in 1989 stiller wrote and appeared on saturday night live as a featured performer. however, since the show did not want him to make more short films, he left after four episodes. he then put together elvis stories, a short film about a fictitious tabloid focused on recent sightings of elvis presley. the film starred friends and co-stars john cusack, jeremy piven, mike myers, andy dick, and jeff kahn. the film was considered a success, and led him to develop the short film going back to brooklyn for mtv; it was a music video starring comedian colin quinn that parodied ll cool j's recent hit "going back to cali".