Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American adult animatedcomedylate-night talk show created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and hosted by a re-imagined version of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. It is the first TV show to be produced by Williams Street (formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries), the company to start up Adult Swim in the early 2000s. In contrast to the original 1960s series, Space Ghost, which aired as a standard Hanna-Barbera Saturday-morning superhero cartoon, Space Ghost Coast to Coast is a reboot and sequel of the series intended for teens and adults, reinterpreted as a surreal spoof talk show and animated using the original series' artwork. Early seasons are more of a parody of late-night talk shows, while later seasons rely more on surrealism and non-sequitur humor.[2]
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is the first original series fully produced by Cartoon Network. It premiered on April 15, 1994, and originally ended on December 17, 1999.[3] The series was revived on May 7, 2001, and was moved to the then-new Adult Swim late-night programming block on September 2, where new episodes premiered until April 12, 2004. Two final seasons were released exclusively on GameTap from 2006 to 2008. Over 11 seasons, 109 episodes aired. The series helped to launch the careers of animators Adam Reed, Matt Thompson, Andy Merrill, Jim Fortier, Pete Smith, Michael Ouweleen, Erik Richter, Dave Willis, and Matt Maiellaro.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast uses a subverted talk show format hosted by Space Ghost as he interviews live-action guest stars, whom Space Ghost believes to be fellow superheroes, appearing on a monitor beside Space Ghost's desk. In early episodes, Space Ghost begins his interviews by asking guests about their superpowers. His interactions with guests can be awkward because the guests' answers are often changed to humorously match Space Ghost's questions in post-production. Later episodes feature guests being allowed to interact directly with the characters. Although he starts out more level-headed and very much resembling his superhero ways, he becomes more and more eccentric, egomaniacal and idiotic with how he manages the show and treats his guests.
Space Ghost's bandleader, an evil, talking mantis named Zorak, and his director-producer, a red-helmeted lava man named Moltar, work forced unpaid labor for Space Ghost, ostensibly as punishment for their crimes committed on the original series. Because of their history as arch rivals of Space Ghost, they never get along with him even as co-workers and often make it very clear that they hate him and disrupt the show as retaliation for their forced labor. Zorak is especially the most hateful towards Space Ghost due to being his biggest arch rival whereas Moltar just puts up with being forced to do the show against his will, but will chime in to antagonize Space Ghost from time to time alongside Zorak.
Songs
Early seasons feature music played by Zorak and his band "The Original Way-Outs". The original theme song, "Hit Single", was composed by free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock and performed by Sharrock on guitar, Lance Carter on drums, Eddie Horst on bass, and Alfreda Gerald on vocals. Sharrock and Carter recorded songs for the show that were later compiled on the albumSpace Ghost Coast to Coast. As a tribute to Sharrock, who died in May 1994 shortly after the show first aired, the episode "Sharrock" featured fifteen minutes of unedited takes of music recorded for the show.
Seasons 4–6 feature a new closing theme by Man or Astro-man?, and in later seasons the opening theme and titles were nearly abandoned. Alternate songs are sometimes used as theme music, including the CHiPs theme song for the episode titled "CHiPs". An hour-long musical season finale featuring the bands Yo La Tengo and Cornershop was planned for the 1998 season but never produced.[4]
Space Ghost Coast to Coast was created by Mike Lazzo after he was asked to develop a cartoon to appeal to adults.[1] The series' original title stemmed from early 1993 when Andy Merrill and Jay Edwards were brainstorming names for a marathon of the 1960s Space Ghost for Cartoon Network, trying to find things that rhyme with "Ghost". Because of budget limitations, Ned Hastings recycled clips from the original series and reorganized them on an Avidnon-linear editor for a "talk show" style program. The characters' crudely animated lips, awkward movements that resembled "paper dolls glued to Popsicle sticks", and continuity errors became part of the joke.[5]
The series premiered on April 15, 1994,[6][7] 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, usually on weekends. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim often aired two 11-minute episodes back-to-back with advertisements to make a 30-minute programming block. In its first few years, Cartoon Network showed episodes of the original 1960s and 1980s Space Ghost cartoons (sometimes with an added laugh track) after each 11-minute episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.[3]
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 interviews a few of the new directors, while the Council of Doom members are the judges of the cartoon clips. The first run ended on December 17, 1999, with the episode "King Dead".
Revivals
In 2001, Cartoon Network announced that Space Ghost Coast to Coast would be revived for another run, but on their late night programming block Adult Swim. The network aired the first two episodes on May 7 and July 22 of 2001, prior to the launch of Adult Swim. And on September 2, 2001, new episodes and re-runs moved to Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim during the block's premiere. The series ended its television run in 2004 with its 93rd episode, "Live at the Fillmore".[3]Space Ghost Coast to Coast would be the only Cartoon Network original series that moved to Adult Swim with new episodes until 2017 when Samurai Jack aired its fifth and final season.
In 2006, the series returned as a five-minute web series on Turner Broadcasting's GameTap online service, in which Space Ghost interviewed celebrities from the video game industry and GameTap's artist of the month. The series officially concluded with the final webisode on May 31, 2008.
On April Fools' Day 2014, Adult Swim broadcast 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. The series has seen occasional marathons on Adult Swim since, including one on October 22, 2021, in promotion of an Adult Swim tie-in with Carl's Jr.
Characters
George Lowe provides the voice of the lead role, Space Ghost.
Main
Space Ghost (voiced by George Lowe) was a 1960s superhero who fought supervillains in outer space. In the 1990s, was brought back as a host for his own fictional late-night talk show.
Zorak (voiced by C. Martin Croker) is the band leader and Space Ghost's sidekick. A mantis-like alien, known for his hatred of Space Ghost. He is also Brak's best friend as he gives Brak little respect. His superhero persona is Batmantis. Though Space Ghost's prisoner, Zorak retains his membership in the Council of Doom. He co-hosted Cartoon Planet and its revival with Brak.
Moltar (voiced by C. Martin Croker) is the show's director and producer. His body is made entirely of lava, and he normally wears an orange and gray full-body containment suit which has a breathing receptacle.
Supporting
Brak (voiced by Andy Merrill) is a somewhat cat-like teenage alien with large fangs who, although a villain, is the weakest and least threatening one on both this program and the earlier Space Ghost series. He appeared on SGC2C periodically, often with the Council of Doom, of which he was a member, and was often victimized by Space Ghost. He co-hosted Cartoon Planet and its revival with Zorak.
Tansut (voiced by Don Kennedy) is an overweight and cowardly man in an orange costume and helmet. His outfit makes him appear much more menacing than he actually is. He is a member of the Council of Doom. For about half the episodes of season 4, he announced the show off-screen until he was fired by Space Ghost.
Lokar (voiced by Andy Merrill) is an erudite, giant hominid locust who is prone to violent outbursts. Lokar seems to harbor a grudge towards Space Ghost, and constantly seeks his destruction, perhaps more for his boorishness than anything else. Lokar is a member of the Council of Doom, though he's not so much evil as a snob.
Chad Ghostal (voiced by Brad Abelle) is Space Ghost's evil twin brother. He is a beatnik, with a love for jazz music and outdated beatnik slang, both extremely cool and evil, and he's quite the ladies' man.
Harvey Birdman (voiced by Scott Finnell) was the host of the show in the episodes "Pilot" and "Sequel". He then got a job as a lawyer in his own spin-off show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast has received generally positive reviews from critics. 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.[10] In 2013, IGN placed Space Ghost Coast to Coast as number 18 on their list of Top 25 animated series for adults.[11]
Alex Toth, the creator of Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost, was rumored to have been displeased with the usage of his characters in parody, but Toth disproved the rumor through written letters by admitting he appreciated all adaptations of his work.[12]
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 Andre would rewatch several episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast in a row in order to "absorb as much Space Ghost" as he could. Andre 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 Andre's surprise Lazzo had no interest in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, saying "Space Ghost is dead to me".[13]
Space Ghost frequently makes cameo appearances in episodes of or promos for other Cartoon Network or Adult Swim animated series, including a 2002 promo for The Powerpuff Girls Movie, the 2002 The Brak Show episode "Runaway" and 2003's "Enter the Hump", the 2003 Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "The Dressing", a 2004 promo interview for Tom Goes to the Mayor, the 2004 Adult Swim special Anime Talk Show, the 2006 Robot Chicken episode "Suck It", the 2007 film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, the 2011 Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Bold Beginnings", and the 2011 Adult Swim pilot Earth Ghost, a reworking of a 2007 live-action pilot Lowe Country.[16] Space Ghost also appears on the 1998 series Donny & Marie to promote the CD Space Ghost's Surf & Turf.
Space Ghost appears in or is referenced in various musical works. The character is mentioned in the opening lyrics of cello rock band Rasputina's song "The Olde Headboard", which is featured on their 1998 album How We Quit the Forest. Space Ghost Coast to Coast is featured in the Danger Doom song "Space Ho's".[17] Rapper SpaceGhostPurrp named himself after the titular character and used the character's image for the cover of his NASA mixtape. British indie band Glass Animals references Space Ghost Coast to Coast on their 2020 album Dreamland with a song of the same name.
Comics
From 1997 to 2003, Space Ghost Coast to Coast comics were published in anthology comics Cartoon Network Present, Cartoon Network Starring and Cartoon Cartoons by DC Comics. Issue 40 of the comic book Scooby-Doo Team-Up features 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."
Home media
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast has been released on home media in three widespread DVD volumes and two additional volumes 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 DVD release. Nearly every episode was available to buy through a "build your own DVD" feature on Adult Swim's website. Thus the final season episodes, 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.
In 2006, episodes were made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.[18][19] 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.[20] It was removed when the streaming service rebranded as Max.[21]
Title
Release Date
Episodes
Additional Information
Volume One
November 18, 2003
16
This two disc boxset collects 16 episodes from the show's first three seasons, 1994 to 1996.
"Elevator", "Spanish Translation", "Gilligan", "CHiPs", "Bobcat", "Punch", "Banjo", "Batmantis", "Story Book" (listed as "Story Book House"), "Girlie Show", "Hungry", "Fire Drill", "Sleeper", "Jerk", "Urges", and "Explode" and had 2 Easter eggs. Special features include commentaries, original artwork, and Zorak singing "Jingle Bells".
Volume Two
November 16, 2004
14
This two disc boxset collected 14 episodes from the third season, 1996.
"$20.01", "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, bonus footage and Easter eggs, as well as commentary on every episode.
Volume Three: This Is 1997
April 12, 2005
24
This two disc boxset collects all 24 episodes from the show's 1997 season, the fourth season, some of which are the originally aired extended versions.
"Rehearsal", "Gallagher", "Edelweiss", "Anniversary", "Zoltran", "Pilot", "Speck", "Zorak", "Switcheroo (1997 Version)", "Mayonnaise", "Brilliant Number One", "Boo Boo Kitty", "Needledrop", "Sphinx", "Pavement", "Untitled", "Hipster", "Piledriver", "Suckup", "Dam", "Boatshow", "Telethon", "Dimethylpyrimidinol Bisulfite" and "Joshua". It also features commentaries by cast members, new footage, deleted scenes, the 1995 World Premiere Toon-In, "President's Day Nightmare" (without any footage from the cartoons featured and some scenes rearranged) and Easter eggs.
Volume Four: The 1998 Episodes
December 7, 2007
11
This single-disc set collected all 11 episodes from the show's 1998 season, the fifth season, one of which was the originally aired extended version.
The fourth DVD released exclusively through the Adult Swim website and is titled "The 1998 Episodes" rather than "Volume Four".[22] It includes the episodes "Terminal", "Toast", "Lawsuit", "Cahill", "Warren" (36-minute cut), "Chinatown", "Rio Ghosto", "Pal Joey", "Curses", "Intense Patriotism" and "Waiting for Edward". It also features an unfinished episode guest-starring Steven Wright titled "Dinner with Steven" and one Easter egg.
Volume Five: From the Kentucky Nightmare DVD
September 11, 2008
16
This two disc boxset included all 14 episodes from 1999 to 2001, seasons six and seven, one of which was the originally aired extended version.
The fifth DVD released exclusively through the Adult Swim website and is titled "From the Kentucky Nightmare DVD" rather than "Volume Five". It includes the episodes "Snatch", "Sequel", "Girl Hair", "Chambraigne", "Table Read", "King Dead", "Fire Ant" (22-minute cut), "Curling Flower Space", "Knifin' Around", "The Justice Hole", "Kentucky Nightmare", "Sweet for Brak", "Flipmode", "Mommentary". Extras include Snatch Alt Ending, Table Read Extra, Conan Raw Interview, George Lowe Record, Clay Croker Record, Promos, Busta Raw Interview, Momentary w/Creators Commentary and Momentary: Jelly Bean and two Easter eggs.
Music releases
A Space Ghost Coast to Coast promotional CD titled Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Yeah, Whatever... featuring four tracks was released in 1995.[23] A comedy album titled Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que was released by Kid Rhino and Cartoon Network in 1997.[24] A follow-up album, Space Ghost's Surf & Turf, released the following year.[25]
Cartoon Planet, a spin-off featuring Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak hosting a variety show on the Cartoon Planet, premiered on Cartoon Network and its sister network TBS in 1995. In 2000, the show either spun off or directly inspired[26] 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[p]—all of which were created by Space Ghost Coast to Coast staff. Although Harvey Birdman uses traditional animation to flash animation, the rest uses the same limited animation style as Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The Brak Show includes the characters Brak and Zorak, recurring characters on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
In 2007, Cartoon Network Spain produced an adaptation of the series which aired as part of the Adult Swim block on TNT Spain.[27] This version replaces the guests with Spanish celebrities.
On January 21, 2023, Jason Segel announced in a podcast that he wrote a script for a live-action version of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.[29]
Four boulders found on the planet Mars were named after Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Brak.[30][31]
Zorak and Brak make various cameos in the series Jellystone!. Season 3's "Space Con" features Space Ghost, Brak, Zorak, and Moltar, with Lowe and Merrill reprising their roles. The episode makes references to Space Ghost Coast to Coast and its spinoffs Cartoon Planet and The Brak Show.
^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 767–770. ISBN978-1476665993.
