The Critic is an American prime time animated sitcom 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 (seasons 3 and 4) on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994, and finishing its original run on Fox in 1995. According to PopMatters, "the creators [said] they intended the series as their 'love letter to New York,'" which is likely a joke as neither Jean nor Reiss has ever lived in New York.
Episodes featured movie parodies with notable examples including a musical version of Apocalypse Now; Howard Stern's End (Howards End); Honey, I Ate the Kids (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/The Silence of the Lambs); The Cockroach King (The Lion King); Abe Lincoln: Pet Detective (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective); and Scent of a Jackass and Scent of a Wolfman (Scent of a Woman). 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 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. As of 2016, the series can be viewed for free on Crackle.
Premise:
The show follows the life of 37-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 widely considered to be "cold, mean-spirited, and elitist". His signature line, upon seeing a terrible movie, is "It stinks!" Each episode is 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.
Cast and Characters:
Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman
Christine Cavanaugh as Marty Sherman
Nancy Cartwright as Margo Sherman / various characters
Gerrit Graham as Franklin Sherman
Judith Ivey as Eleanor (née Wigglesworth) Sherman
Doris Grau as Doris Grossman
Maurice LaMarche as Jeremy Hawke / Shackleford / Principal Mangosuthu / Orson Welles / Howard Stern / various characters
Nick Jameson as Vlada Veramirovich / various characters
Brenda Vaccaro and Rhea Perlman as Ardeth
Charles Napier as Duke Phillips
Park Overall as Alice Tompkins
Russi Taylor as Penny Tompkins
Kath Soucie as various characters
Tress MacNeille as Humphrey the Hippo / various characters
Valerie Levitt as Jennifer (webisodes)
Why Do I Love It So Much?
Back when I was growing up in the '90's animation was just getting into the swing of what would be the norm in terms of adult comedies with Family Guy, Futurama, American Dad, and so many other animated series. Steven Spielberg's Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, Road Rovers, Pink & The Brain, and Freakazoid! - as well as the mega-power that would be known as The Simpsons that was around at the time as well (and still going strong even to this day) - would all have a hand to play in that as well in that market at the time, but off on it's own, we had The Critic, a lesser known show on the Fox Network during a time where the network was famous for the amount of great comedies they had under their roof, ranging from In Living Color, Married... With Children, etc. etc.
Much like other animated comedies that Family Guy, The Simpsons, and others would adopt today in modern media, The Critic made the use of and popularized "cutaway gags" where they would cut away to clips, whereas in relation to this cartoon they would be related to parodies of popular films and television shows. Ironic would have it that a lot of these sequels and spin-offs that were laughed and joked about in the '90s became a reality a few decades later, believe it or not. Hell, most people don't know that the hilarious Kool-Aid Man gag that Family Guy gets credit for showed up in the series finale of The Critic first.
Some of my favorite spoofs were "Speed Reading" and "RoboClapper" if I'm honest. Also, who can't forget about Maurice LaMarche's Orson Welles impression for the "Rosebud Frozen Peas" commercial?
There's countless gags and skits that are timeless and still hit home even today after all of these years.
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| Even today in 2020, that image there is still comical to me. |
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| Need I say more? |
If memory serves, there's always a complete playlist floating around of the entire series up (along with the webisodes) on YouTube and/or Dailymotion that's re-uploaded every few months in the event that it is taken down. Go out of your way to check this gem that continues to influence so many animated comedies like it to this day.
After majoring in film studies in college, I have an even greater appreciation for a lot of the references to classic films here as well even more now when I revisit the series in my adolescent years. Even when writing for this blog at times, I can totally relate to Jay Sherman's life when you're the only one who has to be brutally honest about how bad some of this shit is that Hollywood churns out and considers "good" cinema.
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| Exactly what Jay Sherman would say in regard to 2020 in general. |
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