Gary the Rat

It's shame that it is quite obscure, i only learned about it because Keaton is in it. I found Gary to be hilarious character, mainly because i really like this type of character - the ones that are selfish, sleazy, looking down on others smooth talkers, he plays very well of the more dummies such as bud who gets insulted by the rodent in every appearance which is honestly the best way to approach characters like that, with other often smarter characters that react to them with dissapointment or embarrassment.

What really drags this show down is the exterminator character who is an imbecile, looney tunes type character that is simply not funny and his shenanigans are plot B in almost every episode which results in less time with main character who like i stated before works great with idiots that we're now stuck with so the show just plummets in quality.

Overall i recommend this show especially if you like characters that are Rat B*stards like Gary is, the animation isn't the best but it sure is better than modern family guy clone no #3749 and is honestly quite charming.

As part of TNN's (now Spike TV's) answer to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Gary the Rat belongs up there with Sci-Fi's Tripping the Rift as far as terrible adult-aimed cartoons go. Honestly, entire episodes would go by without a single laugh - I'm surprised it lasted beyond the pilot, which was utterly grating. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed 3-South on MTV, a show that took the 'idiotic character' concept to ridiculous extremes.

Why Kelsey Grammar sullied his name with this garbage, we may never know, but at least TNN - sorry, Spike TV - won't be making the mistake of renewing it anytime soon.

I loved this show, it was on Spike TV later in the evening. Some of the humor is legal so it helps to know a little about the profession. The whole concept of a lawyer that's so nasty he wakes up as a rat is just too hilarious. I was sorry to see it die so fast but I suspect the humor was too sophisticated for the general sort of person that would watch Spike TV. When you see the series you'll recognize schtick related to a few things that were in the news at the time, the episode with the copier rear shots was pretty funny. The humor is dry and multifaceted, like I said I just think it was over the heads of most of the teenage males that tend to watch spike TV, a lawyer will think this is a riot as will anyone else of the more intellectual set. I wish they'd revive it, was a great show. Now if they'd put it out to DVD I'd buy it.

I agree with you , absolute genius. I live way out in NZ and i sat up till 2am to watch this show having to sit through boring drama like Alias and the like...

Not many TV aired cartoon's come along very often with the genius of this show.

Pure filth and UN-adulterated fun for 15 and upward i'd say

I'm pretty sure i caught every episode, and couldn't wait for the next week when Gary would return wit more exploit's.

Bring Back Gary!!

Gary the Rat............Sh*t

2003 was a very different time, an era that hosted the late night cartoon wars, a magical time period when more than one or two channels were interested in adult animation. Freshman Spike TV threw its hat in the ring with a block of adult cartoons called "The Strip," featuring Ren and Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon, Stripperella, and Gary the Rat. Ren and Stimpy unhinged and uncensored, Pamela Anderson as a superhero stripper, and Kelsey Grammer as... a six foot man rat thing? It's not a surprise that Gary the Rat got lost by the wayside considering what it was paired up with. I admit I didn't give this show a chance back then (and I probably wasn't old enough to get most of the humor anyway), which is a shame because it is far and away the best thing to come out of that disaster... and boy, what a tragedy Ren and Stimpy was!

Gary the Rat is about infamous Wall Street attorney Gary "The Rat" Andrews, who has given up so much of his humanity in pursuit of his career that, one night, he spontaneously transforms into an anthropomorphic rat. Naturally, this is a source for much of the humor in the series as Gary learns to navigate a world that either wants to kill him or hire him for being the biggest rat in the room - and oh, are there rat puns to go around. Gary the Rat chose not to chase the schizophrenic pacing and humor of its contemporaries like Family Guy and was criticized for it. It instead likes to indulge in pattern humor: Gary/Grammer monologues where he contemplates how much his life/situation sucks; increasingly cruel and bizarre phone calls with Gary's mom; the cast's universal hate for Bud; Johnny Bugz's failed assassination attempts on Gary (and the poor schmucks he kills instead).

One of the things I liked the most about the show is how it subverted my expectations. When I heard the premise, I figured this would be a redemption story through and through - if Gary wants to become human again, he'll have to learn how to be human again. But by the second episode he's fully embraced being the awful rat b****** that he is. It's fun watching him occasionally do the right thing for all the wrong reasons and doing downright awful stuff for his own personal gain. This show never follows the folly of the Simpsons by trying to convince the audience that its sociopathic cast of human waste are genuinely good people by rewarding them. Gary and friends are awful, and you won't find any heartwarming endings here.

The one drawback though - limited animation. That's not unusual for comedy animation, as they tend to focus more on laughs than looking good. Gary the Rat was a webtoon in 2000 (wow, remember those?) before Spike picked it up as a series; the series looks and animates better than the webisodes, but its roots can still be felt. This was made on a budget.