Oh, This Is an Endearing Bittersweet One: Who Is Martin Mull?
Oh, this is an endearing bittersweet one. Find out — if you didn’t already know — Who Is Martin Mull? Netflix’s new documentary turns the question into something much bigger than a career retrospective, following a man who could move from comedy to music to television and then right back to the canvas.
Netflix puts it perfectly: “He was a world-class comedian — and that’s not even what he did best.” Mull was the dry-as-dust comic presence generations knew from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Clue, Roseanne and Arrested Development, but painting was not some celebrity side hobby. It was a lifelong artistic passion that ran alongside everything else.
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Who Is Martin Mull?
Comedy, music, television and a serious life in painting come together in Netflix’s portrait of one of entertainment’s most quietly unpredictable originals.
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From Folk Clubs and Sitcoms to Gallery Walls
Who Is Martin Mull? traces exactly that restless reinvention. The documentary moves through Mull’s early life as an artist and musician, the wonderfully strange comedy that made him a cult favorite, his long television career and the visual art that remained part of his identity even while Hollywood kept finding new places to put him.
The people helping tell the story know the territory. Steve Martin, Tom Waits and David Alan Grier are among the friends and fellow performers featured, while Mull gets to speak for himself through archival material. Netflix describes the result as candid and witty, which feels about right for somebody who spent decades refusing to fit neatly into one creative box.
Bob Saget Started the Story Years Before Its Netflix Premiere
There is another reason the whole thing feels bittersweet. Bob Saget began working on the documentary in 2018 and co-directed it with Neil Berkeley. After Saget’s death, Berkeley carried the film forward and completed the project. Now the documentary reaches Netflix with both Saget’s work and Mull’s own voice built into the story.
It makes the film feel less like somebody coming along afterward to explain Martin Mull and more like a conversation that was already happening while he was here — funny, affectionate and, from the looks of the trailer, properly interested in the artist underneath all those instantly recognizable television characters.
Who Is Martin Mull? Official Netflix Trailer Stills
Frames from the official trailer for Who Is Martin Mull? Images: Netflix / YouTube.
Who Is Martin Mull? Premieres October 7 on Netflix
The documentary arrives on Netflix October 7, 2026, kicking off a month in which the streamer is also rolling out documentaries on Norm Macdonald, Maria Bamford and SCTV. But first comes Mull: musician, cult comedian, unlikely television fixture, acclaimed painter and a guy whose answer to “what do you do?” was apparently always going to require more than one line.
So yes, press play and find out who Martin Mull was. Or, maybe more accurately, find out how many Martin Mulls there were.
Who Is Martin Mull? Official Trailer From Netflix
Netflix’s official trailer previews the October 7 documentary from directors Bob Saget and Neil Berkeley, tracing Mull’s life through comedy, music, television and painting.
Source: Netflix; Netflix Tudum. Images: Netflix / YouTube.
