"Pilot" (also known as "The Critic") is the first episode of the first season of the U.S. animated TV show ''

The Critic ''The Critic'' was an American primetime adult animated sitcom revolving around the life of New York film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by Jon Lovitz. It was created by writing partners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had previously worked as writers a ...

'', a series created by ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss which ran for the 1994 season. The episode was animated by Film Roman, and aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Production

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' explains "in creating ''The Critic'',

Al Jean Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...

and

Mike Reiss Michael L. Reiss ( '; born ) is an American television comedy writer and author. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series ''The Simpsons'' and co-created the animated series '' The Critic''. He created and wrote ...

set out to make the show as dissimilar from ''

'' as humanly possible". The character of Jay Sherman is "the butt of many of the jokes on ''The Critic'' but he's also an extraordinarily accomplished figure". For this reason the show needed to find the right balance between the two. ''The A.V. Club'' explains that "the pilot episode of The Critic errs on the side of making him seem altogether too accomplished". The opening sequence, first seen in the pilot, "elegantly establishes the world Jay lives in, a world where, in the parlance of Jeff Daniels in ''

The Squid and the Whale ''The Squid and the Whale'' is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorc ...

'', people read books and see interesting movies and care about art and ideas".

Plot

According to TV.com, the synopsis is "When Jay has actress, Valerie Fox, on his show, they both fall in love with each other and get involved in a caring relationship. A relationship that may be threatened if Jay pans her performance in her new movie."

Cast

Cast reads as follows: *

Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in '' A League of ...

as Jay Sherman and

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

Nancy Cartwright Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress. She is the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', for which she has received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Perform ...

as Margo and additional voices * Christine Cavanaugh as Marty Sherman and additional voices *

Jennifer Lien Jennifer Anne Lien (born August 24, 1974) is an American former actress known for playing the alien Kes on the television series '' Star Trek: Voyager.'' Early life Lien was born August 24, 1974, in Illinois, the youngest of three children, a ...

as Valerie Fox *

Gerrit Graham Gerrit Graham (born November 27, 1949) is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a scriptwriter and songwriter. He is best known for his appearances in multiple films by Brian De Palma as well as appearances in two '' Star Trek' ...

as Franklin Sherman *

Doris Grau Doris Grau (October 12, 1924 – December 30, 1995) was an American actress and script supervisor from Brooklyn. Shortly after moving to Hollywood in 1940, she began her career with supervising film and television scripts. She continued to do th ...

as Doris Grossman *

Judith Ivey Judith Lee Ivey (born September 4, 1951) is an American actress and theatre director. She has twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: for ''Steaming'' (1981) and '' Hurlyburly'' (1984). She has also appeared in several film ...

as Elanor Sherman *

Gene Shalit Eugene Shalit (born March 25, 1926) is an American retired journalist, television personality, Film criticism, film and Literary criticism, book critic and author. After starting to work part-time on NBC's ''Today (American TV program), The Toda ...

as himself *

Nick Jameson Nicholas Jameson (born December 5, 1950) is an American actor, musician and producer, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Russian president Yuri Suvarov over three seasons on the show '' 24''. He currently resides in Reykjavík doing live c ...

as Vlada Veramirovich and additional voices *

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor, comedian, and impressionist. He has voiced the Brain in '' Animaniacs'' as well as its spin-off '' Pinky and the Brain'', Big Bob in ''Hey Arnold!'' (1996–2004), and a variety of ...

as Jeremy Hawke and additional voices * Charles Napier as Duke Phillips *

Kath Soucie Kath or KATH may refer to: * Kath (city), the historical capital of Khwarezm * Kath (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * KATH-TV, the NBC TV station in Juneau, Alaska * KATH (AM), a radio station in ...

as various characters *

Brenda Vaccaro Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language. Origin The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in area ...

as Ardeth *

Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, actress, LGBT social activist, and musician. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and se ...

Gags

* Phone gag: "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." * TV gag: A parody of ''

Alien 3 ''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''A''LIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising her ...

'' - an alien head with another alien head inside its mouth comes out to frighten a woman. The alien head kisses the woman and she smiles. * Theater gag: Jay says "Get away, Zitface!"

Cultural references

The movie spoofs/parodies in this episode include: * ''Family Affair: The Motion Picture'' (''

Family Affair ''Family Affair'' is an American sitcom starring Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966, to March 4, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do engineer and bachelor Bill Davis (Keith) as he attempte ...

'') * ''Home Alone 5'' (''

Home Alone ''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Hea ...

'') * ''Rabbi PI'' (''

Magnum PI ''Magnum, P.I.'' is an American crime drama television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from December 11, 1980 to May 8, 1988 during its first-run broadcast on t ...

'') * ''Crocodile Gandhi'' (''

Crocodile Dundee ''Crocodile Dundee'' (stylized as ''"Crocodile" Dundee'' in the U.S.) is a 1986 action comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee, and American actress Linda Kozlowski as ...

'') * ''Kiss of Death'' (''

Touch of Death The touch of death (or death-point striking) refers to any martial arts technique reputed to kill using seemingly less than lethal force targeted at specific areas of the body. The concept known as ''dim mak'' (), alternatively ' () traces its ...

'')

Critical reception

''The A.V. Club'' notes "Watching ''The Critic'' in 2011 is an exercise in nostalgia: the very first image is of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers resting high atop the rest of a now sadly outdated New York skyline." It explains that "many of the episode’s sharpest gags pit Jay’s battered dignity against a world that never stops mocking him ndJon Lovitz...gives the character a perpetually wounded dignity that’s incongruously hilarious". It says "the big problem with the series’ pilot lies with the character of the starlet/girlfriend/actress", arguing that she is merely a "plotpoint rather than a flesh and blood character, a way of compromising Jay’s ethics rather than an autonomous human being". It adds "like pretty much all première episodes, ''The Critic'' has a lot to unpack. It’s not as quick or as dense as it could be because it has characters to introduce and a rich, lovely, and multi-faceted milieu to introduce", but says "the show had a strong, clear voice and sensibility from the very beginning. It knew exactly what it wanted to do and how it wanted to do it".

Nielsen ratings

The original airing of the episode easily won its timeslot, earning a 15.5 household rating and a 23 percent audience share, ranking 16th out of 92 programs that week, and was watched by 26.5 million viewers.

DVD release

The episode was included in the 2004 DVD release of ''The Critic.'' The commentary was performed by creators/executive producers/writers Mike Reiss and Al Jean, actors Maurice LaMarche and Nick Jameson and director

Rich Moore Rich Moore is an American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. He has directed the films ''Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012) and co-directed ''Zootopia'' (2016) and ''Ralph Breaks the Internet'' (2018) for Walt Disney A ...

References

External links

* {{The Critic 1994 American television episodes The Critic Critic, The Television episodes set in New York City Television episodes written by Al Jean