| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Creator: | Mark Cullen |
| Developer: | Richard Vaczy Tracy Gamble |
| Director: | Gary Brown |
| Starring: | Andrew Dice Clay Rick Gomez Claude Brooks Rosa Blasi Kristin Dattilo Spencer Garrett |
| Composer: | Christopher Neal Nelson |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 17 (7 unaired) |
| Executive Producer: | Tracy Gamble Richard Vaczy |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Company: | Vaczy-Gamble Productions MTV Productions Paramount Network Television |
| Network: | UPN |
Hitz is an American sitcom that aired on UPN from August 26 until November 11, 1997. The series follows two record industry executives (Rick Gomez and Claude Brooks) and their boss (Andrew Dice Clay) at Hitower Records in Los Angeles.
Although UPN had initially ordered 13 episodes, by October the network had ordered nine more episodes for a total of 22.[1] However, by December the series was canceled before production on the last six episodes was complete.[2]
Caryn James of The New York Times called the series "relentlessly unfunny."[3] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly rated the series as one of the worst of the year.[4] Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Hitz is "prime time at its flat-out dumbest and unfunniest."[5]
Variety stated in July 1997 that UPN's CEO Lucie Salhany said the network was retooling Hitz in an attempt to tone down the down the series after complaints that the program was misogynistic.
The Hitz producers told an audience at a meeting of the TV Critics Association in Southern California that they will introduce a strong female character that will stand up to Andrew Dice Clay's boss character, Jimmy. The character of Jimmy, executives also said, was modeled after Sony music chief Tommy Mottola.[6]
