Starring: Jonathan Katz
Studio: Comedy Central/Paramount 85176 (13 DVDs box)
Video: 4:3 color
Audio: English DD mono
Extras: Audio commentaries by Katz, H. Jon Benjamin, Ray Romano, Laura Silverman and Tom Snyder, Three “lost” episodes, “An Evening with Dr. Katz” live from Comedy Central stage, Bio of Dr. Katz, Short Attention Span Theater Shorts, “Shrink Wrapped” an original Squigglevision short, “Checking In:” Dr. Katz follows up with former “patients” Steven Wright, Emo Philips and others, 28 illustrated color booklet with an introduction from Dr. Katz and memoirs from his favorite patients
Length: 1782 minutes
Rating: *****
If you don’t know about Dr. Katz, here’s an opportunity to make his acquaintance big time! It was the first major animated series aired by The Comedy Channel, starting in 1995 and running thru 1999, and this is every one of the episodes plus a huge grab-bag of bonus featurettes. The series won both an Emmy and a Peabody award, so lie down on Dr. Katz couch and dig it. (I’ll bet fans who already purchased the earlier first and second season DVD sets are not happy about this new $140 complete set. However it’s on sale at Amazon.)
Comedian Jonathan Katz wanted to create a low-budget animated series for TV and he succeeded brilliantly. The dialog is recorded first, with Jonathan doing the voice of the cartoon Dr. Katz and frequently using events and situations from his own life in his scripts and improvisations. Dr. Katz’s “patients” are various standup comedians – usually two per episode, who are recorded doing their thing – which also sounds improvised – basically the type of humor they normally do, but slanted toward describing themselves as very highly neurotic people. Dr. Katz responds – when he can get a word in edgewise – but is mainly the straight man. Many of the comics were unfamiliar to me, but there were plenty of top names as well, including Whoopi Goldberg, Conan O’Brien, Steven Wright, Rodney Dangerfield, and the Smothers Brothers. I was wishing the menu of the episodes on each disc listed exactly which comics were in each episode, but you have to click on each one to fine out who is on it.
The rather crude animation is called Squigglevision but it seems perfect for the subject. Most of the animators were not animators but graphic artists. Their backgrounds are monochrome and look quite different from the usual cartoon backgrounds. The various characters are brightly colored and their outlines are constantly wiggling to give an impression of motion. Only their eyes and mouths usually move. They are normally presented in extreme facial close-ups. This is not something that would benefit much from Blu-ray or HD DVD… It’s obviously a show for the small screen; in some ways it seems inappropriate for my big 16:9 display. (I think I may watch the rest on my old 17” set in the garage when I use my treadmill.)
The dialog going on in Dr. Katz’s office would be funny enough, but that’s just half the show. The other half is his bumpy relationship with his unemployed 25-year-old son Ben – who is the favorite character of the many fans of the series. He comes up with various hair-brained schemes for jobs he could do, eats mostly breakfast cereal, and hangs around his father’s office trying to pick up Dr. Katz’s cute but very sarcastic secretary Laura – who is also quite a character by herself. Then Dr. Katz usually spends some time each episode at his neighborhood bar discussing life with his pal and the female bartender.
The extras are a kick in themselves. The booklet with Dr. Katz’s bio and comments from some of his patients is also great fun, illustrated with appropriate cartoons in color. I seldom have time to go back and listen to the commentary tracks on films, but in this case I might do so – especially on episodes I saw originally – if they’re all as funny as the episode I sampled. I’ve never been a TV nut and almost never watch commercial TV anymore, but I think Dr. Katz is about the funniest animated series to come out of TV – right up there with The Simpsons.
– John Sunier
