Space Ghost: late-night talk's animated heroBy Helen Lee, syndicated Oct. 25, 1998 The late night talk show wars aren't just for mere mortals anymore. Former superhero Space Ghost, complete with inviso powers and a destructo ray that could demolish Letterman, Conan or Leno, hosts "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" every Friday night at 11:30 p.m. ET on the Cartoon Network. "Space Ghost is like your neighbor's dad," says producer Keith Crofford. "He doesn't quite get it but he thinks he does. A lot of things go sailing over his head. He's a great guy -- but throwing him in with celebrities is like a fish out of water. You can't ever tell him that. You risk a blast if you dispute his knowledge." Since the (mostly) animated program's debut in 1994, live-action guests like Bjork, Ashley Judd, Dr. Drew, Penn and Teller, Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Groening, Janeane Garofalo, Fran Drescher, Tyra Banks, Beck, Robin Leach, Mark Hamill, Charlton Heston, Adam West, Hansen and Ice-T have graced the Ghost Planet studios. But people who choose to participate on a segment of "Space Ghost" must have a sense of humor. The interviews aren't live, the way David Letterman might conduct them. "We devise a list of 20 questions. Space Ghost, a.k.a. Tad Ghostal, kind of assumes everyone has superpowers, so we ask about those. We'll ask questions about the guest's latest projects, get the interview in the can, and we figure out how to work it into the show. The writers come up with a concept, take a guest and start devising scripts based on the answers in the interviews," says Crofford. "Usually we work their answers into whatever we're doing." Space Ghost, ostensibly in a TV station in outer space, views guests on a television screen near his desk. His questions can range from "What's your secret identity?" to "What do you have in your pocket?" Sometimes, the guests fire questions at Space Ghost. In an early segment, author Merrill Markoe appeared and demanded to know all about the host, including whether or not Space Ghost was actually dead. Every once in awhile, the host will even blast his guests into oblivion, as he did with the Bee Gees early on. "The BeeGees was one of our most infamous short interviews. They'd just come from (an interview with) Howard Stern, and they chose to poke fun at the Space Ghost actor interviewing them. I'm sure he didn't have the physique Tad Ghostal does. We got 19 seconds of usable footage out of that, discounting the lewd comments," Crofford says. Some guests ask for the opportunity to be on "Space Ghost," like Radiohead's Tony York. "We're actually having to turn people down," Crofford marvels. Other celebrities, like William Shatner, have rebuffed the program for years. "We've always had a wish list," Crofford says. Who's on it? "Leno, Letterman of the late night talk shows, Conan O'Brien. Hopefully we'll be able to convince one of those guys." Adding to the hilarity are Space Ghost, the romantically-challenged hero whose thoughts are sometimes aired out loud, and his sidekicks Moltar, who is also the director; Zorak, a praying mantis who acts as band leader; and the vaguely cat-like Brak. All of them are super-villains on a work-release program. "Zorak is the bad boy, he appeals to the harder-edge fan who likes troublemakers and those who don't follow the rules. Brak, he could have his own show. He's one of my favorite characters because he's like a big kid," says Crofford, who adds that the network is looking into spinning him off into a new program of his very own. "People enjoy Space Ghost being so clueless, but there's a lot of women who love and even want to marry Brak -- he's just so darn cute." One unusual feature of the show is its reliance on old animation. Space Ghost first appeared on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon in 1966, fighting crime with the help of his sidekicks Jan and Jayce. When the hero returned as talk show host in 1994, "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" consisted of about 90-95 percent animation from the '60s version. For Space Ghost, sitting behind a desk, the producers simply chopped off the superhero's bottom half and stuck him behind a desk. Episodes of the show now range from 11 minutes to a half-hour. "We are the original recycled animated show," Crofford says. "Now we have a library of 50 or 60 poses we continually use. We get the script, we record it like a radio show using voices only." After that, animation -- about 20 percent of it new -- is added. Specific scenes will use new animation, as in a recent episode in which Zorak hit Space Ghost over the head with a chair. Crofford notes, "We're basically poking fun at talk shows and TV more than anything else. Everyone and their mother has a talk show, and it's pretty interesting to see a cartoon character talking to a real person. We're the anti-talk show." Top of page |