Dr. Katz Professional Therapist: Season One DVD

Dr. Katz is a quiet, dry-witted, babbling psychiatrist whose head-shrinking sessions with comedians are the show's centerpiece. The myriad of guest comics doing schtick, while Dr. Katz alternates between straight man and insult comic, is usually some funny stuff. I was a little worried when I watched the first episode and it didn't really have a good pacing. But as I watched the rest of them, it really started to pick up. There's really a vibe in Dr. Katz that don't come from nowhere else.

In fifty years, when historians are deciding what led to the extinction of humans, the simple answer will probably be Adult Swim. But a few struggling grad students who really study the problem, will probably smugly answer "Dr. Katz" on their way to the cafe for some latte.

Try to follow me here. On Comedy Central -- which may or may not have been called the Comedy Channel at the time -- Dr. Katz was the first original show that I really liked. Meanwhile, down in Dixie, the Cartoon Network was entering the sweet holy nirvana of "Hey, let's give Space Ghost a talk show and have him sing about how knives cut! Cut! Cut! Cut!"

Anyway, Dr. Katz could've been first, and the historians would say that Dr. Katz started Adult Swim, which lead to humanity's downfall.

It should probably be noted that I didn't do any research.

My point? This show is important. This is history, people!

Here's the secret of Dr. Katz: its giant heart. Dr. Katz's relationship with his son is so sweet! But they still make fun of it, which is manly. They're so accepting of each other. Check out Family Guy; no one cares about each other.

As for Squigglevision, the "is my TV broken" vibrating of the animation, it didn't bother me at the time. But now... Squigglevision is kind of a weird idea. But it's not a deal breaker.

The packaging is fine, because it's only one DVD with six episodes.