Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist

History

Development

The show was created by Burbank, California, production company Popular Arts Entertainment, and executive produced by Tim Braine and David Pritchard. It was produced and developed by Jonathan Katz and Tom Snyder, and first made by Popular Arts for HBO Downtown Productions. Boston-based Tom Snyder Productions became the hands-on production company. The episodes were usually produced by Jonathan Katz and Loren Bouchard.

The show was animated in a crude, easily recognizable style produced with Squigglevision utilizing the 2D animation software Autodesk Animator (a technique Snyder had employed in his educational animation business). In the cartoon, all people and animate objects are in color and have constantly squiggling outlines, while most other inanimate objects are static and usually shades of gray. The original challenge Popular Arts Entertainment faced was how to repurpose recorded stand-up comedy material; they decided to handle this by basing Dr. Katz's patients on stand-up comics for the first several episodes, and simply having them recite their stand-up acts. The second challenge Popular Arts faced was how to affordably animate on cable TV at the time. Tom Snyder (a boyhood friend of Tim Braine) had Squigglevision, an inexpensive means of getting animation on cable; they could not afford traditional animation processes. A partnership between Popular Arts, Tom Snyder Productions and Jonathan Katz was formed, and thus, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was born.

Show run (1995–2002)

The first episode of Dr. Katz aired on May 28, 1995. A total of 81 episodes were produced, with the sixth and final season (consisting of 18 episodes) beginning on June 15, 1999. Only the first six of the final season's episodes aired on Comedy Central immediately, though they did air in international markets. After a five-month delay, another nine episodes ran during a Christmas Eve marathon. No more episodes were shown after the December 24, 1999 episodes until the final three episodes of the series were broadcast one after another, in the United States, on February 13, 2002, during an event dubbed "Dr. Katz Goes to the Final Three."

A comic strip of the same name was produced by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate from January 1997 to December 1999. One book collection based on the characters and series was published, Hey, I've Got My Own Problems; writers of the book included Bill Braudis and Dave Blazek, with artwork by Dick Truxaw.

Post-show

In 2007, Comedy Central presented An Evening with Dr. Katz: Live from the Comedy Central Stage, a live-action special taped in front of a live audience at the Hudson Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, featuring Jonathan Katz reprising his role as "Dr. Katz". Comedians Maria Bamford, Kathy Griffin, Andy Kindler and Paul F. Tompkins appeared in person as celebrity "clients". Jon Benjamin and Laura Silverman also reprised their respective roles from the animated series. This special was included in the Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist "Complete Series" DVD compilation. In January 2008, live performances were presented over two nights as part of the 2008 SF Sketchfest in San Francisco, California. On the first night, Jonathan Katz's guest list included Maria Bamford, Brian Posehn and Bob Odenkirk. The surprise guest that evening was Robin Williams. At the end of the "session", Katz revealed that he had multiple sclerosis in real life.

In January 2015, the show returned to SF Sketchfest; this performance, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the program Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, featured Jonathan Katz as "Dr. Katz", with Jon Benjamin again portraying his son, and Tom Snyder again playing his therapist. The "patients" for this production were Ron Funches, Pete Holmes, Morgan Murphy and Emo Philips. Also in 2015, live performances took place at the Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival in Austin, Texas, on April 23 and 24, 2015. "Staged therapy" sessions included Andy Kindler, Emo Philips, Maria Bamford, Dom Irrera, Dana Gould, and Eddie Pepitone. The show was again staged in 2016, at SF Sketchfest in January 2016. The "patients" who booked "appointments" that night included Janeane Garofalo, Andy Kindler, Maria Bamford, The Sklar Brothers, and Chelsea Peretti. In 2017, as a part of the 16th Annual SF Sketchfest in San Francisco, California, there was a "live performance" on January 20, 2017. Katz did a short stand-up comedy set, with "guest patients" including Kevin Pollak, Tom Papa, Moshe Kasher and Scott Aukerman. In a natural twist, Natasha Leggero joined Moshe Kasher's session midway through for "couples therapy"; Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher had married one another in October, 2015.

Dr. Katz: The Audio Files and Dr. Katz: The Audiobook

In 2017, an audio-only version of the show, entitled Dr. Katz: The Audio Files, was produced for Audible. The first three episodes were released on Thursdays in June 2017. Dr. Katz: The Audio Files ran for a total of 15 episodes. Guests included Ray Romano, Sarah Silverman, and Ted Danson. A full-length audiobook titled Dr. Katz: The Audiobook was released as an Audible exclusive in 2018. Dr. Katz: The Audio Files released the entire comedy 'audio files' series released as an Audible Original on March 19, 2019, with a full runtime of 3 hours, 17 minutes.

Format

Dr. Katz is a professional psychotherapist. He is a laid-back, well-intentioned man who enjoys playing the guitar and spending time at the bar with his friend Stanley and bartender Julie. Therapy sessions - normally two per episode, with the patients played by well-known comics and actors - anchor the show. Those that feature comics generally consist of onstage material contributed by the guest, while Dr. Katz offers insights or simply lets them talk. Therapy sessions that feature actors contain more interpersonal dialogue between Dr. Katz and his patient.

Interspersed between therapy sessions are scenes involving Dr. Katz's daily life, which includes his aimless, childish 24-year-old son Ben (Jon Benjamin), his uninterested and unhelpful secretary, Laura (Laura Silverman), and his two friends: Stanley (Will LeBow) and bartender Julie, voiced by one of the show's producers, Julianne Bond (credited as Julianne Shapiro). In later episodes, Todd (Todd Barry), a video-store clerk, becomes a regular character.

Most episodes begin with Dr. Katz and Ben at breakfast. The plots include events like Ben attempting to become a radio personality, believing he has ESP, or suffering from a moral conundrum after receiving a chain letter. The development of these plots alternates with the segments of Dr. Katz and his guests in therapy sessions. At the end of many episodes, music would play signaling the close of the episode. Katz would acknowledge this and tell his patient "Well, you know what that music means. Our time is up."

Much of the show's content, particularly dialogue between Dr. Katz and Ben, is 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 the animation technique Squigglevision, would reappear in Home Movies, another series on which many members of the Dr. Katz cast and crew worked.

Episodes

Critical reception

The first season of Dr. Katz has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 13 critical reviews; no other seasons are rated. On Metacritic, it has an overall score of 80 based on 19 reviews. The show has won 5 awards, including a Peabody Award and a Daytime Emmy. In 2015, PopMatters asserted that the show was "Still Wise and Just As Funny" as it was when it first aired. In 2016, Jonathan Katz noted "Dr. Katz has such a loyal fan base, even now."

Home media

There were also several VHS releases of series episodes.

Books

Eichler, Glenn. Dr. Katz's Me at a Glance, Pocket, 1996. ISBN 0-671-00318-6.

Braudis, Bill. Dr. Katz: Hey I've Got My Own Problems, Pocket, 1997. ISBN 0-671-00758-0.