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Ben Stiller is donating the archives chronicling the careers of his parents, comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
The pair appeared on television talk shows and variety programs —including 36 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, per a press release —throughout the Sixties and Seventies, gaining recognition as one of mainstream America’s favorite comedy teams.
“Knowing my parents’ body of work is preserved at the National Comedy Center means a great deal, because the material they left behind was not just a gift for my family, but for anyone who wants to understand comedy as a creative process,” said Ben Stiller in a statement. “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.”
Dr. Laura LaPlaca, head of the National Comedy Center’s archive, said that the collection will feature their “earliest improv sessions at Chicago’s storied Compass Players, to love letters encapsulating their youthful courtship, to handwritten drafts of sketches like ‘Computer Dating’ and ‘The Last Two People on Earth,’ which made history on Ed Sullivan’s stage.” LaPlaca highlighted that the archive spans “tens of thousands of pages” of the Stiller and Meara’s work.
The donation arrives alongside the release of Stiller’s new documentary,Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which details the lives of his parents and the history of his family. The film released in select theaters on Oct. 17 and will stream on Apple TV+ Oct. 24.
