Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
| Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Animated Sitcom |
| Created by |
Jonathan Katz Tom Snyder |
| Voices of | Jonathan Katz H. Jon Benjamin Laura Silverman Will LeBow Julianne Shapiro |
| Theme music composer | Tom Snyder Shapiro Music |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 81 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Tom Snyder Tim Braine Nancy Geller |
| Producer(s) |
Loren Bouchard Julianne Shapiro Jonathan Katz |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Comedy Central HBO Downtown Productions Popular Arts Entertainment Tom Snyder Productions Warner Bros. Television |
| Distributor | Paramount Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Comedy Central |
| Picture format | 4:3 SDTV |
| Original release | May 28, 1995 – February 13, 2002 |
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 Burbank, California production company Popular Arts Entertainment (executive producers: Tim Braine, Kevin Meagher, and David Pritchard), 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. It won a Peabody Award in 1998.
The show was computer-animated in a crude, easily recognizable style produced with the software Squigglevision (a device Snyder had employed in his educational animation business) 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 (a boyhood friend of Braine's) 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.
Dr. Katz is a professional psychotherapist. He is a laid-back, well-intended man who enjoys playing the guitar and spending time at the bar with his friend Stanley and bartender Julie. His patients are famous comedians and actors, usually two per episode, and the show is oriented around these sessions. Therapy sessions that feature comedians generally consist of onstage material while Dr. Katz offers insights or simply lets them talk. Therapy sessions that feature actors offer more interpersonal dialogue between Dr. Katz and his patient.
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