The Critic is an American prime time animated series 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) for The Simpsons. 23 episodes of The Critic were produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994, and finishing its original run on Fox in 1995. A revival of webisodes was released online on AtomFilms and Shockwave in 2000 and 2001.
A short, balding, overweight, divorced film critic named Jay Sherman gets a second chance at love when a gorgeous movie star named Valerie Fox (voiced by Jennifer Lien) falls for him, but it may all go to pieces if Jay doesn't give Valerie a glowing review for her latest movie, the Basic Instinct-inspired erotic thriller, Kiss of Death.
Marty invites his father Jay to Career Day at his school, where Marty Falls for a Cuban girl named Carmen, who is later revealed to be the granddaughter of Fidel Castro.
When test audiences brand Jay Sherman "worse than Hitler," Duke sets up a TV special where Geraldo Rivera interviews Jay with his adoptive mother Eleanor, which falls apart when Jay yells at Eleanor.
Eleanor forces Margo to get prepared for and attend a debutante ball, despite Margo's protests over how sexist and elitist it is. Meanwhile, Jay gets into a ratings war with children's show host Humphrey the Hippo.
Jay rethinks his career when his 1000th episode bash is a dud. He seeks advice from image consultant Adolph Hitmaker (voiced by Phil Hartman), but his advice and all other attempts at recreating his TV image prove unsuccessful.
Jay befriends his make-up lady Doris after they attend a musical adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and thinks that she may be the mother who gave him up for adoption years ago.
Jay moves to Los Angeles when studio executive Gary Grossman (voiced by Billy Crystal) offers the critic a chance to write the second sequel to the Ghostchasers franchise.
After Marty bombs out during his elementary school field day, Jay buys his son a guitar and encourages him to take lessons. Meanwhile, after Them Magazine christens Jay "The Wittiest Man in the World," Duke offers to pay $100 to every viewer who does not find Jay funny.
In the first season finale, Eleanor writes a children's book called "The Fat Little Pig," featuring a character based on Jay. Meanwhile, Jay adopts a Great Dane puppy, who grows up too fast and becomes a nuisance.
Following a news report naming Springfield as "America's Worst City" due to its lack of culture and backwards view on science, the town adopts Marge's suggestion of a film festival, in which any of the townspeople can enter a short film. To help her judge, Jay Sherman comes from New York City to stay at the Simpsons' house. Homer feels threatened by Jay, and so Marge puts him on the panel as well. At the festival, the vote becomes deadlocked between Mr. Burns' self-glorifying biopic, Hans Moleman's comedy short, "Man Getting Hit By Football" (which is little more than Hans getting hit in the groin by someone throwing a football offscreen), and "Puke-ahuntas", Barney's touching film about how his alcoholism has ruined his life.
Season 2 (1995)
The second season aired Sundays at 8:30-9:00 pm (EST) on Fox.[4] It began following the Simpsons episode "A Star Is Burns", which featured Jay Sherman in what Bart would offhandedly refer to as a "cheap cartoon crossover" while watching The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.[nb 2]
In the second season premiere, Jay worries that he may be fired due to Coming Attractions' low ratings and Duke suddenly being nice to him. He then befriends a single mother from The South named Alice, and develops feelings for her. However, Alice's adulterous, country-singing husband Cyrus (voiced by Sam McMurray) has returned and wants her back.
During a taping of the sketch comedy show Yesterday Night Live, Jay meets Jeremy's twin sister Olivia (voiced by Morwenna Banks). After Jay takes Olivia on a tour of the city, she falls in love with him and the two start dating. This strains Jay's relationship with Alice, who realizes that she is also in love with Jay.
Jay and Marty go to a weight-loss camp, where Marty dramatically loses weight and becomes one of the popular kids in school. At the same time, Jay fears for his life when pretty-boy action star, Jean-Paul LePope, threatens to kill him after trashing his latest movie.
After Jay helps Marty get elected class president, Duke decides to run for U.S. President himself (despite his lack of political experience) and hires Jay as his speechwriter.
Franklin and Eleanor are presumed dead after their plane crashes on the island, and Jay uses the money left to him in the will to make New York City a better place.
Alice's sister Miranda moves to New York to find a rich man to marry. She then ends up taking a job at a mattress delivery service called "Mattress in an Hour." She falls in love with Duke when she sees him on Coming Attractions and attends his costume ball with Jay and Alice in order to meet him.
Jay hosts a 10th anniversary special of Coming Attractions, featuring past clips of the many crummy movies he had to review, but the festivities come to a halt when a group of terrorists holds everyone hostage.
Webisodes (2000–01)
In early 2000,[36] show creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss wrote a series of ten 3-4 minute long internet webisodes of The Critic, still with Jon Lovitz as the starring role. While still making fun of movies and Hollywood in general, its story focused on Jay lusting after the lovely Jennifer, his new makeup lady (voiced by Valerie Levitt). Alice does not appear in any of the episodes and is not mentioned by name, though Jay does briefly refer to a "second divorce" in the first episode—presumably from her or the Mexican woman he married in order to get to Cuba. Besides Jay, Vlada (voiced by Nick Jameson) is the only other character from the show to make an appearance. Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille are the only other cast members from the show to return alongside Lovitz and Jameson, voicing assorted background characters. MacNeille returned for webisode 10. The episodes were available on AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com until 2001. All ten of the "webisodes" were included on the complete series DVD (but not iTunes). Parodies include gaffs on The Patriot, Harry Potter, Mission: Impossible 2, X-Men,Pearl Harbor and Cast Away.
Episodes 1 through 4 were animated by Jet City Studios; 5, 9, and 10 by Unbound Studios; and 6 through 8 by Flinch Studios.
Jay reviews the best movies from the year 2000 in a beach-themed studio (since all public beaches have banned Jay until he loses 20 pounds) and gets an unexpected visit from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Jay pans The Patriot with special guest Pikachu (from the Pokémon video games, TV shows, and movies), whom he outs. All the while, Jay tries to prove to Jennifer he is nice enough to date.
Jay finally lands a date with Jennifer. He takes her to L'ANE Riche (The Wealthy Jackass) where he talks about the movies he missed out on reviewing while unemployed.
Note: When this episode premiered online, viewers could choose one of two different endings, depending on whether they wanted to see Jay act like a "Gentleman" or an "Animal" at Jennifer's apartment. He fails to have sex with her in both, and he urges viewers to complain to their Internet service provider. Both endings are available on the DVD.
Jay visits the set of the Harry Potter film and takes a look at the Planet of the Apes remake. He also shows Jennifer his favorite spots in New York City. Later at her apartment, Jennifer introduces Jay to her many children and he asks the viewers' opinion of what he should do, showing gratefulness when they suggest that he have sex with her.
^Miserable was originally slated as the second episode of the series, but ABC censors barred it from being shown due to content they felt was unsuitable at the time. On The Critic complete series DVD set, this episode is properly listed as the second.
^The Nielsen Ratings were retrieved from the Nielsen Media Research via USA Today, but have been archived online by ratingsryan.com on their Google Drive.[5]
^The Nielsen Ratings were retrieved from the Nielsen Media Research via USA Today, but have been archived online by ratingsryan.com on their Google Drive.[23]