Space Ghost

This show was on before I was even born, but I remember seeing old reruns of it all the time. Boy, does this take me back. It's old cartoons like this that took the place of family and teachers as my primary socialization factor. Thank you for raising me right, TV!

This was the BEST time to be a kid, as a 10 year old, Space Ghost was my hero. No more Cowboys or Army, I made a set of Space Ghost Energy Bands. The shows on Saturday morning were the coolest, especially Hanna Barbera, and I remember we would all watch until lunch and then go out and BE our favorites. Sometimes we would even get together to watch at someone's house that had a COLOR TV, since (a lot of people forget that) not everyone had one yet. Gary Owens' voice was perfect for this larger than life character, who had his own spaceship, the Phantom Cruiser. I recently purchased the complete series of 20 episodes and cannot wait to watch them all. I think the reason this show was/is so popular is because it has the Jonny Quest factor...Action, Adventure, and Fantastic music. I remember being on the edge of my seat back then, and I noticed now that the action is still just as good and probably even better than today's shows. Great in 1966, still phenomenal 40+ years later.

Before he had a talk show he was the guardian of the spaceways; the intergalactic crime fighter, Space Ghost. Hanna-Barbera had been looking for something to counteract the popular Filmation Batman cartoons. They turned to Alex Toth, the master of the H-B hero shows, who came up with Space Ghost. They really lucked out with Gary Owens, popular DJ and Laugh-In regular. They also got Tim "Jonny Quest" Matheson.

Space Ghost was brilliantly designed and executed, although the shorter stories limited character development. We never got to see what SG looked like under the hood (I have seen a model sheet with his real face) or where Jan and Jayce came from. Still the villains were inventive and the plots exciting. The pinnacle was the multi-part tale of SG's battle with the Council of Doom, a conglomeration of SG's nastiest enemies. He even traveled through time to meet up with Dino Boy, Mightor, and Shazaan.

I still find the "Coast to Coast" show funny, but this is the real Space Ghost, the one that inspired Steve Rude and Mike Baron's classic Nexus comic. The Dude even created the ultimate Space Ghost comic. Now, when will see this on dvd?

Lets not even mention his status as a talk show host........

Lets focus on the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon starring the guardian of the spaceways;the intergalactic crime fighter,and the hero who stands for truth,justice and peace throughout the universe,the baddest superhero of the galaxy.......SPACE GHOST

This was one classic piece of breathtaking animation that was brilliantly designed and astoundingly executed to perfection with some of the stories that maybe limited on character development,but in other words this was a show that packed with breathtaking action and excitement throughout and with it some cliffhanging adventure at its finest hour. What more can I say about a intergalactic superhero who files through the skies in his phantom cruiser spaceship along side his companions Jan and Jayce and space monkey Blimp defending and protecting the galaxy from evildoers and other creatures from hostile planets. In other situations as well,Space Ghost also had to risk life and limb in some of the episodes where his companions had to saved from a certain fate from some diabolical villain. Some of the stories were just pure enjoyment,but also some of it was a bit campy since some of the episodes ran within an eight minute time-frame,but still you got your viewings worth when this show came on,and it saw,it delivered the goods and it kicked butt. Space Ghost was the MAN!!!!

However,this show had some of the most diabolical villains ever devised and there were way out there too,especially with the designs created by the master Alex Toth,the head honcho of the Hanna-Barbera superhero shows,and was behind the scenes for Hanna-Barbera's first ever action-adventure series,"Jonny Quest",and so many more,who came up with the creation of Space Ghost. To make this work,they also had the lucky stars with them when they got Gary Owens of "Laugh-In",and once a popular DJ,for the voice of Space Ghost and from there that was only one thing that could be said when they casted Owens in the title role: CLASSIC. Not to mention Tim "Jonny Quest" Matheson as the voice for Jayce. As far as the villains were concerned,this show had them and these were some of the greatest ever devised where as Space Ghost's deadliest enemies were "Cyclo","Brak","Metallus","Black Widow",along with "The Creature King",and "Lurker",not to mention his worst enemy,the always unpredictable and unexpected "Zorak". The pinnacle of the series and probably the best installments of the Space Ghost shows is a multi-part episode untitled,"The Council of Doom" where our hero goes up against some of his deadliest foes in a six-part episode which is as exciting as it gets. This was one cliffhanger of the series where Space Ghost finally meets not only his match,but his uncertain doom. Watch it sometime.

He even traveled through the vortex of time and space to meet up with Dino Boy,The Herculoids,the inter prehistoric stone age crime fighter Mightor,and to meet and fight off evildoers with the hippest,trippest genie of them all..Shazaan. This was in the same category as another Hanna-Barbera character show too,"Dino Boy",about a lost boy who lands in a prehistoric world,where he is befriended by a caveman in a lost valley where danger is always present. Now for all those die-hard fans out there....when will we see this on DVD? Loyal fans of the 1960's cartoon show would really want to know. Catch the episodes on Boomeraction from Cartoon Network.

Ong before he had his own talk show in the form of Adult Swim's long running Space Ghost: Coast To Coast, Space Ghost was a superhero created by the legendary Alex Toth. Starring in his own television series from September 1966 through September 1968 on CBS, Space Ghost (voiced by Gary Owens) would team up with two kid sidekicks, Jan (Ginny Tyler) and Jace (Tim Matheson), and their monkey friend Blip (Don Messick of Scooby-Doo), to fight evil every week. Different villains would provide different scenarios for our heroes but recurring bad guys like Zorak, Moltar and Brak gave episodes and characters a sense of familiarity. Space Ghost, who yelled out his own name far too often, had the power to become invisible which came in handy while dealing with alien villains day in and day out. When you've got to keep the peace in space, being able to turn invisible is a good thing.

Interestingly enough, the last two episodes of the series make up one length story entitled The Council Of Doom wherein, much like the Super Friends' Legion Of Doom that would follow, Space Ghost's many enemies join forces to take him down once and for all. As campy as the series was, there is some actual legitimate suspense to be found here, as the chapters all end as cliffhangers.

While the characters weren't exactly deep or, to be honest, all the interesting they were at least hyper-stylized and extremely cool to watch. Toth's clean line work made sure that the character designs were sleek and that they looked 'space age' for the time they were created. Add to this the fantastic voice work from the entire cast, Gary Owens in particular, and you've got a slick and entertaining little cartoon that may not teach us anything but which will certainly entertain. Owens' voice would later be recognizable in other endeavors such as Captain Caveman where he served as the narrator and Garfield And Friends where he served as the announcer. He's the perfect voice for Space Ghost, sounding noble and heroic and just a little bit full of himself.

Following the same format as Birdman & The Galaxy Trio, which was also shown on CBS around the same time and also created by Alex Toth, in between Space Ghost episodes there would be a second feature, this time in the form of a short Dino Boy In The Lost Valley cartoon. Dino Boy (voiced by Johnny Caron) was a modern day kid named Todd who jumped out of a plane over the South American jungle to avoid a crash. When he landed, he found himself in a prehistoric world where he would befriend a caveman named Ugh (Mike Road) and a dinosaur named Bronto (Don Messick again).

The episodes all move along quickly - each of the three stories runs roughly eight minutes each - and the characters, as simple as they are, are quite fun. The dialogue is hammy but it suits the material well and the sound effects and music should definitely send out some waves of nostalgia to those who remember the show from either its original run or the various syndicated reruns which have been broadcast over the last four decades. The series stands as a sterling example of the sixties pop art aesthetic and as a testament to Toth's unsung creative talents - it's also a heck of a lot of goofy, interstellar fun.