The Cable Guy won by Columbia Pictures at a price of $1 million. The role of the Cable Guy was originally written for Chris Farley, who turned it down due to scheduling difficulties. Jim Carrey joined the production, receiving a then record $20 million to star. Following Carrey's signing, Columbia hired Judd Apatow to produce. The studio rebuffed Apatow's interest in directing, but accepted his suggestion to invite Ben Stiller, star of his eponymous show on which Apatow had worked. The original screenplay by Lou Holtz, Jr. was a lighter comedy, described by Apatow as "a "What About Bob?" annoying friend movie" where
The Cable Guy The film was on J. Hoberman's Top 10 best of the year. Roger Ebert included "The Cable Guy" in his worst of the year list for 1996, though colleague Gene Siskel disagreed, calling it "a very good film. (Carrey's) best since "The Mask"". Ebert's main problems with the film were that he found Carrey's performance so bizarre and creepy that it undermined the entire story, and also that the movie was more of a dark comedy than was necessary for it to work. The film was also noted for its similarities to the Australian telemovie "The Plumber" (1979), which was