Hooray! I've gotten my Critic tapes back from my parents! I'll be able to keep up when you all have the DVDs. And I have a head start, I guess. I had to look up Margo's debutante dress scene, to get the wording right, since I knew which episode it's from...

Here's the skinny. We dressmakers have a very strict code, so I need to know: do you deserve to wear virginal white? Because if you don't, you'll have to wear an off-white, what we call a "hussy white." So which will it be... white-white?

Yes. Um... except for the gloves.

From the pilot:
Son, let me tell you the key to holding on to a woman: you must build from a foundation of trust and understanding. If that doesn't work, tell her you have a tumor. Either way, the key word is "growth."

And one of my all-time favorites, when Jay perfects the formula for "Jay's Oil" to save Duke. After he sneezes in the mixture, the lab rat turns into SuperRat.
I did it! Oh, I'm a Doc! A happy sneezy Doc!
*yawn*
Oooh... I'm a sleepy, happy sneezy Doc. If I don't get to bed, I'll be a grumpy dopey sleepy happy sneezy Doc.

Bashful.

Thanks for getting us off page 47 or whatever we were on, pianodan. I can't wait for the 27th, so I'll have more posting material--I've milked the 5 episodes I have on tape for all they're worth.

Doesn't the show still air on Comedy Central from time to time? The Jay's Oil episode is great, especially the little montage at the end where we see the wonderful people that it's saved ...

I'm guessing that no one knew the source episode for the 'Summer of '72' quote I asked about a few pages back? Oh well, I'll have to wait for the DVD's.

Xero, I'll find it as I'm rewatching my tapes, so I'll keep my eye out and let you know...

Yes, Comedy Central always has The Critic in regular rotation -- usually in the late-night (2 to 4 am) block, Sundays or Wednesdays. There used to be two episodes a week, now just one... but in the four years I've had cable, there's been Shermany goodness to be had almost every week, albeit in the middle of the night. Is that a testament to the show's staying power, or to the shallowness of CC's programming stable?

Do y'all want more quotes? How about some trivia?
1. What is Jay's middle name?
2. What is Eleanor's maiden name?
3. What is Alice's ex-husband's name?
3a. What is his latest album called?

What is the context/origin of the following catchphrases?
1. "Buy my book!"
2. "All hail Duke! Duke is life!"
3. "If the movie stinks, just don't go."

Alice was married??? I so need the DVD to come out...

Yep, he was cheating on her which is somehow the name of the album but I can't remember the exact title. He was a country western singer. It was something like, I'm cheating on you Alice Tompkins, yes you Alice Tompkins.

Wow, I just looked at the cast list - Maurice LaMarche was the voice of Jeremy Hawke. I love his work on Futurama.

Alice's ex-husband was Cyrus.

I remember Jay singing about him with an accordian "Cyrus, he's just a virus. He wants to tie you down while you're still young"

Ok, I am SUCH a nerd.

1) Was a promotional cardboard cutout of Jay when he wrote a book. It had a mechanical arm that kept raising his book and it said in a very annoying voice "Buy my Book! Buy my book! Buy my book!" I believe they said a book store owner committed suicide after hearing it.

2) I can't remember what preceded this, but I believe a pigeon flew into the Mechancial Duke's mouth. Then the real Duke's mouth. Because pigeons seem to love his voice.

3) I believe Jay was writing an essay about bad movies and eventually won the pulitzer.

The Critic/Simpsons crossover episode was on yesterday.

FYI, if you are up tomorrow morning, Comedy Central is showing two episodes at 7:30 and 8 am. I would double check the times though in case I remember wrong.

Dammit, I've never seen the Simpsons with Jay Sherman.

erik, you're my kind of nerd. (But you should know not to double-post...)

It was part of the collection of Jay's #1 Fan, from the Misery take-off episode.
"The best charity is anonymous"... Duke gestures outside to "Duke Phillips Hospital," with the huge gold talking statue out front. Which eats pigeons!
From one of the many eps where Jay loses his job... he ends up teaching "English for Cabdrivers" on public access.

"Your potential
Is what's essential
You could someday be another Connie Chuuuuuuung!"

And very good M. Darcy, Cyrus's album was called I'm Being Unfaithful To My Wife, Alice Tompkins. You Heard Me, Alice Tompkins. justjohn, the episode where Jay and Alice meet (it's the first one of the second season, "Sherman, Woman and Child") is one of the best. You'll love it.

Oh by the way, the Attica Prison gag is also from "Sherman, Woman and Child." Alice asks, "When was the last time a woman dressed you?" Flashback to "Have fun at summer camp, son!" etc... Then later, Alice, referring to her marital woes: "Haven't you ever been in a situation that was bad for you but at the same time you couldn't leave?"

Nobody remembers the first two? Jay's middle name is from his student film, L'Artiste est Morte -- Written, Directed, Produced, Edited, and Catered by...? And Eleanor's name comes out in the old newsreel she shows to Margo in the debutante ep.

I think I saw most of the eps when they originally aired, but not since then except for the ones on my tape. Less than two weeks to go...

7 days until the DVD...I think I'm more excited than Jay at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Bump! So by my calculations, it's now zero days until the DVD!

Alas, I've been too busy to enjoy my reclaimed tapes, but I look forward to millions upon millions of discerning consumers discovering or rediscovering this show. And posting here about it.

P.S. Jay Prescott Sherman; Eleanor Wigglesworth.

A bit off-topic, but the Simpsons crossover with him on it was on last night, and I got to wondering about this show again . . .

I pre-ordered from Amazon so, if my recent pre-order of Cheers Season 2 is any guide, The Critic should hit my mailbox Thursday. Amazon's price (with the free shipping and no tax) figured to be unbeatable, and I didn't feel like chasing around in the cold and snow for three days like I did last week trying to find the similarly underappreciated Barney Miller.

I'm sure that when Seinfeld comes out, it'll be available at every gas station, convenience store, and car wash...

Guess what showed up on my doorstep today? God bless Amazon.com and the US Postal Service.

It's a nice looking package. My only complaint is that it uses the gatefold packaging like that of the Simpsons sets, instead of the individual slimline cases a la the Futurama collections. Can't wait to watch!

You're lucky, JHeaton--I may have to revise my estimate of it arriving today. Just tracked my package on Amazon and it went from Kansas on the 26th to Oklahoma yesterday. Now, unless my map-reading skills have eroded, Oklahoma is further away from me (Chicago) than Kansas.

Poor Jay Sherman stuck in a cardboard box taking a tour of Middle America...

BWA!! Oh, the humanity. ;-)

Jay's probably screaming "it stinks!" at this very moment, but he's referring to the local air quality--not to bad movies. :-)

Although it IS the dead of winter, so perhaps the lovely aroma is somewhat muted...

justjohn, my package originated from the same place. it's gone from Kansas to Oklahoma to Ohio, and now it's supposedly here in Maryland. maybe I'll get it today.

topic: I bet there was a penguin flying the plane that shipped them.

Too funny, coleoptera...

Wait a minute....Penguins can't fly.....Penguins can't fly!!

Gee, all I had to do to get my DVDs was go to the local video/DVD/entertainment store less than 10 minutes away.

I've only watched the first five episodes (I did watch the show when it was orginally on the air), but damn, I forgot how funny this show is. Love it. Why did they have to cancel it?

It's interesting that for a guy who's supposedly repulsive to women, Jay gets laid in three of the first five episodes (in the Pilot, "Miserable," and "A Little Deb Will Do Ya.)

I live in the middle of nowhere and there are few places to buy DVDs. (Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart are about it as far as selection+good prices are concerned. and I try not to go near Wal-Mart if possible.) also I'm a cheapskate and a hermit; hence, Internet shopping.

anyway, I got 'em today and watched the first four episodes. I think I prefer the second season overall... guess I'll see. if you'll allow me to switch into Reviewer Mode for a second: the video quality is good, but not perfect. I've noticed the occasional imperfection in the transfer. though the only thing I have to compare it with cartoon-wise is Futurama, and that's hardly a fair comparison.

Damn drunk penguin pilot! Now, my package has bypassed Illinois and landed eastward in Ohio. The hell?

As far as not buying it locally, I've found that unless Circuit City and Target advertise a DVD in their Sunday circulars (which they didn't for The Critic), good luck trying to find it the week it comes out. Plus, I refuse to shop Wal-mart on principle. And, considering a deep freeze had long been predicted for this week (it was like 2 degrees here yesterday and -6 this morning as I walked in to work), I'm not interested in being outside any more than I already am.

coleoptera, interesting comments about the picture quality. Considering all the extras, I wonder why this wasn't a 4-disc set--especially since it's priced as one.

Aw, john, how sad... it's like Jay's wanderings in the Kuwaiti desert.


(from Amazon) So how are the extras? Who's doing the commenting? What the hell is "storyboard branching"?

And now, the boy who used to be a girl... oops, that used to be a secret...

Well, I finally got my copy yesterday--after 5:00. I didn't think mail got delivered that late, especially on a Saturday.

Anyway, I watched the first 6 eps and didn't get to any of the extras. If I'm not mistaken, for some reason Jon Lovitz didn't provide any commentaries. As far as the picture quality, it was good, though I kept thinking how much better it would be on 4 discs.

Hey, is anyone else's slipcase backwards? On mine, if I'm looking at the side of the cover that says "The Critic--The Complete Series", the DVDs slide out to the left--not to the right like it should. No biggie, I was just curious.

justjohn, mine's exactly the same way. Maybe they made it special for lefties? (though I'm a righty)

I haven't made it to the extras, either, I just finished disc 1 last night (while waiting for the TWoP Boards to come back on-line). My roommate is NOT a fan of the show (she thinks it's stupid and crude), so I have to schedule viewing for when she's not around.

O/T BTW, I didn't mean to sound like I was slamming those of you who couldn't drive to the store to get the set and I'm sorry if it sounded like that. I was just making an observation. And thankfully, I didn't have to go to the dreaded Wal-Mart (spit on ground), my local mall has a Suncoast Entertainment store, which is where I bought my set. And yes, I probably paid way too much for it.O/T

No problem, cstad. I probably would've bought the DVD at a store if I knew for sure that it'd be there. I wasn't about to make extra trips in 2-degree weather and just hope someone would have it in stock.

Glad to know someone else has a "lefty" version of the DVD. I'll probably get through the rest of disc 1 before the Super Bowl. Oh, and cstad, you need to get a new roommate. :-)

I just wanted to pop in and thank Comedy Central for airing The Critic (I don't have the DVDs yet). I woke up on Saturday just in time to catch the first of two eps, Margo's debutante ep and Jay's receiving his second Pulitzer ep. And also to thank you guys for the Critic love.

I haven't seen the DVD at Target (the store closest to me) yet, and I refuse to enter the Walmart that shares a parking lot with the Target. But Friday's pay day and I do have to go to the mall, where there is a Suncoast... ;-)

pianodan, if The Critic really is your favorite show ever, you owe it to yourself to get the DVD. I think you'd find the commentaries very interesting. I watched a bit of them for the pilot. Mike Reiss was on there, as was Maurice La Marche (sp?) and one of the producers (Rich something). I guess Jon Lovitz was off shooting a movie. Lame excuse, I thought.

Some of the tidbits were pretty interesting. For example, they mentioned that they got a lot of irate viewer mail after the pilot aired because Jay was shown in bed with Valerie the actress. But then next season, Fox thought the show was too tame. Maybe if Janet Jackson's cartoon boobie had made a guest appearance... :-)

Aw, now I'm publicly embarrassed. ;) I'm a patient man, john... in June or thereabouts when I'm back visiting my folks, I'll take a day to geek out and watch all the special features. I know one friend already has the DVDs, but I don't want to go over and watch only a few of the extras...

Bummer that Lovitz didn't participate (hope it wasn't actually a money issue?). I think I'm most curious how "ach'm" (my favorite guttural catchphrase, probably ever!) was spelled in the shooting scripts.

pianodan, if you're into delayed gratification, who am I to judge? ;-)

Some of my favorite DVD moments so far:

From "Every Doris Has Her Day" (which I'd never seen), "Howard Stern's End" (hee!) and the bit where Jay's sitting in a bubbling hot tub. Two hotties approach the tub and one of them says "it's not plugged in." I almost fell off my bed laughing.

And from "Marathon Mensch", a banner that read "New York Marathon: It's More Fun To Run When It's Not From A Gun."

What's cool about the DVDs is that after years of seeing the syndicated versions of the episodes is now getting to see all the little bits that were cut out.

And I'm glad they included the "webisodes" on the discs as well.

I may skip ahead and watch season 2's "Sherman of Arabia". That's probably my favorite episode and I'm curious to see what Comedy Central cut out.

Yeah, add that to the stinginess and fear of change, and you've got the tip of my neuroses iceberg... Moving on before I gross anyone else out.


oooh yeah, I forgot about that. Dammit. But you all may be able to provide me with new Critic-y humor! Interesting that they never shortened the opening sequence for Comedy Central, by the way. I love the theme song (once I played Hans Zimmer's melody on a synth as part of the background music for a burlesque-house scene in Gypsy), but it can be cut down.

jj, go right for "Sherman, Woman and Child", second-season opener. It sets up the sweet Jay-Alice relationship for the remainder of the run.

The Critic has one of the greatest TV-show theme songs ever. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like season 2's is slightly different (and a bit better IMO).

Hmmm, I didn't think the thread would be this dead after the DVD came out...

Anyway, pianodan, you'll be happy to know that Comedy Central at least runs "Sherman of Arabia" unedited--don't know about the other eps. Watched it yesterday and can say with certainty that there were no cuts.

That's good to know, john! I'll try to keep up the conversation here... so have you watched that ep I was bugging you about?

I still haven't got the DVD's. I need to go to Walmart or Best Buy ... I just can't bring myself to order them online.

I don't know where you usually order from, but Deep Discount DVD has them on sale for $37.08 with free shipping. And I got mine from Target for $39, since Best Buy was a few dollars more.

I burned through all the eps in a week and the set is already lent out to friends.

I don't like the on-line ordering thing, I'd rather get them from some place local. That way I:

A. Don't constantly worry that they'll get lost in the mail.
B. Know exactly what to do if there's a problem with a disk and I need a refund.

someone upthread was wondering why Jon Lovitz wasn't on the commentaries. the reason for this is he was apparently filming a movie at the time, which they briefly mention at the beginning of the first episode's commentary.

C. Don't have to deal with fucking UPS, which apparently is under the impression that it is 1955, and every residence has someone at home all day every day waiting for them to deliver a package, and punishing those with the audacity to be at work at 1 PM on a Wednesday by forcing them to come down to the branch office and deal with Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel who takes literally 20 seconds to find the "Z" on the keyboard.

Whoops, am I projecting?

I'm probably going to buy the set, but I'm disappointed that Lovitz isn't on the commentaries. How much creative input did he have in the scripts? If it's a lot, there's almost no point to doing commentaries without him.

Word up, Penfold!


They couldn't have scheduled it around the STAR of the SHOOWWWW? (imagine that line delivered by Jay in "Master Thespian" mode, index finger pointing to the sky...)

I'm calling bullshit. What role did Lovitz land that took him away for any significant period of time? I'm a huge fan of the man's oeuvre (as it were), but methinks he couldn't be bothered. And that STINKS!

pianodan, I gotta figure that if Lovitz took the time to voice those Internet mini-eps that he'd have done commentaries if he could. Or maybe he wanted cash like the Seinfeld supporting cast. Who knows? And, by the way, I watched the Jay meets Alice episode. In fact, all I've got left is the final ep and four that I recently watched on my tape (eps 16-19).

Hard to believe that this show died after only 23 eps, while The Simpsons will probably hit 2,300 before the plug is finally pulled. Ironically, for all the zings the show fired at ABC during S2, they actually aired more eps than Fox.

Hey, pianodan, the following blurb from tvshowsondvd.com should make you go absolutely bitchcakes. ;-)

Since it was from a news item contained within a link, there was no way to just post a link and not the content...


DVDFanatic.com (Tom Chau): Are you currently working on the next season's "Simpsons" DVD?

Mike Reiss: Yes I am. In fact, it's funny, I'm going in, in a couple hours to do more commentary and Jon Lovitz will be there. We could not get Jon Lovitz, he just wasn't available to do "The Critic" commentary and he's in town so he'll be doing some "Simpsons" commentary on the episodes he appeared in.

Hmmm thanks, I'm still not sure if I believe the Lovitz story. But that's good, they'll surely talk about The Critic, and I guess I'll soon get a chance to see those crossover episodes (multiple? thought there was just one).

This rumor made my day today: NY Post theater column
I actually haven't seen Producers yet (bad industry professional!), but if Lovitz goes in, I'll be in line at the box office! Well, I'll be the line at the box office.

Jon Lovitz appeared as Jay Sherman on the Simpsons twice: the sixth season episode "A Star is Burns," in which Jay came to Springfield to judge the a film festival; and two seasons later in "hurricane Neddy," where he was seen in an insane asylum yelling, "it stinks!" over and over, to which a patient doctor responds, "Yes, Mr. Sherman, everything stinks." But Lovitz has made many other guest aappearances on the Simpsons, my favorite of which is his fourth season appearance as Llewellyn Sinclair in "A Streetcar Named Marge," which presumably is the episode for which he'll be recording commentary.

OK, so I watched all the Webisodes over the weekend. Not hard to do--all 10 of 'em total about only 35 minutes, including about 5 or 6 minutes worth of closing themes. I love the theme song, but didn't really need to hear it every 3 minutes.

Anyway, I loved Jay's new make-up girl/sorta girlfriend, Jennifer. Am I strange to think that a cartoon character is hot? :-) I thought it was odd that they made it look like she had a bunch of kids in that one scene, but never addressed it one way or the other after that. Were we to assume they were all hers? I cracked up at Jay's subsequent "should I sleep with her?" Internet poll and his line about "double-bagging for my protection." Great stuff. And, unless I missed something, Jay never did the deed with her.