Hey Joel

Hey Joel is an American adult animated television series that aired on VH1 in 2003. It is about Joel Stein,^[1] the host of a three-minute rock-star interview show on VH1 called "3 minutes with Joel". However, he is anything but respectful to his famous guests, often badgering them with aggressive, pointless, irreverent, and insulting questions.

Hey Joel
Created by	Joel Stein
Starring	Josh Alexander Jon Cryer Nancy Giles Daphne Rubin-Vega Jacob Tierney
Theme music composer	Fountains of Wayne
Opening theme	"Hey Joel" by Fountains of Wayne
Ending theme	"Hey Joel" (instrumental)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (10 unaired)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Curious Pictures Six Point Harness Blueprint Entertainment
Original release
Network	VH1
Release	June 3 (2003-06-03) – June 17, 2003 (2003-06-17)

Jon Cryer provides the voicing for the part of Joel.^[2] His coworkers include Michele (Daphne Rubin-Vega), his producer, on whom he has a crush; Kevin (Jacob Tierney), his production assistant; Leif (Josh Alexander), his nemesis, who is VH1's star; and Z (Nancy Giles), the all-business head of programming.^[3] The band Fountains of Wayne performs their own original compositions for the show, and appear as animated characters during the musical sequences.

The complete series was made available on DVD on June 24, 2008.

Episodes

1. "Judgement Day"
2. "Tattoos and Taboos"
3. "Dream"
4. "Guitar"
5. "Dark Week"
6. "Big Rack Attack"
7. "Business Affairs"
8. "Joel Sells Out"
9. "Book'd"
10. "The Ur-man and the Seal"
11. "Hockey"
12. "The Niece"
13. "Project Televisionary"

Reception

Saying the television series "simply isn't very good", Waterloo Region Record's Joel Rubinoff stated, "Blending elements of Martin Short's big-headed Jiminy Glick and Larry David's narcissistic super-geek on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hey Joel's attempts at cheeky satire are amusing in small doses but too often come off as grating and overwrought."^[4]

Toronto Star television critic Rob Salem wrote about the show, "Does the whole add up to the sum of its parts? Well, yes and no. Given the entire music industry as source for satire, you would hope there would more of that and less of the intentionally annoying Stein."^[5] Emily Hutton of The Hamilton Spectator praised the show, writing, "I would definitely check out this show if you get Bravo, because it has the sarcastic humour (think David Spade as a cartoon) that many people enjoy."^[3]