The Critic Revival "Never Been Closer to Actually Happening"

Here’s some news that most certainly does not stink: The Critic is in talks for a revival. The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean , who co-created the short-lived but still beloved animated series, told Polygon in a recent interview that he’s signed a deal to work on the show’s return, and that series star Jon Lovitz ’s own deal is in the works:

“The hurdles are passed with me making my deal. [Jon Lovitz] definitely wants to do it, but his deal isn’t closed. That’s the honest, very up-to-the-minute fact. I’m sure he’ll do it, although I can’t say I’m absolutely 100% sure, but I’m confident that his deal will close. It’s never been closer to actually happening.”

The Critic starred Lovitz as a cantankerous yet lovable film critic who hosted a low-rated TV series a la Jay Siskel and Roger Ebert (who cameoed as themselves in the Season 2 episode “Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice”). Despite a meaty crossover with The Simpsons , the show’s niche film jokes struggled to find an audience when it originally premiered in 1994, running for only two seasons — first on ABC, then Fox. A season of web shorts was also produced for AtomFilms and Shockwave beginning in December 2000, but considering that was still a few years before the launch of YouTube, it’s fair to say the world wasn’t quite ready to watch original content on the web yet.

Advertisement

The Polygon piece doesn’t specify where a Critic series would premiere, with one potential issue being that Sony Television owns the character of Jay Sherman , not Disney (which is the current rights owner of The Simpsons ). However, this is still exciting news for fans of the original series, especially anyone who maybe became a film critic because of it. The complete series (to date) is still available on Amazon .

Related Video

Load More

_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/06/the-critic-revival-jon-lovitz-al-jean/)._