Cartoon Planet

Cartoon Planet

Logo of 2012 revival
Network	TBS (1995-1996) Cartoon Network
Launched	July 5, 1995 (1995-07-05) (initial run) March 30, 2012 (2012-03-30) (revival)
Closed	1998[1] (1998[1]) (initial run) February 8, 2014 (2014-02-08) (revival)
Country of origin	United States
Owner	The Cartoon Network, Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Format	Animation
Running time	1 hour 30 minutes (1997-1998)
Original language(s)	English
Voices of	George Lowe (1995–98) C. Martin Croker Andy Merrill

Cartoon Planet is an American television

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, such as 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. New material ceased being made in 1997, and most of the songs and skits were re-packaged into 22 half-hour episodes without classic cartoon clips.

Original series

Each episode included segments such as "Brak's School Daze," "Zorak's Horror Scopes," "Poets' Corner," "Brak's Monday Ratings Report," "The Top 5 Cartoon Countdown" (discontinued in 1997 after the show's Saturday-morning slot was shortened to a half-hour), "Vacation Spots Around the Universe" (pieced together from clips of

At the time, head writer/producer Pete Smith described Cartoon Planet "as a cross between The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Electric Company, and recess at the Richard M. Nixon School for Wayward Boys. ...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."

Cartoon Planet resulted in three soundtrack CDs: Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes in 1996 (a non-commercial promotional album), Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que in 1997, and Space Ghost's Surf & Turf, the latter two published by Rhino Entertainment) in 1998. The albums consisted of songs and dialogue skits with different background music not used in the show.

Revival series

The revival of the series premiered on March 30, 2012, and ended on February 8, 2014, featuring a different format from the original series. Due to budget restrictions, Space Ghost did not appear in the revival, thus leaving Brak and Zorak to host the show as "roommates together in their own, stupid little apartment"^[3] (despite this, Brak made a mini clone of Space Ghost in one episode). Instead of classic 1960s-era cartoons being showcased, the revival featured Cartoon Network's original programming, mostly Cartoon Cartoons, from the mid-1990s to late 2000s. Also, Zorak is not trapped behind a console, instead usually playing video games. Sometimes Zorak will get interrupted by Brak, causing him to lose the game.

Airing in a format based on The Cartoon Cartoon Show, the revival aired a variety of classic Cartoon Network shows in 7 or 11-minute segments per-cartoon. This allowed for four or five different cartoons to be aired in the blocks one hour timeslot.^[4]

In October 2012, Cartoon Planet celebrated Cartoon Network's 20th birthday to which it released a special two-minute song sung by Brak. The song paid tribute to the shows throughout the network's history.

There have also been holiday-themed episodes, featuring several of the Cartoon Network programming presented in a holiday-themed episode, including Halloween and Christmas.

Starting on January 11, 2013, several Cartoon Network shows that have been short-lived, permanent hiatus, canceled, or officially ended joined up to Cartoon Planet's programming block starting with

• Advertisements – Fake advertisements for made-up products which the show indicates as "Not Real". On rare occasions, two advertisements were shown. The first advertisement aired was for "Bushido Potatoes".
• Music Video – Original songs sung by Brak and Zorak. The first song was "Pizza Song", which received positive reviews and internet fame. Zorak also sang in his first music video "Make You Go Splat!" which received internet fame as well.
• Zorak's Poetry Beat – Series of poems told by Zorak involving ridiculous items and nonsense lyrics. In one episode, Brak recited the poetry segment because Zorak did not feel like it. The first poem was "Ode to a Diseased Chimpanzee".
• Brak's Comedy Jokes – This segment featured Brak telling jokes to the audience. In one episode, Zorak replaces Brak in the segment now renamed "Zorak's Comedy Jokes" telling jokes which are black comedy jokes involving the misfortunes of the people that the joke is centered on.
• Dating Tips with Brak – Brak gives out (usually bad) dating tips to the audience. At the end of each skit, he says "And that's a tip from me...".
• What's in my Mouth? – A rare segment in which Brak opens his mouth a little bit while saying "Aaaah" and Zorak had to guess what was in it. Usually, the objects are gross (such as a piece of dental cotton from five weeks ago).
• Make Stuff Happen on the T.V. – A segment in which Brak and Zorak are watching television and they interact with the programs by poking the characters on the screen, commenting to each other, voicing them, and even giving them root beer (Brak).
• Zorak Video Game Chats – A segment in which Zorak reviews a video game on his Zbox, which indicates that the games are not real. One example of a reviewed game is Pasta Grandma.
• Clones – A one-off skit reminiscent of the skits done on the original show. In one skit, Brak clones himself, Zorak, and even Space Ghost. The clones are smaller, and have their voices provided by Andy Merrill's daughter.^[5] The skit continued with the little Braks singing the opening theme for the modern show.

Programming

Programming from Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network Studios

Warner Bros. Animation

Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe

Acquired programming

Episode list

Broadcast history

The show's first run was from 1995 to 1998, premiering on

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Cartoon Planet.

• Cartoon Planet at
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