Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist

Jonathan Katz plays a mild-mannered therapist who spends most of the show in short, intimate sessions with a rotating roster of stand-up comedians, who fold bits of their stage material into confessional talk. The office scenes are punctuated by Katz's everyday life at home and in the neighborhood, where his underachieving son Ben, sarcastic receptionist Laura, and a bartender friend provide a steady stream of domestic comic menace. Episodes favor conversational back-and-forth and loose, low-stakes storytelling, so the emphasis is on mood, timing and character quirks rather than big plot developments or finales. The format keeps things compact and funny, with the humor often coming from how the comics frame their material as therapy.

First aired in 1995, the series was created by Jonathan Katz, Bill Braudis and Carl W. Adams. Its animation uses a deliberately economical, slightly jittery look that pairs well with spare, dialogue-driven episodes. Katz leads a small core cast, including H. Jon Benjamin and Laura Silverman, while many episodes feature guest stand-ups who supply much of the episode's voice.

The show drew appreciation from critics and industry peers for its unusual blend of stand-up and sitcom sensibilities, and for its strong voice work and writing. It wasn't a ratings behemoth, but it earned respect within television circles for taking a low-key, character-forward approach and for helping talented performers get noticed.

Dr. Katz had an outsize influence on alternative adult animation and on how comedians are presented on TV, making the therapy setup a clever way to showcase material and personality. Its pared-back visuals and conversational pacing can be seen echoed in later indie and animated comedies, and it gave early exposure to voices like H. Jon Benjamin, who later became a major figure in animated comedy.

Reception among viewers skews positive, averaging about 7.8/10 from voters, who often praise the dry tone, gentle awkwardness and natural rhythm of the dialogue. Recurring themes include everyday embarrassment, the craft of joke-telling, and the quiet absurdities of ordinary relationships, all handled with a low-key, observant sense of humor.