Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
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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.
Format
The show focused around 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.
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 and Katz would acknowledge it and tell the patient "Well, you know what the music means."
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.
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."Notable guests
Crossovers
- In [[List of South Park episodes#Season 2: 1998-1999|Summer Sucks]], an episode of South Park, another Comedy Central cartoon, Dr. Katz appears as the psychiatrist of Mr. Garrison.
- In episode 307 "Bush is a Pussy" of Mr. Show a Dr. Katz scene is played out between Katz and Kedzie Matthews, a parodical spoof of a typical college comic, at the end of the episode.
DVD releases
Season Releases| DVD Name | Release Date | Ep # | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | May 9 2006 | 6 | Special features include cast and crew commentary, and several animated shorts. |
| Season 2 | TBA | 13 | |
| Season 3 | TBA | 13 | |
| Season 4 | TBA | 13 | |
| Season 5 | TBA | 18 | |
| Season 6 | TBA | 18 |
External links
- [Eric D. Snider's Complete 'Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist' Episode Guide].''
- [Jeff Sass presents The Many Faces of Dr. Katz]"
- [The Dr. Katz Fanclub]
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