Film Critic Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz) is the host of an unpopular movie review show Coming Attractions where he deals with the industry's creative bankruptcy day in and day out reviewing a seemingly endless parade of remakes, sequels, and rip-offs that revel in their own inanity. But outside of work Jay is dealing with issues of being a single father sharing a soft spoken son with an ex-wife who hates him, a love life that ends in disasters of all varieties, and an adoptive family of eccentrics consisting of his humorless and bitter mother Eleanor, odd father Franklin, and his sarcastic and outsider sister Margo with whom Jay has his best relationship. Throughout this, Jay maintains a friendship with Australian leading man actor Jeremy Hawke and a "frenemy" relationship with restaurant L'Ane Riche (The Wealthy Jackass) owner Vlada Veramirovich who alternates between loving Jay's expenditures on his food and hating his guts depending on the circumstance.
Released in 1994, the show produced by James L. Brooks and created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss of Simpsons, the show was the second attempt by ABC to create an animated prime sitcom following the mostly forgotten Capital Critters. The show was cancelled by ABC but was briefly resurrected by Fox who then stonewalled another attempted revival by UPN after refusing to formally cancel the show for years. While there's not much of The Critic, there's enough to say the show elevated itself above the influence of The Simpsons and was allowed to be its own thing.
Jay Sherman is much different than your typical sitcom lead, he's intelligent and sarcastic, but he's also perpetually facing hurdles in both his career and love life that often lead him feeling depressed, humiliated, defeated, or some combination of the three. But despite this he doesn't give up, he's a dedicated father to his son Marty, and supportive brother to his sister Margo, and a good friend to Jeremy Hawke despite him often having to criticize his work. While the show does take well deserved jibes at Hollywood's lackluster output (with particular attention paid to the then newish trend of recycling old TV shows as feature films) the show wisely bases itself mostly around the characters and their relationships. Charles Napier as Jay's boss, Duke Phillips, plays a Ted Turner esque media magnate who often delights in berating and belittling Jay and plays up the aggressive businessman persona to delightful absurd levels that border on God complex.
The show does undergo a noticeable change in format between seasons with the additon of Jay's girlfriend Alice and her daughter Penny which was a mandate by Fox to make Jay less pathetic. Despite their inclusion at the request of network executives I actually rather liked their inclusion and it gave the series the feeling of character development and prevented the show from feeling too one note with Jay undertaking sisyphean challenges only to be rewarded with failure and/or humiliation. While Jay would still often find himself maintaining a tenuous grasp on dignity the inclusion of Alice served as a nice point of positivity in Jay's life that I felt was relatively unintrusive to the show's trademark cynical humor.
The Critic although short lived has left an endearing legacy thanks to runs on Comedy Central that helped keep it alive in the minds of modern audiences. While I wish there were more, I'm happy we got any at all.
Released in 1994, the show produced by James L. Brooks and created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss of Simpsons, the show was the second attempt by ABC to create an animated prime sitcom following the mostly forgotten Capital Critters. The show was cancelled by ABC but was briefly resurrected by Fox who then stonewalled another attempted revival by UPN after refusing to formally cancel the show for years. While there's not much of The Critic, there's enough to say the show elevated itself above the influence of The Simpsons and was allowed to be its own thing.
Jay Sherman is much different than your typical sitcom lead, he's intelligent and sarcastic, but he's also perpetually facing hurdles in both his career and love life that often lead him feeling depressed, humiliated, defeated, or some combination of the three. But despite this he doesn't give up, he's a dedicated father to his son Marty, and supportive brother to his sister Margo, and a good friend to Jeremy Hawke despite him often having to criticize his work. While the show does take well deserved jibes at Hollywood's lackluster output (with particular attention paid to the then newish trend of recycling old TV shows as feature films) the show wisely bases itself mostly around the characters and their relationships. Charles Napier as Jay's boss, Duke Phillips, plays a Ted Turner esque media magnate who often delights in berating and belittling Jay and plays up the aggressive businessman persona to delightful absurd levels that border on God complex.
The show does undergo a noticeable change in format between seasons with the additon of Jay's girlfriend Alice and her daughter Penny which was a mandate by Fox to make Jay less pathetic. Despite their inclusion at the request of network executives I actually rather liked their inclusion and it gave the series the feeling of character development and prevented the show from feeling too one note with Jay undertaking sisyphean challenges only to be rewarded with failure and/or humiliation. While Jay would still often find himself maintaining a tenuous grasp on dignity the inclusion of Alice served as a nice point of positivity in Jay's life that I felt was relatively unintrusive to the show's trademark cynical humor.
The Critic although short lived has left an endearing legacy thanks to runs on Comedy Central that helped keep it alive in the minds of modern audiences. While I wish there were more, I'm happy we got any at all.