Canadian actor and comedian Mike Myers became a star in the early 1990s with his array of instantly recognizable characters such as Wayne, the television-addled, heavy-metalhead teenager whose world revolves around a quixotic search for "babes"; and Linda Richman, the bourgeois Jewish housewife (based on Myers's mother-in-law) who hosts a fictitious "Coffee Talk" show and advises viewers to "talk amongst yourselves." Beginning in 1992 with Wayne's World, Myers began directing his comedic talents towards screenwriting, penning scripts and adapting his characters for films in which he also stars, including Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Wayne, undoubtedly Myers's most popular creation, is the star of a public-access talk show broadcast out of his parents' paneled basement in Aurora, Illinois, where, with his friend Garth (played by Saturday Night Live colleague Dana Carvey), he holds forth on beer, rock music, and a teenage vision of sexual conquest. Myers has told...