Lovitz stirred hope in the hearts of a particularly nerdy flavor of former child cartoon fan earlier this week, when he posted on social media that he had recruited Jean (a former Simpsons showrunner who created The Critic with Mike Reiss) for his possible reboot efforts. After all, if King Of The Hill can come back, Family Guy once got saved from death, and American Dad might be returning to Fox, why not Jay Sherman? (Because all of those shows ran for at least a decade a pop, our more cynical minds whisper, while The Critic was killed off after just 23 episodes. But we silence this inner defeatist.)
Lovitz’s social media post was light on details—including how, exactly, Jean would be involved with a potential reboot—but big on enthusiasm, inviting fans to spread the word. Writing at an average of two exclamation points per sentence, the former Saturday Night Live star exults to “Critic Fans!!!!” “If you want it back, we need your help! Please like this post and spread the word! So we can show the studio, how many people want it!”
Here’s where we also feel moved to note that The Critic actually already got revived once, albeit in a strange and truncated form. (You can tell, because we’re about to use the word “webisodes” for the first time since, like, 2011.) After being canceled in 1995, The Critic was previously brought back in 2000 by AtomFilms and Shockwave for a series of three-minute webisode shorts, written by Jean and Reiss and starring Lovitz. (They’re actually fairly funny, if not allowed to reach the full surreal breadth of the original show.) Anyway: We’d be lying if this didn’t all feel like a bit of a pipe dream, but if every TV show under the sun is going to get a shot at revival, one of our oddball favorites might as well get its shot, too, right?
[via THR]
