Life on Mars (1994)

In between The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show, Bob Odenkirk created and starred in this HBO comedy pilot, Life on Mars. Odenkirk, Janeane Garofalo, and Jack Plotnick played the lead characters, a trio of struggling LA writers and/or actors who hang out in a coffee shop called Mars. The pilot followed Odenkirk and Garofalo organizing a poetry reading at the shop for their hero, a Warholian figure named Lou Cage. The LA Times described this as “the anti-Friends,” since it was shot the same year, primarily took place in a coffee shop, and was pretty dark.