Line #9 Trivia/TheCritic


1	* AlanSmithee: "I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show" was directed by someone named "D.R.L. [=MacMoortler=]". It's pretty safe to assume that this is a pseudonym for David Cutler, Rich Moore, and Lauren [=MacMullan=], all of whom worked on the show.
2	* {{Cancellation}}: First by ABC, then by Fox. {{Lampshaded}} in the first episode of the webisodes.
3	* TheCastShowoff: In the DVD commentaries, the writers shamelessly admitted that they tried to get Creator/JonLovitz to sing any chance they got, noting that he has a very powerful singing voice.
4	* CelebrityVoiceActor: Jon Lovitz, Charles Napier, Park Overall.
5	* ChannelHop: After the show's first season on ABC, it then moved to Fox for the second season. Then it reran on Creator/ComedyCentral until the rights ran out and it appeared on IFC (the Independent Film Channel, a.k.a "the channel that airs ''Series/{{Portlandia}}''") and Reelz Channel. It's now on DVD and does air on some overseas channels.
6	* CreatorBacklash: Mike Reiss wasn't thrilled with how the webisodes turned out. He and Al Jean had to work on them from 10 PM to midnight every day, after already working a full work day, so they were exhausted. And the ability for the show to quickly parody movies that were just released in theaters was rendered null by the various animation studios taking too long to produce them. And when they ''did'' go up, they were released with little fanfare.
7	* CreatorsFavorite: Voicing Jay is Creator/JonLovitz's favorite work of his own.
8	* CrossDressingVoices: Creator/ChristineCavanaugh (Chuckie Finster from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Gosalyn from ''Darkwing Duck'', and Dexter from ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', among other roles) voiced Marty.
9	** This show also had Nancy Cartwright, Creator/RussiTaylor, and Kath Soucie playing one-shot and unnamed boy characters.
10	* TheDanza: As with ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in ''The Critic'', Doris Grau voices yet another chain-smoking, sarcastic, old lady named Doris (only here, she's a make-up lady for a fat, ugly film critic, not a school lunchlady who lost her passion for her work years ago, smokes on the job, works as a school nurse either because of budget cuts or to get two paychecks, and makes disgusting food from low-end ingredients bought due to school budget cuts).
11	** Averted with Jay. Even though he looks like his voice actor, Jon Lovitz (and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was almost named Jon]]), the writers decided to name their critic character Jay.
12	* DawsonCasting:
13	** Creator/ChristineCavanaugh as Marty.
14	** Creator/NancyCartwright as Margo.
15	** Russi Taylor as Penny.
16	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: "I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show", in which Jay get held hostage by terrorists and ends with a theater getting blown up by a bomb, got delayed by a month due to the Oklahoma City bombing.
17	* ExecutiveMeddling: Al Jean has alluded to this trope being very much the case in real-life in DVD commentaries for both this series and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (particularly the ''Simpsons'' episode that combined ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' with ''The Critic'', which drove Creator/MattGroening to remove his name from the credits for that episode).
18	* NetworkToTheRescue: After the series was cancelled by both Creator/{{ABC}} and Creator/{{Fox}}, UPN ''attempted'' to pick it up for a third season to invoke this trope, but Fox prevented that. Comedy Central eventually came to the rescue by securing rerun rights and rerunning it for years[[note]]in doing so, also making the show a staple on United Airlines' in-flight entertainment for a good part of the 90's[[/note]]. While this didn't revive the show (outside of a brief webisode run), it did keep the series from fading into obscurity and made it a cult hit — earning it an eventual DVD release.
19	* TheOtherDarrin: Rhea Perlman (best known as Carla Tortelli from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'') replaced Brenda Vaccaro as the voice of Ardeth in the second season for two episodes.
20	* TheOtherMarty: Korean-American comedienne Creator/MargaretCho was originally cast to voice Jay's sister, Margo, but this has been redubbed with lines from Nancy Cartwright.
21	* ProductionPosse: Some of the staff came from the first four seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Later, many of the writers, directors, and animation staff worked on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''.
22	* {{Rerun}}: The show was in reruns on Creator/ComedyCentral back in the early 2000s, but the show has since vanished from the airwaves (at least in America). The entire series (including the webisodes) has been released on DVD.
23	** The show can still be viewed on Reelz channel. But good luck finding that (here's a hint, it's usually in the high-200s and it might not be available on most cable packages)
24	** Due to it being out of license, however, the entire series can be easily found on Website/YouTube.
25	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: ''[[https://www.cracked.com/article_37465_an-oral-history-of-the-critic.html Twice!]]''
26	** The first time, they were on ABC thanks to an overall deal James L. Brooks had with the network at the time. ABC stuck it on after ''Series/HomeImprovement'', which was a major mismatch in terms of audience. The show originally retained 87% of the ''Home Improvement'' audience; the week after the premiere, it dropped to 44%. The audience for ''Home Improvement'' loathed ''The Critic'' and sent the production team boxes of hate mail. Bob Iger -- then the head of ABC -- did his best, but ABC's audience simply wasn't interested, resulting in the network yanking the show and burning off the rest of the episodes in the summer.
27	** Fox was noted to have been far worse than ABC. While the series suffered in the ratings in Season 1, Season 2 was actually successful -- retaining much of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' lead-in. However, after Fox first picked up the series, a new president, John Matoian, took over and didn't want it; Matoian halted advertising and literally called the staff just to tell them how much he hated the show. It got to the point where Matoian called a meeting between the show's producers, himself and other Fox bigwigs; he was the only one in the room ''not'' finding it funny (as the other execs tried and failed to keep their laughter in, Matoian literally asked them "Why are you laughing?!"). Al Jean has also suggested that because Fox didn't own the series, they were far less inclined to keep it going (Matoian's brainchild, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Buggin%27 House of Buggin']]'', replaced it...and proceeded to bomb). Worst of all, Fox purposefully didn't officially cancel the series like ABC did -- all just to prevent other channels from picking it up.
28	--->'''Al Jean:''' Lucie Salhany, who was the president of Fox, left the position before the show came on and the new person [John Matoian] didn’t like the show. I was very aggravated because it placed us with two things, one was a show called House of Buggin’ and one was a show called Too Something, and I liked the performers a lot on those shows, but they weren’t doing nearly as well in the ratings and we knew it and yet we couldn’t get picked up.
29	* {{Uncanceled}}: Fox picked up the show after ABC dropped it, but sadly, after 10 episodes, they also did the same. Perhaps the best joke of the Webisodes had Jay muttering how ABC, Fox, ''and'' Comedy Central all literally kicked him out.
30	* UnfinishedEpisode: About nine scripts were written for a possible Season 3; one story idea was a parody of ''Film/SingleWhiteFemale'' with Jay meeting his biggest fan, who promptly models himself more and more on him. The fan would've been voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche, who would increasingly impersonate Lovitz as the episode went on.
31	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
32	** "Every Doris Has Her Day" was going to use Cat Stevens's songs from ''Film/HaroldAndMaude'' instead of "A Bicycle Built for Two", to spoof the growing friendship between Jay and Doris, but the producers couldn't get the rights.
33	** The show was originally going to be live-action, with Jon Lovitz playing Jay. This never came to be due to potentially high production costs and Lovitz being unable to commit to doing a live-action series.
34	** Cyrus, Alice's cheating husband who left her after he cut an album that blatantly revealed that he was unfaithful to her, was going to make a second appearance if the series continued.
35	** Jay was originally going to be named [[TheDanza Jon]].
36	** Aspects of the series (such as the setting, the make-up woman and Ted Turner-type boss) were originally conceived by Al Jean and Mike Reiss when Matt Groening wanted to do a spin-off of ''The Simpsons'' starring Krusty.
37	** Another season three plot idea involved a LoonyFan obsessed with Jay and gradually trying to act more and more like him as the episode progressed. This would have featured Creator/MauriceLaMarche showing off his Jon Lovitz impression.
38	** Savvy Indian Chewing Tobacco was going to be called ''Savage'' Indian, but was changed due to concerns over political correctness.
39	** Apparently, when the show's creators went to Creator/{{UPN}} for discussions about a possible third season, they wanted more focus on Marty and his school friends as opposed to Jay. Naturally, this was the final straw for Mike Reiss, who gave up afterwards.
40	----
41
42	!!Miscellaneous trivia:
43	* Jay's birthday is January 26, 1958. It is presented on his driver's licence in the episode "Uneasy Rider."
44	** Also, the pilot first aired on January 26, 1994, which was Jay's 36th birthday. Jay mentions he's 36 in a few episodes in the first season. It was also mentioned in the show's first [[CouchGag phone gag]] in the pilot in the opening credits.
45	--->'''Elenor Sherman:''' Jay, this is your mother. Your father and I are taking you out of our will. We feel you already have ''enough'' money. Oh yes, and Happy Birthday.

Context Trivia / TheCritic