Beyond The Animated TV Grave is a sub-series of Beyond The TV Grave, and takes a look at short-lived prime time adult animated series that aired on ABC, CBS, or NBC. This sixth edition focuses on ABC’s 1994 series The Critic, which aired one 13-episode season on the network. Six episodes aired in the winter before being pulled from the schedule, with the remaining seven airing in the summer. The Critic is the only show in the series to blur the lines of the criteria, as The Critic was picked up by FOX for a 10-episode second season in 1995.
Background & Synopsis
While ABC, CBS, and NBC had attempted to copy The Simpsons’ success several times before simply by creating an adult animated series, The Critic was the first to have ties to the FOX cartoon. Creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss also worked as the showrunners of the two most recent seasons of The Simpsons at the time of The Critic’s series order. In fact, it ideated as a Simpsons spinoff of Krusty the Clown which was quickly shut down.
The Critic also starred the voice of Jon Lovitz as New York film critic Jay Sherman, who hosts a televised review show called Coming Attractions. Lovitz also lent his voice to a few minor characters on The Simpsons, as did several other voice actors who worked on The Critic. Most notably, Nancy Cartright lent her voice to both Jay’s child Margo Sherman on The Critic, and Bart Simpson on The Simpsons. (Side note: Christine Cavanaugh voiced Jay’s son Marty on The Critic; she voiced Chuckie on Rugrats a few years prior before Nancy Cartwright assumed the role.)
Despite the ties to The Simpsons, ABC’s scheduling of The Critic demonstrated little faith in the series. It was scheduled midseason in the Wednesdays at 8:30 pm time slot, where new sitcoms Joe’s Life and George had already failed in the fall. Its lead-in would be another new sitcom, Thea, which made it through mid-February before being canceled as well. The Critic aired as Home Improvement’s lead-in, the second-highest-rated show on television that season, and was pulled right before Home Improvement reruns took over the 8 pm time slot. Those reruns would be used to launch a new comedy, Thunder Alley, which proved successful in its first season as such before collapsing and getting canceled in its second. The Critic would rerun in the summer, with the final season of Dinosaurs premiering as its lead-in. Seven episodes of each aired before The Critic finished airing its order and Dinosaurs moved to syndication. While an oft-remembered show, Dinosaurs was an undesirable lead-in.
Ratings & Cancelation
The Critic premiered on January 26, 1994 to an audience of 26.5 million viewers, notching a 15.5 Household rating and handily winning its time slot. However, its rating was underwhelming compared to that of its lead-in, a 17.9 Household rating for a rerun of Home Improvement. Leading out of The Critic’s series premiere was a new episode of Home Improvement, which managed a 24.9 Household rating with nearly 44 million viewers.
Even with the relatively underwhelming premiere, ratings still dropped off dramatically for The Critic’s second episode. It notched an 11.0 Household rating with 18.2 million viewers, a slight improvement from the 10.1 Household rating and 15.6 million viewers that lead-in Thea received. Still, The Critic fell to third place in its time slot in its second week, and the Home Improvement rerun that served as its lead-out more than doubled its Household rating.
The Critic’s ratings would proceed to fall in each of its three subsequent episodes, ending up at a 6.8 Household rating with 10.8 million viewers for its fifth episode. It aired against the Winter Olympics, and was the only show in ABC’s comedy block to air a new episode that night. It was also ABC’s lowest-rated show that night.
Home Improvement served as the lead-in of the sixth episode of The Critic, and viewers of ABC’s flagship sitcom soundly rejected their new cartoon. Whereas the Tim Allen-led won the night with an 18.8 Household rating, The Critic could only muster a 10.5. It came in fourth place in its time slot, and bested only the movie that was tasked with being its lead-out when looking at the night as a whole. The Critic was pulled from the schedule after this performance, averaging an 8.6 Household rating within the standard TV season, and coming in 29th place on ABC out of 31 shows.
The remaining seven episodes were burned off in summer 1994, where at the very least it typically held most of its Dinosaurs lead-in. The summer premiere was actually up from the fourth and fifth episodes, though ratings dwindled as the weeks progressed.
Aftermath
FOX picked up a second season of The Critic, which was their first adult animated show since The Simpsons and the second overall. Ratings ticked up for its season premiere, which served as the second part of a crossover with The Simpsons. It averaged a 7.5 Household rating for the season, coming in
13th place on FOX out of 31 series. It was FOX’s highest-rated scripted cancelation of the 1994-95 TV season.
The Critic was almost saved yet again by the then-brand new network UPN. While several scripts had been written for a potential third season, it never came to fruition. However, 10 three-four minute long webisodes were released between December 2000 and September 2001 on AtomFilms and ShockWave.
The Critic sporadically lived on in rerun mode on Comedy Central and Reelz. To this day, both seasons are available to stream for free on
Tubi.
Both co-creator Al Jean and voice star Jon Lovitz are officially on board for a potential revival as of early 2025, which has not been ordered to series not is it in active development. Still, this gives it a better chance at coming back than any previous show covered in Beyond The Animated TV Grave.
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