 | This article possibly contains original research. (October 2023) |
| The Critic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Animated sitcom Parody Satire |
| Created by | Al Jean Mike Reiss |
| Voices of | Jon Lovitz Nancy Cartwright Christine Cavanaugh Gerrit Graham Doris Grau Judith Ivey Nick Jameson Maurice LaMarche Charles Napier Park Overall Tress MacNeille Kath Soucie Russi Taylor |
| Theme music composer | Hans Zimmer |
| Composer | Alf Clausen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 (+ 10 shorts) |
| No. of episodes | 23 (+ 10 shorts) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Al Jean Mike Reiss James L. Brooks |
| Producers | Rich Moore Richard Raynis Richard Sakai J. Michael Mendel |
| Animator | Film Roman |
| Running time | 22 minutes (1994–1995) 2–4 minutes (2000–2001) |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | January 26 – July 20, 1994 |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | March 5 – May 21, 1995 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
The Critic is an American primetime adult animated sitcom revolving around the life of New York film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by Jon Lovitz. It was created by writing partners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had previously worked as writers and showrunners on seasons 3 and 4 of 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 film 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).[1] The show often referenced popular films such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather, and routinely lampooned Marlon Brando, Orson Welles, Woody Allen,[2] and Dudley Moore, usually as his character Arthur Bach from the 1981 film Arthur.
Despite the ratings improving,[3][4] The Critic was cancelled after two seasons.[nb 1] It continued to air through reruns on Comedy Central and then on Locomotion. From February 1, 2000, to 2001, ten webisodes were produced using Macromedia 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.
- ^ Scent of a Wolfman on YouTube. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
books.google_bwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Epstein, Daniel Robert. "Al Jean interview (including some discussion of The Critic)". UGO.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2003. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
Al Jean on getting cancelled "What really killed it was when it was on Fox and the guy who ran the network then, John Matoian, just didn't like the show." ... "Even though our ratings were better, he cancelled us. It was very infuriating."
- ^ O'Neal, Sean (December 29, 2010). "Random Roles: Jon Lovitz". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
Jon Lovitz on the ratings of The Critic on Fox "We went on Fox and did like 10 shows, and on Fox it was better because it aired after The Simpsons, and actually it was a hit show, because The Simpsons was like getting a 14.1 rating, and we had an 11.1. We retained 90 percent of the audience."
- ^ "7/30/95 Ratings". tvtango.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
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