30 Years Ago, This Bizarre Cartoon Talk Show Helped Me Survive High School

Hey, need some help feeling super old? It turns out that today, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast turns 30.

Maybe you’re currently clutching your chest as you crumble into a pile of dust. Or maybe you weren’t even born 30 years ago, and I sound like a rambling, wild-eyed old woman! If that’s the case, let me regale you with the utterly weird cultural phenomenon that was Space Ghost.

Space Ghost started off as a Hanna-Barbera superhero in the 1960s. Frankly, I don’t know a lot about the original Space Ghost, and I don’t care enough to learn about him. The only Space Ghost who matters to me is the one who hosted a surreal animated talk show from 1994 to 2001. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, which recycled animation from the original cartoon series, featured Space Ghost interviewing various celebrities like Conan O’Brien and Bjork. In early seasons, the interviews were heavily edited during post-production to give them a weird, disjointed effect. The guests only seemed to be vaguely responding to Space Ghost’s questions.

Accompanying Space Ghost were three villains from his superhero days, who were forced to work with him on the show. A giant mantis named Zorak was the bandleader, and a lava man (like, he was made out of lava) named Moltar operated the cameras. They both hated Space Ghost’s guts and spent most of their time insulting him and refusing to do what he said. Good times!

Here’s a brief clip showing what a doofus Space Ghost was:

And then there was Brak.

Although he didn’t appear as often as Zorak and Moltar, Brak was the beating heart of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. He was the show’s soul. Brak was a vaguely cat-like alien, and he was about as smart as your average house cat. Voiced by Andy Merrill, Brak always kind of knew what was going on, but not really, and navigated his way through confusing situations by yelling a lot.

Sometimes, even all these years later, Brak’s lines still rattle around in my head. After Space Ghost, Brak went on to co-host a variety show called Cartoon Planet with Zorak before getting his own sitcom, The Brak Show. Perhaps Brak’s best work is his contributions to Space Ghost’s Musical Bar-B-Que, an album made up of the songs on Cartoon Planet. Here’s my favorite Brak song of all time, “I Love You, Baby:”

Hee hee hee hee hee! STOP IT!!

This show and its spin-offs came out so long ago that I’m sure parts of them haven’t aged well, so I’m mostly content to let it live on in my memories. High school sucked for me in a lot of ways, but at least I got to go home at the end of each day and absorb animation that was as weird and misunderstood as I was.

Happy 30th birthday, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast!

(featured image: Cartoon Network)