July 21, $20.01 - The latest news from the con is that George Lowe missed the panel due to catching a bug, and Mike Lazzo missed it due to a schedule conflict. No word on the panel itself yet.

July 21, $20.01 - Bippi Boy has posted two pages of promotional material that Cartoon Network has put out for Adult Swim on his web site, here and here. Read carefully, apparently Moltar's been demoted from director to camera man.

July 17, $20.01 - The San Diego Comic Con will have a Space Ghost panel this Saturday at noon. Mike Lazzo, George Lowe, Andy Merrill, C. Martin Croker, Keith Crofford, Matt Maiellaro, and Dave Willis will all be there, showing a new episode of Coast to Coast and other shows from Adult Swim. In other Adult Swim news,

July 17, $20.01 - The graphic hyping the July 22nd showing of Freak Show at the official site was altered recently, obscuring Bill Manspeaker with, well, something, and the caption has been switched to say Freak Hole. The change is illustrated at left. The Home Companion page continues to promise Freak Show and Waiting for Edward. The last time something like this happened on the official page was the surprise premiere of Kentucky Nightmare. We leave it up to you to decide if they're sneaking out a new show.

June 4, $20.01 - Last month, Kentucky Nightmare, a previously unseen episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, featuring Willie Nelson, was aired in the regular Sunday night time spot. The episode was announced with a subtle hint on the official site. So far, there haven't been any more stealth airings. For those of you who missed the episode and enjoy spoilers, you can peruse this transcript while waiting for it to be re-run. A brief synopsis with spoilers, a screengrab, and the hint from the official site are also available, courtesy of The Renegade Chickens. June 4, $20.01 - For our readers in the New York City area, Cartoon Network Confidential, a free screening of "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" will be shown at 8:00 PM, through Thursday, at the The Screening Room in Tribeca. Monday's screening included Kentucky Nightmare, and, from the December stealth previews, Sealab 2021 (the robot episode), Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a new version of the previosuly seen Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law with a completed soundtrack and several other additions. Seating is first come, first serve and lines form (eg tickets become available) at 6:30 PM the day of the airing. The screening is part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. The show also included the Beat Alls episode of the Powerpuff Girls, an episode of the series Home Movies (formerly of UPN, done in Squigglevision), Captain Linger, and several groovies and other promos already in rotation. A small supply of Powerpuff Pop Tarts and a large supply of Mad magazines were also given away free (cheap!)

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April 26, $20.01 - A Space Ghost Coast to Coast puzzle is now available in (some?) stores. The DGP acquired a copy for under $5 in the toy aisle of a CVS. Oddly enough for a product based on a show that airs at midnight, the box clearly states "Ages 4 to 8". We've yet to cut open our box, so we can't judge the entertainment value for the over eight set. The 60 piece, 12 ½ x 15 inch puzzle, manufactured by Milton Bradley/Hasbro, features images of Space Ghost, Brak, Moltar, and Zorak.

April 26, $20.01 - Cartoon CARTOONS #6 (cover date September '01) features two Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The outstanding cover is by C. Martin Croker, the cover story ("Go Space Ghost Manga, Go!") is written by Andy Merrill and pencilled by Walter Gomez & Robert Pope. The backup ("Tour de Force") is written by Robbie Busch and pencilled by Robert Pope.

April 18, $20.01 - Toonheads: The Wartime Cartoons will air on Cartoon Net on July 1st at 10 PM. This special episode of the Toonheads series was written by Jerry Beck and George Klein, and produced with the help of some unnamed (to us, anyway) folks at Williams Street. The special will feature clips from rarely seen World War II cartoons (and four complete cartoons). For more info and the latest news on this special, check out the news page at Mr. Beck's website.

April 18, $20.01 - In honor of Joey Ramone, who passed away on the 15th, Bobcat (feautring the Ramones and Bobcat Goldthwaite as guests) will be aired Sunday the 22nd at midnight, followed by Transcript.

February 20, $20.01 - ToyCom has plans for Zorak, Moltar, and Brak action figures for summer of this year, along with a slightly modified version of their Space Ghost figure. Prototypes were displayed at the Toy Fair 2001. Check out pictures and more info at about.com. Thanks to Negaduck9 over at Brak's Scrapbook for pointing out the news.
In other news, Cartoon Network Starring Space Ghost Coast to Coast #18 (cover date Feb '01) should still be on stands now, with a cover story written by C. Martin Croker.

February 8, $20.01, updated February 20 - George (Space Ghost) Lowe has been reported as saying that eight new episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast have been ordered, along with twelve new episodes of a re-tooled version of The Brak Show. The comment was reported by a poster to the ghost-planet mailing list. The DGP has received other reports that Cartoon Network has ordered new episodes of Coast to Coast. Our crack research staff's previous theory about the schedule have been disproven. After showing King Dead (the last new episode shown) on March 25, Cartoon Network will not be starting with new episodes, but instead starting all over again with the first episode shown, Spanish Translation. Let's hope they don't go through all the episodes again before starting the new ones. The people responsible for the discredited theory about the schedule trend will be sacked as soon as the credits are over.

January 12, $20.01 - Space Ghost and Zorak are featured on the cover of the current (Jan/Feb 2001) issue of Oxford American the Southern Magazine of Good Writing, asking the question "The Funniest Show on Television?" The article is written by Todd Hanson of The Onion, which operates out of the deep south of Wisconsin. The magazine is available at news stands and bookstores in a good part of the country, but you can also check their website for ordering details.

December 30, 2000 - More Williams Street shows had 'surprise' premieres this morning at 4 AM. Another half hour of Sealab 2021, and fifteen minutes each of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This time the Daily Ghost Planet was at the scene with a VCR - check out our synopses. The shows should be showing up on the regular schedule sometime in the middle of 2001. While no more stealth showings are expected, we remind those of you that feel the need to continue setting their VCR's for more than a few more days that electricity is not free.

December 23, 2000 - Viewers have reported a showing of two new Williams Street productions - Sealab 2021 and Leave it to Brak at 5:00 AM Pacific time on Dec 21st. Leave it to Brak has been mentioned at conventions recently, and is a "sitcom" featuring Brak, his brother Sisto, their parents, and in the stealth pilot at least, Zorak. Sealab 2021 appears to be a surreal adventure series built from old clips. Since it's impossible to know if more surprise episodes will air, there are worse things you could do than setting your VCR to tape Cartoon Network overnight from around midnight to 6 AM Eastern or Pacific, depending on your location, until, let's say, about the end of the year.

November 4, 2000 - Evan Dorkin who, along with Sarah Dyer, wrote many classic Coast to Coast epsiodes, is working on a pilot for Cartoon Network based on his Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club comics. The script is done, and it should be going into production soon. Keep up to date on it at Evan and Sarah's House of Fun or at Comics 2 Film.

November 4, 2000 - Work may or may not be underway on a piot for Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for Cartoon Network. According to a piece in Entertainment Weekly in June, CN promo producer Michael Ouweleen is working on the pilot with J.J. Sedelmaier. Ouweleen worked on the Survivor parody Staylongers promos featuring Brak, and the Space Ghost spot that got NASA to name rocks on Mars after Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Brak. Sedelmaier produces the animation for Robert Smiegel's cartoons for Saturday Night Live, including The Ambiguously Gay Duo, and like the DGP, he works out of White Plains, New York.

November 4, 2000 - Space Ghost Coast to Coast is, according to our best sources, officialy on hiatus. Meaning that one day we may see new epsidoes, or we may not. Not as good as a guarantee of new episodes, but not as bad as being cancelled. In the meantime, the Space Ghost team is working on other projects. The DGP apologizes for the vaugeness, our earlier optimism, and our slow pace of updates.
In the meantime, there are some new reviews up at the official web site, and this Sunday night's rerun (at midnight) will be two showings of Boat Show in honor of talk show pioneer Steve Allen.

January 30, 2000 - A clear version of the Space Ghost action figure is being made by Toycom will be offered exclusively via a future issue of Previews magazine. Check out pictures at Toymania.

January 30, 2000 - DC Comic's Cartoon Network Starring #9 (cover date May 2000) comic will feature a flashback to Space Ghost and Zorak's first meeting The script is by Andy Merrill and C. Martin Croker did the pencils.

January 29, 2000 - The guest list for the first (and hopefully not last) two episodes of Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak (set to air in February and March) now includes Jo Dee Messina, Monica, Freddy Prinze Jr., Diamond Dallas Page, and The Chieftans. Rhino records will be putting out an album in March, including most of the songs from the two episodes. Monica's rendition of I Love You Baby, described by Andy Merrill as "kind of a mix between the Brak version and 'That Boy is Mine'" will not be included for fear of interfering with her new album.

January 29, 2000 - Following the pattern of the last several years, the next new episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast won't start airing until the second half of 2000. Our sources inform us that there will be at least six new episodes.

January 29, 2000 - Fashion Victim's line of Space Ghost T-Shirts and stickers is being discontinued (note - they only do wholesale themselves). They aren't making any more, so once the stores run out, that's it. Check out Brak's Scrapbook for more information. The Space Ghost action figure continues to be hard to find, sources tend to dry up as soon as they're announced - subscribe to the ghost-planet mailing list to keep up to date.

January 14, 2000 - A couple of weeks back, viewers of Coast to Coast were caught by surprise with a preview of the Brak Show - announcing that the long awaited special and potential pilot will finally air at 7 PM ET on Sunday, February 20th, 2000. A second half hour episode will air at 8 pm on March 16th. See Kim McFarland's page on the Brak Show at Brak's Scrapbook for more details and even some screengrabs. Apparently she cares about her readers. Not like some people we could mention.

December 22, 1999 (updated Jan 14) - Some copies of the current issue of Toyfare magazine feature Art Asylum and Toycom's Space Ghost figure. There have been various reports of the figure being sighted in stores and online stores and auction houses. Apparently some Suncoast Video stores have been getting them in. Typical price is around $20 a piece. Consult your local collectibles merchant for further details.

October 5, 1999 (upd. nov 18) - Space Ghost was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production. The nod came for Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer's script for Lawsuit [C2C 60]. The award went to Tim Long, Larry Doyle, and Matt Selman, for the "Simpsons Bible Stories" episode of (you guessed it) the Simpsons. Also nominated were episodes of Batman Beyond, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, and Futurama. The award was presented November 6. To quote Krusty the Clown - "The academy hates me...I don't why...they wouldn't know comedy if it bit them on their...HEY! HEY!".

July 25, 1999 (upd. Nov 2) - The Brak Show, a new variety program, starring Brak and Zorak is slated to premiere this November on the Cartoon Network. It will be a one hour musical variety show special, featuring guests (already recorded numbers include Freddy Prinze Jr. has singing "Highway 40" and Monica singing "I Love You Baby", and the Chieftans.)  At a Ghost Planet Industries panel at Dragon*Con '99 in Atlanta on July 2nd, Andy Merrill, Clay Croker, Pete Smith, and Nina Bishop spoke extensively about the plans for the new show. They hope it will become a new series. It will feature about 16 brand new songs that may lead to a new CD on Rhino. Andy Merrill (who has returned to Atlanta) and Clay Croker, will of course star as Brak and Zorak.

In an early November missive from Atlanta, the DGP was informed that the Brak Show is expected to air in the year 2000 and wrestler Diamond Dallas Page has taped a segment.

Also discussed was the progress on the new season of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast - newly announced guests include comedian Steven Wright and actress Sarah Jessica Parker. They also mentioned a recorded but unscheduled interview with Ben Folds, and that contrary to reports on They Might Be Giant's website, there are no plans to use the rest of John Flansburgh's interview yet. On the website front, there are plans to produce weekly or daily two minute Space Ghost radio plays for www.ghostplanet.com. Meanwhile, later in the month, at Chicago Con, fans got a glimpse at the new Space Ghost action figure designed by Art Asylum being slated for release in October by Toycom. It will be a Coast to Coast toy, and if it does well, Brak, Zorak, and Moltar figures may all follow. Check it out at the very bottom of Action Figure Times' article on the Chicago Con.

May 13, 1999 - Sources close to the Ghost Planet have said the new season has been pushed back to August. The season should have about 10 to 12 episodes all told, with 5 in the first bunch. The first episode will feature Hanson. Amongst the ranks of the interviewed but unscheduled are Bob Costas, Willie Nelson, Conan O'Brien, and Jerry Springer.

Feb. 12, 1999 - Andy Merrill has put together a series of stories called Brak In New York. It will run exclusively on www.ghostplanet.com starting February 15th. It's a journal of Brak's experiences in New York City - where we can only hope he stopped to take in a Mets game. Mr. Merrill's taking a break from trying to land a cushy network gig to fill in during regular website honcho/writer Chip Duffey 's vacation.

Nov. 10, 1998 - Space Ghost will be appearing on the Donny and Marie show on Monday the 16th. Apparently, GPI has put a good amount of work into preparing the animation for this one.

Oct. 30, 1998 - (ed's note: this article is more or less right in every respect except for the fact that CN: B is not going to be produced.) Code Name: Brak should (as in if all goes right and nothing anywhere along the line stops it) premiere as part of the What a Cartoon Show during 1999. It will feature the adventures of secret agent Brak back on his home planet of Idaho. Counting Pete Smith and Matt Maiellaro amongst it writers and featuring Andy Merrill voicing the title character, Code Name: Brak will also consist of all or mostly new animation. (Thanks to Kim McFarland of Brak's Scrapbook for her invaluable help in writing this blurb.)

Oct. 18, 1998 - Mystery Science Theater 3000 inventor and former host Joel Hodgson and his brother Jim have produced some new footage for Space Ghost Coast to Coast at their Visual Story Tools production company. Here's a snippet from an interview Joel did with the Satellite News (thanks for their kind permission to print this snippet, watch their site for the rest.)

SATELLITE NEWS: We heard that you've been working on elements of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast."

JOEL HODGSON: Yeah. I've gotten to be a guest on Space Ghost and I got to write an episode with Nell Scovell, the woman I wrote "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" with. They hired us (Visual Story Tools) to shoot some show elements for it, so we built this big model for it. Basically, Space Ghost had turned the Ghost Planet and everything into a theme park ride, the Space Ghost Coast to Coaster, which you kind of ride. It's kind of like the Jungle Cruise. So we shot that. Of course, in the tradition of "Mystery Science Theater," they're kind of post-modernist so who knows what will become of it. I don't really know. But we built a very elaborate set and shot for a few days.

SN: Is this just going to be for one show?

JH: No. It's interstitials and it's for the opening. That's what it was originally designed for.

Aug. 31, 1998 - Joshua guest Sean Medlock, has written a story in the Writer's Bloc anthology comic. Check out a preview of his work, it features a character called The Haiku (there's a surprise). Then go pester our local comic book store for a copy (Sean needs the sales, Dr. Nightmare don't work cheap.)

Aug. 05, 1998 - Andy Merrill, the lovable tot who was instrumental in the never aired pilot reel for Coast to Coast, who wrote and produced many an episode of Coast to Coast and Cartoon Planet, and supplies the voices for Brak and Lokar, and helped build the new Space Ghost web site has left Cartoon Network to pursue other pastures. He will still write the occasional script and continue to supply voices for his characters though. A touching farewell party was thrown at Ghost Planet Industries at the end of July (or so we hear). The Daily Ghost Planet would like to thank Mr. Merrill for all the laughter, tears, and thought provoking moments he's brought to us lo' these many years, and will no doubt continue to give us, and wish him the best of luck in his new projects. (Thanks to Tom Roche, of Atlanta, GA, and our hierenomous sources).

July 7th, 1998 - The Atlanta Journal reports that during a recent visit to Tedtown, adorable pop moppets Hanson only interview was with none other than the Ghost with the most. The article goes on to report that the interview went sour, and ended with Space Ghost repeatedly shooting them with his spank ray, but that sounds more like a post production kind of thing to us. (Thanks to Ed Mundy.)

June 14, 1998 - Interloper Mike Shawaluk's six week reign of terror has ended as Daily Ghost Planet founder and Editor in Chief Gerson Koenig has returned from his cyber-displacement. We thank Mike for his helpful intervention and have upgraded his status to "Eligible for Re-education after the Revolution". We'd make a link to his page here, but this way he can send us a letter asking us to do it, and he seems to enjoy that sort of thing.

June 02, 19, Aug. 05 & 30,1998 - The official web site for Rhino Records lists a new CD in their Upcoming/New Releases section, with the title "Space Ghost's Surf & Turf ". This CD shows a scheduled release date of August 19. Check out the Surf and Turf page at Rhino for more details (including audio clips and cover art.)
Thanks to Señor Shawaluko.

Mar. 31, 1998 - As a result of Gerson's recent abduction by space aliens (okay, not entirely true, he's actually off job hunting), the Daily Ghost Planet pages have been temporarily transferred to the trusting care of his lifelong friend and/or mentor Mike Shawaluk (that's me!) So if anything goes wrong with these pages in Gerson's absence, it was already broken before he left, and it's not my fault. So there.

Mar. 30, 1998 - The Toonami themed issue nine of the DC comic book Cartoon Network Presents is on the stands now, and feature three pretty un-humorous pages of Moltar. (Thanks to Andrew E.)

Mar. 6, 1998 - Not surprisingly, work is already underway on a brand spanking new season of Space Ghost Coast to Coast (set to start airing in mid july) at Ghost Planet Industries' new-to-them offices. Amongst the shows being beaten into shape are one starring Björk, one show grouping directors Ben Stiller, Kevin Smith and Jim Jarmusch, and probably another featuring the original Space Ghost, Gary Owens. Production manager Kaili Rubin, talent coordinator Isabel Gonzalez, line producer Jim Fortier, and the artist formerly known as Barry Mills are all amongst the staffers receiving promotions to other jobs. Congratulations folks, keep up the good work. Back from his foray into "network" tv on Late Show with David Letterman is writer/producer Matt Harrigan. Not dead at the hands of an irate fan, and being thanked for the fact that this entire article is copied out of one of his posts is editor Tom Roche.

Nov. 11, 1997 - Moltar appears in three pages of a Toonami based segment in the recently released DC comic book Cartoon Network Presents #5. Issue #10 is also planned to be a Toonami issue. (Thanks to Andrew E.)

Oct. 29, 1997 - Don Messick, the original voice of Zorak, Blip, Scooby Doo, and numerous other cartoon characters passed away on Friday the 24th. Memorial contributions can be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 2700 Garden Road, Monterey, CA 98940.

Oct. 22, 1997 - Sean Medlock (SeanMed at aol dot com) of Indianapolis, IN and Ryah Rosenberg of Phoenix, AZ are the winners of the haiku contest. They will appear as guests on an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast set to air ot midnight, December 31st. Sean, the winner in the over 18 category, is a 29 1/2 year old book editor with a fascination for shiny objects, who appeared on tv earlier this year in an episode of the Sci-Fi Channel's Anti-Gravity Room. Ryah is a 17 year old student. They were flown to Atlanta on the weekend of October 4th, where they taped interviews with George Lowe. Sean has put up a photo journal of his trip. Their haikus might show up on the official Ghost Planet web site, if and when that gets updated. (Thanks to Sean Medlock.)

Sept. 11, 1997 - Four rocks on Mars have been named after Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Brak. The announcement was made by scientist from NASA's Mars pathfinder team on August 29. The move was partly inspired by the commercial featuring Space Ghost lambasting project leader Matthew Golombek for naming rocks after a number of other cartoon characters. Images will hopefully become available on the Pathfinder image archive.

Aug. 6, 1997 - An unidentifiable but reliable source has claimed that Coast to Coast/Cartoon Planet writer and voice of Brak, Andy Merrill provided the voice for Moltar when he sang Du Du Liegst Mir Im Herzen during Edelweiss, in place of Clay Croker who has done both Moltar's and Zorak's voices since Coast to Coast premiered. The source maintains that Croker did the rest of Moltar's voice work for the episode, including the other singing parts. Kevin Murphy was unavailable for comment, and irrelevant to the story.

Condensed Sept. 15, 1997 - A new Cartoon Planet CD, Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que (R4 72875 and R2/R4 72876) is in stores now on the KidRhino/Cartoon Network label. It's a mix of previously unreleased material that has appeared on Cartoon Planet and selections from the out of print Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes. Contrary to previous reports, not all of the selections from MMFSS are featured. Some new songs that are not on SGMBBQ include I'm Nasty, Metalhead, Bad Bug, and Brak's Dylan Tribute. According to GPI big shot Alan Laddie, some of the parody songs were left off due to legal concerns and MMFSS "is officially out of print and will NOT be re-released".
Rhino has more info about the album on their site.
(Thanks to Tim Garber and Dstrdb042 at aol dot com.)

July 30, 1997 - Cartoon Planet seems to be pretty much in a bad news bad news stage. While they've just finished compiling 22 episodes that will keep sketches (but not songs) from repeating until the end of the year, they won't be doing any new material, "at least not for a good long while" according to a recent post by associate producer Jefferson Clay on alt.fan.space-ghost. This is partly a result of the time Cartoon Planet writers Pete Smith and Andy Merrill are putting into the production of the new Coast to Coast episodes. Plus, the Saturday morning airing has been removed from the schedule. If you want to make polite inquiries into this situation, try snail mail to:

Cartoon Network Programming
1050 Techwood Drive
Atlanta, GA 30318

Send all comments to gersonkoenig@yahoo.com.

The Daily Ghost Planet is an independent production, unaffiliated with the Cartoon Network, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, or Williams Street.

The Daily Ghost Planet is © copyright Gerson Koenig 1997, 2001. Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Planet, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Sealab 2020, Sealab 2021, and Leave it To Brak are © copyright Time Warner/Cartoon Network. All associated characters are © copyright Hanna Barbera Productions, Cartoon Network and or Time Warner.