The Critic

I watched it on both channels it first aired on, and was one of my favorite cartoons. Even as a kid I got a lot of the humor.

One of my favorites is the Marlon Brando as Mr. French bit.

"Buffy, Jody. For your lunch I have made peanut butter and banana sandwiches."

"Would you make a sammich for my doll Mrs. Beasley?"

"Yeah sure, that's exactly what I feel like doing. Of course I could get a sandwich together for your stupid little doll hang on a second."

The Home Alone 3 gag never gets old.

"Oh my God. We left Kevin home alone, and he's only 23!"

Used to watch it all the time, and have the boxset.  LOVED this show so much.  True Lies 2, where they couldn't get Jamie Lee Curtis and had to settle for Tony Curtis . . . kills me every time.

The pilot is terrible. I'm surprised they let it go on. Same goes for Seinfeld.

That said, I love the show. So much is dated now, but it's still fun.

"Dradul dradul dradul...I mahd yuu out ov clahhyyyyyy"

I have the DVD set.  I need to re-visit it here soon.

"That's a DUKE-TASTROPHE."

"Yes.....oh YES! They're even better when you're DEAD!"

I loved Duke from the minute the series began, and the love simply will not fade

"When I die, you can eat my brain. It will give you power."

"Remember son, you don't have to eat!"

Jay's Tummy:  "WHAT WAS THAT HOGWASH YOU WERE FEEDING THE BOY!?"

"Nothing master!  I... I said nothing."

Jay's Tummy: "GOOD!  NOW DANCE FOR ME!!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

God, I could listen to Maurice LaMarche's Orson Welles all fucking day. Any favorite characters/episodes, Justin?

 

"Yes, Rosebud Frozen Peas full of country goodness and green peaness. Wait, that's terrible, I quit. Just a handful for the road. Oh what luck, there's a french fry stuck in my beard. Oh yeah."

Yeah, I think I actually love Maurice LaMarche's impersonation of Orson Welles than Welles himself, sometimes.

Every time there's that shot of Duke Philips' building, and we see in smaller font (Formerly Duke Philips' House Of Chicken And Waffles) never fails to make me laugh.

One of the final outros where Jay says "But I have nowhere left to go."

And the bit in the episode where Jay's sister gets married, and she settles on having everything but her gloves white, since her hands aren't "pure." The explanation on why most cabbies in New York are foreign is also hilarious.

I've owned the set since 2007. Great to hear it's really reasonably priced now. It's certainly worth the money. I had the episodes on tape from Comedy Central back around 2002-2003 before that. Never was able to tape them back when it first aired.

Doris: Ill tell everyone one why your frat brothers called you puddles

Alwyas loved this show, and might as well scoop up the series soon.

Jay reading the Iraqi officer's personal ad never fails to crack me up: "Kenny G!!!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Nexus, you think the pilot is terrible? Really? I think it's rough, certainly, but it still has a lot of great jokes and parodies in it.

I'm going off of vague recollections here, it's been a few years. I'll rewatch it and maybe I'll change my tune.

Classic show is classic!  I will always remember this show's greatness...it should have lasted way longer than it did.

"Hotchie motchie!"

I have a lot of affection for this show and some of its characters, but I think people are overestimating its worth and quality when they say it shouldn't have been cancelled. There were definitely some brilliant characters, lines, sight gags, and full episodes, but I also think there were far more limp, uninspired episodes than really strong ones. I rented the DVD set to decide if I wanted to purchase it, and I was disappointed by how inconsistent it was.

It was certainly nowhere near the consistency of the best seasons of "The Simpsons" (although very few shows ever were), and looking at the series as a whole, I can see why it was cancelled. I could imagine people getting fed up with a dearth of weaker episodes and not sticking around long enough to see the better ones when they came along. On a more positive note, I have plenty of positive memories of this show. Most of the characters were really well-written and played. I wasn't so keen on Jay's son and sister (or any of the episodes about them), but his snobby mother and whackjob father were very funny.

For me, Duke was by far the best character on the show. I loved the jokes about Duke's ego...especially the one where he tells Jay how important it is to be modest. Then there's a cut to his hospital with a mechanically-talking statue in front of it repeatedly droning, "ALL HAIL DUKE. DUKE IS LIFE!". The movie parodies were spot-on too, and I'm appreciating them more now that I'm older and have seen more movies. Rene, thanks for posting that Arthur montage. Having recently seen that movie for the first time, I got huge kick out of it. I didn't remember the "Little Men" bit. It's too bad a lot of the perfect parodies were buried in rather dull episodes. I'm glad there's a montage of them on the DVD set.

My favourite episodes were the Siskel & Ebert one, the "Misery" parody, and the season 2 premiere ("Sherman, Woman, and Child"), which was definitely a huge leap in quality from the first season and showed a lot of potential for future seasons. Based on that episode (I agree with the earlier comment about Park Overall being a wonderful addition to the show), and the Siskel & Ebert episode, I believe the show had all the pieces in place to become something really special.

Unfortunately, I don't feel it ever got into the solid groove of a show you can rely on to deliver every week. This probably had something to do with its cancellation, but I know it had a lot of the same problems as "Futurama" too. It was mentioned on an audio commentary that the network could not provide a consistent time slot, burying the show and making it harder for viewers to follow. I may not consider the show an unequivocal success, but I do think it deserved better than that. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Eh, I'm almost glad it didn't last longer. Take a look at the "webisodes" made a few years later on the DVD set and you'll see what I mean. Oh, some of the parodies are funny, but the heart and soul of the show is completely gone, as well as most of the cast.

I agree that the webisodes were generally more empty and lacking in heart compared to the seasons, but there was some really good stuff in them too. One of my favourite moments in the whole run of "The Critic" was in this webisode where Jay is in a fancy restaurant and you can see Pikachu (who he had interviewed earlier) walking into the bathroom. It's a small moment, but I still found it extremely funny. Just the idea of this character (who its creators had clearly never meant to be remotely realistic) going to the can to take a piss or a dump cracks me up.

I also would have liked to see "The Critic" last longer if for nothing else than to see what kinds of parodies its creators could have done for late '90s movies. Yes, the early '90s parodies are now dated, but they're part of makes the show at its best so charming - the nostalgia factor. The '90s were one of my favourite eras in movie history, and the way it skewered that era's hits so perfectly was one of the greatest pleasures of "The Critic".

Yeah, I definitely saw things looking up with the second season, which makes it a shame that the show got cancelled just as it was finding its footing...but part of my point was that I think the damage had been done by that point. There were just too many lackluster episodes in season one. And you're right, the parodies (and certain one-liners) were the saving grace of many a weaker episode.

They had webisodes back then?

Think they were done in the early 2000s, so no.  Not when the show originally aired.

Here we go.

I meant to make a point that it's annoying how since the show ended in '95 and the webisodes were done in 2000 (parodying recent releases of the time like "Cast Away" and "Mission Impossible II"), we missed out on 5 years of potential stellar parodies for 1995-1999. It was a period of many, many fun movies that were ripe for the special parody treatment of "The Critic".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

I have a lot of affection for this show and some of its characters, but I think people are overestimating its worth and quality when they say it shouldn't have been cancelled. There were definitely some brilliant characters, lines, sight gags, and full episodes, but I also think there were far more limp, uninspired episodes than really strong ones. I rented the DVD set to decide if I wanted to purchase it, and I was disappointed by how inconsistent it was.

 

It was certainly nowhere near the consistency of the best seasons of "The Simpsons" (although very few shows ever were), and looking at the series as a whole, I can see why it was cancelled. I could imagine people getting fed up with a dearth of weaker episodes and not sticking around long enough to see the better ones when they came along. On a more positive note, I have plenty of positive memories of this show. Most of the characters were really well-written and played. I wasn't so keen on Jay's son and sister (or any of the episodes about them), but his snobby mother and whackjob father were very funny.

 

For me, Duke was by far the best character on the show. I loved the jokes about Duke's ego...especially the one where he tells Jay how important it is to be modest. Then there's a cut to his hospital with a mechanically-talking statue in front of it repeatedly droning, "ALL HAIL DUKE. DUKE IS LIFE!". The movie parodies were spot-on too, and I'm appreciating them more now that I'm older and have seen more movies. Rene, thanks for posting that Arthur montage. Having recently seen that movie for the first time, I got huge kick out of it. I didn't remember the "Little Men" bit. It's too bad a lot of the perfect parodies were buried in rather dull episodes. I'm glad there's a montage of them on the DVD set.

 

My favourite episodes were the Siskel & Ebert one, the "Misery" parody, and the season 2 premiere ("Sherman, Woman, and Child"), which was definitely a huge leap in quality from the first season and showed a lot of potential for future seasons. Based on that episode (I agree with the earlier comment about Park Overall being a wonderful addition to the show), and the Siskel & Ebert episode, I believe the show had all the pieces in place to become something really special.

 

Unfortunately, I don't feel it ever got into the solid groove of a show you can rely on to deliver every week. This probably had something to do with its cancellation, but I know it had a lot of the same problems as "Futurama" too. It was mentioned on an audio commentary that the network could not provide a consistent time slot, burying the show and making it harder for viewers to follow. I may not consider the show an unequivocal success, but I do think it deserved better than that. 

You're welcome, Naisu. Those bits are some of my favorites. Like you, I didn't get familiar with the movie until several years back, and it was even more hilarious realizing how spot on the parodies were.

I remember laughing so much at the Siskel and Ebert one, and anytime Jay made a "Woody and Soon-Yi" reference.