Before The Simpsons begat Futurama, current executive producer of The Simspons Al Jean, along with Mike Reiss, created a short-lived animated series about a film critic who hated almost every film he ever saw.

Starring Jon Lovitz in some brilliant voice work, The Critic ran through two networks in two seasons. Like Futurama and Family Guy, it found some success with reruns on cable -- in this case, Comedy Central -- and a subsequent DVD release. But unlike those series, The Critic remains but a distant memory.

This show only last 11 episodes, in 1986-87, but they're episodes I remember fondly.

In 1886 Texas, Sheriff John Grail tracks down four outlaw cowboys. Before anything can happen, a weird force comes out of the sky and zaps them to 1986! When they get there, they form a detective agency and solve crimes (OK, not right away, but they find it's the only thing they can do), all the while trying to adjust to all the new inventions and culture of the modern world.