Nostalgia Critic

*Nostalgia Critic*
Nostalgia Critic
	The logo for the show's sixth season
Genre	Black comedy, surreal humor, insult comedy, satire, parody, review
Created by	Doug Walker
Developed by	Doug Walker; Rob Walker
Written by	Doug Walker; Rob Walker
Starring	Doug Walker; Rob Walker; Malcolm Ray (2013-present); Tamara Chambers (2014-present); Rachel Tietz (2013-2014)
Theme music composer	Doug Walker; Michael "Skitch" Schiciano
Opening theme	"The Review Must Go On"
Ending theme	Current:; "The Review Must Go On"; Former:; "The Nostalgia Critic Anthem"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	246 (list of episodes)
Production
Production location	Chicago, Illinois
Editor	Doug Walker
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	Varies (see episode list)
Production company	Channel Awesome Productions
Original release
Network	YouTube (2007–2008/2012-present); Blip (2008–present)
Release	YouTube:; July 2007
Related
	The Nostalgia Chick

Nostalgia Critic (previously The Nostalgia Critic) is a comedy webseries created, written, edited by, and starring Chicago native Doug Walker with assistance from his brother Rob Walker. The series initially launched on YouTube in 2007 before moving to independent sites That Guy with the Glasses and Blip.tv. The show follows the titular Nostalgia Critic (Walker), a bitter and sarcastic film critic, as he reviews movies and television shows from his childhood and recent past (later expanded to include more contemporary works), usually with comically exaggerated rage. The show often alternates the Critic's angry rants and juvenile humor with legitimate analysis of the episode's subject.

Walker briefly retired the series at the end of 2012 to work on other projects, even writing the character out of existence in the Channel Awesome film To Boldly Flee. However, on January 22, 2013, Walker announced the show's imminent return in a narrative video called "The Review Must Go On".^[2] The more narrative and sketch-driven sixth season began on February 5, 2013 with a review of the film The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

History

The series was initially launched on YouTube in July 2007 but episodes were frequently removed by the website following complaints of copyright infringement. In April 2008 the videos were removed from YouTube but an arrangement between the company and content host Blip.tv in 2009 resulted in them being featured on YouTube once more.^[3]^[4]

The announcement of a spin-off, called The Nostalgia Chick, was made in "The Search for the Nostalgia Chick" (August 10, 2008). The concept was for a female host to review female-targeted nostalgic films and television.^[5] The contest ended in a three-way tie between Lindsay Ellis (who reviewed Disney's Pocahontas), Krissy Diggs (who reviewed Sailor Moon), and Kaylyn Dicksion (who reviewed The Last Unicorn). The competition was won by Ellis, then using the name "The Dudette", as announced on the site, "Nostalgia Chick Winner!" (September 15, 2008).^[5] Diggs and Dicksion would still join That Guy With The Glasses as That Chick with the Goggles and Marzgurl respectively.

In November 2011, a false episode titled "Top 11 Reasons He Won't Review Digimon" was created, which is "CENSORED" during his usual introduction. This episode was posted with information about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, informing the viewers that if such acts were to pass, the website would possibly be shut down.

In January 2012, with his Star Trek movie reviews, he started using commercial breaks. In late February 2012, he reviewed Ponyo for his 200th episode and featured guest stars including Uncle Yo, LittleKuriboh and Spike Spencer.

On September 14, 2012, one day after the premiere of the final segment of the web miniseries To Boldly Flee, Walker announced the retirement of Nostalgia Critic and that it would no longer be a weekly production, as he and his brother felt that they had gone as far as they could with the series. However, he stated that the Character is not "dead", and Nostalgia Critic will likely reappear in tie-in episodes, crossover episodes, future specials/time to time episodes. He also stated that he would mainly be focusing on other projects and shows, such as his Bum Reviews and AskThatGuyWithTheGlasses, the continued operation of the That Guy with the Glasses website, and a new project called Demo Reel, which will focus on past and present movies in a satirical manner, in addition to featuring a full cast.^[6] He also stated in an update that along with Demo Reel, he would be making a review show entitled Sibling Rivalry where Doug and his brother Rob debate and share their reviews and opinions on the films they saw, a talk show entitled Shut Up and Talk where Doug interviews celebrities in all forms of media, two game shows (one hosted by Brad Jones from The Cinema Snob) and an unspecified project. In a Casting Call video, Doug revealed some more details about the other upcoming shows: one of the game shows would be video game themed with its own host, a review show about Blu-rays, and a show about comic books.^[7]

On January 22, 2013, a video titled The Review Must Go On announced the return of the Nostalgia Critic. The video serves as a followup to To Boldly Flee and a conclusion to Demo Reel. It revealed that the Demo Reel show was a 'Purgatory' for the character, with Donnie being the Nostalgia Critic reincarnated, to help him recognize the feelings of being ridiculed. At the end Donnie was restored to the Critic persona, resulting in the Demo Reel world to be merged with the Plot Hole. The video was framed by a fictionalized version of Walker having a writer's block and pondering whether to revive Nostalgia Critic after watching The Odd Life of Timothy Green and finds himself ranting about it like the Critic.

According to the video, the schedule is changed to two weeks to provide Walker more time to work on his review. Also, the Nostalgia Critic is now reviewing newer movies more often so long as they are not currently playing in theaters and available on DVD or any other releasable forms so that he can get the footage needed. The official return of the Nostalgia Critic was announced and debuted on February 5, 2013 with the first episode being The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Demo Reel co-stars Malcolm Ray and Rachel Tietz joined the cast of Nostalgia Critic as of this review.^[2]

Episode format

The series focuses on the Nostalgia Critic. The shows mostly focuses on the Critic watching a film as he make fun of the problems regarding the movie usually with recurring memes and pop culture gags. One of his most known gag is making fun of famous actors that starred in lesser known roles before their rise to fame. The critic have other segments such as the Top 11 lists countdowns for his favorite movies or villains etc. Occasionally he talks about topics regarding movies.

Doug Walker describes his philosophy thus: "[We need a critic of nostalgia] because everybody already does it. When we look at movies and shows from our youth, they're rarely as good as we remember them, and oftentimes it's quite humorous to compare what you liked then to what you like now. That's basically what the Nostalgia Critic is about, looking back at just how much nostalgia cloaked our vision in heavenly bliss and how bizarre the reality is."^[8]

The Nostalgia Critic is a fictional character invented by Doug Walker. GigaOM describes it as "high energy and shamelessly nerdy".^[9] Reuters described him as having "offbeat personalities".^[10]

Celebrity contributions

After a misunderstanding, former child actress Mara Wilson got into contact with Doug and they were able to arrange a guest appearance in the review of A Simple Wish, where she takes revenge on him by showing embarrassing video footage of his childhood. Greg Sestero from The Room made a guest appearance, reprising the role of Mark, in the episode "Dawn of the Commercials," where he was hit on by the Wicked Witch and is pretending to be completely oblivious to it. There have also been "cameos" by film characters potrayed by TGWTG contributors, one notable example is Terl from Battlefield Earth (potrayed by Noah Antwiler on the site), the character of Terl is more exaggerated in personality in the reviews, given a higher pitched voice as well as a much more obvious dim-witted persona. Another notable "cameo" as well as an eventual recurring character on the show is the spider version of Dr. Smith from the film version of Lost in Space (potrayed by Doug Walker on the site) and is given a more over-the-top potrayal, is constantly showing his obvious distrustful nature as well as repeatedly talking about his plans to seize power and control with a "legion of spiders" and often appears through a time hole (a reference to the film) and is shown constantly bouncing around the screen to emphasis the ridiculousness of the character.

Reception

In the third quarter of the 2009 fiscal year the series generated $54,000 in income from its advertising.^[4] This income prompted Walker to videotape himself quitting his previous job as an illustrator and to create this web persona full-time.

From video subjects

Subjects of certain episodes have sometimes responded favorably. Greg Weisman, the producer of the show Gargoyles, stated that he enjoyed the Critic's review of it.^[11] Roger Ebert called the episode "A Tribute to Siskel and Ebert" was "the best, funniest video about Siskel & Ebert I've ever seen."^[12] Walker later stated in an episode that he has since had the quote framed and hung up on his wall, and in "The Making of A Nostalgia Critic Episode", you can see it on his desk.^[13] Animation writer Paul Dini also thanked the Critic for his episode "The Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes".^[14]

Copyright issues

Episode 121, The Room (July 13, 2010), was taken down, as well as Obscurus Lupa's review of the film, shortly after its release, following claims of copyright infringement from the film's distributor Wiseau-Films.^[15]

References

^ Spirrison, Brad (July 7, 2009). "Naperville man finds way to make Web pay". Naperville Sun. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
^ ^a ^b "The Review Must Go On". That Guy with the Glasses. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
^ Pickard, Anna (November 19, 2007). "The five-second movies and why you should watch them". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
^ ^a ^b Learmonth, Mke (July 28, 2009). "Blip.tv Brings Programs to YouTube, Ads to 'Channel Awesome'". Advertising Age. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Jenkins, Mike; Bacio, Jose (June 19, 2009). "The Man Hour". Man Hour Goes Nostalgic. Retrieved December 24, 2009. (iTunes)
^ Walker, Doug (September 14, 2012). "No More Nostalgia Critic?".
^ Walker, Doug (October 3, 2012). "CASTING CALL for Channel Awesome".
^ "U-Con at UConn is for the Nerds - Hartford Courant". Articles.courant.com. January 28, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
^ Shannon, Liz (October 6, 2009). "Nostalgia Critic Takes Apart Your Childhood Favorites — Tech News and Analysis". Gigaom.com. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
^ "South Florida's Largest Video Game Event Gathers Hottest Video Games, Gamers, World Champs and Game Platforms Creators". Reuters. October 13, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
^ "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". S8.org. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
^ Ebert, Roger (November 14, 2009). "Ebertchicago status update". Twitter.
^ Walker, Doug (August 11, 2010). "Animaniacs Tribute". Nostalgia Critic Animaniacs Tribute.
^ Dini, Paul (August 17, 2011). "Paul Dini status update". Twitter.
^ Masnick, Mike (July 22, 2010). "Pissing Off A Movie Critic By Claiming Copyright Over A Video Review... Probably Not Smart". Techdirt. Retrieved November 15, 2010.