Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Space Ghost Coast to Coast used the talk show format as its template, but subverted it regularly. Various celebrities appeared on the show as guests. They were shown on a TV screen next to Space Ghost's desk, and unlike the characters, they were not animated. In early episodes of the show, Space Ghost apparently believed his guests were other superheroes and usually opened the interview by asking them about their superpowers. His interactions with guests were almost always painfully awkward, and sometimes hostile. It was sometimes hard to tell if guests were aware of the nature of the program on which they were appearing. Their answers often did not match the questions coming from Space Ghost, because the questions were changed after the interview. This method was dropped in later episodes, and the guests were allowed to directly interact with the characters.

Space Ghost's relationship with his co-workers was even worse. His bandleader, an evil talking mantis named Zorak, and his director-producer, a red-helmeted lava man named Moltar, worked for Space Ghost as punishment for their crimes. They frequently disrupt the show and make no secret of the fact that they hate him.

Most episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast were about 15 minutes in length, although there were a few 30-minute episodes. Cartoon Network often aired two episodes back-to-back to make a 30-minute programming block. In the first few years of the show, Cartoon Network would show episodes of the original 1960s and 1980s Space Ghost cartoons (sometimes with an unusual added laugh track) after the 11-minute episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.[4]

Space Ghost Coast to Coast was created by Mike Lazzo after he was asked to create a cartoon to appeal to adults.[6] The original name of the show stemmed from early 1993, while Andy Merrill and Jay Edwards were coming up with names for a marathon of the original Space Ghost TV show to air on Cartoon Network, trying to find things that rhyme with "Ghost". Limited budgets required creative animation, so Edwards and Ned Hastings recycled clips from the original series and reorganized them on the Avid non-linear editor for a "talk show" style program. The editors animated lips and made the "cheap" looking motion of "paper dolls glued to Popsicle sticks" and continuity errors part of the joke.[7]

The series premiered on April 15, 1994,[8][9][10] having aired initially at 11:00 p.m. ET on Friday nights, with an encore showing of the episode on Saturday night. Later, the program was moved to various late-night time slots, having usually been on weekends.

In February 1995, an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was simulcast on Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT for the "World Premiere Toon-In" special debut of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons series. In the special, Space Ghost interviewed a few of the new directors, while the Council of Doom were the judges of the cartoon clips. The first run ended on December 17, 1999, ending with the episode "King Dead". But in 2000, Cartoon Network premiered stealth pilots for the show's spin-off The Brak Show as well as Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force all of which were created by the people who worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

On September 2, 2001, new episodes of the series, along with re-runs of the existing episodes, moved to Adult Swim, a late night programming block, launched by Cartoon Network that night. The series ended its television run in 2004 with its 93rd episode, "Live at the Fillmore".[4]

In 2006, the series returned as a five-minute web series on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap online pay service in which Space Ghost interviewed celebrities from the video game industry and GameTap's artist of the month. The series officially ended with the final webisode on May 31, 2008.

On April Fools' Day 2014, Adult Swim had an unannounced Space Ghost Coast to Coast marathon with new material in the form of commercials featuring Space Ghost, Zorak and Moltar in a voice-recording booth ad-libbing lines from episodes.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast was released on the streaming service HBO Max during its 2020 launch.

Cast

Main article: List of Space Ghost Coast to Coast characters

George Lowe provides the voice of the lead role, Space Ghost.

• George Lowe as Space Ghost, Announcer, Salesman, and various other characters
• C. Martin Croker as Zorak, Moltar, and various other characters
• Andy Merrill as Brak, Lokar, and various other characters
• Don Kennedy as Tansit and Announcer
• Judy Tenuta as Black Widow (also appeared as herself, as a guest)
• Scott Finnel as Harvey Birdman
• Dave Willis as various characters
• Brad Abrell as Chad Ghostal

The fourth and fifth volumes were only available for purchase through the now-defunct Adult Swim online store. The final six episodes of the television run have never had an official release on DVD. Nearly every episode was available to buy through a "build your own DVD" feature Adult Swim had on its website, thus the final season, early episodes that were left off the first volume and unedited shows that had been altered on the official releases were now available to own, but only in DVD-Rom form. The shop was taken down in 2012 for unknown reasons.

In 2006, episodes were made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.[12][13] the series, along with other Adult Swim shows such as Robot Chicken , Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Samurai Jack, and Rick and Morty was released on HBO Max on its May 2020 launch.

Alex Toth, the original creator of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon was rumored to have not been pleased with the parodical usage of his characters, but through written letters, this rumor was disproven with Toth admitting he appreciated all adaptations of his work.[14]

In 1995, a spin-off show called Cartoon Planet premiered on Cartoon Network as well as one of Cartoon Network's sister networks, TBS. This show featured Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak hosting a variety show on the Cartoon Planet.

In 2000, the show either spun off or directly inspired[15] the four original cartoons that constituted Adult Swim's comedy block—Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (also known by various alternative titles). Although Harvey Birdman used traditional animation to flash animation, the rest used the same limited animation style as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and all four shows were created by the original writers and staff for the series. The Brak Show included the characters Brak and Zorak, recurring characters on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Various Space Ghost Coast to Coast clips and shorts have been made after the series.

• December 13, 2009: interview with Zoe Saldana to promote James Cameron's Avatar
• 2010: interview with Jack Black to promote Gulliver's Travels.
• A short interviewing NBA star Steve Nash and promoting Vitamin Water was made available online.[16]
• 2011: on April Fools' Day, Adult Swim aired The Room again. Space Ghost interviewed Tommy Wiseau during commercial breaks.
• 2012: interview with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis to promote The Campaign.

In a 2012 interview, Eric André mentioned being a big fan of the show, stating it was a major influence on him while developing his own series for Adult Swim, The Eric Andre Show. Before shooting André would re-watch several episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast in a row in order to "absorb as much Space Ghost" as he could. André would also ask executive producer and Adult Swim president Mike Lazzo several questions about the series, as he was an executive during its production run. To André's surprise Lazzo had no interest in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, saying "Space Ghost is dead to me".[17]

Space Ghost is mentioned in the opening lyrics of cello rock band Rasputina's song "The Olde Headboard", which was featured on their 1998 sophomore album How We Quit the Forest.

Four rocks found on the planet Mars were named after Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Brak.[18][19] In January 2009, IGN named Space Ghost Coast to Coast as their 37th favorite animated TV show in their Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows article.[20]

In 2013 IGN placed Space Ghost Coast to Coast as number 18 on their list of Top 25 animated series for adults.[21]

Rapper SpaceGhostPurrp is named after the titular character, as well as lending his image for the cover of his NASA mixtape.

On November 15, 1998, Space Ghost appeared on Donny & Marie promoting the CD Space Ghost's Surf & Turf.

On July 3, 2002, Space Ghost can be seen in the beginning of The Powerpuff Girls Movie, in the movie theater next to other Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network characters, such as Zorak and Brak. He was also in a promo advertising the movie.

On November 17, 2002, Space Ghost was on The Brak Show, in episode "Runaway" and again on November 2, 2003 in the episode "Enter the Hump".

On December 14, 2003, in the cold opening for the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force "The Dressing", Space Ghost's body is seen on the floor dripping with blood and Dr. Weird is seen putting Space Ghost's head over his own. Seth Green makes an appearance as well, from footage of an unaired Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode (entitled "One Way Out").

In 2004 Space Ghost was in a promo for the show Tom Goes to the Mayor where he interviewed Tom and the Mayor.[22]

On November 4, 2004, Space Ghost appeared in the Adult Swim special Anime Talk Show.

On April 2, 2006, Space Ghost made a cameo on the Robot Chicken episode "Suck it"

On April 13, 2007, Space Ghost made a cameo in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. Space Ghost has been in commercials for Coca-Cola, Dr.Pepper, AT&T, Nestea, Esurance, and Vitamin Water, and appeared in many bumps and promos for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

In 2002, Space Ghost, Moltar, Zorak, Brak and Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls interviewed professional soccer player Hugo Sánchez on the Latin America Cartoon Network channel, and again in 2003 interviewing Óscar Pérez Rojas (which also featured Eustace from Courage the Cowardly Dog).[23]

On October 14, 2011, Space Ghost was in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Bold Beginnings".

In issue 40 of the comic book Scooby-Doo Team-Up this version of Space Ghost was hinted at. It featured a non-satirical Space Ghost in his traditional role as a space traveling superhero, albeit one who captures Moltar and Zorak with the help of Scooby-Doo. Sidekicks Jan and Jace say that the two villains are clever and that once, to keep him from interfering in their plans, they even "hypnotized him into thinking he was a talk show host! Fortunately, he snapped out of it after eight seasons." On hearing that, Space Ghost frowns and says "I don't want to talk about it."

In the late 1990s, Cartoon Network.com had a flash game called "How Zorak Stole X-mas". The player controlled Space Ghost and you had to zap Zorak with his power bands and not let him escape with Christmas presents, you also had to dodge eggs Zorak was throwing at you. Another game was " Blast Zorak" where the player would use Space Ghost to blast Zorak as many times as possible before the time ran out.

• List of Space Ghost Coast to Coast characters
• List of Space Ghost Coast to Coast episodes
• Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, animated series with a similar premise

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Space Ghost Coast to Coast

• Official website
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast at Cartoon Network (Archive)
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast on IMDb
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast at TV.com
• Space Ghost Reunion Panel (Audio) on December 5, 2011, by Cinefamily