The Brak Show is one of Cartoon Network's 15-minute animated series that airs during Adult Swim. It is a spinoff of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast featuring recurring characters from that show and Cartoon Planet, both of which used stock footage from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Space Ghost and Dino-Boy. The protagonist is a Space Ghost villain named "Brak", voiced by Andy Merrill, who developed a quirky persona for the character.

The Brak Show was produced by Williams Street Studios, and is akin to Sealab 2021 and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The show premiered in September, 2001. After being canceled in December, 2003, the show returned to the air in May, 2004.

The show is characterized by its crude animation and bizarre sense of humor.

Characters and premise

"What happens when two adults get together and have children? And what if those children grow up and go to school? That's the just-crazy-enough-to-work premise behind "The Brak Show." Also, Brak is in it." -Description of show from cover of Brak Show DVD

The show is about Brak's suburban life with his alien mother and Cuban father. It originally started off as a parody of situation comedies, but just like its sister show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the plot dissolved over time and became increasingly bizarre. The setting is suburban with an extra-planetary hint. A Saturn-like planet appears in the background on occasion, and a lot of the extras are aliens.

Characters

Brak (voiced by Andy Merrill) is some sort of anthropomorphic space cat with an eccentric personality. He is quite stupid and seems to be a pre-teen adolescent. He still has attachments to stuffed animals ("Hippo"), yet nonetheless is starting to be attracted to girls (the "Poppy" episode). He often randomly breaks into (usually non-rhyming) song. The writers take care, oddly enough, to use a wide variety of musical styles for the songs--covering jazz, country, showtunes, rap, and rock.

Brak's Dad (voiced by George Lowe ) is a human Midget with a Cuban accent, who is extremely self-centered and nonsensical. Most of his time is spent sitting at the kitchen table and reading the newspaper. He is more than likely an homage to Desi Arnaz. An episode seldom goes by without him delivering a moral to the story that's completely incoherent and has no relevance to the situation. Occasionally he displays prominent male-chauvinistic behavior, which is sometimes rebuked by Brak's mom.

Brak's Mom (voiced by Marsha Crenshaw for the first 13 episodes, and Joanna Daniel for the duration of the series) is a creature of the same species as Brak, with the fashions of a matriarchal character on a 1950s sitcom. She is largely the only sane character on the show. She displays little romantic or sexual interest in Brak's Dad, and often does not tolerate him. She is most likely an homage to June Cleaver and similar characters.

Zorak (voiced by C. Martin Croker) is another character from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, a human-sized mantis. On this show, he plays the role of an Eddie Haskell character, who's also a sociopathic, sadistic, morally-bankrupt misanthrope. He often gets killed off in the show, in the same way he did in Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Sisto was Brak's brother who made cameos on the show in which all he did was flatuate and walk off screen, until they killed him off in season two by having cannibalistic aliens eat him.

Thundercleese (voiced by Carey Means) is Brak's next-door-neighbor, a militant Killbot (with the visual appearance of a Gundam or a similar anime-style robot) who also is passionate about his lawn and garden. A short-lived shtick on the show involved Thundercleese blasting Zorak. He has little patience for Brak's idiotic questions.

Clairence (also voiced by Andy Merrill) is a chubby purple alien and schoolmate of Brak's. He was a supporting character on the show who made more regular appearances towards the end of the series.

See also

• Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
• Cult television
• Adult Swim

External link

• Official Brak Show Website
• TV Tome entry