The series primarily consists of costumed chimpanzees and orangutans, voiced by human actors, parodying popular television shows, movies, and advertising as well as stars and personalities within the industry.
This led to an incident on March 8, 1999 in which he improvised a raunchy performance art piece that involved full nudity and breaking two liquor bottles on the show's set.
Stern was promptly fired for the incident despite claiming that he had permission from network officials to do what he called "improv comedy" described as "trying to get stuff off my chest about the wrong-headed direction the show was taking."
[10] Regarding the apes' behavior on set, Tom Stern quipped "Maggie, [the chimp] who plays Marina, loves the Lycra suit she wears and can't refrain from going to the bathroom in it — she thinks it's just a really cool red diaper.
"[12] The American Humane Association's Film and Television Unit supervised the filming of both The Chimp Channel and its predecessor, Monkey-ed Movies, and reported: While the training and animal work was commended, The Chimp Channel received largely negative critical reception with the notion that it fails its attempt to expand the simple, effective concept of Monkey-ed Movies.
The New York Times' Caryn James gave a negative review of the show, stating "The Chimp Channel is so scattershot and predictable it becomes tiresome in about five minutes.
"[14] Ray Richmond of Variety described how the original Monkey-ed Movies "proved to be clever stuff, in large part because it was short and sweet" but that "with Chimp Channel, TBS monkeys with an undeniably thin concept and stretches it past the limit."
While he commended the "sharp, well-organized direction from Mitchell Walker and the uncannily effective animal work from head trainer Bob Dunn, coordinator Mike Morris and their team," Richmond added "What seems cute in small doses feels awfully humiliating in this expanded format, sucking out any novelty and leaving in its wake only the uncomfortable entrails.
The show was promoted during time trials for the 1999 Coca-Cola 600 by commentator Ken Squier, who, after reading the promo, was jokingly non-verbally referred to as a chimp by broadcasting partners Buddy Baker and Dick Berggren.