Ben Stiller Directed This Awesome Sci-Fi Pilot Starring Jack Black And Owen Wilson

The pilot for "Community" creator Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab's TV series "Heat Vision and Jack" was ordered by Fox back in 1999, but the network was a little put off by the show and never picked it up for a series. The pilot did end up airing on Fox as a 30-minute TV special, although it gained more notoriety among VHS traders and cult TV lovers. "Heat Vision and Jack," as directed by Ben Stiller, was to be a "Renegade"-style series about Jack Austin (Jack Black), an itinerant loner-on-the-road who helps random people in trouble. His only possession is his reliable motorcycle, and he is on the run from the law.

The twist is that Jack's motorcycle could talk to him, as it contained the spirit of his best friend Doug (Owen Wilson). Doug had been recently shot by an experimental ray gun, shunting his consciousness into the motorcycle. He now goes by the name Heat Vision. Oh yes, Jack also has superpowers. He's a former astronaut who was bombarded with solar radiation on a previous space mission, causing his brain to mutate and granting him super-intelligence. His enhanced intellect only activates when he is in direct sunlight, however. At night, he's of normal intelligence. His superpowers have, in turn, made him the target of Ron Silver, a vicious goon from NASA and a fictionalized, seemingly bullet-proof version of actor-filmmaker Ron Silver (as played by the real Ron Silver, who passed away in 2009).

The theme song was Tom Jones' cover of Yazoo's New Wave hit "Situation." The pilot was pretty great, although one can see how it might have been deemed too weird for a primetime audience. Stiller has since acknowledged the project several times, including on a 2025 episode of "Late Night With Seth Meyer." 

Stiller explained the premise more succinctly on "Late Night," saying:

"Does anybody know what this thing is? [...] It's a pilot that was never picked and it starred Jack Black as an astronaut. It was created by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, and [Black is] an astronaut who flies too close to the sun. When he comes back to Earth, his brain expands when the sun is up, and he becomes the smartest man in the world. When the sun goes down, he's a normal human. His friend [...] got melded into a motorcycle, and it's the voice of Owen Wilson. The hot sheriff is my wife, Christine Taylor, who I met when we made this pilot, and Ron Silver is the bad guy."

Taylor and Stiller have been married since 2000, so one can see how the director keeps the project close to his heart. Stiller's production company, Red Hour Productions, handled the series, making Stiller an executive producer. Stiller also provided an on-camera introduction for "Heat Vision and Jack," although he took the opportunity to defend his 1992 sketch comedy show "The Ben Stiller Show," pointing out that it, too, was canceled after one season despite winning an Emmy. He also noted that George Lucas has never won an Emmy and claimed the visual effects in "Heat Vision and Jack" were better than those for "a recent 'Star Wars' movie."

The story for "Heat Vision and Jack" is pretty fun. The great Vincent Schiavelli plays a fry cook who becomes possessed by an alien intelligence named Paragon after it transmits itself into his body through his radio. Paragon "absorbs" his wife (O-Lan Jones) and sets about on a quest to destroy humanity. Jack then stumbles into the aftermath of the absorption, arousing the ire of the local sheriff (Taylor).

Hearing the voice of Owen Wilson coming out of a motorcycle, especially as it gulps down gasoline in relief, will definitely remind viewers of the "Cars" movies. The pilot climaxes at a strip club that Paragon has mistaken for a power center of the Earth. Stiller has a cameo as the announcer at the strip club, and Jack has a fistfight with Paragon while blindfolded. (The alien can only use its powers by looking in your eyes.) The pilot also bothered to license a few hot pop songs of the time, including "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind and Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page's "Come with Me" from the "Godzilla" soundtrack.

The pilot never went to series, but Harmon was always fond of the project. Way back in 2007, while speaking in an interview with Wizard Magazine, he even said he was aiming to adapt the concept into a feature film. At the time, Harmon seemed hopeful that it would be made, saying:

"[W]e're still in the first draft stage. It's like right now everyone is onboard, and Jack wants to do it, and Stiller has his own personal project, but he's saying he loves it and he wants to do it. I just have to get the right script and make sure that everyone who wants to be involved with it has the time to do it because Jack's doing a movie like every other month, and he has a kid now. So he's going to be picky with his free time, especially now after going on a world tour with Tenacious D. But again, he's like, 'Just get me a script, and I'll figure it out because I want to do this.'"

Unfortunately, even if the film version should (miraculously) come to fruition one day, this cult oddity may be too far removed from the present to attract an audience. In the meantime, the original lives on in low-quality videos on YouTube.