Ben Stiller pays tribute to his famous late parents, comedy icons Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, in the trailer for Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which dropped on Thursday.
The Zoolander star and Severance boss explores how Jerry Stiller and Meara as a comedy powerhouse duo managed to raise a showbiz family as the lines between their creativity and improvisation on stage and at home constantly blurred.
“When they were working, I remember sometimes hearing laughter, sometimes hearing raised voices, never knowing if that was real or them rehearsing something,” Ben Stiller recounts at one point the teaser trailer (below).
“We don’t know, Ben. That’s why we’re so messed up,” his sister, Amy Stiller, adds on camera as the siblings break out in laughter. Jerry Stiller and Meara as a comedy duo were mainstays on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson as their impact on American popular culture grew.
That leaves Stiller in his Apple TV+ documentary exploring the complex relationship between his parents’ comedy act and their 61-year marriage, with all its strains and resilience. “My mom wanted to be happy, independent of performing. This was harder for my dad, because he had such a need for approval,” their son recalls.
In revealing the sturdy foundations of his parents’ marriage, the Nothing Is Lost doc also turns its focus onto Ben Stiller with generational lessons. “You’re trying to balance being a director and actor, But also just a father,” son Quinlin Stiller tells his father in the doc about the parallels of his own career with that of his own father.
Ultimately, Stiller’s parents’ comedy duo split up in 1970 to save their marriage as each went their own way with independent entertainment careers. Jerry Stiller famously starred in sitcoms like Seinfeld and The King of Queens, while Meara had a starring role on Archie Bunker’s Place, among other credits.
But the legacy of their legendary comedy act, as revealed in the Nothing Is Lost trailer, was the longevity of their marriage and its sustained love story. “This is all of the truth of our lives,” an archival audio tape reveals Jerry Stiller saying at one point, as visuals of the storied Stiller & Meara stage act appear on screen.
Jerry Stiller also adds in an apparent tribute to his wife: “Whatever you say, I hear you forever. You will never be lost.”
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost will get limited theatrical play from October 17, before launching October 24 on Apple TV+.
