The Nostalgia Critic

See also: That Guy with the Glasses

The Nostalgia Critic
Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic
Genre	Satire, review
Written by	Doug Walker Rob Walker
Presented by	Doug Walker
Theme music composer	The Sad Panda
Ending theme	"The Nostalgia Critic Anthem"
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	185 and 42 specials (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Naperville, Illinois[1]
Running time	Varies (see episode list)
Production company(s)	Channel Awesome
Distributor	YouTube (former) Blip.tv (current)
Broadcast
Original channel	Internet: YouTube (2007-2008) Blip.tv (2008-present)
Picture format	FLV
Original run	July 2007 (2007-07) – April, 2008 (YouTube releases); April 6, 2008-Present (Blip.tv releases)
Chronology
Related shows	The Nostalgia Chick
External links
Website

The Nostalgia Critic is a web television series starring Doug Walker as the eponymous reviewer. The series was initially launched on YouTube before moving to an independent site, That Guy with the Glasses, run by production company Channel Awesome. It is the flagship show for Channel Awesome, which has since built on it with additional content, additional websites and the spin-off show The Nostalgia Chick.

The show involves the Nostalgia Critic (played by Chicago comedian Doug Walker), often referred to as simply the Critic or NC, reviewing mostly nostalgic media in a negative (but humorous) manner. This mostly concerns movies and television series from the 1980s to 1990s, but he has made exceptions for movies that came out after 2000.

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.^[2][3]

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.^[4] 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).^[4]

In November, 2011, a false-episode was created which is "CENSORED" during his usual introduction. This episode was posted with information about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the IP Protection Act, informing the viewers that if such acts were to pass, the website would likely be shut down.

Reception

The show averages 100,000 to 200,000 viewers per week.^[5][6] In the third quarter of the 2009 fiscal year alone, the series generated $54,000 in income from advertising.^[3][5] This income allowed Walker to quit his previous job as an illustrator and to create web television professionally.^[5]

Subjects of certain episodes have sometime responded favourably. Roger Ebert used Twitter to call "A Tribute to Siskel and Ebert" (November 10, 2009) "The best, funniest video about Siskel & Ebert I've ever seen."^[7] Walker has since had this statement hung up on his wall.^[8] Animation writer Paul Dini also used Twitter to thank the Critic for his episode "Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes" (August 16, 2011).^[9] Some of the creators of Animaniacs appreciated the "Top 11 Naughtiest Moments in Animaniacs" (May 11, 2008) so much that they later appeared in the series. In "Animaniacs Tribute" (August 10, 2010), the Nostalgia Critic interviewed the writers and voice actors Tom Ruegger, Sherri Stoner, Nathan Ruegger, Paul Rugg, and John P. McCann.

Legal problems

Episode 121, "The Room" (July 13, 2010), was taken down shortly after its release following claims of copyright infringement from the film's distributor Wiseau-Films.^[10] In response, Walker released an episode entitled The Tommy Wiseau Show which mocked the film, its director, and the staff of Wiseau Films. Furthermore, Walker often mocks Wiseau at his personal convention appearances by dressing in a black wig and making audience members act out sequences from The Room. The episode was later re-released on an external website and brought back to host site on December 12, 2010.

Episode list

Main article: List of The Nostalgia Critic episodes

As of November 15, 2011, Walker has recorded 185 episodes of The Nostalgia Critic and 42 specials. Episodes are typically released every Wednesday via thatguywiththeglasses.com.^[11]

References

1. ^ Spirrison, Brad (7 July 2009). "Naperville man finds way to make Web pay". Naperville Sun. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NP&p_theme=np&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=129A5BC3797A2C20&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 10 December 2010. 
2. ^ Pickard, Anna (November 19, 2007). "The five-second movies and why you should watch them". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/nov/19/thefivesecondmoviesandwhyyoushouldwatchthem. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Learmonth, Mke (July 28, 2009). "Blip.tv Brings Programs to YouTube, Ads to 'Channel Awesome'". Advertising Age. http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=138164. Retrieved July 30, 2009. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Jenkins, Mike; Bacio, Jose (June 19, 2009). "The Man Hour". Man Hour Goes Nostalgic.  (itunes)
5. ^ ^{a b c} Spirrison, Brad (July 6, 2009). "Entertainers don't need TV break to hit it big". Chicago Sun-Times. http://www.suntimes.com/business/spirrison/1653029,CST-FIN-spirr06.article. Retrieved 9 July 2009. 
6. ^ Graham, Jefferson (2009-02-13). "Blip.tv gives videomakers a chance to be a star". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-02-10-blip-tv-videomakers_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 
7. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 14, 2009). "Ebertchicago status update". Twitter. http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/5711089913. 
8. ^ Walker, Doug (August 11, 2010). "Animaniacs Tribute". Nostalgia Critic Animaniacs Tribute. http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/27440-animaniacs-tribute. 
9. ^ Dini, Paul (August 17, 2011). "Paul Dini status update". Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/Paul_Dini/status/103714757961465856. 
10. ^ Masnick, Mike (July 22, 2010). "Pissing Off A Movie Critic By Claiming Copyright Over A Video Review... Probably Not Smart". Techdirt. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100721/15284610310.shtml. Retrieved 2010-11-15. 
11. ^ "Nostalgia Critic videos". http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 

External links

• Nostalgia Critic videos are located at: That Guy With the Glasses (Official site, 2008–present)
• TV.com - episode list
• The Nostalgia Critic at the Internet Movie Database