''Animal Practice'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

television series which aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from August 12 to October 24, 2012, on the network's Fall 2012 television schedule. The series premiered after the end of the 2012 Olympic games (which the network was showing) and was produced by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...

and American Work. The series starred

Justin Kirk Justin Kirk (born May 28, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Prior Walter in Mike Nichols's screen adaptation of ''Angels in America'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting A ...

and is set at a veterinary office. The series was canceled on October 18, 2012, due to low ratings, and replaced by ''

Whitney Whitney may refer to: Film and television * ''Whitney'' (2015 film), a Whitney Houston biopic starring Yaya DaCosta * ''Whitney'' (2018 film), a documentary about Whitney Houston * ''Whitney'' (TV series), an American sitcom that premiered i ...

'' on November 14, 2012. A total of nine episodes were produced, and the three unaired episodes were released on NBC.com and Hulu on November 20, 2012.

Cast and characters

Main cast and characters

as Dr. George Coleman ** Wyatt Oleff as Young George * Joanna García Swisher as Dorothy Crane *

Bobby Lee Robert Lee Jr. (born September 17, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. From 2001 to 2009, Lee was a cast member on ''MADtv'', and he co-starred in the ABC single-camera sitcom series '' Splitting Up Together'' alongs ...

as Dr. Robert Yamamoto *

Kym Whitley Kym Elizabeth Whitley is an American comedian and actress. She is best known for her roles on television sitcoms, such as '' My Brother and Me'', '' Sparks'', ''Animal Practice'', '' The Boondocks'', ''Young & Hungry'', ''The Parkers'', ...

as Juanita * Betsy Sodaro as Angela *

Tyler Labine Tyler Sean Labine (born April 29, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He is best known for starring in the television series ''Breaker High'', '' Invasion'', ''Reaper'', '' Deadbeat'' and as Dr. Iggy Frome, head of psychiatry, in the ...

as Dr. Doug Jackson *

Crystal the Monkey Crystal (born May 6, 1994) is a female tufted capuchin monkey and animal actress, acquired and trained by Birds & Animals Unlimited, Hollywood's largest supplier of animals. Her acting career began as a baby monkey in Disney's 1997 film '' Georg ...

as Dr. Rizzo

Recurring cast and characters

June Diane Raphael June Diane Raphael ( ; born January 4, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She has starred in TV comedy programs ''Burning Love'', Adult Swim's '' NTSF:SD:SUV::'', and ''Grace and Frankie''. Notable film work includes support ...

as Dr. Jill Leiter *

Brian Huskey Brian Huskey (born September 8, 1968) is an American character actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy programs such as ''People of Earth'', '' Childrens Hospital'', ''Veep'', and ''Another Period''. He also provides ...

as Nurse Howard

Development and production

The show was originally known as ''Animal Kingdom'' when it was in development. The network placed a series order in May 2012.

Amy Huberman Amy Huberman (born 20 March 1979) is an Irish actress and writer, which is known for her role as Daisy in the RTÉ drama series '' The Clinic''. In 2018, she began writing and starring in the comedy series ''Finding Joy''. Early life Huberman g ...

played the role of "Dorothy Crane" in the original pilot; however, the role was recast with

Joanna García JoAnna García Swisher (''née'' García; born August 10, 1979) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sam in ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (1994–96), Vicki Appleby in ''Freaks and Geeks'' (1999–2000), and Cheyenne Hart-Mon ...

. Crystal the Monkey's character was originally known as " Dr. Zaius" but the rights to the name could not be obtained. At the time of production, Crystal was known for her appearances in a number of motion pictures, most notably the ''

Night at the Museum ''Night at the Museum'' is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an ense ...

'' series.

Marco Pennette Marco Pennette (born July 9, 1966) is an American television writer and producer. Early life Pennette was born in Greenwich, Connecticut where he grew up loving theatre: "I want to go into theatre; TV sort of lured me away." He attended New Yor ...

replaced Gail Lerner as showrunner after the third episode had been shot.

Promotion

While promoting the show to ad buyers, NBC told them that "Crystal" the capuchin had had "powerful reception among test audiences", and "is perhaps the best-known element about the new show—and, maybe, NBC's entire fall season." NBC ran a sneak preview of the series on August 12, 2012, as a lead-out for the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics; controversially, the already tape-delayed and abridged broadcast was interrupted to air the pilot, causing the finale (which featured a performance by

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

) to be preempted after late local newscasts.

Episodes

Reception

According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the show has received a score of 48/100 and mixed critical reviews. Drusilla Moorhouse, of entertainment news website Zap2It, wrote that "It's too cringe-worthy for overempathizing animal lovers, but general audiences might tune in for a lighthearted, escapist laugh." While Moorhouse's review was more positive, Robert Bianco of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'' gave a negative review, stating "The shame is that ''Practice'' has a fine human cast...but Kirk and his cohorts quickly get taken down by the barrage of stupidity the show sends their way."

Awards and accolades

International broadcasts

In the UK, ''Animal Practice'' aired on ITV2 beginning February 11, 2013.

References

External links

* * *{{cite web, last=Wallace , first=Benjamin , title=Crystal Takes Hollywood , url=https://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/crystal-the-monkey-animal-practice-2012-10/index1.html , work=New York Magazine , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112222941/http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/crystal-the-monkey-animal-practice-2012-10/index1.html , archivedate=2012-11-12 2012 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2010s American medical television series 2010s American single-camera sitcoms English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series about monkeys Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in New York City Television shows scored by Ludwig Göransson