Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist

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Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Genre	Animated Sitcom
Creator(s)	Jonathan Katz Tom Snyder
Starring	Jonathan Katz H. Jon Benjamin Laura Silverman
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	81 (3 unaired)
Production
Running time	approx. 0:22
Broadcast
Original channel	Comedy Central
Original run	May 28, 1995 – December 24, 1999
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was an animated series that originally ran on Comedy Central from 1995 to 1999, and starred Jonathan Katz.

It was computer animated in a crude, easily recognizable style called Squigglevision, in which all persons and animate objects are colored and have constantly squiggling outlines, while all other inanimate objects are static and usually gray in color.

[edit] Format

Dr. Katz with his guitar

The show focused on the title character, Dr. Jonathan Katz, who was voiced by, and visually based on, the comedian of the same name. Dr. Katz was a professional psychoanalyst who had famous comedians and actors as patients, usually two per episode. The comedians' therapy sessions generally consisted of them doing their onstage material while Dr. Katz offered insights or simply let them rant. Meanwhile, therapy sessions featuring actors and actresses offered more interpersonal dialogue between Katz and his patient to better suit their predisposition.

Interspersed with these scenes were scenes involving Dr. Katz's daily life, which included his son, Benjamin Katz (H. Jon Benjamin), his secretary, Laura (Laura Silverman), and his two friends: Stanley (Will Le Bow), and the barmaid, Julie, voiced by the show's producer, Julianne Shapiro. In later episodes, Todd (Todd Barry), the video store clerk, became a usual counterpart to Ben.

Ben Katz with his discarded stuffed animal, Bully

Each show would typically begin with Dr. Katz and Ben waking up and beginning a plotline shared by the two. These plots included events like Ben attempting to become a radio personality, believing he's in possession of ESP, and the moral conundrum he suffers after receiving a chain-letter. The development of these plotlines would occur fragmentedly throughout the episode alongside the segments between Dr. Katz and his guests.

The show would end in a similar way each week; while Dr. Katz was in a session with a patient, music signaling the close of the show would begin to play. Katz would acknowledge it and tell the patient "Well, you know what the music means" or some variant thereof.

Much of the show's content, particularly dialogue between Katz and Benjamin, was improvised through a process called "retroscripting", in which a vague outline is developed but the actual dialogue is ad-libbed. This style, as well as Squigglevision, would reappear in Home Movies, a cartoon that features many members of the Dr. Katz cast and crew.

[edit] Original airing

The first episode of Dr. Katz aired on May 28, 1995. A total of 81 episodes were produced, though the final three -- "Bakery Ben," "Uncle Nothing" and "Lerapy" -- did not air in the United States. (They were aired in Canada and overseas, however.) For reasons never explained, Comedy Central began the show's sixth and final season on June 15, 1999, ran it for six weeks -- and then put it on hiatus until Christmas Eve, when it aired nine new episodes in an all-night marathon that served as the show's series finale. The hiatus was so sudden that the week the show was yanked, TV Guide still listed the show and highlighted the upcoming episode as a must-see "Editor's Choice."

[edit] Notable guests

A live performance of the third episode, "Bully", with Jonathan Katz and H. Jon Benjamin at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival

[edit] Crossovers

• In "Summer Sucks," an episode of South Park, another Comedy Central cartoon, Dr. Katz appears as Mr. Garrison's psychiatrist.
• In episode 307 "Bush is a Pussy" of Mr. Show a Dr. Katz scene is played out between Katz and Kedzie Matthews, a spoof of a typical college comic, at the end of the episode.
• In the Family Guy episode Saving Private Brian the main character Peter Griffin is seen talking to Dr. Katz, while sitting on a recliner. Peter makes a comment about the Squigglevision style in which Dr. Katz is animated, to which he replies, "I believe I'm having some sort of seizure."
• In the Squidbillies episode Government Brain Voodoo Trouble, the therapist (later clarified as "the rapist") is voiced by an uncredited Jonathan Katz.^[1]
• In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode, "Brilliant Number One," Space Ghost was drawn in Dr. Katz's style briefly, while asking Peter Fonda, "What does this tell us about your childhood?"
• In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "King Dead," which featured H. Jon Benjamin as the guest, the Dr. Katz show is mentioned by name. Space Ghost is briefly shown in Squigglevision while stating "cable is important" a reference to the fact Dr. Katz was on Comedy Central and Space Ghost was shown on Cartoon Network, both of which were basic cable channels.
• In the direct-to-DVD parody film, Farce of the Penguins, Dr. Katz appears as Steve, the owl who gives therapeutic advice for $275/hr.

[edit] DVD releases

Season Releases

[edit] External links

• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric D. Snider's Complete 'Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist' Episode Guide.
• Jeff Sass presents The Many Faces of Dr. Katz"