Shandling etc. These segments didn’t bring any laughs to the show and was a good call to stop doing them the last few shows.

I recently watched the complete series and overall I wouldn’t say The Ben Stiller Show was that funny. If given more time it might have delivered more laughs but if it had a longer run like say MadTV then it might have slowed down the cast members from doing other things. It’s mainly nice to watch for the early work of its stars.


cast photo comes from a larger pic found at benstiller.net

“Imagine the ocean is full of dolphins and Profit is a new kind of shark that looks just like a dolphin. He can maneuver among the dolphins. The other dolphins would say “welcome” in dolphin talk. Then one night he would start eating them.” – John McNamara co-creator of Profit

Profit was a short lived Fox series (airing during April of 1996) that over the years has accumulated a cult following. I happened to catch it back in 1996 when it originally aired and was a big fan of the few episodes I saw. Recently I re-watched it and got to see the episodes that Fox never aired. I would say it doesn’t hold up as nearly as well as i thought it did in my head but its still enjoyable.

On the show Adrian Pasdar stars as Jim Profit who works at the fictional Gracen & Gracen company which is one the most powerful companies in the world. Jim had a traumatic childhood and is pretty much dead inside and a giant manipulator who always manages to stay a few moves ahead of his enemies.

“The game we played in the writers room is what’s the worst thing he could do…and then try to double it.” – John McNamara

When the show starts Jim was just made Junior Vice President of Acquisitions his goal is to be the Head of Acquisitions. He wants power but doesn’t want the publicity. Although from the beginning certain people don’t trust him such as Gracen & Grancen’s Security Chief Joanne Meltze played by Lisa Zane. So you follow Jim as he tries to move up the corporate ladder by anyway means necessary while he is being chased by Joanne and others out to eliminate or arrest him. Also in the picture is Profit’s step mother, Bobbi Stakowski (Lisa Blount), who knows things about his past and is blackmailing him. So it should come to no surprise when Profit takes the new job he ends up blackmailing a secretary, Gail Koner (Lisa Darr), at the company to working for him and doing some of his dirty work.



The show was certainly ahead of its time its kind of a prototype to a show like Dexter. While it might not go as far as Dexter it did push boundaries for its time. Now shows can go much farther on broadcast television and even more so on cable network or premium cable. But Profit was on prime time on Fox and dealing with a sociopath killing people and touching on subjects like a lesbian relationship (controversial for 1996), insest and child abuse. When Profit debuted it was met with critical acclaim but poor ratings. The cast and crew feel that if Fox would have kind of stood by the show and gave it more time to find an audience it would have turned things around. But the ratings were too bad and Fox canceled it not even airing all of the episodes they had shot. The series did air in its entirety in the UK and eventually years later it aired in full on cable in the US.

Profit is entertaining but it does seem dated if you were to watch it now. Also sometimes it is too melodramatic it almost reaches soap opera levels but it never goes that far. Another gripe i have is the voices, Profit and his boss Charles aka Chaz Gracen both have the gravely serious voice. Kind of like Christian Bale did when he was batman in The Dark Knight but they didn’t go that far. But it takes me out of the show at times. Also Lisa Blount gives Bobbi a very southern accent that bugs me, it seems so phony. Also one thing i don’t like is at the beginning or the end of the episode Profit will turn to the camera and talk to the audience. I think breaking the fourth wall is bad decision here. He does it because John McNamara (who is co-creator of Profit along with David Greenwalt) got the idea for Profit when he saw a production of Richard III set in modern times. In Richard III he makes these asides to the audience but im not a fan of it in Profit.

I did like watching to see what Jim Profit will do next and how he will handle problems and its interesting learning about his troubled times as a child that shaped him into the monster he became. Also Lisa Darr as Profit’s secretary Gail did a good job. A lot of the acting in the series is kind of stiff and the characters are two dimensional but you learn more about Gail and she brings a lot to the role.

So overall the show was most likely too ahead of its time. Profit has its flaws but its an entertaining ride of deception and debauchery. In 2005 it was release on DVD which you can buy here. On the DVD there is a documentary where they talk to all the key people, it’s a nice bonus for fans of the show.

Breaking Bad is a series set in New Mexico staring Bryan Cranston that runs on American Movie Classics. You might not recognize Bryan Cranston by name but if you see him you will most likely recognize him as the dad on the long running Fox sitcom Malcom in the Middle. In Breaking Bad Cranston plays Walter White who is a science teacher although you learn over time that he had a promising scientific career at one time. Walter learns in the first episode he has inoperable lung cancer. He also runs into one of his ex students Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) who is a small time meth dealer. Using his chemistry know how and Jesse’s connections they decide to become partners and make and sell meth. Walter doesn’t want his cancer treatment to be a financial burden to his family and he wants to leave them a sizable amount of money and sees meth as his way to do it. And since he is going to die soon due to his cancer he is able to put himself it situations he normally wouldn’t.

William has a family, Skyler (Anna Gunn) his wife who is pregnant at the start of the series and Walter Jr (RJ Mitte who has cerebral palsy). Skyler’s sister is married to Hank who is a DEA agent which is problematic for White. William has to lie to his wife about his new meth career which also leads to problems. In the second season they added comedian Bob Odenkirk as lawyer Saul Goodman. Anytime you add Bob Odenkirk to your show you are doing something right.

Crabston does a really good job and won an Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work in season 1 and was nominated again in season 2. It took me a little while to get into the series. It takes time to unfold and set things up by around episode 5 I was hooked. The first season has 7 episodes and the second 13. It has been picked up for a third season but as now they haven’t said when it will return and how many episodes it will be. It was created by Vince Gilligan who worked on X-Files, The Lone Gunman and he wrote the feature film Hancock as well among other credits.

Sometimes Walter has almost McGuyver type moments as he uses his chemistry expertise to help him out but they are pretty realistic and believable. Overall Breaking Bad is a pretty solid show Cranston does a great job in his role and its not the same show you have seen over and over. Check it out.

Brotherhood takes place in a fictional Irish neighborhood “The Hill” in Rhode Island. The brothers being Michael Caffee (Jason Isaacs) who is a gangster and Tommy Caffee (Jason Clarke) who is in local politics. Both men do what they feel is right to protect and or improve their neighborhood. At the beginning of the series Michael returns from hiding the man that wanted him killed had died. He quickly gets back into old tricks and starts working for the local crime boss who he buts heads with frequently. Michael’s return isn’t great for Tommy who is trying to move up the ladder in local politics and it makes it harder when your brother is killing people and selling drugs in the community. So there is obvious friction there. But they are still family. Tommy Caffee is the “good” brother with an attractive wife and 3 young girls but of course things arent as perfect as they seem. The wife is the most selfish character in the series (although they did soften her later) and Tommy has no problem in the cut throat world of state politics. Another key character in the series is detective Declan Giggs (Ethan Embry) who you might remember from the 1995 movie Empire Records as the goofy kid Mark. For most of the series that role was in my head but Ethan did a good job his character has a pretty good character arc and he was able to pull it off. Declan grew up with the Caffee brothers and his friendship and their various dealings make things complicated for his character.

The acting and casting for in Brotherhood are both good. Music doesnt play much of a role in the series and the accents tend to come and go. A lot of the stuff in the series is believable Michael is a bad man but Rhode Island is a small state and he has to take orders from the Italians that control Jersey. The political fighting and wheeling and dealing Tommy is in seems like those things could and do happen in the real world. Also shooting on location in Rhode Island really adds to the realism of the series. Brotherhood lasted for 3 seasons on showtime and there was a total of 29 episodes. Its first season got a lot of critical acclaim and it was pretty deserving but as the the series went on it continued to get worse. The second season wasnt good as the first but ok but I thought the third was a total waste. They did wrap the series up in the last few moments of the last episode but besides the detectives story line all the others were a waste. Brotherhood is like the musician who has that one really nice debut album then never even comes close the rest of his carear.

Brotherhood was the idea of Blake Masters who had sold some movie scripts in Hollywood but none had been made. So since he was still green in the business they brought in Henry Bromell to help out. Bromell worked on Homicide Life on the Street in which Masters was a big fan of. The lion share of the episodes of Brotherhood were written either by Masters or Bromell with a few each season written by the shows other handful of writers. In doing a little extra research for this article I found an interview Blake Masters did with the Writers Guild of America and he says “We have the loosest of season plans. We take every story we think is interesting and stick it on file cards on a board and sort of vaguely see what could go where.” This hey whatever happens man casual approach is most likely why the show went from being a quality show to being canceled. Most shows fall off you only have some many ideas and places to take your characters but Brotherhood seemed to really fall off fast maybe if Masters had more of a plan things would have held together longer.

Right now you can stream the first two seasons on Netflix streaming and season 3 will be out on DVD in October.