Production
Cartoon Planet guised itself almost like a hokey after-school show: the clichéd "mailbag", in which Space Ghost displayed difficulty with reading; classic cartoon interludes; and strange conversations among the hosts. The humor was a toned-down version of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, but still bizarre, such as when the cast would break out into song with strangely edited music videos. These songs spawned three soundtrack albums: Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes in 1996 (a non-commercial promotional album, now out of print) Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que in 1997, and Space Ghost's Surf & Turf (both commercial albums published by Rhino Entertainment) in 1998. The albums consisted of songs and dialogue skits with different background music not used in the show.
Regular segments featured on the show included Brak's School Daze, Zorak's Horror Scopes, Poets' Corner, Brak's Monday Ratings Report, The Top 5 Cartoon Countdown (discontinued in 1997 after the show's slot on Saturday mornings was shortened from an hour to a half hour), Vacation Spots Around the Universe (pieced together from clips of Ultra 7 episodes), Messages from Outer Space (also pieced together from the aforementioned Ultra 7, and starring the nefarious Hot Dog Men), Mailbag Day, readings from the Cartoon Planet Storybook, messages from Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty's local Public-access television cable TV horror movie host from SCTV; the segments were originally shown on Hanna-Barbera's The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley), Learning to Talk Italian, Nuggets of Joy from Zorak, Zorak's Helpful Hints, and Cooking with Brak. The show also had short live-action segments featuring producer Andy Merrill wearing an ill-fitting Space Ghost costume doing various things like visiting a petting zoo, getting a haircut (although he kept his mask on), playing tennis, or visiting a gift shop. Intros of the show during the early years featured Andy in the costume dancing (very badly) to the mambo-style theme music or sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, falling asleep to lullaby baby music.
Clips of numerous cartoons from the Turner library would often pop up spontaneously during segments of the show, especially during the music videos. These included (but are certainly not limited to) Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Tex Avery cartoons, early Looney Tunes shorts, Two Stupid Dogs (Cubby making a cameo in one segment when Brak asks if there are any questions from the audience), shorts from the What-a-Cartoon Show (including the pilot for Dexter's Laboratory among others), The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and other classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Head writer/producer Pete Smith gave this official description of Cartoon Planet when the show was still new:
"Cartoon Planet can best be described as a cross between 'The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,' 'The Electric Company,' and recess at the Richard M. Nixon School for Wayward Boys. Combining music, comedy, and musical comedy, Cartoon Planet skillfully steers clear of any semblance of sophisticated humor. Forced by network muckity-mucks to air his dirty spandex in front of millions of impressionable young minds, Space Ghost dragged a reluctant Zorak and a confused Brak into the treacherous waters of sketch comedy. The next thing you know, old Jed's a millionaire... No wait. That's another show. The end."
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