Take a cast of edgy comics and stars-to-be--Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick and others--give them cameras and a network budget, and what do you get? The lowest-rated show of the 1992-93 TV season--and a classic of sketch comedy. The Ben Stiller Show was an attempt to reclaim Saturday Night Live's creaky format for the kids. But it reflected a Gen X ambivalence about youth culture as a marketing concept, as in "The Grungies," a sketch about a Seattle grunge band modeled on the prefab '60s act the Monkees. ("We're not trying to be friendly/We just want money and...
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