Space Ghost (TV series)
Space Ghost | |
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![]() Space Ghost title card | |
Created by | Alex Toth |
Directed by |
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Voices of |
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Music by | Ted Nichols |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 20 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producers |
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Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
Distributor | Taft Broadcasting |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release | September 10, 1966 September 16, 1967 | –
Chronology | |
Related shows |
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Space Ghost is an American Saturday morning superhero animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It first aired on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 16, 1967, and continued reruns until September 7, 1968.[1] The series was composed of two unrelated segments, Space Ghost and Dino Boy in the Lost Valley.[2] The series was created by Alex Toth[3] and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Sometimes, it is alternatively called Space Ghost & Dino Boy to acknowledge the presence of both shows.[4]
The Space Ghost segments were seen again in the 1976 series Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr. (which replaced the Dino Boy segments with the Frankenstein Jr. ones from fellow Hanna-Barbera show Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles), which aired on NBC from November 27, 1976 to September 4, 1977 after NBC put The Kids From C.A.P.E.R. on Hiatus.[5][better source needed]
Space Ghost[]
Space Ghost, along with teenaged sidekicks Jan and Jace and their pet monkey Blip, fight villains in outer space. Usually, Space Ghost's sidekicks would get captured or trapped by the villains, and Space Ghost would have to defeat the villains and save the day. His enemies included Zorak, Brak and his brother Sisto, the Creature King,[6] the Black Widow (a.k.a. the Spider Woman), Lokar, Moltar, and Metallus.
Voice cast[]
- Gary Owens as Space Ghost
- Ginny Tyler as Jan, the Black Widow a.k.a. the Spider Woman
- Tim Matheson as Jace
- Don Messick as Blip, Zorak, Sisto, Sandman, One Eye, Zorket, the Schemer, the Evil Collector, the Creature King (1967)
- Keye Luke as Brak, Lokar
- Ted Cassidy as Metallus, Moltar, Tansut, Tarko the Terrible
- Paul Frees as The Creature King (1966; The Space Ark), Brago, Zeron, Cyclo, Pirahnor
- Vic Perrin as The Creature King (1966; Creature King), the Lurker
- Alan Reed as Glasstor, The Sorcerer
- Paul Winchell as Owlie
- Paul Stewart as Dr. Nightmare, The Mind Taker
- Lucille Bliss as Wootan, Wootan's mother
Dino Boy in the Lost Valley[]
Dino Boy is a young boy called Todd who parachuted out of a crashing plane with his parents still on board.[7]
He lands in an unknown South American valley where dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and cavemen have somehow survived extinction and now live alongside some strange creatures and various tribes like the Moss Men, the Rock Pygmies, the Worm People and the Vampire Men, amongst others.
Dino Boy then meets the caveman Ugh (who saves Dino Boy from a Smilodon when he first arrives) and his pet baby Brontosaurus Bronty who become his friends in the episodes to come. The cartoon also features a woolly mammoth named Tusko who Ugh would enlist in certain episodes to help him, Dino Boy, and Bronty out.
Voice cast[]
- Johnny Carson (who soon switched to his full name, John David Carson, to avoid confusion with the talk show host) as Todd/Dino Boy
- Mike Road as Ugh
- Don Messick as Bronty
- Gary Owens as opening narration
List of episodes[]
With the exception of the final two half-hour shows (the "Council of Doom" episodes), each episode featured two Space Ghost segments with one Dino Boy segment between them.
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The final two half-hour shows only feature Space Ghost. Additionally, they feature cameos from other characters (the Herculoids, Moby Dick, the Mighty Mightor, and Shazzan) that would appear in their own Hanna-Barbera series broadcasts on CBS the following (1967–68) season.
Home media[]
Space Ghost & Dino Boy were released on multiple VHS tapes in the 1980s put out by Worldvision Home Video and later re-released by GoodTimes Home Video under the Kids Klassics label. The episodes on the VHS tape for Space Ghost were "The Heat Thing", "Zorak", "The Creature King" and the Dino Boy episode "The Worm People". Worldvision released another VHS tape, Space Ghost and Dino Boy: Ghostly Tales; this contained the episodes "The Robot Master", The Energy Monster", "Hi-Jackers", "The Lure", and "The Schemer". The Dino Boy episodes were "Marooned" and "The Red Ants".[8] These same episodes were released in the UK by The Video Collection.
Warner Home Video (via Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released Space Ghost & Dino Boy: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on July 17, 2007.[9]
The DVD edition presents the episodes on two double-sided DVDs, but alters the order from the original air-date order. This episode order is also present on Blu-ray and digital sell-throughs.
Disc 1
- Side A
- 1 - The Heat Thing / The Worm People / Zorak
- 2 - Creature King / The Treemen / The Lizard Slavers
- 3 - The Web / The Sacrifice / Homing Device
- 4 - The Drone / The Moss Men / The Sandman
- Side B
- 5 - The Robot Master / Marooned / The Energy Monster
- 6 - Hi-Jackers / Giant Ants / The Lure
- 7 - The Schemer / The Rock Pygmies / The Evil Collector
- 8 - Lokar - King of the Killer Locusts / Danger River / Brago
- 9 - The Cyclopeds / The Fire God / Space Sargasso
- 10 - The Iceman / The Vampire Men / The Time Machine
- 11 - The Space Birds / The Wolf People / Attack of the Saucer Crab
- 12 - Nightmare Planet / Valley of the Giants / Space Armada
Disc 2
- Side A
- 13 - Ruler of the Rock Robots / The Bird Riders / The Challenge
- 14 - Jungle Planet / The Marksman / Revenge of the Spider Woman
- 15 - The Space Ark / The Terrible Chase / Glasstor
- 16 - The Space Piranhas / The Spear Warriors / The Sorcerer
- 17 - The Ovens of Moltar / The Ant Warriors / Transor - the Matter Mover
- 18 - The Looters / The Mighty Snow Creature / The Gargoyloids
- The final two episodes are a six-part Space Ghost story called "The Council of Doom"
- 19 - The Meeting / Clutches of the Creature King / The Deadly Trap
- 20 - The Molten Monsters of Moltar / Two Faces of Doom / The Final Encounter
- Side B
- Feature-Length Profile Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth
A Blu-ray set of the series was released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (under the Warner Archive Collection label), on October 13, 2020. The release is a two-disc set containing all 20 episodes.[10]
Comics[]
The TV series was adapted into a comic strip by Dan Spiegle, distributed by Gold Key Comics.[11] He has also appeared in comics published by Marvel Comics, Comico and Archie Comics.
Talk show/Adult Swim era[]
In 1994, years after the finale of the original series, Mike Lazzo pitched the idea of an adult animated parody talk show using the Space Ghost character to Cartoon Network. Voice actors George Lowe, C. Martin Croker, and Andy Merrill joined the project, which Cartoon Network would soon air as Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The series premiered on April 15, 1994, and originally ended on December 17, 1999.[12] The series was revived on May 7, 2001, and was moved to the new Adult Swim late-night programming block on September 2 of that year, where new episodes premiered until April 12, 2004. Two final seasons were released on GameTap from 2006 to 2008. Over 11 seasons, 108 episodes aired. The show gained spin-offs in the form of The Brak Show (2000–2007) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000–2015), and has been cited as inspiration for a variety of Adult Swim programming in the years since its debut. In a 2014 interview, Eric Andre spoke about the show's influence on The Eric Andre Show, saying, “Before we started shooting, I rented as many seasons I could get my hands on and did a Space Ghost marathon by myself in my house, just so I could absorb as much Space Ghost as I could.”
Later DC Comics era[]
In 2016, Space Ghost and his allies and Dino Boy played a major role in the DC Comics series Future Quest, that also featured characters from various animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera such as Jonny Quest, The Herculoids, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles and Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor.[13]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 767–770. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 263–265. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ Markstein, Don (2006). "Space Ghost". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013.
Space Ghost endured and is still popular today. In large part, this is due to the artistic input of comic book veteran Alex Toth...who, on staff with Hanna-Barbera as a designer and idea man, is generally credited with having created Space Ghost.
- ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 569. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- ^ Whitworth, Jerry (January 30, 2016). "From Screen to Page: Future Quest". Comic Art Community. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
- ^ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
- ^ Markstein, Don (2010). "Dino Boy in the Lost Valley". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on June 20, 2014.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-05-22. Retrieved 2017-07-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Space Ghost and Dino Boy DVD news: Announcement for Space Ghost and Dino Boy - The Complete Series". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 2007-08-27.
- ^ "Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series Blu-ray Disc Details | High-Def Digest". bluray.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
- ^ "Dan Spiegle". lambiek.net. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
- ^ "'Space Ghost Coast to Coast' Is Still Influential and Funny, 25 Years Later". Geek.com. 2019-04-12. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
- ^ "Future Quest (DC Comics)". DC Comics. June 27, 2016. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
External links[]
- Space Ghost at IMDb
- 1966 American television series debuts
- 1968 American television series endings
- 1960s American animated television series
- 1960s American science fiction television series
- Television series by Hanna-Barbera
- CBS original programming
- Space Ghost television series
- Animated television series about extraterrestrial life
- American children's animated action television series
- American children's animated space adventure television series
- American children's animated science fantasy television series
- American children's animated superhero television series
- Hanna-Barbera superheroes
- DC Comics superheroes
- Television shows adapted into comics
- Television series set in outer space
- Animated television series about dinosaurs
- Prehistoric people in popular culture
- Neanderthals in fiction