The Cable Guy

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The Cable Guy

Directed by	Ben Stiller
Produced by	Judd Apatow Andrew Licht
Written by	Lou Holtz Jr.
Starring	Matthew Broderick Jim Carrey Leslie Mann Ben Stiller
Music by	John Ottman
Cinematography	Robert Brinkmann
Editing by	Steve Weisberg
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 14, 1996
Running time	96 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$47,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

For the comedian, see Larry the Cable Guy.

The Cable Guy is a 1996 dark comedy film directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick , Leslie Mann and Jack Black.

It became famous for being star Jim Carrey's first $20,000,000 paycheck, which was the then-highest amount ever paid to a comedic actor.

Taglines:

There's No Such Thing as Free Cable.
Once you're hooked... you're his.
For Steven Kovacs, the price of cable is about to go up.
Once you let him into your house, you can never get him out of your life!

1 Main Characters & Plot
2 Selected Cast
3 Critical Responses
4 Edits (United Kingdom)
5 Goofs
6 References and Connections to Other Films, Television & Other media
7 See also
8 External links
- 8.1 Reviews

[edit] Main Characters & Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Chip Douglas (Jim Carrey), is a cable installer who installs Steven Kovacs's (Matthew Broderick's) cable television service. Chip believes he and Steven have struck up a friendship, and for a short period of time, the two get along. Afterwards, however, Chip becomes more fanatical, stalking Steven and his girlfriend Robin (Leslie Mann). These are typical paranoid-schizoid characteristics, and characteristic of the 'intimacy seeker' stalker.

[edit] Selected Cast

Jim Carrey (Cable Guy)
Matthew Broderick (Steven Kovacs)
Leslie Mann (Robin Harris)
Jack Black (Rick Legatos)
George Segal (Steven's father)
Diane Baker (Steven's mother)
Ben Stiller (Sam/Stan Sweet)
Eric Roberts as himself
Andy Dick (Medieval Times announcer)
Janeane Garafalo (Medieval Times waitress)
Kyle Gass (couch potato)
David Cross (business executive)
Bob Odenkirk (Kovacs family member)
Owen Wilson (Robin's date)

[edit] Critical Responses

[edit] Reactions

The Cable Guy is regarded as having a darker tone than most of Carrey's previous work, in that in the film, he plays the antagonist, a stalker. Audiences did not respond well to this change of character for Carrey, and Movie Critics gave mixed reviews. The movie scored 47% on the 'Tomatometer'[1], giving it a rotten score. Despite these poor reactions, this film made a profit at the box office [2] and was not a box office bomb.

[edit] Revenues

The movie earned $19,806,226 during its opening weekend, and over the course of time, grossed approximately $100,700,000 worldwide.

[edit] Awards & Nominations

[edit] 1997 MTV Movie Awards

Best Comedic Performance - Jim Carrey (won)
Best Villain - Jim Carrey (won)
Best Fight - Jim Carrey/Matthew Broderick (nominated)

[edit] 1997 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards

Blimp Award for Best Actor - Jim Carrey (won)

[edit] Edits (United Kingdom)

In the UK, four seconds from the final fight between Chip and Steven is edited out, to remove shots of Chip headbutting Steven. A further one second edit is made to remove a double earclap.

[edit] Goofs

During the Karaoke scene, right before Jim Carrey (as Chip Douglas) sings his version of Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love", he claims that the song was featured in the documentary "Gimme Shelter". This is a mistake on either Chip's or the scriptwriter's part. According to various setlists, "Somebody To Love" was performed at the Altamont Festival by the Airplane, but the song featured in "Gimme Shelter" was a cover of a Fred Neil song called "The Other Side Of This Life".