Production
The Critic was a short-lived animated series that revolved around the life of movie critic Jay Sherman. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had previously written for The Simpsons but left after the fourth season, and executive produced by James L. Brooks. Jon Lovitz (who had previously guest starred in several episodes of The Simpsons) starred as Jay Sherman, and it also featured the voices of The Simpsons regulars Nancy Cartwright, Doris Grau and Russi Taylor. It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 and was well received by critics, but did not catch on with viewers and was put on hiatus after six weeks. It returned in June 1994 and completed airing its initial production run.
For the second season of The Critic, James L. Brooks cut a deal with the Fox network to have the series switch over. The episode was pitched by Brooks, who had wanted a crossover that would help launch The Critic on Fox, and he thought having a film festival in Springfield would be a good way to introduce Sherman. After Brooks pitched the episode, the script was written by Ken Keeler. Although David Mirkin was executive producer for most of the sixth season, the episode was executive produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss. Jay Sherman's appearance was Simpsonized: he was made yellow and given an overbite.
The episode contains a meta-reference to the fact that it is a crossover episode in a conversation Bart has with Sherman:
- Announcer: Coming up next, The Flintstones meet The Jetsons.
- Bart: Uh oh. I smell another cheap cartoon crossover.
- Homer: Bart Simpson, meet Jay Sherman, the critic.
- Jay: Hello.
- Bart: Hey man, I really love your show. I think all kids should watch it! Ew, I suddenly feel so dirty.
The joke was pitched by Al Jean.
Alongside Jon Lovitz, the episode guest stars Maurice LaMarche, a regular on The Critic, who voices George C. Scott as well as Jay Sherman's belch. Phil Hartman also makes a brief appearance as Charlton Heston. Rainier Wolfcastle's line "on closer inspection, these are loafers" was ad-libbed by Dan Castellaneta who was providing the voice of the character on a temporary track. It was later re-recorded by Wolfcastle's normal voice actor, Harry Shearer.
Read more about this topic: A Star Is Burns
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The growing of food and the growing of children are both vital to the family’s survival.... Who would dare make the judgment that holding your youngest baby on your lap is less important than weeding a few more yards in the maize field? Yet this is the judgment our society makes constantly. Production of autos, canned soup, advertising copy is important. Housework—cleaning, feeding, and caring—is unimportant.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)