The Cable Guy

Plot

Architect Steven Kovacs moves into a new apartment after his girlfriend Robin Harris turns down his marriage proposal. Following a suggestion from his friend Rick Legatos, he pays cable installer Ernie "Chip" Douglas to hook him up with free movie channels. Chip designates Steven as a preferred customer and, in exchange, asks to spend time with him socially, which Steven reluctantly accepts. During a trip to the city's central satellite dish, Chip reveals that his father was never around and that his mother relied on television to occupy him as a child.

Chip gradually becomes more invasive in Steven's life, pushing away his friends. He floods Steven's answering machine with messages and gives him a costly home theater system, which Steven refuses. Steven agrees to let Chip throw a party for other preferred customers at his place. At the party, Steven sleeps with a woman, only to discover Chip hired her as a prostitute.

Furious, Steven kicks Chip out. Trying to fix things, Chip finds Robin's date, beats him up, and warns him off, then upgrades her cable service, making it look like a gift from Steven. This leads Robin to reconcile with Steven. Once Steven learns Chip orchestrated their reunion, he politely cuts ties.

Heartbroken, Chip retaliates by getting Steven arrested for stolen property, humiliating him at a family event, and getting him fired after a recording of Steven insulting his boss is sent to company computers. Chip also mockingly says his real name is Larry Tate. Rick looks into this and discovers Chip was let go from the cable company for using fake names taken from sitcoms and for stalking customers. Steven gets a call from Chip, who says he is heading to Robin's place.

Steven races there, finds it empty, and phones the police, directing them to the central satellite dish, where Chip has taken her.

Production

The idea for The Cable Guy came to first-time screenwriter Lou Holtz Jr. while he worked as a prosecutor in Los Angeles. He spotted a cable employee in his mother's apartment building hallway late one night and wondered what the man was doing there so late. The script sparked a bidding war, with Columbia Pictures winning it for $750,000 and an extra $250,000 if the film was actually produced. Chris Farley was initially attached to play the Cable Guy but left due to scheduling conflicts; Adam Sandler was also in the running.

Jim Carrey eventually took the role for a then-record $20 million. After Carrey signed on, Columbia hired Judd Apatow as producer. Apatow wanted to direct, but the studio said no, though they agreed to his suggestion of bringing in Ben Stiller, who had worked with Apatow on The Ben Stiller Show. Stiller was considered for the part of Steven Kovacs before Matthew Broderick got it.

Holtz's original script was a light comedy, which Apatow described as a What About Bob?-style annoying friend movie, with a likable loser who intrudes but never threatens physically. Carrey, Apatow, and Stiller liked the idea of a tech-savvy person invading someone's life and decided to add slapstick and darker elements, turning it into a satire of thrillers like Cape Fear, Unlawful Entry, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Holtz wrote four more drafts, each darker than the last, before leaving the project.

Apatow and Stiller then visited Carrey in South Carolina while he was filming Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Over a few days, they improvised many of the set pieces and worked out how Carrey would play the character. Apatow later took the film to the Writers Guild for arbitration, hoping to get a writing credit, but Holtz ended up with sole credit.

Reception

The Cable Guy holds a 57% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 84 reviews, with an average score of 5.9 out of 10. Critics there note that the film’s dark, thought-provoking, and subversive wit often—but not always—offsets its frustratingly uneven storytelling. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average of 56 out of 100 from 28 reviews, indicating mixed or average reception. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a C+ on an A to F scale.

The movie is considered darker than most of Jim Carrey’s earlier work; his character initially seems goofy, like his past roles, but grows more sinister and frightening. This shift drew mixed reactions from both audiences and critics. J. Hoberman placed it on his Top 10 list for the year. Roger Ebert, however, included it on his worst-of-1996 list, arguing that Carrey’s bizarre and creepy performance undermined the story and that the film was unnecessarily dark.

Gene Siskel disagreed, calling it a very good film and Carrey’s best since The Mask. Slant Magazine later named the role among the 15 Famous Movie Psychopaths. Despite its mixed reviews, the film developed a cult following and is credited with helping Carrey transition into more serious roles like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey himself called it one of his favorite projects, praising Ben Stiller’s direction and noting that the character represents everyone raised by television.

Stiller describes The Cable Guy as the most educational and spirit-building failure of his career. He says the making of it was a pure creative experience, thanks to Carrey’s boldness, and that its initial flop taught him that success isn’t guaranteed—but the film has since taken on a life of its own, more so than some of his more commercially successful movies.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for The Cable Guy came out on May 21, 1996, through Work Group. It features mostly new songs from alternative rock and heavy metal groups, including Jerry Cantrell's first solo recording. Jim Carrey performs Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," a version he sang in the movie. There is also a track from $10,000 Gold Chain, a side project of Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready.

White Zombie's "More Human than Human" appears in a key film scene but was left off the album. Cantrell's "Leave Me Alone" was the main promotional single, reaching number 14 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Its music video uses dark film footage typical of Cantrell's style, with Jim Carrey's face emerging from a TV screen. This video was added as a bonus on the 2011 15th-anniversary Blu-ray.

The album as a whole got weak reviews, but AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "Leave Me Alone" rocks as hard as any Alice in Chains song. Another track, "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand," became popular from the film and hit number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in 1996.

Did You Know?

• The film had the highest opening weekend for a Ben Stiller film at the time, holding this record until 2000 when Meet the Parents surpassed it.
• The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 12, 1996, and opened at number two behind Mission: Impossible.