Customer Reviews

The Critic - The Complete Series

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Critic is the brainchild of Al Jean and Mike Reiss (producers of The Simpsons) and is produced by Gracie Films, also of Simpsons fame. It was a highly intelligent and very funny show that made fun of movies, Hollywood, TV stations at the same time as giving us a sympathetic hero and the whacky world he lives in.

Jay Sherman is short, fat, bald and dresses like dweeb, his ex-wife hates him, his boss is always on his back, women run from him in terror and his make-up lady humiliates him at every given opportunity. He's also voiced by the increasingly adorable Jon Lovitz and has one of the best catchphrases ever. HOTCHIE MOTCHIE!!!!!

The supporting characters are equally hilarious. Jay's crazy dad is always up to some kind of insanity. His pal Jeremy Hawke (star of the controversial and highly blasphemous Crocodile Gandhi movies) is always featured in some sort of dumb action movie clip. Even his tummy has a 'feed me' voice of its own. Though the honors go to Charles Napier, who is absolutely priceless as Jay's megalomaniacal, all-American hard-man boss.

It's hard to believe ABC ditched this after ONE EPISODE!!! What were they thinking? Even Fox eventually gave up on it. Sad considering how sharp the writing and humor was. How on earth does self-indulgent, over-rated and long, long past prime trash like Friends gets 10 seasons and The Critic gets 23 episodes. You won't find Jay Sherman all but winking at the camera or pausing until the fake laughter dies down.

This complete set comes with a fair amount of extras (the cinema screen trivia cards are great) but the best is fact that we get all the 'webisodes'. In 2000 Jay made a brief comeback on the internet and all those 5 minute shows are featured on the 3rd DVD. My only complaint is, after 22 brilliant episodes, it kind of dies out with an obnoxious and annoying 'clip show' than a proper end-of-season finale. Minor complaint nonetheless.

The shows are all presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen, as drawn with a good Dolby 2.0 soundtrack. If Family Guy can come back through strong DVD sales then let's hope the same for The Critic. Now only if Duckman would come to DVD...

The Critic was a very misunderstood and underappreciated masterpiece. Thanks to Comedy Central and recurrent bouts of insomnia I have not been without The Critic these many long years, but not a day went by where I didn't curse those responsible for the show's demise. How could a show with so many writers, producers, and actors from The Simpsons last only two seasons....IDIOT executives, that's how.

Voice Talents:
Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman
Nancy Cartwright as Margo
Gerrit Graham as Franklin
Doris Grau as Doris
Judith Ivery as Eleanor
Charles Napier as Duke Phillips
Nick Jameson as Vlada Velimirovic, others
Maurice LeMarche as Jeremy Hawke, others
Christine Cavanaugh as Martin

(1) The Pilot (1994): Guest star Valerie Fox as an actress who seduces Jay in order to secure a good review for her latest (sub-par) performance. (4 of 5)
(2) Marty's First Date: It's career day at Marty's school (Jay's son) where Jay is embarrassed and Marty meets the girl who is to be his first date. (5)
(3) Dial `M' for Mother: Test audiences find Jay cold, uncaring, and homely and less warm and cuddly than Hitler. He goes on Geraldo with his mother in order to soften his image-with disastrously hilarious results. (5)
(4) Miserable: An obsessed projectionist kidnaps Jay so that he can tell her what movies are good. On the plus side, Jay did get some action. Jay is rescued by Jeremy Hawke, his best bud and Australian action hero. (4)
(5) A Little Deb Will Do You: Margo (Jay's sister) is reluctant to attend a debutante ball despite pressure from her mother (...to starve yourself to fit into a dress, to dance with boys who feel you up, to drink so much you fall into a well, it's a magical night...). Secondary to threats to shoot her beloved horse, Margo agrees to her mother's will and has a miserable time. (5)
(6) Eyes on the Prize: Jay celebrates his 1000th episode but poor ratings and no visitor turn-out at his party spur him to quit and focus on winning a Pulitzer. Guest stars Phil Hartman as Adolph Hitmaker, Adam West as himself, and Tress MacNeille make the episode a hit. (4)
(7) Every Doris Has Her Day: Jay and Doris (yep, Lunch lady Doris) go to a show and as they get to know each other better, it becomes apparent that Jay may in fact be Doris' child given up for adoption years earlier. (4)
(8) Marathon Mensch: To prove his machismo, Jay agrees to train for and run the NY Marathon. Guest star Bob Costas. (4)
(9) L.A. Jay: Jay writes a screenplay and takes it to LA but it's too good for the illiterate , ex-gigolo executive to produce (instead opting for Revenge of the Nerds 4). Jay is then hired to write `Ghost-Chasers III' and in so doing must abandon his creative ideology. (5)
(10) Dr. Jay: As Duke announces his plan to change the endings of Holly Woods greatest hits he is stricken with a terminal illness. Jay vows to find a cure. (4)
(11) A Day at the Races and a Night at the Opera: Jay is voted Time Magazine's Wittiest Man Alive and to improve ratings Duke offers to pay any viewer $100 if they don't find Jay funny. Upon failing, Duke and Jay are taken to court in a mass class-action suit. Guest stars Steve Allen and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (5)
(12) Uneasy Rider: Jay refuses to endorse products on his show and quits his job to become a truck driver. In order to impress his fellow truckers he volunteers for the high-risk jobs. (4)
(13) A Pig-Boy and His Dog: Jay's mother writes a children's book whose main character (pig-boy) resembles the critic and he is tortured by the consequences. (5)
(14) Sherman, Woman, and Child (1995): Here we are introduced to Alice, Jay's assistant and on-again off-again love interest. Alice re-creates Jay's image thereby saving his job and Jay teachers her how to survive in NYC. (4)
(15) Siskel and Ebert & Jay and Alice: This episode guest stars Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Rex Reed, and Gene Shalit. Siskel and Ebert splt and each want Jay as their new partner. (4)
(16) Lady Hawke: Jay falls for Jeremy's twin sister, Olivia. Olivia is a man-eater and Jeremy fights to protect his friend. Meanwhile, Alice finds herself caught in this love triangle. (4)
(17) A Song for Margo: Margo falls for her dangerous new neighbor, Johhny Wrath from the group Nuns in a Blender. When she denies his advances, he abandons her for another, looser woman. (4)
(18) From Chunk to Hunk: Jay and Marty go to a fat camp for diet, exercise, and torture. Marty is successful both in losing weight and subsequently with the ladies. (4)
(19) All the Duke's Men: Jay is enlisted as a speech writer for Duke Phillips' presidential campaign. Jay's writing gains him respect and Duke the loyalty of the masses. When Jay refuses to write a speech where Duke drops Franklin (Jay's father) as his running mate Duke fires him and reveals his true plans for the country. (5)
(20) Sherman of Arabia: Marty has a slumber party and Jay regales the children with his story of capture and subsequent heroism during the Gulf War. (4)
(21) Frankie and Ellie Get Lost: Following their 40th anniversary, Jay's parents get lost at sea when their penguin-piloted aircraft crashes. Recall that "penguins can't fly." (5)
(22) Dukerella: Miranda, Alice's sister (Alice is Jay's girlfriend), visits NY and proceeds to irritate all with her great beauty, naivety, and deep southern ways. Just as Miranda hit's rock-bottom she meets and falls in love with Duke. (5)
(23) I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show: Jay and pals are held hostage at his 10th anniversary show. Although this is a flash-back episode and no way for a show like the Critic to leave us, it did have Milton Berle as the saves-the-day ninja. (4)

The Critic is one brilliant animated TV show that suffered a fate that befell entirely too many other brilliant shows like Family Guy and The PJs. These shows would be hyped up weeks before the first episode aired. Then about 2-4 weeks into the series' first season (few of these shows lasted much longer than that), an entirely different series would air. And thus, the series would be left in limbo for weeks, sometimes months before another episode made its way to its small, and impatient group of fans. Because of this apathetic treatment from the networks, these shows were not given a sufficient opportunity to find an audience. The Critic, which debuted on ABC in 1994, languished in this manner until Fox would pick it up a year later. History would once again repeat itself on that network as well. It's just shameful how not one, but two, networks could take such a clever, inventive show for granted.

The Critic is about a very short pudgy New York City film critic and divorced father named Jay Sherman (voiced by Jon Lovitz). Sherman hates blockbuster films with a burning passion. He makes his hatred known with two simple words: "IT STINKS!!!". This makes him one of the least popular people in the city. John Rocker may get the key to the city before Sherman does if that tells you anything. Sherman's life is full of some interesting and sometimes oddball characters. He comes from a rich family - his mother is a haughty aristocrat and his father is still recovering from a stroke, which is evident with his eccentric behavior. The only other normal person in Sherman's family is his loving, but slightly insecure teenage sister. Sherman's best friend is an Australian actor who is basically cross between Mel Gibson and Paul Hogan. The actor stars in precisely the same big budgeted films that Sherman likes to pan. And finally there's his boss, a Southern-bred media tycoon would love to cancel Sherman's hugely unpopular show for purely business reasons, but the tycoon for some reason likes having Sherman around.

What set The Critic apart from the other creative animated shows was how it would joke about cinema, much in the same way Family Guy would do to modern television, or how King of the Hill would do with rural stereotypes. One of the funniest skits (Lord knows The Critic had a lot of them), involved a trailer with Arnold Schwarzeneggar in a Jewish-themed action film. Arnold's new catch phrase was "Haga Navilla, Baby!!!". Pure hilarity.

For those of you who can't get enough of these amazing animated shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and King of the Hill; you owe it to yourself to watch The Critic. Once you've watched it, realize that it has been cancelled for nearly a decade, and see the sickening glut of reality shows that now reign over prime time with an oppresive fist - Don't be surprised to hear yourself saying this about the sickening state of 21st Century television: "IT STINKS!!!"

I've been waiting for years to see the Critic on DVD. By far, one of the funniest shows of all time which was cancelled in its prime. Fox was completely foolish for removing the show which I've watched faithfully since I was 11 years old. The episodes are very well written, and the characters are voiced to perfection by Jon Lovitz and a great supporting cast, including frequent guest cameos by celebrities such as Milton Berle, June Lockheart, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, and Geraldo Rivera (not to mention every popular film critic under the sun). With film parodies such as "Family Affair: the Motion Picture with Marlon Brando as Mr. French," or "Honey, I Ate the Kids with Anthony Hopkins," and the antics of Jay, Alice, Duke, and the rest of the show's ensemble, this DVD set is bound to be a gem in any collection, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sarcastic, laugh out loud, and often silly humor. A definite buy.

I first caught The Critic on FOX when I was in high school, and although it was canceled, I was pleased to see that Comedy Central picked up the reruns a few years ago. This underrated show, like many others, was simply a victim of politics among network executives. One of the commentators on this DVD (I forget who) quoted Jonny Carson as saying, "TV is only medium that eats its young", and that's very true in this case. Fortunately The Critic developed enough of a following to be released on DVD, and so I will now review the DVD itself.

Episodes - 5/5 - Great lines, characters, stories, and movie parodies. The visual gags (such as the cartwheeling hampster) and sign jokes (United Nations School: Teaching Tolerance and Brotherhood To Those Who Can Afford It) have rivaled those on the Simpsons and Futurama. The animation has a unique and naturalistic look that works very well: the people and places feel real. Also, the writing and the acting are quite solid.

Commentaries - 3/5 - The commentators are witty and informative, but my main complaint is that there are only eight episodes with commentaries. I would have enjoyed commentaries on all of the episodes. The other problem is that when I played the commentaries, the sound wasn't as good, and I had to turn the volume way up, not only to hear the episode, but to hear Charles Napier and Nick Jameson, who often talk softly.

Subtitles/Language Options - 0/5 - There are no subtitles at all, which is particularly irritating when trying to listen to the commentary tracks. And despite the FBI warnings being in both English and French, the audio is only in English.

DVD package/menues - 2/5 - The outer package has little info about the DVD's contents. There is a booklet inside that lists the episodes, but doesn't list the special features. The DVD menues are simplified (for instance, there are no submenues for each episode). Episodes with commentary available only have an asterisk in the Episode Selection Menu, and the names of the commentators are not shown, only spoken.

Special Features - 5/5 - I was pleasantly surprised with the extras on this DVD. They've included all ten of the internet shorts from 2000, which were cool to watch. I particularly enjoyed the "Making of the Critic" featurette, which contained interviews with Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Jim Brooks, Rich Moore, Maurice La Marche, and Nick Jameson. I like being able to finally match up a face with a voice! Also, the episode "A Pig-Boy and His Dog" had a few scenes where you could view the storyboards and animatic along with the full color animation all on the same screen, which Rich Moore commentating. Finally, I got a kick out of the "Fun Facts" and "Movie Trivia" bits.

Overall, I give this DVD 4 stars because I feel the quality of the episodes and special features outweight the problems with the DVD, mainly the lack of subtitles and too few commentaries. Fans of this show, as well as fans of The Simpsons, Futurama, and Dilbert, should definitely get this DVD.

The Critic is one of the most misunderstood series on its genre and a pioneer for recent cartoon series in many ways, but what happened after the first season explains why it lasted only for a couple of more years and then disappeared into oblivion, becoming a cult-like series with a handful of followers

In my opinion, the series started season one brilliantly, with not much care about the quality of the drawings or the cartoon itself -on purpose I believe- but amazingly good on the script, with great jokes, a witty dark humor and Jay Sherman as the epitome of the money making but still loser New Yorker that dumps its frustrations on dumb Hollywood movies, which granted are lame, but also is his life. This love-hate relationship with Hollywood was the centerpiece of a show that relied more on the strong characters itself that in the way they interacted with each other. Flowing more like a talk-show with very smart joke bursts than like a long term story was ironically part of its early success but was also its demise: It's very hard to give a series a long life based on this structure, so producers decided to go for a change -even a network change- and killed the series in the process

Along came season two and the series was moved from ABC to Fox. Immediate changes to the drawings of the characters and the overall look of the cartoon were very noticeable, making it look more Simpson-like and flowing visually better for some, but for me it took away the ingenuity of the first season, as it tried to go mainstream by giving the series a more contemporary look. Even if this was a mistake I could have lived with, the writers started to move away from the spontaneous burst and unstructured timing of the jokes and decided to give Jay Sherman's life more meaning, introduced stronger relationships among the characters and gave some holding under the feet of Jay with the introduction of Alice, a woman that finally and regrettably for me, fell in love with Jay Sherman for real, not to use him or just because she couldn't find something better. This effort to make Sherman less of a loser and position the series for a longer term tenure got away with the creativity of the first season, the dark humor and the smart writing, to give way instead to trying to make us laugh by seeing Jay Sherman being hit by a plant pot several times in the head and then falling down the stairs, singing and dancing -regrettably with success- like a clown with an accordion and moving his fat butt in front of a camera while wearing a fancy suit and dark shades. The series went from the well thought and clever level of the first season to the very stupid and lame situations of the second season, ironically becoming like the same Hollywood movies he was criticizing. As the series transformed into a bad Hollywood cartoon, it slowly lost its entire initial luster and it was cancelled. To me, it stopped appealing to its initial audience while it failed to capture enough followers for its new structure. It just felt horribly flat. Contrary to what some think here, it was not cancelled because it was too smart, it was cancelled because it tried to become what it wasn't from the beginning and failed on the attempt. Sadly, it morphed from a worthy Monty Python type initial effort to a bad Jim Carrey movie

I saw this DVD set for sale while getting off work one night, and immediately bought it. "The Critic" was one of the best shows of the `90's, and it had been a long, long time since I'd seen it.

For those of you who have never seen it, it's sort of comparable to "Family Guy," with plots completely inconsequential to the enjoyment of an episode. The funniest segments are always the movie "trailers" ("Brown Acres" and "Rabbi P.I." being the best, in my opinion). And for a show that's ten years old, it's aged remarkably well, and I laughed just as hard at the jokes.

This box set includes every episode of the series, as well as commentaries. My favorite episode by a long shot is "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice," which includes one of the funniest moments in television history- Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert getting into a fistfight, and then duetting on a love song.

The box set also features "webisodes," previously available only on the Internet, that feature Jay Sherman "reviewing" more recent films. They are actually very funny, and I had no idea they existed until I got this.

If you liked this gem of a show, this DVD set is a must-have.

In my 23 years, I've seen several shows come and go, and this was the first that I was sad to see leave the airwaves. It never became as popular as the Simpsons so it got canned, and I think that may have been asking too much from the show. It started on ABC, who quickly washed their hands of it for more family-oriented slop. Fox picked it up and cleaned the animation a little, but they didn't keep it all that long, either.

At $35, this collection is a great deal. The show is really funny! John Lovitz had no trouble translating his Swiss watch precision for comedic timing into the cartoon medium. The constant parodies of classic and (at the time) current movies were always a welcome break from the story. And the stories were great, too.

The commentary alone makes the series worth the buy. While they did more reminiscing and laughing, they did mention some juicy behind the scenes stuff. It's nice to know why ABC cancelled the show (too racy), why FOX picked it up (make it racy), and why they cancelled it (they didn't own it and as such couldn't profit much from it - the show did have plenty of viewers...)

There's even a storyboard for an episode or two, these discs are jam-packed...

The DVD's episode order must be in production order as the airdate order is quite different...

I saw the FOX series halfway through its run and I loved it. It was so fresh, so different, so atypical of mainstream drivel. So naturally I'd love it. I'd never seen the ABC series until purcashing the set. I must say the ABC series is somewhat funnier and more relevant to/critical of the movie industry.

The ABC series, which started it all, has some great episodes. The pilot sets it all up, followed by "Miserable" (it spoofs the movie "Misery" (as I think it was called) and has a lot of very funny moments), "Marathon Mensch", "A Pig-Boy and His Dog", "Eyes on the Prize" (my all time favorite), and "Every Doris Has Her Day". There really isn't a clunker amongst the bunch.

The best FOX episodes to look out for are "Chunk to Hunk", "Dukearella", "Ladyhawke", "All the Duke's Men", and "Frankie and Ellie get Lost". They come to mind as being utter classics, and the Star Trek TNG parody in "Sherman of Arabia" is NOT to be missed! (it was so nice, at the time, to finally see somebody poke fun at a Star Trek show that wasn't about Kirk.) And catch other episodes for the digs aimed at ABC, those are a real riot, especially the bit in "Sherman of Arabia" where Jay wants Alice and daughter Penny to watch 'wholesome ABC comedy'... LOL! You can bet your bippy I won't divulge its details, but it is hilarious! The only real clunker from the FOX series is "A Song for Margo", though it had a few cute lines as well. So watch that one last. :-) And while okay, the Siskel and Ebert episode seemed lackluster and ultimately became silly. But that's just my impression, and I'm weird.

I won't mention the FOX season's clip show, featuring clips from the ABC season. You can watch it, but it's pointless unless you haven't seen the ABC episodes. Well, not really - the bits that aren't clips are funny, and you wouldn't believe who'd guest-starred... so, it's worth watching too. :-)

Ultimately, both seasons are highly witty and entertaining in their own ways, but they are slightly different in their approach. But if you're a fan, you already know this! :-)

Now why did I take off a star?

* Trailers. I was expecting original commercials from "The Critic". Not adverts for mainstream Sony shows I could care less about. I want material RELEVANT to the show being sold, I'm sorry. This is just a nitpick as I am tired of the industry throwing in promos for shows that I'll never watch, let alone care for. Besides, how many people who like "The Critic" go for the mainstream stuff that everybody already knows about anyway, and would you EVER see "The Critic" trailers on some other DVD? (if they took the time to even take a guess at what people buying DVD X would like, having specialized promos would be better than just shoving anything and everything at us.) This is worth 1/2 star removal, mainly because I'm in such a good mood from critiquing the good points of this set. :-) So I won't see original Critic advertisements. Oh well, applesauce happens.

* This one is not much of a quibble as I've seen far worse DVD image quality (think "Three's Company" season 1 as an example...): "Family Guy" season 3 managed to squeeze 8 episodes on a disc and have virtually perfect video quality and had commentary as well. How come "The Critic" has visible DVD compression in all the episodes?! (do note, it is much easier to see this compression artifacting when you pause a frame, and I'll admit it's not as easy to spot here as it is in lower quality releases...) In all honesty, considering everything jammed onto these three discs, the compression is not that bad and I've seen far worse in terms of picture quality. So maybe this is worth 1/4 star. Just another quibble, really. I just wanted to add filler material.

At $34.95, this is a steal for fans and is easily worth the risk for anybody curious of the series. It's well worth the money. And I was stupid enough not to have checked Amazon.com first! (I'd spent $44.95 elsewhere... oops. Even then, it's worth the price, but I rather like $35 over $45, don't you?)

One of the cooler shows from 1994, I was immediately drawn to The Critic back during it's original run on ABC. How could you not be? From the producers of The Simpsons, The Critic was an animated hybrid of The Simpsons and Siskel & Ebert featuring the hilarious voice talents of Christine Cavanaugh (Gosalyn from "Darkwing Duck"), Park Overall (Laverne from "Empty Nest"), Charles Napier (Z from "Men In Black: The Animated Series"), and of course SNL's Jon Lovitz as the hapless, lovelorn, milquetoast critic Jay Sherman. The neverending source of hollywood media material (nothing is spared) coupled with Simpsons-like humor and Lovitz's instant catch-phrase of "It stinks!" should have more than solidified the series a fitting place alongside The Simpsons in terms of longevity. But alas, the show was bumped from ABC's schedule, then cancelled altogether after a season of floundering on the air. A decade later, here we are being rewarded with a neatly packaged complete series boxed set. Definitely a must-have for your DVD collection!