Space Ghost Coast to Coast

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Space Ghost Coast to Coast (often abbreviated as SGC2C) is the first Williams Street original series and aired on Cartoon Network originally. It's an animated comedic spoof talk-show that mixes animation and live-action, and was the first Cartoon Network series to do this. It was created 6 years prior to Adult Swim's creation, and was previously created by Williams Street under the studio name Ghost Planet Studios. It was transitioned into an [as] series with GPS's name transformation into Williams Street at the time of [as]'s conception in 2001. It holds the record as the longest running WS original series with 98 episodes which were ran April 15, 1994 – April 12, 2004. It has a usual run-time of 11 minutes, with many exceptions due to jokes that elongated the run-time.

It has the most expansive universe with two spinoffs, several comic books series, and cameos and various impact on several other WS programs. It also has the most expansive mythology due to it's origins. The series took characters, places, and things from the Space Ghost segments of the 1960's Hanna-Barbera cartoon Space Ghost & Dino Boy. It revolutionized the characters of the series in a comedic fashion, and ironically ended up getting more attention and notoriety than the original series, completely re-imagining the source material for many people. Because of the meta-humor the series often displays, the original series itself is often the butt of jokes.

Space Ghost, the titular protagonist of the 1960's series, hosts a talk show with the help of his co-hosts and crew made up of the enslaved antagonists. His crew often disrupt the show due to their nature and history as his nemesis, and often make it clear of their hatred and dislike of him and their forced labor. The talk-show centers around celebrity interviews between the animated Space Ghost and live-action celebrity guests. His interviews are often extremely awkward, and sometimes hostile. The format of talk-shows or interviews are often subverted in favor of surreal circumstances. The guest's responses are dis-jointed, and it's hard to tell if they're aware of the nature of the program, due to the intentional production process.

History

Non-Fictional

SGC2C came into existence when media mogul and head of Cartoon Network Ted Turner wanted a program that would appeal to adults. His idea was a low-cost late-night cartoon series. He enlisted Mike Lazzo, the senior vice president of CN, to head the project. Lazzo decided the lowest costing method to making the animation was to take animation from a property they already had the rights to, and super-impose them over live action sequences. He decided to re-edit Space Ghost footage as part of a concept he'd had previously of a "Satirical David Letterman-style talk show, with a thoroughly clueless host asking celebrity guests a steady stream of stupid, non sequitur questions." Space Ghost was then conceived from this combination of method and concept, and became Cartoon Network's first original series, as well as the first animated talk-show in history.

SGC2C first aired on April 15, 1994 in the United States on the Cartoon Network airing initially at 11:00pm ET on Friday nights, with an encore showing of the episode on Saturday night. Early episodes of SGC2C were played alongside episodes of the original 1960's Space Ghost segments, which gave the show a regular half-hour format. Some airings of the original 1960's segments featured odd laugh tracks, in a surreal C2C-esque fashion. In 2001 SGC2C was turned into an [adult swim] series. Episodes of Coast to Coast were produced under Ghost Planet Industries' new name "Williams Street".

It went on permanent hiatus in 2004. Beyond the original run of the series, at least two additional episodes were announced and had their respective interviews filmed, but were never finished due to cancellation. These included interviews with Seth Green and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Neither of these interviews made it into an episode, but part of the McFarlane interview surfaced as an easter egg in Space Ghost's third DVD. After being cancelled, the show remained in reruns on [adult swim] until 2005. Although reruns weren't featured on [adult swim], episodes still streamed online in the Adult Swim Video and for purchase in the Xbox Live Arcade and on itunes.

Online Exclusive episodes worked as a renewal of the series in 2006. These shorts were featured on GameTap, the Turner owned online gaming pay-service. The first hint to this renewal was Space Ghost's appearance at E3 with an interview of a Microsoft executive. In 2006, the episodes finally surfaced and ran regularly until 2007. To match GameTap's status as a gaming source, Space Ghost interviewed gaming icons as well as "GameTap's Artist of the Month". The jokes not relating to interviews were also often themed around video games. Ratings for the shorts were apparently low, and to match this, the episode made facetiously references this fact. No further episodes have been made, putting SGC2C back into complete hiatus.

Although no new episode or shorts have been made, SGC2C continues to make appearances on [adult swim] itself with advertisements based off the series, as well as SGC2C characters making appearances in other WS series. Advertisements featuring C2C include a Tom Goes to the Mayor promo with a short interview with Tom and The Mayor, an ESurance interview with it's mascot Erin (which Space Ghost makes lewd remarks to), and a McDonald's commercial featuring an interview with a customer (that attempted to advertise the Dollar Menu). After 3 years of not airing on [adult swim] regularly, it came back in 2008 on [as]'s Old School Night, which featured two episodes back-to-back. Old School Night was soon taken off, although reruns of Space Ghost stayed (with only one episode instead of two at the very end of the block).

Fictional

Because the format is a talk-show within a show, the universe of the show has it's own fictional history for the program alternate to it's real-life factual one. The talk-show was going to originally star Harvey Birdman and be entitled Birdman Coast to Coast. Lokar was originally supposed to be the co-star keyboard and musician. Moltar, notably, was the only person who was originally employed that stayed in the same position once SGC2C got off the ground. BMC2C fell through because not only was Harvey Birdman extremely bad at hosting, his powers (which stemmed from sun rays) conflicted with the filming schedule. Space Ghost, another washed up superhero, was contacted and eventually replaced Birdman. Lokar, who was injured during the pilot of BMC2C, ended up being replaced with Zorak (who was previously part of the behind-the-scenes crew). The pilot for SGC2C was apparently successful, as it was greenlit and went into production.

Characters

Regular Characters

Main article: List of SGC2C Characters

• Space Ghost (Full name Tad Ghostal) is the titular host of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He dons a signature white suit and black ear-less mask. He is regularly 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 of various sorts from the Power Bands on his wrists (e.g. a Smell Ray which produces identifiable odors).

• Zorak is an anthropomorphic praying mantis. He leads the show's band and resides in a keyboard pod. He claims to be "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 by Space Ghost's power bands. At other times however, his resistance to Space Ghost is more oblique, preferring to just ignore Space Ghost's quixotic tendencies in a quiet method of rebellion.

• Moltar is a liquid molten lava man encased in a hazmat-like metal suit. He is the director of the show, controlling everything from a booth and single monitor. He's more placid about his predicament and enjoys watching CHiPs reruns on the monitors during the show, as well as talking to the guests before their interviews, but he will often chide Space Ghost along with Zorak and become his sidekick in tormenting Space Ghost.

• Brak (and Sisto) are cat-like alien brothers. They were first shown as a parody of Beavis and Butt-Head. Brak eventually made more frequent appearances on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, often just yelling short phrases like "All hail Brak!!!" or "Hi my name is Brak!!", until the spin-off Cartoon Planet and his character developed more of a personality, as well as a vocabulary (to some extent).

• Lokar is an erudite, giant hominid locust villain who is prone to violent outbursts and speaks in a falsetto voice. Lokar seems to harbor a grudge towards Space Ghost, and is in constant fued with Zorak (the other evil bug). He is frequently accused of being effeminate by other cast members due to some phrases in his regular vocabulary.

• Tansit is an overweight and cowardly villain in a red costume and helmet. His outfit makes him appear much more menacing than he actually is, but fails completely at hiding his gut. He is easily scared and is often openly ridiculed for his cowardice. He does however have a dark side (which rarely comes out).

• Metallus is a villain who can only talk in a reverb-heavy metallic drone, rendering his every word incomprehensible, though other characters such as Moltar seem to understand him. He is a big metal guy with a blue vest and gloves, and he has a helmet with large, presumably ornamental "wings."

• Black Widow is a villain who has professed love for Space Ghost, much to the chagrin of the other villains. The Black Widow was originally known as "Spider Woman".

• The Original Way Outs are are the show's band, led by Zorak. The show has never explained their origins; in fact, very little attention is paid to them at all. They are speculated to be former villains, now Space Ghost's prisoners similar to Zorak and Moltar, but are much less talkative and thus remain somewhat mysterious.

• Harvey Birdman is a super hero, and was the original host of the show before being replaced by Space Ghost. Since being fired, he has made one return as the host to fill in for Space Ghost when he was imprisoned. After this he has since returned to confirm his status as washed up and unemployed.

• Chad Ghostal is Space Ghost's evil twin brother distinguished from Space Ghost in physical appearance only by a crudely drawn Vandyck beard. He is a hipster, and is both extremely cool and evil. So much so in fact, that he makes Moltar and Zorak "look like total chumps." Chad loves Jazz music, hipster talk, and outdated slang.

• Raymond is Zorak's nephew. He was brought onto the show and Space Ghost took a liking to him, because of this Zorak ate him. Against all odds, Raymond persevered and managed to make brief appearances in two more episodes.

• Kirk the Storyteller is the venerable narrator/storyteller, presenting several episodes in retrospect and reinterpretation.

Celebrity Guests

Main article: List of SGC2C Celebrity Guests

Each episode features numerous celebrity guests (or in some cases one or none at all), who are interviewed by Space Ghost and interacted with by the other characters of the show.

Episode Mechanics

Intro

The original intro to the show featured psychedelic and flashy special effects on the moon and scenery outside Ghost Planet Studios. The C2C logo would show up in the middle portion, and at the end of the intro sequence it would zoom out to show C2C's windows. The intro sequence would then stop and go to the usual outside scenery, and it would then transition into the actual show with Space Ghost's inviso-appearance.

In the 3rd and 4th seasons, the intro changed to an all new and original 3D sequence. It would open with the title card, and zoom into the celestial scenery. Comets and planets would function and move within the camera. The camera would eventually find it's way to a 3D rendered Ghost Planet and would crash through GPS's window and navigate through the hallways. Eventually, it would find it's way past Zorak and Space Ghost's dressing rooms and break through a door into where the show began. Initially, Tansit narrated this intro, but he was soon fired during the intro itself, leaving the intros afterward to just play the opening theme.

Episodes

Season 1

Main article: SGC2C Season 1

Season 2

Main article: SGC2C Season 2

Season 3

Main article: SGC2C Season 3

Season 4

Main article: SGC2C Season 4

Season 5

Main article: SGC2C Season 5

Season 6

Main article: SGC2C Season 6

Season 7

Main article: SGC2C Season 7

Season 8 & 9

Main article: SGC2C Season 8

Main article: SGC2C Season 9

GameTap Webisodes

Main article: SGC2C GameTap Webisodes

Spinoffs

Cartoon Planet

Main article: Cartoon Planet

The Brak Show

Main article: The Brak Show