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Space Ghost Coast to Coast

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Space Ghost Coast to Coast (often abbreviated as SGC2C) is a mostly animated spoof talk show on the cable TV channel Cartoon Network. It began in 1994. The main cast comprises Space Ghost (born Tad Ghostal), a cartoon character originally from an old Hanna Barbera cartoon called Space Ghost which ran in the 1960s and early 1980s, and Zorak and Moltar, his former enemies from that show. Space Ghost is voiced by George Lowe, while C. Martin Croker voices Zorak and Moltar. Other characters include Brak, Lokar, Metallus, Black Widow and Tansut, all of whom also made appearances in the original Hanna-Barbera series. The fictional talk show is shot and broadcast from Space Ghost's studio on the Ghost Planet. Space Ghost also has a twin brother Chad, who is somewhat smarter but has an apparent evil streak. Luckily, he can be identified by his goatee, macho voice, and his use of hipster slang.

Space Ghost at his desk
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Space Ghost at his desk

Various celebrities appear on the show as guests. They are shown on a TV screen next to Space Ghost, and unlike the characters, they are not animated.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast uses the talk show format as its template, but subverts it regularly. Space Ghost himself is portrayed as pompous, ignorant and slightly deranged. He apparently believes his guests are other superheroes and usually opens the interview by asking them about their superpowers. His interactions with guests are almost always painfully awkward, and sometimes hostile. It is sometimes hard to tell if all of the guests are really aware of the nature of the program on which they are appearing. Their answers often do not match the "questions" coming from Space Ghost, because the questions are changed after the interview. His relationship with his co-workers is worse. His bandleader, an evil talking mantis named Zorak, and his producer, a red-helmeted lava man named Moltar, work for Space Ghost as punishment for their crimes, and make no secret of the fact that they hate him.

Brak
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Brak

Space Ghost is shown to be arrogant, showboatish, uninformed, oblivious to his own stupidity, and violent when provoked. His powers include invisibility (courtesy of his Inviso-Belt, although it's really just an outline of SG), flight, and the ability to shoot powerful beams from the Power Bands on his wrists. Zorak personifies pure evil (even if neutered by his imprisonment) and spends his time on the show making fun of Space Ghost, generally getting blasted in return for his efforts. Moltar is more placid about his predicament and enjoys watching CHiPs reruns on the monitors during the show.

Unlike most modern cable series, each episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast is only 15 minutes in length. To remedy this, Cartoon Network stuck two episodes back to back in order to make a 30 minute programming block. In 1995 Cartoon Network created a spin-off show called Cartoon Planet. This featured Space Ghost and friends attempting to host a television show on the Cartoon Planet. Cartoon Network placed this show right after Coast to Coast in order to attract ratings. The Brak Show, a situation comedy starring Brak's hijinks as an adolescent, was also spun off as an independent 15 minute program.

Contents

Show production

Part of the surreal nature of the show comes from the guests' sometimes awkward and disjointed responses to Space Ghost's questions and other events around the set. This is the intentional result of the production process that was first laid out in the original (unaired) pilot episode. This episode was created by Mike Lazzo, who interspersed stock and original material with completely unrelated promotional video of Denzel Washington being interviewed about the Oscars. When the show was picked up, similar interviews were orchestrated with guests to achieve the same comedic effect.

Before any part of the episodes are written, the guests are interviewed by a crew member, sometimes wearing the Space Ghost costume made famous by Andy Merrill in some Cartoon Planet intros. In the greenscreened room where the interview takes place, the guests are told what basic directions to look in to "talk" to Zorak, Moltar, or Space Ghost. The interviewer also instructs the guest to address him as "Space Ghost" to maintain continuity.

Guests are asked questions which often bear little resemblance to what the final episode will look like. After an interview is done, the writing crew goes back over it, taking pieces out of context and out of order, then assembling them into the "responses" to Space Ghost and the rest of the show. The episode is written around these canned reactions and the writing talent of producers Williams Street (known as "Ghost Planet Industries," named after the fictional studio where SGC2C is supposedly taped, for most of the show's run).

Most of the show's earlier guests probably assumed they were participating in a relatively straightforward interview (albeit with an animated superhero, giant insect, and a man made of liquid metal). As the series went on, however, more and more guests became at least peripherally familiar with what was going on. Some episodes were written to accommodate playfully hostile guests who called the show's bluff, such as comedian (and writer of one SGC2C episode) Joel Hodgson's refusal to, as he put it, "Go down that road with you, pretending we're in space and all". Others had skits written for the guests to perform in outside of the normal interviews. Still others had recurring guests, familiar with the show's format. Reportedly, "Weird Al" Yankovic walked into his Coast to Coast interview with answers he prepared ahead of time, but opted not to use them.

2 episodes were announced, but were not finished. One of them is named One Way Out with an interview from Seth Green, probably explaining the opening to the The Dressing episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and another had Seth Macfarlane from Family Guy. However, on the Volume 3 set, you could see an Easter Egg with "Commander Andy" talking to Macfarlane.

Broadcast history

In the United States, Space Ghost Coast to Coast premiered on April 15, 1994 on the Cartoon Network airing initially at 11:00pm on Friday nights. Note that this was seven years before the advent of Adult Swim. Later the program was moved to various late-night time slots, usually on weekends. These late-night airings and the development of similar shows by Williams Street Studios led to the creation of the Adult Swim program block. Space Ghost Coast to Coast re-runs now air on Adult Swim's online-exclusive [Adult Swim Fix] service.

The show was initially broadcast on Cartoon Network UK during an early evening slot (around 6pm on Sunday nights), before eventually being moved to a late-night slot (around 10:30pm). During late 2001 and early 2002 four episodes aired every night at 11.00pm, though only ones from the first four years of the show's life. It later aired on CNX in its hour of comedy from 9pm–10pm alongside other programmes from the Adult Swim programming block. In Australia, it currently screens on Friday and Saturday nights in the local Adult Swim segment.

Space Ghost Coast To Coast was supposed to premiere on Teletoon in Canada, but never did. It was said that a celebrity somehow stopped that decision. Teletoon has announced that SGC2C will finally come to Canada in September of 2006. [link]

New, short episodes currently play in rotation on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap online service (paid monthly registration required) in which Space Ghost interviews celebrities from the video game industry.

The episodes "Gum, Disease", "The Mask", "Le Livre D'Histoire", "Brilliant #2", and "A Space Ghost Christmas" were shown sporadically and then not released for DVD (due to video rights issues).

Though the show is on a "permanent hiatus" it has made two different returns. Once, after airing Perfect Hair Forever's pilot episode, Space Ghost was shown conducting a special talkback episode of the show with Early Cuyler, Sharko, and Meatwad about Perfect Hair Forever. The entire thing degenerated into typical Space Ghost/Adult Swim randomness, including Space Ghost himself being killed by Early Cuyler. After this, Space Ghost was only seen in cameos on Perfect Hair Forever where it was explained that after the end of his show he became a drunk that wandered around the Williams Street studios begging for a job. However, at E3 2006, Space Ghost's show made another return in what was the 100th edition of the show. At E3, Space Ghost randomly showed up to conduct an interview with Microsoft executive Peter Moore as part of Microsoft's Xbox 360 presentation. Space Ghost discussed bathroom ettiquette, his own video game idea (A "dermatology based" video game), Sony, Turner, and dancing with Moore.

Characters

Trivia

According to TV Guide articles written when the show was in pre-production, former Fantasy Island star Hervé Villechaize was to be Space Ghost's sidekick on the show. However, Villechaize committed suicide before production began.

DVD boxsets

Season Releases
DVD Name Release Date Additional Information
Volume One November 18 2003 This two disc boxset collects 16 episodes from the show's first two seasons. "Elevator", "Spanish Translation", "Gilligan", "CHiPs", "Bobcat", "Punch", "Banjo", "Batmantis", "Story Book House", "Girlie Show", "Hungry", "Fire Drill", "Sleeper", "Jerk", "Urges", and "Explode"

Note: Because they couldn't secure likeness rights from certain guests, the following episodes weren't included: "Self Help," "The Mask," "Gum, Disease" "President's Day Nightmare," "Le Livre D'Histoire"

Volume Two November 16 2004 This two disc boxset collects 14 episodes from the third season. ".01", "Lovesick", "Transcript", "Sharrock", "Boo", "Freak Show", "Switcheroo", "Surprise", "Glen Campbell", "Jacksonville", "Late Show", "Cookout", "Art Show" and "Woody Allen's Fall Project" Special features include "Andy's Pilot", a performance by Thurston Moore, the unedited version of Matt Groening's interview from "Glen Campbell", pencil test footage, and bonus footage.
Volume Three April 12 2005 This two disc boxset collects 24 episodes from the show's fourth season, some of which have been extended. "Rehearsal", "Gallagher", "Edelweiss", "Anniversary", "Zoltran", "Pilot", "Speck", "Zorak", "Switcheroo", "Mayonnaise", "Brilliant Number One", "Boo Boo Kitty", "Needledrop", "Sphinx", "Pavement", "Untitled", "Hipster", "Piledriver", "Suckup", "Dam","Boatshow", "Telethon", "Dimethylpyrimidinol Bisulfite", "Joshua". It also features commentaries by cast members, new footage, deleted scenes, and 1994's World Premiere Toon-In, "President's Day Nightmare" (without any footage from the cartoons featured).
Volume Four Summer 2006 "Volume 4" was announced via [adult swim] bump. This two disc boxset will most likely collect 22 episodes from the shows fifth and sixth season. It stated that volume four would come out sometime around Comic-Con (July 20th-23rd) in the summer of 2006, but no one is quite sure of the exact date. There is still no exact date set, but Merrill Hagan at Williams Street has informed us that Volume Four will be released sometime in September exclusively on the new AdultSwim.com Shop. No word yet on whether or not these will be available in stores. Copied directly from the Adult Swim Boards: "The DVD will be the first thing up for sale EXCLUSIVELY on the new Adult Swim Dot Com Shop. It's coming in September." [link] [link] [link]

Guest history

\"Volume One\" episodes

\"Volume Two\" episodes

\"Volume Three\" episodes

  • Cartoon Planet: Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak try to host a show on Cartoon Planet.
  • The Brak Show: Stars Brak and Zorak from Space Ghost.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Episode 87, "Baffler Meal," reveals that ATHF was conceptualized on Space Ghost C2C before it was turned into a series, although the actual episode aired after ATHF became its own series. The episode, as revealed in the commentary track on the ATHF Vol. 2 DVD was also produced after ATHF first showed on Adult Swim.
  • 12 oz. Mouse: Though not a direct spin-off, the Shark character is from Episode 79, "Kentucky Nightmare," where his original name was "Old Kentucky Shark."
  • Perfect Hair Forever: Again, not a direct spin-off, but Space Ghost and references to Space Ghost appear every episode.

External links

 

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