Stiller and Meara

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Stiller and Meara (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara), a husband and wife comedy team, were a big hit in the 1960s and '70s, making frequent appearances on television variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show. They are among the earliest famous graduates of the Second City improvisational comedy troupe. When variety shows became scarce in the late '70s, they had a syndicated short program, 5 minutes long, which in the Washington, D.C. market ran on the NBC affiliate, immediately after "Saturday Night Live". They also did comical radio ads but their career declined, however, as variety series gradually disappeared. The duo's own 1986 TV sitcom, The Stiller and Meara Show, in which Stiller played the deputy mayor of New York City and Meara portrayed his wife, a TV commercial actress, was unsuccessful; Stiller had better luck with his next series, playing George Costanza's father in Seinfeld.

Offscreen, comedy actor Ben Stiller is Stiller and Meara's son.

[edit] Sources

• The Stiller and Meara Show at Internet Movie Database
• Jerry Stiller at the Internet Movie Database
• Anne Meara at the Internet Movie Database
• Anne Meara at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stiller and Meara article at talkingcomedy.com