Cartoon Planet

Cartoon Planet
Cartoon Planet logo for TBS.
Format	Animated
Created by	Keith Crofford Mike Lazzo
Starring	George Lowe C. Martin Croker Andy Merrill
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22 (re-packaged)
Production
Running time	approx 60 Minutes approx 30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	TBS Cartoon Network
Original run	1995 – 1999

Cartoon Planet is an animated variety show that premiered in 1995 on Superstation TBS, and ran afterward from 1996 to 1997 on Cartoon Network.

A spin-off of the Cartoon Network animated TV series Space Ghost Coast to Coast talk show, the premise was that Space Ghost had recruited his imprisoned evil arch nemesis Zorak and the loud and extremely dimwitted arch enemy Brak to assist him in hosting a variety show.

Cartoon Planet began as an hour long block of cartoons hosted by Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak. They would introduce full cartoons from the Turner Entertainment library, including old theatrical shorts and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including the original 1960s Space Ghost episodes. The host segments were often original songs and ad-libbed skits.

In 1997, the show stopped making new material and most of the songs and skits were re-packaged into 22 half hour episodes with no cartoons.

Show production

Cartoon Planet guised itself almost like a hokey after-school show: the clichéd "mailbag", in which Space Ghost displayed difficulty with reading; classic cartoon interludes; and strange conversations among the hosts. The humor was a toned-down version of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, but still bizarre, such as when the cast would break out into song with strangely edited music videos. These songs spawned three soundtrack albums: Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes in 1996 (a non-commercial promotional album, now out of print) Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que in 1997, and Space Ghost's Surf & Turf (both commercial albums published by Rhino Entertainment) in 1998. The albums consisted of songs and dialogue skits with different background music not used in the show.

Regular segments featured on the show included Brak's School Daze, Zorak's Horror Scopes, Poet's Corner, Brak's Monday Ratings Report, The Top 5 Cartoon Countdown (discontinued in 1997 after the show's slot on Saturday mornings was shortened from an hour to a half hour), Vacation Spots Around the Universe (pieced together from clips of Ultra 7 episodes), Messages from Outer Space (also pieced together from the aforementioned Ultra 7, and starring the nefarious Hot Dog Men), Mailbag Day, readings from the Cartoon Planet Storybook, messages from Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty's local Public-access television cable TV horror movie host from SCTV; the segments were originally shown on Hanna-Barbera's The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley), Learning to Talk Italian, Nuggets of Joy from Zorak, Zorak's Helpful Hints, and Cooking with Brak. The show also had short live-action segments featuring producer Andy Merrill wearing an ill-fitting Space Ghost costume doing various things like visiting a petting zoo, getting a haircut (although he kept his mask on), playing tennis, or visiting a gift shop. Intros of the show during the early years featured Andy in the costume dancing (very badly) to the mambo-style theme music or sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, falling asleep to lullaby baby music.

Clips of numerous cartoons from the Turner library would often pop up spontaneously during segments of the show, especially during the music videos. These included (but are certainly not limited to) Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Tex Avery cartoons, early Looney Tunes shorts, Two Stupid Dogs (Cubby making a cameo in one segment when Brak asks if there are any questions from the audience), shorts from the What a Cartoon Show (including the pilot for Dexter's Laboratory among others), The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and other classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Head writer/producer Pete Smith gave this official description of Cartoon Planet when the show was still new:

"Cartoon Planet can best be described as a cross between 'The Sonny & Cher Show,' 'The Electric Company,' and recess at the Richard M. Nixon School for Wayward Boys. Combining music, comedy, and musical comedy, Cartoon Planet skillfully steers clear of any semblance of sophisticated humor. Forced by network muckity-mucks to air his dirty spandex in front of millions of impressionable young minds, Space Ghost dragged a reluctant Zorak and a confused Brak into the treacherous waters of sketch comedy. The next thing you know, old Jed's a millionaire... No wait. That's another show. The end."

Broadcast history

The show's original run was from 1995 to 1999 (although new material stopped being made around 1997), premiering on TBS in 1995 and then moving to Cartoon Network in 1996. From September 24 to October 28, 2005, Cartoon Network briefly revived the show on its Adult Swim block, where it ran at 5:30 in the morning Eastern time. The series ran again on Adult Swim from July 8 to October 29, 2006 on Sunday mornings at 5:30 Eastern. The reason for the show's disappearance from 2000-2004 was due to Cartoon Network temporarily losing the rights of all the music videos to Rhino Records, who produced the soundtracks. Often, some of the skits would be played during Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 2000 and 2001 as time filler. There are currently no plans for a DVD release of the series, presumably due to licensing issues.

External links

• Cartoon Planet at the Internet Movie Database
• Cartoon Planet at Big Cartoon DataBase