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We cant quit Jay Sherman.
Voiced by (and created for) Jon Lovitz, Sherman, on paper, looked like a winner.
But his was hardly the glamorous life.
Divorced, he was the quintessential sad sack.
On paper, too,The Criticlooked like a sure thing.
Its creators,Al Jean and Mike Reiss, were showrunners onThe Simpsonsduring its classic third and fourth seasons.
Brad Bird (The Incredibles) was an executive consultant.
Writers included Judd Apatow, Steven Levitan, and Nell Scovell.
Lovitz was the only choice to embody Sherman.
Brooks had pitched Jean and Reiss on developing a live-action series about the backstage life of aTodaystyle morning show.
One of the characters with comic potential would be a Gene Shalitlike movie critic.
Brooks had seen Lovitz inA League of Their Ownand suggested him for that character.
Jean realized that Lovitzs burgeoning movie career would make it impossible for him to do a live-action series.
It put him in a pretty strong bargaining position.
He performed 24 different voices in the episode Dr. Jay alone.
My time onThe Criticwas one of the happiest work experiences of my career, LaMarche said in an email.
It was a different style of humor [fromHome Improvement], Jean says.
I didnt blame him for canceling the series.
To mark its anniversary, we asked Jean to select five episodes that best embody the series comedic universe.
Theyve popularized movie reviewing so that it is brought into everybodys home.
They were really iconic, Jean says.
I dont think there would have been a show without Roger and Gene.
I had the privilege of flying to Chicago from L.A. to record [them].
Roger was hands-off; Gene called me with a couple of notes.
After just about every take, Siskel would ask which was one them was best.
Like somebodys grandmother, Id go, Oh, youre both great.
I can say now that theyve both sadly passed, I think Roger was a little better actor.
That was a wonderful thing to hear.
Jays most regular viewers are drunken frat boys who like to make fun of me.
Its impossible not to like this guy, Ebert wrote at the time; he was in the minority.
You always want a sympathetic lead character, Jean reflects.
He enjoys his life and Marge loves him.
We tested the show after it had aired and found that Jay was considered too unlikable.
Jim [Brooks] faced the same situation onThe Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The testing went up.
We were canceled for other reasons.
It was perhaps the first time a prime-time animated series boasted a woman writer and director.
Lauren is a brilliant animation director, one of the best I ever worked with, Jean says.
This was a good episode about Jays family.
Nancy Cartwright voiced Margo.
We had passed on Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, and Margaret Cho for that character.
We just didnt think they had the right voice.
Just how snakebit wasThe Critic?
Jean calls this episode one of his favorites.
It was the funniest episode of the first season, Jean says.
[The data pipe] pushed it to fourth.
I love doing that kind of joke that arises from the situation.
Its one of my favorite things we ever did.
I loveLawrence of Arabia,and redoing it with these characters and satirizing the Gulf War was really wonderful.
I loved Jays morale-boosting rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
This is my second-favorite episode of the second year.
Twenty-five years on, what can we learn fromThe Critic?
We had funny stuff in the first season, but we didnt have that reliability.
But Jean still hasnt given up hope for a Jay Shermanaissance.
I just had lunch with Jon the other day, he said.
And if that theory doesnt pan out, it stinks.
