This was exactly at the time when there was suddenly an influx of new prime time cartoons, and I was super enthusiastic about it because CARTOONS SHOULDN'T BE ON AT NIGHT, and I pulled up on the first episode exactly when it aired and was let down enormously.

I have never forgiven Neil Patrick Harris. I don't care how many cute Heineken commercials he makes.

The genre really hit its peak once it put Corey in the White House.

Man, the networks were so desperate to have their own Simpsons for a minute there. But you get the impression that they never really watched or understood the show they were trying to copy, because all their attempts at replicating it were weird, terrible talking animal shows.

Someone at ABC poured millions of dollars into this thing because he honestly believed that Exploding White House Rat was going to be the next Homer Simpson.

Yep, this is prime example of a misallocated budget. Satires tend to be driven more by the quality of the writing and storyboarding, not the quality of the backgrounds and animation.

ABC greenlit The Critic later. Granted, that was a byproduct of James L. Brooks' multi-show deal with the network, yet at least ABC HAD a proper answer to The Simpsons...for about a week.

As for HB's post-Simpsons attempted cash-ins, I don't think a straight Fish Police adaptation would have done better than "film noir fish puns" - the comic was "cop media/spy media fish puns AND the lead character's the comic's creator in a world he made". Capitol Critters and Fish Police's reasons for being are different - CBS wanted more of that B&W comics adaptation money, while CC was part of ABC's ten-series deal with Bochco. They're differing strategies for the same "Hanna-Barbera made a bad show that isn't The Simpsons" result.

To be fair, Fish Police was a pretty good comic book, and it was less of a Simpsons rip-off and more of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cash-in, but they failed to capture the book's charm. I loved that comic as a kiddo.