How come nobody shows Dr Katz in reruns?

I think I had more a crush on Laura's voice.

No DVD release for this?

What's Home Movies? I'm outta the loop. I only watch Monster Garage these days.

"What you refer to as my drinking problem, I refer to as my drinking hobby."

"Garafalo."
"How do you spell that?"
"Like the animal."

his secretary was awesome. She is my hero.

SOOOO OTM.

one night, cos we were both losers, we rented "exotica" (atom egoyan, 1994) thinking it was like a zalman king red shoe diaries softcore kind of a thing. after abt 20 mins i was like "jesus christ this is like dr. katz." then it was the FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER.

Really want to re-watch the one where Ben's mom comes over for Thanksgiving...

WANT DVDS.

Any news on if this is actually getting released or what?

i imagine a big problem with getting this on DVD is the fact that every single comic who was ever on might need to be compensated in some way as a result of their participation. lord knows i'd be a little hesitant to hand emo phillips a check after all these years.

I think i may be the proverbial uncle

Actually, it fills me with envy.

A boy, a bike
A heart so full
A mom, and a dad
And a little stuffed ...
Oh God, Ben, what have I done.

So there's a complete box set now, you know.

Which finally allowed me to see the Thanksgiving episode, which is ... amazing. I'd forgotten that Carrie Fischer plays Ben's mom.

i've only watched s1 and 2. those only make up the first three discs of the box set, it seems, so there's 10 more discs i haven't seen!

I clued KATZ in a recent crossword as "Doctor who appeared in Squigglevision."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/Shalka_doctor.jpg/300px-Shalka_doctor.jpg

tell me that atom egoyan's famed erotic thriller 'exotica' isn't a long episode of dr. katz with some stripper bullshit going on

we just started getting these on NetFlix

so funny!

I don't know why but I always get The Critic and Dr. Katz mixed up.

Dr. Katz is fucking awful. One of my roommates has the 2nd season and it's nearly unwatchable. So dated.

wrong

no, YOU are rong.

January 20, 2008
SF Sketchfest Review: Friday Night's Dr. Jonathan Katz Professional Therapist and Patients

232091a_tn220x220.jpgSF Sketchfest presented two sold-out nights of "An Evening of Dr. Jonathan Katz Professional Therapist and Patients" this weekend at Eureka Theatre. We went on Friday night, when the “patients” were Maria Bamford, Brian Posehn, Bob Odenkirk, and “more,” which ended up being surprise guest, Robin Williams. The patients were delightfully quirky, and, as usual, Dr. Katz was the perfect springboard for their jokes. Those of you who went to Saturday night's show, let us know how it was and who the surprise guest was for the night!

Our spouse was a huge fan of the ‘90s, animated version of Dr. Katz (we enjoyed it, but didn’t go out of our way to watch it), so he can offer a better perspective of the live format versus the animated:

Daniel: Fans were not disappointed. All the familiar elements were there minus the squiggle vision. Talk of Katz's son Ben opened the show. Ben was apparently so confident as a child he "truly believed that only he could prevent forest fires." (Ben was played by Jon Benjamin, who was part of Saturday night's performance -- see comments). There was also mention of Katz's secretary Laura and the obligatory piano exit music at the end of each session.

Image credit: SF Station

Hear about each "patient's" "quirks" after the jump!

Daniel: Each comedian brought something funny and slightly revealing to the table. This format seemed especially well suited to Maria Bamford who's act normally revolves around her OCD and her efforts to take control of a life which seems slightly off kilter.

SFist Leanne: Maria Bamford's imitation of Shirley, her African-American insurance specialist, was tops: “I’m too blessed to be stressed.”

D: Brian Posehn delivered a hilarious set centered on marriage, masturbation [“Things are about to get awesome in here,” was his best line. -- SFist Leanne] and the stupidity of the general public.

D: Bob Odenkirk read a brilliant poem about the regrets of not eating enough high fat ice cream in one's life time.

L: Bob Odenkirk had a great idea for a new American Talent Show, called, "America, Come On!"

D: Even surprise guest Robin Williams seemed to settle down long enough to deliver a decent set of material. Although he did stray dangerously close to appearing bitter and washed up.

L: Last time we saw Robin Williams was during an art show at White Walls gallery, when he ducked into the Gangway for a pee.

D: But the real star was Dr. Katz himself who handled each comedian with his own unique wit and deadpan comic observation. Each set was like watching a well played tennis match with Katz himself as the John McEnroe of comic therapy.

L: We really enjoyed the format of Friday night's show. Jonathan Katz mentioned at the end that he has multiple schlerosis. It's apparent his dry wit is as sharp as ever, and we wish him all the best.

maria bamford is b r i l l i a n t

I can't figure out why, but Ian's reaction is not uncommon: it seems like people 25 or younger are just, like ... "this is boring and dated and must be a 90s thing."

They must be right about it being "dated," just empirically, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how or why! I assume it must have to do with the stand-up component, because the father-son interaction seem impossible to date.

The father/son stuff is fine, it's the "washed up celebrities making somewhat unfunny jokes in the setting of a shrink's office" thing that's off putting, and yes, the generally "dated" references.

xpost !! amazing !!

I guess also the kinda halting unscripted "recorded in the pantry" tone of it gets used these days by any number of cheap animated shows, only they're all consciously weird and wacky and built for short attention spans -- Katz does that sort of thing but in a completely mundane sphere, and expects you to sit there and just listen to characters talk about nothing in particular for long stretches of time.

I like when Stanley keeps saying "frucktose" and Katz is all "do you say 'go fruke yourself?'"

Wait no, that was not an xpost, you were responding to me and life is not as magical as I thought

Haha plus Ian, which way do you mean that "washed up?" Lots of these people were kinda PRE-fame when doing this.

to be honest, i don't remember which celebrities were on the episodes i watched!

I'm trying to the think of the main ones who got way more famous post-Katz. Ray Romano was on this a lot, right before Everybody Love Raymond started. Dave Chapelle did one. Winona Ryder and Janeane Garofolo and Lisa Kudrow were all probably at 90s high points. Al Franken was on, at some moment between doing SNL stuff and slipping over into politics.

David Mamet is all over these, actually -- I think he's only a guest once, but he's credited for writing random stuff like Katz's songs.

Oh, and Joy Behar was on all the time, before going on to The View; Sarah Silverman; Jeff Garlin, before Curb Your Enthusiasm; Jon Stewart, back in the days when it seemed unthinkable that anyone besides Craig Kilborn could possibly host The Daily Show; Tom Kenney, before he was Spongebob...

But of course if your show just has bunches of comedians, it stands to reason that some will go on and be big, and others won't; plenty of guests either went nowhere or were already on the last legs of 80s popularity (BUT I LOVE KEVIN MEANY ANYWAY)

nothing is more classic then Jim Gaffigan going on about the Sea Cow.

ha. i was just about say how great the sea cow thing was.

Some of kevin meany's bits on katz are huge huge roffles.

louis ck

Haha "Yeah, this question is for the Sea Pig or whatever ... you need to get some Weight Watchers"

"YOU LIVE IN THE OCEAN BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A JAWB!"

i rly don't feel like reading this whole conversation, but just in response to nabisco saying a lot of young ppl find this show dated/unfunny -- i felt like that when it was actually on, watching it as a kid. but now, it really cracks me up. esp. the female characters. joy beyhar sitting on his couch really cured a bad mood for me one night.

Line of the night, from a comedienne whose name I already forgot, but whatever. On an old boyfriend:

"He called me 'cutie,' which was short for 'Chronic Urinary Tract Infection.'"