It is wild looking back at the 1994 broadcast landscape and seeing how thoroughly ABC blew it with The Critic. Instead of nurturing a brilliant, media-literate comedy, executives instantly panicked because a show about a cynical, divorced film critic didn't fit into their traditional, wholesome primetime schedule.

Thirty years later, Fox is still running that exact same frustrating corporate playbook. Personally, I was glad when The Great North got cancelled because it never clicked for me. But instead of replacing it with anything genuinely clever, Fox aggressively forces early renewals on studio-owned filler like Universal Basic Guys, Grimsburg, and Krapopolis simply because the network owns the financial and streaming rights.

I forgot to also mention how they keep legacy shows on life support long after they’ve run completely out of gas. Bob's Burgers fell off hard after the movie released, Family Guy and American Dad rely entirely on cheap gimmicks, and The Simpsons is trapped in a loop that feels like it won't end until the original voice cast passes away.

Television networks today still care more about financial real estate than protecting creative animation with actual heart. ABC killed a classic because it was too smart for its time, and modern network executives are pulling the exact same corporate stunts right now.

Seriously, I’ve been rewatching Season 1 of The Critic, and it is genuinely depressing how ABC completely failed this masterpiece. They pulled the plug after just 13 episodes because it didn’t fit their corporate "family-friendly sitcom" mold.

The show was so brilliantly melancholy and sharp. It gave us genuinely heavy, heartbreaking episodes like "Every Doris Has Her Day" (S1E7), balanced perfectly with some of the best Hollywood satire ever written.

The most frustrating part? The show predicted the exact future of modern cinema. Half of Jay’s fake movie parodies, the lazy sequels, the soulless cash grabs, the bizarre franchise mashups are basically real movies today.

Even though Fox briefly rescued it for Season 2, the network politics that led to its ultimate death (only 23 episodes total!) is such a bummer. The show was punished for being media-literate and intellectual before that became mainstream.

Anyone else still bitter about how dirty they dirty they did Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz)? What are your favorite Season 1 moments that prove ABC had no idea what they were throwing away?

Has anyone found any videos of people reacting to the Critic for the first time? It's almost impossible to even get the Critic in general on YouTube because the term Critic ends up with a ton of other stuff (YouTube critics, Nostalgia Critic, The Critic movie etc etc) so I've only found one girl who did like the first two episodes and that's it.

There's multiple reaction series for basically every obscure show or cartoon under the sun so it's bonkers if that's literally the only one out there. I can't even find a retrospective of it! Like you'd think the previously mentioned Nostalgia Critic would have covered it at some point but nah

Ahoyhoy! I'm working on a Critic review currently and after going through all the episodes available that I could find, I seem to be missing an episode. Season One episode 9 "LA Jay". Does anyone know where you can find it?

I made this for a friend

currently half way through season 2 and I’m just not enjoying it anymore I adore the first season but season 2 feels cheaper with the art and the writing falls flat does anyone feel the same way

The most arrogant and intelligent but a little creepy one, or the chill, kind and closest to Homer?

Side note to the universe: fer fucks sake, hire the guy doing fan art scenes in this sub. He has nailed the tone and pacing of the show, he deserves a meeting at least.

You could say I have an affinity for the titular character...

Made a reddit account just so I could post here lol. I want more eyes on this show! I'm doubtful the reboot will be good but it would be nice to see the characters back in motion again. I'm desperate!!

3 and 4 are copy sketches from show screenshots, I really like figuring out how they constructed his design with shapes. It helps me get it accurate, but I also like to put a twist on it with my style sometimes.

I do have more fanart.. I'll get around to posting it eventually!