The Critic
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.
| The Critic | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animated sitcom Parody Satire Adult animation |
| 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 Jon Lovitz |
| Animator | Film Roman |
| Running time | 22 minutes (1994–1995) 2–4 minutes (2000–2001) |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC (1994) Fox (1995) AtomFilms / Shockwave (2000–2001) |
| Release | January 26, 1994 – May 21, 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). The show often referenced popular films 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 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.