Ben Stiller donates Stiller & Meara archive to National Comedy Center
Before Ben Stiller made his mark in film, television and comedy, his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, were an irrepressibly rowdy duo. During a joint career that spanned five decades, Stiller and Meara collaborated on several television shows, TV specials and recordings, keeping America laughing until their respective deaths in 2020 and 2015. Now, Ben Stiller is further cementing their legacy by donating their career archives to the National Comedy Center, ahead of the release of his documentary film “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost” on Apple TV.
Stiller and Meara curated the archive themselves, preserving public and personal artifacts from their long careers and private lives. It includes artifacts from early improv sessions at Chicago’s Compass Players, love letters they exchanged while dating, and handwritten drafts of iconic sketches that hit world-famous stages including “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “The Carol Burnett Show.”
“Knowing that my parents’ oeuvre is preserved at the National Comedy Center means a lot, because the material they left behind was a gift not only to my family, but to anyone who wants to understand comedy as a creative process,” Stiller said of the donation. “They would have been very proud to know that the National Comedy Center is bringing their archive to life in a way that can inspire and educate future generations.”
Head of the National Comedy Center Archives, Dr. Laura LaPlaca, adds, “Stiller and Meara’s archive contains tens of thousands of pages spanning a remarkable body of work. Their comedy felt organic, but they were serial editors—sometimes with a single draft over decades of iteration and refinement.”
The donation coincides with the release of “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.” Directed and produced by Ben Stiller, the documentary chronicles his parents’ personal, professional and creative partnership and the lasting impact they had on American comedy. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 5 and will be released on Apple TV on October 26.
Selected pieces from the Stiller & Meara Archive will be on display at the National Comedy Center’s Jamestown, NY branch
