The Critic is an American prime time
animated series revolving around the
life of New York film critic Jay
Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It
was created by writing partners Al Jean
and Mike Reiss, who had previously
worked as writers and showrunners on The
Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes
produced, first broadcast on ABC in
1994, and finishing its original run on
Fox in 1995.
Episodes featured movie parodies with
notable examples including a musical
version of Apocalypse Now, Howard
Stern's End, Honey, I Ate the Kids, The
Cockroach King, Abe Lincoln: Pet
Detective, Scent of a Jackass and Scent
of a Wolfman. The show often referenced
popular movies such as Willy Wonka & the
Chocolate Factory and The Godfather, and
routinely lampooned actor Marlon Brando
and actor/director Orson Welles. They
also spoofed Dudley Moore, usually as
his character Arthur Bach from the 1981
film Arthur.
Despite the ratings improving, The
Critic was cancelled after two seasons.
It continued to air through reruns on
Comedy Central and then on Locomotion.
From February 1, 2000 to 2001, ten
webisodes were later produced using
Adobe Shockwave, and were broadcast on
AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com. In
2004, the DVD box set was released,
which includes all 23 TV episodes and
the webisodes.
In the late 2000s, reruns of the show
aired again on ReelzChannel in the US
and on Teletoon's programming block
Teletoon at Night in Canada.
Production
The show was created by Al Jean and Mike
Reiss, who along with James L. Brooks
served as executive producers. The
Critic was produced by Columbia Pictures
in association with Gracie Films. The
show's animation was done by Film Roman.
It was co-produced by Patric Verrone.
The show sometimes included appearances
of real life critics, such as Gene
Shallit, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert,
who provided their own voices. When
choosing things to parody, Reiss and
Jean made a conscious decision to find
the right balance between current pop
culture, and references that would stand
the test of time.
The Critic was "the first major
non-family sitcom animated program to
appear in primetime". The show started
out on ABC on January 26, 1994, where it
aired 13 episodes. It was cancelled by
the network after half a season, and was
then moved onto Fox the following year
where it ran for another 10 episode
season. Around this time, it was
included in a "shameless plug" crossover
with The Simpsons and assumed the
timeslot immediately after the show in
the TV schedule, in an attempt to
popularise it. But despite improvement
of the ratings, Fox moved it to a
different timeslot after 5 episodes, and
also cancelled it after this run had
finished airing in May 1995. According
to The TV IV, nine scripts were already
written for the planned third season and
the show was going to be moved to UPN,
but an agreement was not reached, and
also Fox refused to officially cancel
the show until much later. The show was
not renewed on any network, and
effectively became cancelled. The show
returned in Flash-animated webisode form
in 2000-2001, for a third season with 10
3-5 minute installments.
= Design=
Four people have a design credit on the
show: David Silverman, Rich Moore, David
Cutler, and Everett Peck. Silverman
designed the look of Jay Sherman. Moore
and Cutler designed the general look of
the show including some of the
backgrounds and supporting cast. The
character of Doris was based on Peck's
drawings. Cutler helped in the hard task
of standardizing all these animation
styles. Moore was the supervising
director, so oversaw a lot of the design
process — and was also responsible for
how the action would play out, and how
each shot would be framed. Rich Moore
explains "the design of Jay Sherman
began as a sketch done by David
Silverman" on a napkin/place-mat in a
restaurant. He was designed as
"Kaufmanesque", and Jim Brooks liked the
design, so his design remained much the
same for the pilot episode. Moore had
his reservations as the character had a
"flat head and tiny eyes that were hard
to act with", and was composed of shapes
that were difficult to turn in a 3D
space. It was decided the drawing
encapsulated the humanity and reality of
the critic, so was left unchanged. Over
the course of the two seasons however,
the design was altered slightly. The
flat head was made more round, and his
eyes became bigger — in order to make
Sherman more appealing and more easily
animatable. The design team never
intended to make the characters too
cartoony as it would not have fit
tonally with the type of show. The
characters were designed via a general
think-tank process of "what do we like
about the characters and what are we
trying to say about them?". Quick
sketches were completed in front of the
full creative team after a discussion
about characters, which were then
critically analysed. In particular, the
design of the parents caused some
issues. Jim Brooks described the father
as a "crazy wasp". The designs were
eventually based on a photo of a
professor and his wife. Moore explains
that the animation should never "step on
the voices or the writing".
= Casting=
Jean and Reiss had a lot of trouble
casting the voice for Margo, Jay's
sister. Nancy Cartwright was eventually
given the role. She used a voice very
similar to her natural one. Christine
Cavanaugh was cast as Marty. The Ted
Turner-esque boss was played by Charles
Napier, using his real voice. Due to the
sheer number of film and TV parodies,
the team also sought character actors
who could play many different roles.
During the audition process, they asked
them to perform their acts, which Reiss
described as "very entertaining".
Maurice LaMarche impressed Jean by doing
"perfect" impressions. LaMarche even
beat out genuine Australians for the
role of Australian actor Jeremy Hawke.
He was often asked to work on his accent
of a pop culture figure related to media
just released or that would have been
released by the time of the episode's
airing. Depending on who could do the
voice better, the characters were
divided up between Nick Jameson and
Maurice. Each would play about 20-30
characters per show. According to
Maurice LaMarche, he played twenty-seven
characters in one episode. Maurice
specialized in impressions, while Nick's
specialty was accents and dialects.
History
The series was created by writing
partners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had
previously worked as showrunners for The
Simpsons. The two had a contract with
executive producer James L. Brooks to
create an original series that he would
help sell to a network and, at the time,
Brooks had a deal with ABC that
essentially meant that they would put
anything he brought them on the air for
22 episodes.
The initial idea came from Brooks, who
approached Jean and Reiss with an idea
about doing a show based around the
backstage of a morning show like Today
or Good Morning America from the
perspective of a make-up artist at the
show. They described it as like The Mary
Tyler Moore Show except during the
daytime. However, neither of the two
writers knew anything about make-up and
felt unqualified to write the series.
Over time, the pitch was reshaped until
A League of Their Own was released,
which co-starred Jon Lovitz. The duo
decided to write a role specifically for
Lovitz, who they had worked with in the
past when he did voices for The
Simpsons, and wrote him as a film
critic. They dropped the earlier ideas
entirely and let the series develop from
there.
When the series was first coming
together, it was meant to be a
live-action sitcom. Lovitz was
enthusiastic about doing the show, but
was unable to commit to a live-action
shooting schedule due to other
commitments. Because they were already
familiar with animation and to make sure
Lovitz could do the show, they decided
to turn the series into a cartoon. They
eventually figured out that even if they
had done the series in live-action, it
would have cost millions of dollars per
episode because of the elaborate movie
parodies that frequently appear in the
cartoon. According to PopMatters, "the
creators [said] they intended the series
as their "love letter to New York".
= ABC=
Reiss and Jean sold the series to ABC
based on the pilot script, despite a
complete lack of any visuals nailed
down. ABC gave them a 13-episode
commitment, which allowed them to move
on to designing the aesthetic of the
series. The one stipulation Lovitz had
was that he didn't want Sherman to look
like him, although the two more or less
look alike in the end. They also made a
conscious decision to make it as
distinct from The Simpsons as possible,
despite hiring Simpsons alumni in key
art positions.
The series premiered on January 26, 1994
on ABC, leading into Home Improvement.
The popularity of The Simpsons had led
to major networks trying their hands,
and largely failing, at primetime
animation. By the time The Critic
started airing, shows like Family Dog,
Capitol Critters, and Fish Police had
already failed to gain an audience. The
first episode also managed to garner
massive amounts of hate mail, which
likely discouraged the network further.
The crew was informed midway through the
first season that they would not be
renewed. The creators scrambled to
retest episodes and put together a new
pitch for other networks, eventually
settling with Fox.
= Fox=
Fox picked up the series for a
10-episode second season after it was
dropped by ABC. The series creators paid
particular attention to focus groups and
other sources of criticism. They changed
some of the designs, opting to make Jay
Sherman's head rounder and his pupils
bigger, introduced a love interest and
generally made Sherman's character less
pathetic. The lower budget also
necessitated a clip show episode as one
of the 10 from the season.
The series went over as poorly at Fox as
it did at ABC. In the DVD commentary
tracks, Al Jean offered several reasons
why the show failed on Fox despite
promising ratings when put alongside The
Simpsons, mainly that the network simply
didn't have as much financial interest
in the series because they didn't own
it. The Critic was solely owned by Sony,
which meant that reruns and syndication
deals would not net Fox any money down
the road, whereas a 20th Century Fox
show like King of the Hill would yield
profits. He also suggested that Fox had
less invested into the series because it
was inherited from another network.
The series was canceled a second time
after the second season.
= After Fox=
Once it became clear that the series
would not have a long life on Fox, the
producers started talks to move the
series yet again. Nine scripts for the
never produced third season were
written, including a parody of Single
White Female, and UPN was interested in
picking the show up. However, the budget
would have been slashed dramatically and
Fox wouldn't officially cancel the
series, for fear of it jumping to
another network and succeeding.
Negotiations broke down and the series
was finally put down for good on
broadcast television.
In 2000, the series was resurrected
briefly on AtomFilms.com as a series of
webisodes animated using Adobe
Shockwave. The art was significantly
more rudimentary and nearly every
character was dropped with the exception
of Jay Sherman and a single appearance
by Vlada. The webisode series largely
was an excuse to do more movie parodies,
but also featured a narrative of Jay
trying to date his new young make-up
lady, Jennifer. Each webisode was
between 3 and 5 minutes long, the series
ran for 10 episodes.
The series was popularized again when
Comedy Central bought the broadcasting
rights and aired it alongside other
acquired animated comedies like Duckman
and Undergrads. The series, for a time,
was one of the most watched shows on
Comedy Central. A DVD collecting both
seasons and the webisodes was released
in 2004.
Cast and characters
Plot
The show follows the life of 36-year-old
film critic from New York named Jay
Prescott Sherman. His televised review
show is called Coming Attractions, which
airs on the Philips Broadcasting cable
network. He is also "cold,
mean-spirited, and elitist". His
signature line, upon experiencing bad
art, is "It stinks!". Each episode was
full of film references and parodies.
Some of the secondary characters that
are a part of Jay's story include his
nutty adoptive father, his well-meaning
son Marty, the Australian movie star
Jeremy Hawke, Margo — the biological
child of his adoptive parents, his snide
make-up lady Doris, and his boss Duke
Phillips. In the second season, Jay
acquired a love interest — a Southern
woman named Alice Tompkins, who later
became his long-term girlfriend.
Relationship with The Simpsons
The A.V. Club explains "in creating The
Critic, Al Jean and Mike Reiss set out
to make the show as dissimilar from the
The Simpsons as humanly possible".
Nevertheless, there are many
similarities between the two series. Gen
X TV: The Brady Bunch to Melrose Place
argues that The Critic became a critical
success while other animated shows of
the early 1990s flopped was because "the
makers of these shows failed to realize
that The Simpsons didn't become a hit
because of animation [but] because of
its style of humor", and says that The
Critic understood this. It adds the show
"took the media-obsession/parody
portions of The Simpsons and created
separate show around them. Planet
Simpson describes the show as "the
closest thing The Simpsons ever had to a
spin-off". The Critic also shares The
Simpsons love for criticizing Fox and
the audience, such as Jay's frequent
line "You're watching Fox, shame on you"
and "The Critic will be right back, you
TV addicted couch monkeys"  before the
show went to commercial break. The A.V.
Club says "The Critic made its
protagonist the anti-Homer Simpson.
Where Homer is a booze-sodden everyman,
Jay Sherman is an unabashed elitist.
Where Homer is a rudely physical
creature, Jay leads a life of the mind.
Homer is a slob. Jay is a snob". While
"Springfield is very aggressively and
deliberately Anywhere, United States,
The Critic is an extended Valentine to a
certain kind of pointy-headed East Coast
elitism". PopMatters said "The Critic's
humor is very much in the spirit of The
Simpsons, taken in a more brazenly
surreal direction".
Matt Groening had no part in its
inception, and wanted to make this very
clear, so he would not be associated
with any success or failure the show
would have. He claimed that in the
public consciousness, this was his show
— a direct spin-off to The Simpsons.
Many voice actors appear in both The
Simpsons and The Critic, and regulars on
both shows have made cameos in the
others. For example, Nancy Cartwright,
Doris Grau, and Jon Lovitz have all
played primary/secondary characters on
both shows. Maurice LaMarche, who played
many characters on The Critic, "played
George C. Scott getting hit in the groin
with a football" in the crossover
episode. His only line was "Ow, my
groin". He also did Jay's belch in the
episode.
= Crossovers=
In "Dukerella", Jay and Alice attend a
costume ball dressed as Homer and Marge.
Homer and Bart Simpson made a brief
appearance in "Dial M for Mother".
During an interview with Geraldo Rivera,
Jay is asked about talking over the
heads of his audience and does just that
in his answer. An annoyed family
watching changes the channel to The
Simpsons, where Homer—after stepping on
a rake—exclaims, "D'oh!" and Bart
replies, "Ay caramba!" The family's
father comments, "Now, this I
understand." This is a satirical
suggestion that The Simpsons is
low-brow.
In "A Star Is Burns", Jay makes a guest
appearance on The Simpsons presiding
over a local film festival. When Jay
enters the Simpson household, Bart is
watching a Flintstones-Jetsons crossover
show, which he criticizes; he then
praises Jay and Coming Attractions/The
Critic, before shuddering and saying to
himself "I feel so dirty." At the end of
the episode, as he is leaving for New
York, Jay offers the Simpsons to appear
on Coming Attractions/The Critic, but
Bart declines, saying, "Nah, we're not
going to be doing that." Jay has yellow
skin when he appears on The Simpsons but
pink skin on The Critic. This episode
caused some conflict between Simpsons
creator Matt Groening and executive
producer James L. Brooks. Groening
decided to take his name off the credits
and did not appear in the DVD
commentary. He publicly complained about
the episode, which went to air in the
end. He said "for more than six months I
tried to convince Jim Brooks and
everyone connected with the show not to
do such a cynical thing, which would
surely be perceived by the fans as
nothing more than a pathetic attempt
to...advertise The Critic at the expense
of the integrity of The Simpsons". In
response, Brooks said "[Groening] is a
gifted, adorable, cuddly ingrate. But
his behavior right now is rotten. And,
it's not pretty when a rich man acts
like this".
Jay appeared briefly on The Simpsons a
few more times. In the episode
"Hurricane Neddy", he was in an insane
asylum apparently unable to say anything
more than his catchphrase In the episode
"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", he is
seen at Moe's Tavern with all the other
characters on the show that Lovitz
voices or has voiced.
Episodes
Hallmarks
Much like the opening sequence in The
Simpsons with its chalkboard, sax solo,
and couch gags, The Critic has a
distinctive opening sequence featuring
minor gags. Jay is always awakened by a
disquieting phone call or radio news
report, and eventually watches a clip
that parodies a well-known movie before
delivering the same negative opinion:
"It stinks!" He watches the closing
credits in a movie theater and delivers
a comeback line to an usher who tells
him the show is over.
Themes
The main source of satire in The Critic
is of the entertainment industry. The
A.V. Club explains "Mike Reiss and Al
Jean-written episodes of The Simpsons
are often defined by a high number of
parodies, spoofs and homages. In their
episodes, the Simpsons are always
watching television or going to the
movies. They didn’t need any such excuse
for film parodies on The Critic since
Jay’s life was inherently and
organically filled with film. It proved
the perfect delivery system for an
endless series of clever, bite-sized
spoofs." The book I'm an English
Major--Now What? epitomises this by
recounting a scene where Jay is forced
to rate movies "on a scale of good to
excellent" - thereby negating his
credibility as a film critic. Sherman
says "but what if I won't like
something", to which his boss Duke
replies, "That's what good is for". This
shows the corruption of an industry that
aims to provide unbiased thoughtful
analyses of films, due to bribery and
politics. Another example is in the June
22 episode "L.A. Jay", where after
trying to break into the movie business
by writing a script, which is revealed
to be rather good, a studio buys it off
him for $100,000 in order to bury it,
thereby keeping quality out of the
industry. While episodes typically dealt
with his private life, Jay's position as
a film critic "offer[ed] numerous
opportunities for the show to satirize
the film industry, establishing a
duologue with popular culture" in a very
similar way to what The Simpsons had
already been doing for years. The Critic
also frequently made fun of celebrities,
sometimes in mean-spirited ways. Drawn
to Television cites the fat jokes
directed at Marlon Brando or Orson
Welles. The Critic also frequently
comments on television. For example, one
episode criticizes a character's project
to colorize a series of classic
black-and-white films for broadcast on a
cable channel. The process involves
making the films "more attractive to a
contemporary audience" by "inserting
computer-generated happy endings". The
article Ten Frighteningly Prophetic
Parodies from ‘The Critic’ explores the
show's spoofs that "have come true,
proving that there really isn’t anything
that’s too stupid for Hollywood to make"
- an almost meta-satirical statement in
that things that the writer thought were
too ridiculous to be true at the time,
ended up coming to fruition.
GrabBagCinema said, "What was great
about this show, was that it always knew
how to make you laugh and poke fun at
celebrities, and their movies. It was so
well written because it really
understood movies, celebrities,
Hollywood and humour. If you weren’t a
movie buff, you probably couldn’t
appreciate it or enjoy it. But if you
were, you understood the references and
saw the effort the writers and animators
put in, to recapture the movies you grew
up loving and remembering... but they
did it with clever humour that wouldn’t
offend you. But the best element of this
show was that Jay Sherman would review
films honestly. And even though he loved
classic cinema and original story
telling, he would still be honest and
say he didn’t like it. It’s just a shame
real life critics and reviewers cannot
do the same".
Reception
= Contemporaneous=
The Critic originally received mixed to
positive reviews when it first aired. In
1994, The Chicago Sun-Times gave a
typical review of the show with, "Jay
Sherman, the eponymous culture vulture
of The Critic, would undoubtedly say his
new animated comedy on ABC 'stinks'.
Fortunately for him [The Critic] smells
pretty good to me". The show has since
developed a cult following, with much of
it coming through the show's weekend
reruns on Comedy Central up until about
2005.
The DVD set also got many positive
reviews, such as one from Animated
Views, and on TV.com where the series
has a user rating of 8.5 based on 625
votes. Mike Reiss' favourite episode is
the Siskel and Ebert one.
In September 2006, IGN ranked The Critic
9th in their list of the Top 25
Primetime Animated Series of All Time.
In January 2009, they ranked the show
26th in their other list of the Top 100
Best Animated TV Series. In the latter
article, IGN said: "Of all the projects
completed by ex-Saturday Night Live
players, The Critic is the most fully
realized, hilarious and heartwarming. It
took its cues from Woody Allen movies
like Annie Hall and Manhattan, and
offered up a style of random abstract
humor that wouldn't really be seen again
until Family Guy." In December 2011,
Complex ranked the show 6th in their
list of The 25 Most Underrated Animated
TV Shows Of All Time.
People magazine gave it a B, saying
"This animated series is slyly amusing
when sticking it to showbiz, taking
sarcastic swipes at everyone from Steven
Seagal to Gene Shalit. At its best, it's
still several strides behind the savage,
protean wit of The Simpsons, and the
humor sputters when the focus is
personal". Of the third season, IGN said
"I was thrilled to find out that Gracie
Films has started producing new episodes
of the cancelled ABCComedy Central show
The Critic -- and for web cartoons that
don't depend on the violence/swear
cop-out for the humor, the shows are
actually really well produced."
Early on in its run, Siskel and Ebert
did a review of the show. It was the
only television series they ever
reviewed. Some of the criticisms they
provided, if left unattended to, may
have been factors to the show's
cancellation. They said the show doesn't
have as many memorable characters as The
Simpsons, and encouraged the writers to
work on that. They said the second
episode was a let down because "it
didn't seem to be about the world of a
movie critic", and was instead about "a
single dad and his geeky son". They said
the jokes involving Jay's dad get
tiresome, and that the station boss
isn't as sharp a parody as he could be.
Siskel said, "if The Critic is gonna
succeed — and I hope it does — it
desperately needs to refocus itself on
the movies and the way critics interact
with them". He added that the show needs
a second critic, and jokingly said he
and Ebert should save the show by
writing scripts for them. Ebert said the
show should have 2-3 movie/genre
parodies per episode. He added he would
like to see Jay watch television to
allow the show to satirize that medium
as well. This would focus the show on
the media, and not let it become another
show about a man and his problems.
Siskel said the writers should keep Jay
as a smart critic. Regardless of his
personality, if his critiques are witty
and intelligent, by extension the show's
satire becomes much sharper.
= Later analysis=
AOL TV published an article in 2009
entitled Gone Too Soon: The Critic, in
which they analyzed the cancellation of
the show. It said "The creators and
Lovitz seem to [care about the show], as
there are always talks cropping up of a
revival of The Critic, either as an
animated project, or possibly a
live-action one. There are fan sites out
there, but as time passes with no new
material, many of these are becoming
floating time capsules". Plus, a lot of
effort was put into the release of the
DVD, meaning there is still a fan base
as well as a passionate cast and crew.
Drawn to Television says that like Jay's
show-within-a-show Coming Attractions,
"audiences never quite warmed up to
Sherman and his surrounding cast of
characters" in The Critic, perhaps due
to the lack of warmth between character
interactions in both shows. The book The
Magic Behind the Voices put its
cancellation down to "so-so ratings and
network politics". Planet Simpson says
it "failed to click with Simpsons fans".
In 1994, Austin American-Statesman said
"The Critic never had a prayer on ABC,
where the comedy overload consists of
domestic sitcoms". The show is generally
considered one of the great TV shows
cancelled too early into its run.
Columbia Spectator said the show was
"one of television's great lost causes."
Voice actor Maurice LaMarche considered
The Critic one of his "personal
favorites", saying "I would almost give
anything to bring back The Critic, along
with Pinky and the Brain; those are the
two most satisfying jobs I've ever had".
Ogeeku said "This show did not last as
long as it should have and that is truly
a shame. The Critic was in its time, one
of the greatest animated shows ever made
and one of the funniest shows period on
television". Reiss thinks the show holds
up very well.
PopMatters said "The animated Jay
Sherman...is perfect for Lovitz. He may
never find anything in live action that
serves him quite so well. I don’t mean
that as a dig at his comic abilities;
it’s just that Sherman is an ideal
outlet for the actor’s ham". It said the
cartoon format allows for "his two
biggest strengths as a performer:
sarcasm and ironic overacting". It added
"A marriage of voice-acting, writing,
and animation that rivals some of the
best Pixar work, Sherman is nonetheless
hampered occasionally by the writers’
over-sampling from the Homer Simpson
playbook, mainly gags concerning Jay’s
girth and accompanying appetites. More
effectively". PopMatters said "when it
originally aired...the series was
slightly ahead of its time, outlandish
in a way that The Simpsons would not
adopt until later. Rewatching it now,
The Critic seems most similar
stylistically to the more recent series
Family Guy, with its frequent cutaway
gags...and blurring of fantasy and
reality. The Simpsons introduced these
qualities in moderation; The Critic and
Family Guy are addicted to them,
sometimes to a crippling degree". It
explained that "The reference-heavy,
media-saturated, sketch-like structure
works better for The Critic than Family
Guy, though, because the former is less
in love with itself and its desire to
shock or offend. Indeed, it’s more
strange than twisted, Unlike Family Guy,
it has a frame of reference beyond
television, beyond even its self-created
film niche". It adds that "The satire
isn’t always as biting as it could be;
many of the movie parodies eschew real
critique in favor of non sequiturs or
homage. Too often the writers rely on
audience familiarity with popular
movies. It’s amusing to be sure, but
rarely as deadpan hilarious as The
Simpsons parade of fabricated Troy
McClure B-movies".
= Awards and nominations=
Home media
Responding to the success of DVD sales
of Family Guy and The Simpsons, Sony
Home Entertainment decided to release
The Critic on DVD in early 2004,
including the two regular seasons and
the webisodes. The show achieved good
sales, jumping onto the DVD list at 14
on Amazon, and quickly going through
five issuings.
References
External links
The Critic at Keyframe
The Critic at the Internet Movie
Database
The Critic at the Big Cartoon DataBase
The Critic at The TV IV
The Critic at TV.com
The Critic at TV Tropes
Fan review of The Critic at
RetroJunk.com
The Critic-related interview videos at
the Archive of American Television
= Other=
The Critic in New York Magazine
The Critic: The Complete Series at The
Digital Fix
The Critic in The New York Times
The Critic at DVD Talk
The Critic at Jackass
The Critic at Slant Magazine
Jon Lovitz parallels to Jay Sherman
