“Space Ghost Coast to Coast” originally aired on Cartoon Network from April 1994 to December 1999, with a revival return on Adult Swim from May 2001 to April 2004. The series was the first to be produced by Williams Street, which at the time was called Ghost Planet Industries. The original 1960s ‘Space Ghost’ series was Hanna-Barbera’s attempt at a Saturday morning superhero cartoon and was conceived by the legendary Alex Toth, but the reboot saw the character host a talk show – surreal late night show. The characters, backgrounds, and events were all animated, but Space Ghost interviewed live people he also believed to be superheroes, who appeared on a monitor next to his desk.
Made under fairly intense budget limitations, the series often recycled clips from the original series, adding raw animation effects to connect them to the story of the episode at hand. The show’s cheap appearance became part of the charm, as did inconsistencies in continuity. The series is responsible for launching six different spin-off series; “Cartoon Planet”, “The Brak Show”, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”, “Perfect Hair Forever”, “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law”, and launched the “Toonami” anime programming block. “Sealab 2021” and live-action series “The Eric Andre Show” also owe a great debt to “Space Ghost,” and the absurd and scathing humor the show introduced set the tone for the majority of swimming shows for adults.
In today’s adult animation landscape, it’s hard to express how groundbreaking and bizarre “Space Ghost” was when it hit television screens at the time. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and one could say that without the quirkiness that is “Space Ghost”, the subversive interview we currently enjoy in live-action like “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” or even “Hot Ones” would not exist.