The Critic/Pilot

Pilot
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	January 26, 1994
Written by	Mike Reiss & Al Jean
Directed by	Rich Moore
— N/A	1x02 → Marty's First Date
The Critic — Season One

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Pilot is the first episode of the first season of The Critic.

Starring: Jon Lovitz (Jay Sherman), Nancy Cartwright (Margot Sherman), Christine Cavanaugh (Marty Sherman), Gerrit Graham (Franklin Sherman), Doris Grau (Doris), Judith Ivey (Eleanor Sherman), Nick Jameson (Vlada Veramirovich), Maurice La Marche (Jeremy Hawke), Charles Napier (Duke Phillips), Kath Soucie (Various)

Special Guest Voice: Jennifer Lien (Valerie Fox), Gene Shalit (Himself), Brenda Vaccaro (Ardeth)

Also Starring: Margaret Cho ()

Plot Overview

Jay Sherman, a balding, 36-year-old TV film critic is very much unlucky at love... until beautiful actress Valerie Fox appears on his show for an interview and admits that she's attracted to him. Thus begins a whirlwind romance that may finally bring Jay happiness... until he has to review her horrible movie, Kiss of Death.

Trivia

The Show

• Opening Phone Call: "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!"
• Opening Movie Parody: In a parody of Aliens, the Alien queen's secondary mouth kisses Sigourney Weaver.
• Closing Theatre Shot: "Get away, zit face!"
• Movie Parodies: Home Alone V, Rabbi P.I. starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Crocodile Gandhi, Kiss of Death, Family Affair: The Motion Picture starring Marlon Brando

Behind the Scenes

• Conan Cameo: When Jay and Valerie Fox go to the restaurant after their interview, they're hustled to the back of the restaurant when Conan O'Brien turns up and outranks him. O'Brien worked for The Critic creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss when he was a writer on The Simpsons before getting the job hosting Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1993. Originally the cameo was supposed to be Sting or someone similar, but the writers put in O'Brien on a later draft. He was so unknown that the artists had no idea who he was and they couldn't find pictures in any magazines for them to go by.

• CG Sequence: The "Beauty and King Dork" scene where Jay and Valerie dance together was animated by Rough Draft Studios, when they first started up their CG department, long before they animated Futurama. At the time, it was a very advanced sequence that predated any CG work that would later be done on The Simpsons.

Allusions and References

• Aliens:
• Home Alone:
• Basic Instinct:
• Dances with Wolves:
• Al Sharpton:
• Beauty and the Beast:
• Family Affair:
• Woody Allen:
• Seinfeld: