Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Network: Fox, Genre: Comedy; Content Rating: TV-PG (suggested sex and some adult content); Available: reruns on HDNet; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons) Aspiring short story writer Andy Richter (himself) spends his days toiling away writing technical manuals at Pickering Industries, a faceless corporation that makes everything from widgets to nuclear warheads. He releases his stifled imagination on, well, us, narrating the events of his day by injecting the endless possibilities of could have, should have and might well happen. Getting wrapped up in the fantasies are his office comedy co-workers, his boss Jessica (Paget Brewster), sad-sack office-mate Byron (Johnathan Slavin), his best friend Keith (James Patrick Stewart) who gets all of life's benefits as a beautiful person and the receptionist, Kieth's girlfriend and Andy's crush Wendy (Irene Molloy).Truthfully, this is not the "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" review I expected to write. Having the unfortunate luck to debut in the middle of the Reality series invasion and Gail Berman's reign of terror at the Fox network, "Richter" was an invigorating breath of scripted fresh air when it made its brief run on the network. Now, in the light of day, able to give it a second look, the show doesn't seem nearly as fresh, inventive or certainly as funny as I remembered. Nothing builds a show's reputation quite like network cancellation. Just ask "Family Guy"."Richter" is easiest compared to its 2001 NBC sibling "Scrubs". It is actually a favorable comparison. Both are flush with tricks, 4th wall breaking and fantasy scenes. Where the fantasy scenes in "Scrubs" are obvious and executed with a cartoonish obnoxiousness, the fantasy scenes in "Richter" are inventive, unique and flawlessly woven into an already wild show. Many shows are single-camera now, but they are still confined to a linear structure. I can't think of a show that has used this device more effectively. Where at core "Richter" is just another office comedy, the frequency the show goes to the fantasy well (as well as one of the punchiest original scores I've heard in a sitcom) gives it an unmatched free-for-all energy. Without those fantasy scenes, "Richter" would be just another Victor Fesco sitcom with Brewster and Jon Cryer reuniting from "The Trouble with Normal" for another go-around.Now here is the hard part. The part I didn't expect to write. "Richter", also like "Scrubs", once again proves that a high production and cinematic bells and whistles doesn't translate into laughs. As much as I love my non-linear stories and self-referential narrators there is just something about a show that has written itself a pass to go literally anywhere and do literally anything that for some reason ends up diffusing the laughs."Richter" is filled with these moments. You can do anything, but instead your main character's mind drift off into "Andy Land" where everyone looks like him and cutouts of his head float outside the window. In Fresco's case, he retreats back into tried-and-true sitcom formula. The death blow is this: the show has no comic voice of its own. A 2nd viewing made me realize how shallow it all is; filled with generic sitcom office and sex jokes (in 2 seasons, there are 2 episodes about racial insensitivity).Typical sitcom premise: Andy looses Jessica's cat while trying to take care of it. Richter twist: the cat gets lost in the air ducts. Sitcom premise: Byron finds religion. Richter twist: they worship a giant goat in the sky. Sitcom premise: Andy and Byron find themselves in a compromising position. Richter twist: Pinkering, the company's dead founder who haunts Andy's imagination taunts him about it with gay jokes. Sitcom premise: Andy dates the girl of his dreams. Richter twists: she's an anti-Semite. OK, so the last one is straight out of "Seinfeld".I shouldn't sandbag the show. There are some laughs here. Slavin hilariously plays Byron as if he is about to burst into tears at any moment. A fantasy detailing how Andy will die vs. how Keith will die is clever. And in general given how beautiful people are never made fun of for being so, I have to admire Keith's running gag about how good he has it. But the show's real comic discovery is Paget Brewster. Dispelling the idea that beauty can't be funny, more than a few times she takes a silly line and delivers it with such a perfect fever pitch. She scores the show's best delivery with a rant about the "sporks, spinives and knifoons" in the break room. "It's like a Dr. Seuss kitchen down there". I will follow this woman anywhere now.Season 2 seems a bit different. It appears the word came down from on high at Fox to loose the unrequited love story, dial back the fantasy scenes, pump up the traditional sitcom stories and slow the pace down for the rednecks in the back of the trailer. Typical Fox. While not the insane, free-wheeling work of comic brilliance I used to think it was, "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" is a sitcom like very few. An honorable effort by all that quietly broke the the office comedy mold and got no recognition for it. TV needs more of the kind of offense-free imagination this show has to offer. It is unique, but the laughs miss far more often than they hit. * * * / 4

I have not seen every episode of this show, but every episode I saw was fabulous! Very smart, very funny. The episode with Conan O'Brien playing the eccentric millionaire boss was probably my favorite episode I saw. Absolutely HILARIOUS. I know it was moved to Sundays, then it disappeared suddenly. Why?? I know quite a few people who watched and loved it, and I taped each episode I saw... and I don't know where it went! I don't watch too much television, so it could be on at another day I am unaware of? If it's off the air, it's such a shame. There aren't any other shows like it, and it was incredible.

This is an excellent, funny show. I was disappointed when I thought it wasn't coming back. I think it will be a great addition to Fox's excellent Sunday night lineup. Richter is good and is surrounded by a terrific cast. I loved Brewster on Friends and she is great in this show as well.

Andy Richter was a brilliantly funny and much missed part of The Conan O'Brien Show. His own show is a welcome addition to Fox evening TV. We see Andy at work, interacting with his buddies and fellow employees, having the hots for a cute receptionist, and arguing with the strange old ghost of the company's foudner who taunts and derides Andy. The humor of the show is uniquely Andy's.The series was originally canceled after the first season, like so many other original and clever shows. Fox has turned a complete 180 from their early days as a pioneer of "new" television with shows like Married With Children, The Simpsons and others. These days, they seem to prefer following trends and not being very different from the big 3 networks. This is why I was surprised to see Andy Richter brought back from the overflowing dumpster of shows Fox hasn't given a proper chance.Apparently, the guidelines Fox gave Richter when they agreed to revive the show was that each show had to be a stand-alone rather than having episodes follow a linear pattern. This is so they can show them out of order. Why they insist upon this is beyond me, but if it brings back Andy then so be it.