Syndication Files 07.22.09: The Critic

Posted by Porfirio Diaz on 07.22.2009

Hotchie motchie! While The Critic never featured a luxurious run on prime time as other well known animated shows had, its satirical commentary on movies through the eyes of surly film critic Jay Sherman has overtime become an animated cult classic. Movie parodies, the infamous Simpsons/Critic crossover episode, and the greatest clip ever! It’s all here and more on this installment of the Syndication Files.

That's right. It's one of the many installments you've all been waiting for…at least I think so. So let's skip with the introductions and start right away.


Syndication Files # 6

The Critic


Barely an opening show introduction. How about some movie parodies?

The Critic = criminally underrated. But first, the beginning!

Al Jean and Mike Reiss both worked as writers/producers on The Simpsons before creating an animated show starring the pudgy and surly film critic, Jay Sherman. Both left the Simpsons following the 4th season. The character of Sherman was voiced by Jon Lovitz, who had finished his run on Saturday Night Live in 1992. Originally the creators wanted to make a live action series involving a film critic but Lovitz was unenthusiastic about the idea. So the creators responsible for some of the greatest Simpsons episodes ever decided to travel down the animation road once again. The Critic premiered on the ABC Network on January 26, 1994.

The Critic was a highly intelligent comedy show depicting Jay Sherman as a local film critic with his own television show, Coming Attractions. The show's main attraction involved Sherman appearing on his show and laying the smackdown on every Hollywood movie he could get his grubby little pawns on. Sherman would review fictitious movies that featured movie parodies, blockbuster films, and popular references. The Godfather, A Few Good Men, The Lion King, Speed. Even certain celebrities suffered the wrath of The Critic, most specifically Marlon Brando and Orson Wells. It didn't matter if the film was a critically acclaimed example of public cinema or a disparaging waste of film reel. The creators would make sure no film and celebrities were safe against the inescapable claws of the satirical film critic.

Yet that's exactly the sort of pompous excellence fans grew to love.


A great compilation of various Critic film clips

If you must know, Apocalypse WOW! is my favorite movie parody of the series.

Jay is known to bring down even the mightiest of blockbuster films with just two simple words: "It stinks!" His disdain for films is documented from the heavily commercialization that fell upon the film industry that he use to love so much. You think the 411mania movie reviewers are tough? The highest score Jay has ever given out was a seven out of ten and that was for some film called The Tea Cozy. The only other films I can think that Jay has ever remotely liked were Citizen Kane and the classic foreign short film, The Red Balloon.

But Jay is more than just a hilarious string of catchphrases ("Talk about overusing a catchphrase. Hotchie motchie! It stinks!"). He's not at heartless within the outside world as he is within his cinema fantasy. He shows good morals, repeatedly tries to bring the best out of people, and is quite intellectual…you know, for a New Yorker. But because of his negative and overbearing attitude, he's often times hated by nearly everyone ("...And that's why I'm glad The Beatles broke up!"). The people would rather build gold statues of Ann Coulter before showing any supportive feelings toward Jay.

Then again, it is New York.


The satire…it tastes so yummy you guys!

At least Jay is loved by his family and friends…to a degree. He's the adopted son of Franklin and Eleanor Sherman. Franklin was the former governor of New York and a former ambassador but his behavior is not what you would call normal. He often acts erratic and unpredictable, and the show doesn't really dive into why he's like that. Eleanor is the more levelheaded of the two but she can be very vicious. They have one biological child, Margo Sherman. She's very against her mother's prudish lifestyle but is also very insecure. Margo is very close to Jay and both would often times try to help each other out with their trials and tribulations. Jay also has a 13-year old son, Marty. His bodily appearance is similar to Jay but Jay loves him just the same, which is more than he can say about his ex-wife Ardeth. The only other non-family friend that Jay has is his best friend Jeremy Hawke, an Australian actor with a combination parody of Paul Hogan and Mel Gibson. Hawke became Jay's best friend ever since Jay gave his first film, Crocodile Gandhi, a positive review.



Then there is Jay's boss, the all-knowing and powerful Duke Phillips! He's Ted Turner-esque only more malicious with superhuman capabilities. He runs PNN (Phillips News Network) which runs Jay's show, which for some reason decides to keep on the air despite their uber low ratings. I have to say that Duke is absolutely my favorite character of the series. His constant belief that Jay is gay is hysterical and wastes no opportunity to point that fact out, even though Jay is not gay. Special mention goes to voice actor Charles Napier for portraying the beefy boss so brilliantly. Some of the series' best laughs come from Duke-heavy episodes, including my favorite episode "All the Duke's Men". Doris also works for Duke and is Jay's chain-smoking makeup lady. She loves her some Duke and has publicly expressed some love interest to him although Duke sure as hell doesn't share that same feeling with her.


I'd vote for him. He can't be much worse

As I have previously stated, The Critic was a brilliantly written show that was very underrated and underappreciated in its time. The comedic satire bits may not be as sharp as other animated comedies, but there are more than enough hits than misses to overcome that. It's amazing how the show can effortlessly weave in those pop culture moments, whereas a show like Family Guy force-feeds their audience with them. The show's animation design were good but there are moments when you can obviously see certain flaws and mistakes as a result of either lazy animators or animators trying to meet deadlines. However, that flaw doesn't bring down the quality of this show so much. With great writing and great jokes, the show depicting the love-hate relationship of Hollywood through the eyes of a satirical film critic was destined to thrive on television.


I know that you tune in for the funny clips or else why would you be here?

Unfortunately, ABC thought differently and canceled the show after 13 episodes. Their last episode was on July 20, 1994. No one knows for sure why ABC dumped the show after one season but they decided to do away with the show anyway. Maybe the first season didn't live up to their expectations. As much as I praise this show, I thought the first season was not as great as it should been, at least not as great as the second season that appeared on FOX.

FOX picked the show up a year later in 1995, thinking they could find success where ABC couldn't. The very first appearance of Jay Sherman on FOX is infamous among the American animated universe.

The story began when Simpsons producer James L. Brooks pitched the idea of a Simpsons/Critic crossover in order to help promote Jean's and Reiss' new show to the mass public. People were already saying how The Critic was similar to The Simpsons, so Brook ran with it. Sherman would be introduced in the episode A Star Is Burns, where the town of Springfield was to have a film festival. Brook thought the setting and tone of the episode would be a good way to introduce Sherman, so he went ahead with it and got FOX to arrange the crossover with Jay Sherman appearing on the The Simpsons. Matt Groening was less than pleased when he heard about the episode. His feeling was that he didn't want FOX using his show to help advertisement another show, much less an unsuccessful show like The Critic.

His official response (found here on Wikipedia, initial source from the Los Angeles Times):

"The two reasons I am opposed to this crossover is that I don't want any credit or blame for The Critic and I feel this (encroachment of another cartoon character) violates the Simpsons' universe, The Critic has nothing to do with the Simpsons' world. [...] [I'm] not criticizing The Critic. But cartoons have their own style and I really have nothing to say about The Critic. Through all the years of The Simpsons we have been careful about maintaining their uniqueness. Sure, there have been other cartoons who visit, but it's usually just one scene, often for a sight gag." – Matt Groening

Groening refused to work on the episode and left it in charge to the rest of the staff. He even had his name removed from both the opening and ending credits. Brook was furious with Groening for airing his frustrations out to the press. It's all under the bridge now but imagine going back to work together after that. Hah, haaaah, how awkward!

The episode was made and here's a clip of the results.


Somewhere Groening was weeping after watching this

Overall, it wasn't too bad and did little harm in the long run. The episode was certainly funny but Jay Sherman had little to do with that. More people will remember this episode for "Boo-urns" than for the appearance of Jay Sherman.

So now the world knows that Jay Sherman's show will be on FOX. What happens? FOX broadcasted 10 episodes before deciding to cancel it. D'ho!

I feel like that second season was better than the first one. The second season helped Jay Sherman become into a more character developed person. They gave Jay more meaning in his life than just reviewing crappy films and even bonded a strong relationship with his girlfriend Alice. The jokes were still there but now were accomplished by stronger storylines and mainstream appeal. I will admit that the show was becoming like the same Hollywood movies Jay was condemning but the appeal was still there for me, if short-lived.

The original run of The Critic ended on May 21, 1995. The show enjoyed a very successful syndicated run on Comedy Central. That's where the show started to reach cult status. In fact, that's how I found out about the show. The release of the complete DVD set helped out even more. Reruns of the show are currently being shown on ReelzChannel in the US and Teletoon's Detour in Canada. The show even briefly came back on the internet in the form of webisodes in the year 2000. Ten Flash-animated webisodes were produced and shown on the internet from 2000-2001 featuring more modern movie parodies involving Cast Away, Pearl Harbor, and Pokemon: The Movie 2000.

The movie parodies are reason enough for fans to love the show. The Critic was a show of sheer brilliance in featuring witty humor but ultimately was not meant to exist as a long running series. Perhaps it's better for this show to end at its peak (or arguably without reaching its potential) than to eventually become a parody of its past brilliancy. Just look at today's animated shows. The Simpsons is not quite the critically acclaimed show they once were, Family Guy enjoyed resurgence from cancellation only for people to start getting sick of them almost immediately, and the status of Futurama is still unknown thanks to them not wanting to pay their voice actors, leaving the show to become a drift at sea not knowing when they will reach mainstream once more.

Okay, maybe the only reason I would want The Critic back is to hear what Jay Sherman would say about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Come on, I can't be the only one. Right?

Now, as promised, the greatest clip ever!


GREATEST CLIP EVER~!


Commercial Break



I'm a fan of Rube Goldberg machines, so naturally I would come to love this commercial.


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Ending Credits

That's it for this week. Nothing else to note besides the growing impatience I feel to the lack of football on my TV. The NFL season cannot be here soon enough.

And with that, I'm out of time. Out like Michael Vick!