mind the walrus posted:

For the reasons above, and yes to make it cuter. I'm presuming most of us know this but here's the history/myth rundown:

The Critic was deliberately drawn as "anti-domestic" as possible at a time when Roseanne and Home Improvement were two of the very top sitcoms, arriving just before FRIENDS really took off and reaffirmed urbane rich motherfuckers as the sitcom stars to beat and when Seinfeld was at its most meta/coasting. This creative choice made the show stand out, but way too much and in a way that made the bulk of viewership feel alienated rather than endeared.

Jay was a six-figure earning cosmopolitan who chilled with movie stars, billionaire moguls, and had Rockerfeller parents with a son who goes to the "United Nations" school. The first episode caused a big ruckus at ABC specifically because it involves Jay having casual sex with a woman who is just using him as a social stepping stone, and then when his child son finds out and says "I won't tell anyone" Jay jokes "Actually I wish you'd tell everybody." It's funny, but you can see why the more Conservative side of the entertainment industry bounced off of the show like it was made of teflon.

So to help give the show a fighting chance when they moved to FOX they softened the character designs significantly, they added Alice in as an "everywoman" to relate to complete with precocious kid, beefed up the pupils, redesigned some of the more posh settings, and of course added in more Simpsons-style jokes and did the crossover. It didn't help, but they really did give it the best chance it ever would have had.

This is pure apocrypha but I heard apparently the show was actually well-received in board rooms but during a clip of "Hee Haw: The Next Generation" someone powerful enough to get away with it threw a tantrum and basically shamed everyone else in the room for laughing at it. Which... sounds about right even if not a word is true. Everyone has that one style of comedy that makes them a sourpuss-- mine is polemic humor, which is why I'm such a delight at parties-- and sadly yeah that's how it goes, sometimes someone in a wedge position just hates your loving face and you get a bad deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6T2nRAazrY