Ben Stiller Takes a Dark Turn as a Disgraced Billionaire in the King of the Hill Creator’s New Series

Here we go: Ben Stiller is heading back to television, and this time he's teaming up with Mike Judge—the brains behind everything from 'King of the Hill' to 'Beavis and Butt-Head'. If that's not an odd enough pairing already, the show itself sounds like a bonkers blend that could either be brilliant or a complete car crash (no middle ground, I suspect).

Yes, That Ben Stiller in a Mike Judge Show

The series is called 'Protective Custody', and Stiller's playing a disgraced billionaire—think less charming mogul, more financial villain. Here's the deal: he's accused of massive fraud and ends up chucked into protective custody, stuck with unpredictable prison alliances and plenty of reputation damage control. It's apparently about what happens when you take someone used to board rooms and drop them into a much less forgiving kind of institution.

Apple TV+ has bagged this one, and reportedly the whole thing started as a pitch from Ben Silverman and Propagate Content, who floated it to Apple as 'Hogan's Heroes' mashed up with 'The Office'. If you’re trying to picture what that actually looks like, don’t worry, you’re not alone—no amount of caffeine is helping me visualise it, either.

Who’s Behind the Scenes?

Aside from Stiller and Judge, there are a couple of proper heavy-hitters in the writing department: Steve Hely (who’s written for everything from Veep to American Dad) and Dave King (of Parks and Rec fame) are on board. Mike Judge will be directing a handful of episodes on top of the usual showrunning, so expect a healthy dollop of his very specific sense of humour throughout.

The executive producer list is basically an awards show roll call:

• Ben Stiller and John Lesher (for Red Hour)
• Ben Silverman, Howard Owens, Rodney Ferrell (for Propagate Content)
• Michael Rotenberg and Oly Obst (for 3 Arts Entertainment)
• Nanette Burstein—yes, the Oscar-nominee—is also producing

It’s about as stacked as you can get without reanimating Orson Welles for an executive producer credit.

Where Does This Fit in Stiller’s Career?

'Protective Custody' marks just Stiller’s second major TV acting gig—his first lead TV role is actually another Apple TV comedy, 'The Off Weeks', coming soon. Obviously he’s still most famous for his 2000s film run ('Zoolander', 'Tropic Thunder', all those museums and Fockers), but more recently he’s shifted focus to producing and directing, most notably with 'Severance', which properly put him back on the map.

Clearly, his Apple TV+ partnership is in full swing. Besides this and 'The Off Weeks', there’s also an Apple Original film called 'The Dink' on the horizon, and—brace yourself—he’s even returning to poke more fun at Greg Focker’s life in yet another Fockers film, 'Focker-in-Law', later this year.

What’s Next?

Don't bother refreshing your iPlayer or whatever app you watch telly on yet: there’s no word at all about when 'Protective Custody' will actually drop. They’re still deep in the scripting-and-prep phase, so I wouldn’t expect any footage soon, but I’ll update as soon as Apple decide to get chatty.

Quick snapshot: Disgraced billionaire, prison shenanigans, comedy royalty writing and producing, and Ben Stiller trying to survive with his dignity (and probably his hair) intact. Could be must-see TV, could be a textbook case of too many cooks—either way, it’ll be interesting.

And if you’re wondering what Stiller makes of this whole thing himself, here’s how the official blurb summed it up:

'A disgraced financier accused of massive fraud who is thrown into protective custody, where he must navigate prison politics, salvage his reputation, and confront the consequences of his actions while awaiting trial.'

That’s the pitch—now, it's just a case of waiting to see if the finished product is as mad as it sounds on paper.