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The Critic

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The Critic
File:TheCritic1.jpg
Opening titles of The Critic
Created byAl Jean
Mike Reiss
StarringJon Lovitz
Nancy Cartwright
Christine Cavanaugh
Gerrit Graham
Judith Ivey
Doris Grau
Maurice LaMarche
Nick Jameson
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes23
Production
Executive producersAl Jean
Mike Reiss
James L. Brooks
Running timeapprox. 22 minutes
Original release
NetworkABC (1994)
FOX (1995)
ReleaseJanuary 26, 1994 –
May 21, 1995
File:TheCritic3.jpg
Jay Sherman posing.

The Critic was an American animated series that was originally broadcast on ABC in 1994 (later on Fox in 1995). The show was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who were the show runners on The Simpsons for 2 years. The show was produced by Gracie Films in association with Columbia Pictures Television, and was animated by Film Roman. The series revolves around the life of movie critic Jay Sherman. Each episode featured at least one or two short movie parodies based on current releases at the time or movies that were at least two or three years old. Many of these parodies were featured on Jay's show Coming Attractions. Notable examples include Howard Stern's End (Howard's End), Honey, I Ate the Kids (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/Silence of the Lambs), The Cockroach King (The Lion King), Abe Lincoln: Pet Detective (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective), and Scent of a Jackass (Scent of a Woman). It also made parodies of old but well known movies such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather.

Many of the show's episodes had controversial content, such as the one showing apparent S&M content, in which Jay was tied up and about to be killed by an obsessive, psychotic woman (a spoof of Misery by Stephen King). It was cancelled after two years, though ten brief Internet only "webisodes" were produced later on and were included as a bonus on the DVD box set.


Characters


Jay Sherman

"New York's third most popular early-morning cable-TV film critic." His catch phrases include his exclamation of surprise ("Hotchie motchie!"), his common putdown of sub-par films ("It stinks!") and his distinctive cough ("hokum!"). (His cough is also a word meaning "a device used (as by showmen) to evoke a desired audience response.") He is known for his surly and sarcastic putdowns of the majority of films he reviewed. He often uses the "Shermometer" to measure the films he reviews, or a list of diseases he'd rather have than see a movie. Most of his dislike for films comes from a love for film that has been disillusioned by seeing the commercial processes involved in the film industry. Jay was also the reason for George H. W. Bush losing his re-election bid to "a fat lecherous hillbilly" when Bush agreed to have his photo taken with him.

Jay Sherman is the adopted son of wealthy couple Franklin and Eleanor Sherman, who originally thought he was a monkey. He has a teenage sister named Margo. He has a young son, Marty, who visits often when not staying with Jay's ex-wife, Ardeth and her "personal trainer," Alberto.

Jay appeared in a guest role on the episode of The Simpsons, "A Star is Burns", in which he presided over a local film festival, much to Homer's envy. Simpsons creator Matt Groening, for his part, detested the act of a current Fox show (which The Critic was at the time) crossing over with another current Fox show, and refused to allow his name to be shown in the credits. When Jay enters the Simpson household, Bart is watching a Flintstones-Jetsons crossover show, which he criticizes; he then praises Jay and The Critic, before shuddering and guilty saying to himself "I feel so dirty." Oddly, The Simpsons also appears on television as a cartoon in The Critic, causing some bizarre continuity questions.

Since then, Jay appeared briefly on The Simpsons a few more times. In the episode "Hurricane Neddy", he was in an insane asylum apparently unable to say anything more than his catchphrase (Doctor: "Yes, Mr. Sherman. Everything stinks.") In another episode, we find him at Moe's Tavern with all the other characters on the show that Lovitz voices.

Of all the films that Jay had to review during his years at Coming Attractions, The Tea Cosy, a Merchant/Ivory spoof, received his highest rating of 7 out of 10. He even ended his review, to Duke Phillips' bafflement, with the pre-planned joke "Run, don't mosey, to The Tea Cosy!"

Jay has also held several other jobs in his time, including a truck driver and a writer for the film Ghostchasers III (renamed Ghostbusters III during the final episode clip show.) He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for criticism, in addition to a People's Choice Award, five Golden Globes, and an Emmy Award. He is also a very talented singer as seen in the episode Dial M for Mother. In addition to all of these accomplishments, Jay was awarded First Prize at Duke Phillips' annual costume ball as "the bald gay man" (Duke claims to support Jay in his "lifestyle", Jay maintains that he is, in fact, straight; Duke remains unconvinced).

Jay blames his weight problem on the fictional disorder vitilardo, a word-play on the skin pigmentation disorder vitiligo.

He also has an alter-ego in "Ethel". His Ethel persona is an elderly woman, whom he often pretends is his assistant, and therefore assumes her persona when answering the phone. Faintly disturbing to all concerned, "Ethel" only appeared in the first season, and is phased out in the second to make Jay seem less crazy and more likeable. Fans of the series were curious as to whether or not Jay really did have multiple personality disorder.

Marty Sherman

Jay's 13-year-old son, Marty, usually stays with his mother at Alimony Towers but visits Jay often. Like Jay, he is overweight, which causes him problems at United Nations International School. Elected eighth-grade president thanks to a speech written by his father, he also dated Fidel Castro's granddaughter and discovered he has a gift for belly-dancing (he has great muscle control in his belly). In one episode, he lost a lot of weight, but found his new thin body to be more trouble than it was worth and gained it all back before the end of the episode.

Ardeth

Jay's ex-wife, who fell in love with Jay when he was completely bandaged and gagged. She instantly regretted marrying Jay, admitting so... during the wedding ceremony. They spent their wedding night playing The Newlywed Game, which they won (Jay correctly guessed Ardeth compared his sex appeal to a dead mackerel). Jay popped their water bed during their wedding night. Ardeth spends most of the series insulting Jay or demanding more alimony. However, she shares Jay's affection for their only son Marty, once admitting "We raised a great son!"

Margo Sherman

The youngest child of the Sherman family, and the only biological child of Franklin and Eleanor. She is 16 years old and attends a finishing school for "untouched girls." Margo is an activist who often protests her mother's socialite lifestyle. She also cares greatly for Jay, making sure his girlfriends aren't just dating him to get good reviews and having him escort her to the debutante ball. Dated hard rock singer Johnny Wrath until he cheated on her. In revenge, Jay called up Wrath's long-lost, embarrassing Jewish stereotype parents.

Franklin Sherman

Jay's adoptive father and Eleanor's husband, Franklin always carries a drink in his hand and wears slippers. He is completely insane, after drinking some punch spiked by a young Ted Kennedy at his wedding reception and a stroke according to Jay, with past activities including gluing the silverware and the dog to the ceiling, leaving the oven on and burning down the house, addressing a display of fake penguins at the Museum of Natural History, and speaking to a stuffed animal as his son (trying to set him up with Barbie). His family sometimes explains this behavior by saying he had a stroke ("He didn't really. We just say that to explain his personality"). He also imitates Quick Draw McGraw's Zorro-like "El Kabong" even hitting people on the head with his guitar. He is a former governor of New York, as well as a former ambassador, a Rhodes scholar, and a heavy contributor to the Republican Party. He was also US Secretary of Balloon Doggies at his own request, though he angrily insists the balloon doggies asked for him. He was Duke Phillips' running mate when he ran for president, though Duke tried to remove him when he claimed to be the first black female head of the Ku Klux Klan. He also led a trucker's union for a time, and apparently buried lots of money and some bodies in his backyard.

Eleanor Sherman (née Wigglesworth)

Jay's adoptive mother and Franklin's wife, Eleanor is very prim and proper. She can be very nasty and underhanded when it suits her purposes, willing to shoot her daughter's horse to force her to go to a debutante ball. She is often embarrassed by her family and its eccentricities. Her strongest belief is that all poor people should be shot into space, and when she wrote a children's book about Jay called "The Fat Little Pig" she promised to put all its funds toward that goal. She is a little too concerned with her outward appearance, despite her lack of tear ducts. This is brought to light when she is asked how her skin is so smooth, and she replied that she scrubs her face rigorously with steel wool, and then soaks her face in boiling hot water for two minutes. (She serves the broth to the crusty old captain in the boat house which he calls "hag face soup"). Eleanor's voice, and much of her mannerisms, were inspired by Katharine Hepburn.

Duke Phillips

Duke is Jay's boss, and head of Philips Broadcasting (formerly Duke Phillips' House of Chicken and Waffles). He somewhat resembles Ted Turner. He runs the network that shows Coming Attractions, and is always trying to change things to increase ratings and maximize profits, uncaring if it forces Jay to change things. He owns an amusement park called Phillips Land, dubbed "The Happiest Place In Jersey", founded his own preschool, runs PNN (Philips News Network), created "Phillips-Vision", and also tried to run for president with Franklin as his running mate. Contracted a fatal disease, later dubbed "Duke Phillips" disease, the treatment for which includes an 8 ounce injection of a medication discovered by Jay entitled "Jay Sherman's Oil" (a parody of Lorenzo's Oil) into his eyeball. He believes Jay is gay and in love with him, and wastes no opportunity to belittle him in public about this. Towards the end of the series, he marries Jay's girlfriend's sister, Miranda Tompkins. He often likes to make up new words to win games of Scrabble. On one occasion, Duke hired Saddam Hussein to "play himself" in a film re-creation of the 1991 Gulf War - apparently at considerable cost. When asked about religion, Duke commented that he worships Pan, the goat God, along with the rest of the American cultural elite.

Jeremy Hawke

Jeremy is an Australian actor, and is one of Jay's best friends since Jay gave his first film its only positive review. He has starred in action movies, and also played former president James Monroe (as a spoof of James Bond eg. "Monroe, James Monroe"). He has a sister, Olivia, who tries to win Jay's affection. Jeremy is the star of the "illogical, blasphemous, and ultra-violent Crocodile Gandhi movies." He's likely a combination spoof of Australians Paul Hogan in terms of the exaggerated accent, and Mel Gibson with his luck with the ladies as well as his action film roles. His hidden shames: he's 43, he's very short and uses elevator shoes to give the illusion of height, and desperately needs plastic surgery. In the episode, Marty's First Date, Marty's girlfriend reveals she is Cuban (later revealing she's Fidel Castro's granddaughter). Jeremy Hawke then references a film he was in, titled A G'day in the Life of Che Guevara where he played Argentinian revolutionary, Che Guevara during the Cuban Revolution (with Kangaroos replacing the Cuban refugees).

Doris

Doris is Jay's make-up artist, a chain smoker and possibly Jay's biological mother (tests were negative but there are many similarities between his circumstances and her own son whom she gave up for adoption). She also tries to be attractive to Duke, by purring and sending him nude photos of herself. She only has one lung and anytime a cigarette is removed from her mouth a new one appears. Doris lives in a very spacious and luxurious apartment, affordable to her since it has been "rent controlled since 1946." Her rent is $120 per month.

Alice Tompkins

Introduced in the second season, Alice somewhat becomes Jay's girlfriend. She moved to New York from Knoxville, Tennessee, to show her daughter Penny that a woman can make it in this world. She was once married to a country singer, Cyrus Tompkins who is an open womanizer. Originally an artist, she quickly found work as Jay's assistant.

Vlada Veramirovich

Vlada runs a restaurant called L'ane Riche (French for "The Wealthy Jackass"), which Jay and Jeremy both frequent. He hates Jay, but loves his money, frequently belittling him quietly or in a foreign language to the staff. Best known for his greeting to Jay, "Meeester Sherman", he has a keen understanding of who is hot and who is not in New York and a pose built for schmoozing. Has an equally effeminate and disturbing son, Zoltan, who attends the same UN School as Jay's son Marty and sings unintentionally hilarious songs about his homeland. The headmaster of the UN School once described Zoltan as "The boy who used to be a girl. Oops, that used to be a secret!..." On a side note the restaurant is also a parody of Sardi's of New York, which is frequented by Broadway stars and New York socialites alike.

Shackleford

The Sherman's butler, Shackleford is an older Englishman with a dour, sarcastic attitude. He is not particularly loyal to the family, but he stays with them for the money and fringe benefits. Shackleford is particularly contemptuous toward Jay, referring to him as Adopted Master Jay, with a tone that suggest that he does not consider Jay to be a true member of the family. He has also hinted at being a fan of grunge rock.

Humphrey the Hippo

A parody of Barney the Dinosaur, Humphrey is a popular children's host dressed as a giant green hippo, who, like Barney, sings bland, sugary children's songs like "Ho, Ho, Ho, Stick Out your Toe; Hee, Hee, Hee, Stick Out Your Knee". Unfortunately for Jay, the Humphrey the Hippo Show airs directly opposite from Jay's show, stealing one of Jay's largest demographics: young preschoolers love Jay because he resembles The Pillsbury Doughboy. Naturally, Franklin is a big fan of the show, too. Humphrey's unseen pals are parodies themselves of real-life personalities, including Rabbit De Niro (Robert De Niro), Burt Baccaracoon (Burt Bacharach) and Robin the Bloodsucking Leech (Robin Leach). While children love the show -- when Jay made Humphrey sad, outraged children demanded his thumbs be broken -- the kids who co-star with Humphrey rejoice when they think Humphrey is dead in one episode ("No more stupid songs!") In another episode, the woman who plays Humphrey reveals she's sexually attracted to Jay - presumably, her infatuation ended after sleeping with Jay; she remarked, "It's amazing someone so inadequate in bed can be so relaxed with himself." Humphrey once unwisely had a foul-mouthed Madonna as a guest host ("Hey, do you eat with that mouth?!") and later when bought by a cigarette company started advising kids to start smoking, reassuring them when they lost a lung, they got free ice cream.

The Devil

Appearing in several episodes, Jay blames the devil for many of Hollywood's problems (such as unnecessary sequels and Cher winning an Oscar, although he's only the reason Marisa Tomei won). He was once contacted by the cast of Wings, who wanted to stay on the air for another year (his response was "There are limits to even my powers!"). He also disguised himself as a potential replacement for Roger Ebert. After hearing his positive review of a Disney movie starring Tim Allen, Gene Siskel replied, "You're Satan, aren't you?"

Orson Welles

Bloated and desperate for work, Orson Welles appears in several television commercials, promoting such products as Blotto Wine, Ms. Pell's Fishsticks, and Rosebud Frozen Peas (which are apparently full of "green pea-ness"). He was also the host of the elder Shermans' living will, shown after their plane was lost at sea. Orson Welles (portrayed by Maurice LaMarche) is morbid, melodramatic, and above all else, hungry. In a display of gluttony that would put even Jay Sherman to shame, he drinks wine by the jug, snacks on handfuls of frozen fish sticks (which he refused to advertise at first, in a parody of the Frozen Peas incident of which he was a part. He returns to do the commercial later with the lament 'oh, what the hell, I need the money.'), and delights in finding French fries stuck in his beard. He loves Mrs. Pell's Fish Sticks ("They're even better raw!") and even returns from the dead to proclaim his love for them ("Oh, they're even better when you're dead!")

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was used even more often, also mocking his weight problems, often asking exorbitant amounts of money, ie. getting paid ten million dollars to play Sebastian Cabot's role of Mr. French in the film version of Family Affair and later Barney the Dinosaur. He also did a song-and-dance in the musical version of Apocalypse Now called Apocalypse Wow!, shaking egg rolls from his pants. A child version of Brando demanded his friend Ben Gazzara get a co-starring role in addition to more money. Brando often has natives helping push him into his hut in his island home, and when Sherman gained hundreds of pounds by his new manager Adolf Hitmaker to increase his popularity, Brando commented, "That Hitmaker does good work."

Webisodes

File:TheCritic2.jpg
DVD cover of The Critic The Complete Series

In the early 00's, show creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss ran a series of ten internet episodes of The Critic. While still making fun of movies and Hollywood in general, its story focused on Jay trying to woo the lovely Jennifer, his new makeup lady. 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 one episode--presumably from her. Besides Jay, Vlada is the only other character from the show to make an appearance. All ten of the "webisodes" were included on the complete series DVD. Parodies include gaffs on The Patriot, Harry Potter, Mission: Impossible 2, and Cast Away. These Webisodes can be seen here.


Miscellaneous facts

  • The season two introduction varies slightly from season one, with different animation sequences, and a more upbeat theme song (although the melody remains unchanged).
  • After its cancellation on Fox, yet another network, UPN, expressed interest in rescuing The Critic and giving it a third season. It is believed about 9 or 10 scripts were written before they decided not to go forward with it. [citation needed]
  • The Critic was the only television show ever reviewed by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their show, Siskel and Ebert. It received two thumbs up. Siskel and Ebert would both do guest voices on the show, in the episode "Siskel and Ebert and Jay and Alice". Their characters did appear on an earlier episode singing "Critic Aid", but they were not voiced by the actual Siskel and Ebert.
  • In addition to Siskel and Ebert guest-starring, two other well-known film critics, Gene Shalit and Rex Reed, voiced themselves in several episodes.
  • The Critic used to be shown on Comedy Central on a regular basis on Saturday morning and Sunday nights alongside other more adult-themed cartoon shows, such as Duckman and Dilbert. This now only happens on rare occasions, however, as Comedy Central now mostly airs re-runs of MADtv on Saturday mornings.
  • Jay's sister Margo is voiced by Nancy Cartwright, who also voices Bart Simpson on The Simpsons. Margo's voice is thus a rare opportunity to hear Bart's voice actress' natural voice.
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