Jonathan Katz

Aging local standup comic Sweeney, "The Character King", gets an opportunity to do a national cable show out of Los Angeles. The only caveat is that Sweeney must drop the locally referenced material from his act, the biggest pieces being the portrayal of his colorful Boston "characters," that have become a staple of his home field success. Sweeney makes the hard decision to stop doing the characters. But, to his dismay, the characters "come-to-life" and seek their revenge; they try to kill Sweeney.

5.9/10

Gilby finds himself in a tangled web of lies when the truth proves to be too much to admit and even harder to accept.

5.2/10

An inspiring, triumphant and wickedly funny portrait of one of comedy’s most enigmatic and important figures, CALL ME LUCKY tells the story of Barry Crimmins, a beer-swilling, politically outspoken and whip-smart comic whose efforts in the 70s and 80s fostered the talents of the next generation of standup comedians. But beneath Crimmins’ gruff, hard-drinking, curmudgeonly persona lay an undercurrent of rage stemming from his long-suppressed and horrific abuse as a child – a rage that eventually found its way out of the comedy clubs and television shows and into the political arena.

7.6/10
8.5%

With Jonathan Katz and Tom Leopold. A convicted murderer on death row is doing Weight Watchers.

Newlyweds Nick and Suzanne decide to move to the suburbs to provide a better life for their two kids. But their idea of a dream home is disturbed by a contractor with a bizarre approach to business.

4.2/10
0.8%

In this spoof of "March of the Penguins," nature footage of penguins near the South Pole gets a soundtrack of human voices. Carl and Jimmy, best friends, walk 70 miles to the mating grounds where the female penguins wait. The huddled masses of females - especially Melissa and Vicki - talk about males, mating, and what might happen this year. Carl, Jimmy, and the other males make the long trek talking about food, fornication and flatulence. Until this year, Carl's sex life has been dismal, but he falls hard for Melissa. She seems to like him. A crisis develops when Jimmy comes upon something soft in the dark. Can friends forgive? Does parenthood await Carl and Melissa?

4.1/10

Hopeless Pictures is an American animated comedy series starring the voice of Friends actress Lisa Kudrow, Seinfeld guest actor Bob Balaban, and produced and broadcast by the IFC. The cartoon follows fictional film producer Mel Wax, voiced by Michael McKean, in a spoof of the Hollywood movie industry. Stylistically the show makes use of the audio from scripted telephone conversations combined with on-screen gags surrounding the cartoon characters speaking.

7.5/10

Two men get laid off and have to become stay-at-home dads when they can't find jobs, which inspires them to open their own day-care center.

5.5/10
2.7%

Ink is a television sitcom which aired on CBS from 1996-1997 that starred real-life husband and wife Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen as newspaper journalists, allegedly inspired by the film His Girl Friday. The show was also produced by Danson and Steenburgen. The show was canceled after one season due to lower than expected ratings. The distribution rights to the series are currently owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. The show's pilot was drastically changed and reshot from the original version. Ink was filmed at the soundstages of CBS Studio City in the Studio City area of Los Angeles. Outdoor scenes were usually shot at the small backlot streets of the same studio.

6/10

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist is an American animated series that originally ran on Comedy Central from May 28, 1995 to December 24, 1999—with a final set of three shelved episodes airing in 2002—starring Jonathan Katz, Jon Benjamin, and Laura Silverman. The show was created by a Burbank, California production company Popular Arts Entertainment, with Jonathan Katz and Tom Snyder, developed and first made by Popular Arts for HBO Downtown Productions. Boston-based Tom Snyder Productions became the hands-on production company, and the episodes were usually produced by Katz and Loren Bouchard. The show was computer animated in a crude, easily recognizable style produced with the software Squigglevision in which all persons and animate objects are colored and have constantly squiggling outlines, while most other inanimate objects are static and usually gray in color. The original challenge Popular Arts faced was how to repurpose recorded stand-up comedy material. To do so they based Dr. Katz's patients on stand-up comics for the first several episodes, simply having them recite their stand-up acts. The secondary challenge was how to affordably animate on cable TV at the time. Snyder had Squigglevision, an inexpensive means of getting animation on cable, which could not afford traditional animation processes. A partnership between Popular Arts, Tom Snyder Productions and Jonathan Katz was formed and Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist was born.

7.5/10

TV Nation is a satirical newsmagazine television series written, directed and hosted by Michael Moore that was co-funded and originally broadcast by NBC in the United States and BBC2 in the United Kingdom. The show blended humor and journalism into provocative reports about various issues. After moving to Fox for its second season, the show won an Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Informational Series. TV Nation was created in the wake of the success Moore had with the documentary Roger & Me, prompting Warner Bros. television to ask Moore for television series ideas. In January 1993 NBC green-lit a pilot episode which took three months to complete. Interest from the BBC prompted NBC to insert the show into its summer 1994 lineup.

6/10

A Jewish homicide detective investigates a seemingly minor murder and falls in with a Zionist group as a result.

7/10
9.1%

A young news reporter schemes to take over the job of a veteran news anchor whose ratings he's been hired to promote.

5.5/10

A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.

7.3/10
9.6%