Trivia / Space Ghost Coast to Coast

• Acting for Two: C. Martin Croker voices Zorak and Moltar (though his voice was pitched down electronically for Moltar's lines).
• Actor-Inspired Element: Clay Martin Croker came up with the idea to have Zorak and Moltar as Space Ghost's workers.
• Channel Hop: Sort of. The show had already been airing on Cartoon Network's late night slot for years, and when [adult swim] was made in 2001 to take over Cartoon Network's late night, they just didn't move it as it fit [adult swim]'s demographics. So it wasn't the show that moved, it was the channel that moved.
• Colbert Bump: It's likely the show got this from Turner Home Entertainment attaching a mini-episode with SG interviewing Jim Carrey at the end of the VHS release of The Mask.
• Creator Backlash: It's commonly believed to be this to Mike Lazzo, who went on record saying that the show is "dead to him". Really, he's just done all he wanted to with the property and doesn't wish to return to it outside of the occasional cameo appearance. It is strange at the same time though, considering this is the show that jumpstarted the entire Cartoon Network into more than a rerun farm.
• The Danza: Andy Merrill as Commander Andy.
• Descended Creator: C. Martin Croker, in addition to voicing both Zorak and Moltar, also animated most of the new animation sequences that appear in the series.
• Edited for Syndication: The series did not have much in the way consistent run times, with episodes often being anywhere between ten to twenty minutes in length. This means that syndicated episodes are often shortened to eleven minutes, stretched out to fill a half hour block or just removed from the rerun cycle.
• Friday Night Death Slot: Its slot for many years. Oddly, this may have been beneficial for it, as being on late on Friday nights meant it could get away with certain content in the pre-Adult Swim days. It also didn't cost very much to make so it wasn't like Cartoon Network was going to cancel it even if it didn't pull in huge ratings.
• I Am Not Spock: Joel Hodgson is not pleased with Space Ghost confusing him with his character 'Joel Robinson'.
• In Memoriam: "Sharrock," a tribute to musician Sonny Sharrock who had composed music, including the theme, for the show.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: In addition to the final six episodes, three episodes never made it onto DVD at all: "Self Help", "The Mask" (and its companion piece "Le Livre d'Histoire"), and "Gum, Disease". Also "A Space Ghost Christmas", which was never released to DVD in its entirety. Only two songs from the special made it. Also, the unedited versions of:
  • "The World Premiere Toon-In" (aka "President's Day Nightmare"): For copyright reasons, all the cartoons featured on the show were cut for the DVD release. Only the wraparounds are shown. The HBO Max version restores the cartoons, but cuts the line stating the special was being broadcast on CN, TBS and TNT (which had been switched between being cut and left-in during subsequent broadcasts). The completely uncut version shows up on [adult swim]'s website from time to time though.
  • "Sleeper": A brief scene after the credits with Space Ghost, Zorak and Moltar in the commissary having ditched Slash on the set was removed.
  • "Explode": An announcement at the very end of episode from the late BBC DJ John Peel, stating that the Ghost Planet will now explode (hence the title of the episode...) was removed. This has also been restored on HBO Max.
  • "$20.01": The Ultraseven footage that Joel Hodgson and Space Ghost mock was removed from the DVD and replaced with non-copyrighted footage.
  • "Glen Campbell": The audio from The Simpsons clip at the beginning was removed, along with a line from Space Ghost ("Which one is Homer again? The baby?"), and an additional audio clip of Mr. Burns after the credits.
  • "Hipster": Sam Butera sings a portion of "Just a Gigolo", which was cut from the DVD and replaced with an original song.
  • "Joshua": William, The King of Imagination's brief appearance was cut for the DVD. Rumor is because Williams Street couldn't track him down to get him to allow his likeness to appear on home video.
  • "Cahill": Garrett Morris sings a portion of "For the Love of Money", which was cut from the DVD.
  • "Chambraigne": Al Roker was originally part of the Chambraigne commercial. He was replaced on the DVDs by George Lowe.
  • The musical episode "Boatshow" had a few of its song shortened for syndication which is also the version sold on iTunes. Most notably is the last song which was cut to only the final verse.
  • For a time, the unedited versions of the above (as well as the episodes not on DVD) could be obtained through the Adult Swim Store's "Create Your Custom DVD!" feature, but now that the Adult Swim Store has shut down, the only legal option is to buy the episodes via iTunes.
  • Speaking of the Adult Swim store shutting down, for a time it was impossible (aside from buying used copies online for outrageously inflated prices) to obtain Volumes 4 and 5, since they were Adult Swim Store exclusives. However, they have since been made available on iTunes with the rest of the series.
  • You can find the episode "The Mask" on the VHS release of that movie, which it was originally made for; it follows the film. (Or, you can just watch it on YouTube.)
  • The GameTap episodes died with the service.
• Missing Episode:
  • "Copa Toon", a series of specials done for Latin American audiences during the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2003 Copa America where Space Ghost interviewed several sports personalities were considered lost for more than a decade until the episodes were uploaded to YouTube in 2015. The episodes were unique because they were recorded in both English (with the original cast) and Spanish, yet the interviewee's lines remained in Spanish in both dubs.
  • There's also at least 12 missing episodes from the Gametap iteration.
  • The entirety of "Fire Ant" has rarely aired on TV since its premiere. Justified, as Space Ghost spends 10 minutes of the uncut episode doing nothing but chasing an ant through various backdrops. The versions on HBO Max and [adult swim] are the edited versions as well but the uncut version is available on DVD and is easy to find on various video websites.
• No Budget: And how! Adult Swim's budget for original programming, much less for an adult cartoon, was basically nonexistent. One article from 1994 claims its budget was raised to $30,000 an episode; many modern animated shows hit ten or twenty times that. Watch any given episode and it's really not hard to see why. Frequently lampshaded.
  Zorak: Look, every time I move my arm, it costs the Cartoon Network forty-two bucks!
• The Other Darrin:
  • A variation: Gary Owens, the voice of Space Ghost in the original 1960s cartoon, is used by the current Space Ghost's former mentor, Warren, as a replicant so he could have Space Ghost on his own show. Gary is rendered as an image of Space Ghost over a boiling cauldron that occasionally blinks into his real face. The real Space Ghost, feeling that Warren violated their trust as mentor and student, confronts him and Gary to reclaim his identity.
  • In "Spanish Translation", Brak was voiced by C. Martin Croker. In all other appearances, he was voiced by Andy Merrill.
  • In "Woody Allen's Fall Project", Space Ghost was played by Andy Merrill, Zorak was played by Dave Willis, and Moltar was played by Gus Jordan.
• Recycled Script: "Kentucky Nightmare" and "Baffler Meal" are virtually identical in concept: Space Ghost sells out to a fast food company/failing liquor chain (Baffler Meal/Kentucky Nightmare respectively), which injects obnoxious advertising into the show, and Willie Nelson is the guest. However, it's justified in that "Kentucky Nightmare" was intended to replace "Baffler Meal", which had been shelved (but got made several years later anyway). There's also the three Mommentary episodes, which is just "Kentucky Nightmare" again but with various commentaries over it.
• Throw It In!:
  • Between takes, George Lowe was complaining about how some fruit baskets he bought around Christmas time were received by people at Cartoon Network. When putting the show together, they decided to use this bit during the intro for Fire Drill.
  • Some moments (such as Space Ghost suddenly babbling incoherently in the middle of a sentence and declaring "Oops, too many cokes") are obvious line flubs on George Lowe's part that were kept in.
• Trolling Creator:
  • There's no way the uncut version of "Fire Ant" (that is, Space Ghost crawling after an ant for 10 minutes) could be seen as anything but this.
  • Debatable for "Sharrock" as well. Yes, it was meant as a tribute to then-recently-deceased Sonny Sharrock, but literally nothing happens in the episode. The second half is literally just a "Please stand by" screen while Sharrock music plays.
  • The original airing of "Warren" had the episode play three times.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The episode "Baffler Meal" features outdated, preliminary versions of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as the episode was originally written back in 1999. However, it was felt that there was too much focus on the Aqua Teens rather than the Space Ghost gang, the script got rejected. ^note Bits and pieces of the script would get reused in the episode "Kentucky Nightmare". Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, who wrote the episode, didn't want the Aqua Teens to go to waste so they put them in their own series, which became successful enough that Adult Swim eventually allowed the crew to finish "Baffler Meal".
    • Speaking of which, the episode originally featured a fourth Aqua Teen named Napkin Lad, who was meant to promote cleanliness but got killed by Zorak who poured water on him. He ended up being scrapped from the episode since the crew wasn't sure if they wanted him in the episode at all. Napkin Lad would eventually make a sole appearance in an episode of the ATHF series as a spy.
  • It also shows us a new future of rock 'n' roll dominated by Colonial-era musicians, who perform a bizarre cover of "Black Dog" with fast-food-related lyrics.
  • While it was in pre-production, Hervé Villechaize was in negotiations to co-star as a sidekick of Space Ghost. Sadly, he killed himself before anything happened.
  • Certain bits of dialog in the initial draft of "Fire Ant" (as shown in "Table Read") were excised from the completed version, such as the flashback with Dr. Fishopolis; a different flashback to the old Space Ghost show; and a different opening line by Space Ghost: "Sorry I'm late. I was out saving your life... in the future!"
  • During Dragon*Con '99, it was revealed that The Tick was going to be a guest, but the fact that they couldn't find any good animation to use for the interview left the interview unmade.
  • There are two episodes that were announced that were never made, namely "One Way Out", and "Drop Out". One Way Out was going to feature Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green, but it was never made. Part of the Green interview was used for the beginning of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode.
  • "Snatch" began life as a completely different episode, "Dinner With Steven". It was featured on the 1998 season DVD as a bonus.
  • Joel Hodgson of MST3K fame created a new intro for the series, but it went unused. It was later included as a special feature on the second DVD set.
    • Fellow alumni Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy (playing as Tom Servo in-character) also recorded interviews, but they were not used.
  • Series writer and co-creator Andy Merrill (also the voice of Brak and Lokar) recently confirmed in a Twitter / X interview post that Randy Savage was not the original choice for Space Ghost's grandpa Leonard Ghostal for the episode "Piledriver". That honor was originally given to R. Lee Ermey which explains some of the lines by Leonard Ghostal sounding like insults, threats and rants that Gunnery Sergeant Hartman would most likely have said. But Ermey's delivery was deemed to be not up to par, so they rewrote and reworked the lines over the course of a weekend at Pete Smith's house to be read in the voice of Randy Savage which in the end worked better as Savage agreed to voice the character.
• Writer Revolt: "Joshua" was the last episode written for the 1997 season, which was the longest season of the show. By this time, the writers were exhausted, so they didn't even bother to come up with a plot or do traditional interviews, and instead opted to write a series of sketches, with the motif tying it all together being a paid program starring Space Ghost. Despite their cranky mood (or perhaps because of it), "Joshua" ended up being one of the funniest episodes of the series, thanks to its unusual style, mixed with quite a bit of Self-Deprecation and Deconstructive Parody.
• Write What You Know: Supposedly, the cow's rant at the end of "Lovesick", where it criticizes tons of things about the show, is based on real complaint letters from viewers.

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