Stiller and Meara

Publicity photo of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara with autograph, 1965

Stiller and Meara (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara) were a husband-and-wife comedy duo that was popular primarily in the 1960s and 1970s. They made frequent appearances on television variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show.

Stiller and Meara were among the earliest graduates of the Second City improvisational comedy troupe to become famous. When variety shows became scarce in the late 1970s, they had a syndicated short program, only five minutes long, which ran on the NBC affiliate in the Washington, D.C. market immediately after Saturday Night Live. They also did comical radio ads. During the mid-1970s Stiller and Meara made a couple of appearances together on the sitcom Rhoda. (Meara was a semi-regular during that show's third season, and Stiller appeared twice, playing her character's ex-husband.)

Anne Meara played Veronica Rooney, a cook on Archie Bunker's Place from 1979–82. She often made wisecracks and gave Archie a hard time. She insisted that Archie also hire her openly gay nephew Fred as a waiter to help him pay for law school. She was an alcoholic and privately pined to reconcile with her ex-husband, Carmine (who appeared in a few episodes, played by Stiller), but knew it wasn't going to happen. Meara appeared sporadically throughout the show's third season and left the show before the fourth and final year.

Stiller and Meara's 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.

In 1999 and from 2003 to 2007, Stiller and Meara reunited on several episodes of The King of Queens, on which Stiller played the supporting role of Arthur Spooner.

Comedians and actors Amy Stiller and Ben Stiller are their real-life children.

Prior to Meara's death in 2015, the duo were starring in a web series from Red Hour Digital, in which they discussed current topics.

Recordings

Stiller and Meara performances can be heard on the following sound recordings:

• VERVE V 15038 LP 1963 - LAUGH.COM CD: Presenting America’s New Comedy Sensations! Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara
  • Side 1:
    • TV Commercials
    • Inside Project: Mercury
    • Constructive Fighting
    • Hospital Tour
    • Please, Mr Selman
    • The Vacant Mind
  • Side 2:
    • After Dinner Argument
    • Wrong NumPber
    • The Whale
    • Hershey And Harriet

• VERVE V/V6-15043 LP 1964 - LAUGH.COM CD: THE SEX LIFE OF THE PRIMATE: And Other Bits of Gossip; Comedy Revue, Conceived, Written and Directed by Shelley Berman, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Lovelady Powell, Shelly Berman
  • Spermatoza plus the roe make the little fishes grow
  • Cleans and dirtys
  • My friends the gorillas
  • Drugstore problem
  • Associated wives of America
  • More cleans and dirtys
  • Cleans and dirtys rise again
  • Divorce New York style
  • An expugated #!?*%
  • Sex is un-American
  • Ooby Dooby Ooby Doo
  • It was the lark or goodnight already
  • The beginning is a cleand the end is a dirty

• TVT TVT-9432-2 CD 1991: The Sullivan Years: Comedy Classics
  • 3. Performance Of 4/3/66 - Stiller & Meara

• COLUMBIA CL 2742/CS 9542 LP 1963: Ed Sullivan Presents The Last Two People In The World. Jerry Stiller And Anne Meara. Produced by Sullivan Productions, Inc. in association with Teo Macero. Musical Conductor: Bernie Hoffer
  • A1: Hershey Horowitz-Mary ELizabeth Doyle Wedding Plans (8:28)
  • A2: Dittl Mayr Elizabeth Doyle (2:48)
  • A3: Moments of Truth behind T.V. Commercials (3:07)
  • A4: Adult Movies (4:36)
  • B1: Hate (7:10)
  • B2: Do You Love Me (2:27)
  • B3: German Commercial (1:06)
  • B4: The Last Two People in the World (6:24)

• ATLANTIC SD 7249 LP 1972 - COLLECTABLES COL 6591 CD 2005: Laugh When You Like - Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara
  • 1. The Liberated Date
  • 2. Dr. Fillman's Feet-Off Diet
  • 3. Me. & Mrs. Chou en Lai
  • 4. Rhoda Blabbit from Hollywood
  • 5. Regina Margaret Mulcahy, Middle American
  • 6. Dr. Anne Fluthers and What's Your Problem
  • 7. Hershey Horowitz Meets Mary Elizabeth Doyle
  • 8. Dr. Fluthers and the Chocolate Problem
  • 9. Mom, I Just Met This Girl and...
  • 10. The Sensuous Telephone Show
  • 11. More from Rhoda Blabbit

External links

• The Stiller and Meara Show at Internet Movie Database
• Jerry Stiller at IMDb
• Anne Meara at IMDb
• Anne Meara at the Internet Broadway Database