TV
for kids.” Note: You’ll find little or no
flatulence on Dexter’s Laboratory.. .with
the exception of an episode entitled,
aptly enough, “Critical Gas.” Some
where, Ren and Stimpy are smiling.
VOMIT AND INTESTINAL WIND MAY
amuse a 6-year-old, but for real belly
laughs, Lazzo and his team trekked
deep into the Hanna-Barbera cos
mos to unearth Space Ghost, whose
oft-invisible interstellar hero is also
TV’s first animated talk-show host.
Space Ghost, Lazzo explains, was just
obscure enough to qualify for spoof
duty: “If we’d come into it saying
we wanted to turn Scooby-Doo into
a talk-show host, we might have
[been] met with some resistance.”
The gamble paid off: Space Ghost
Coast to Coast premiered in 1994 and
demonstrated what could be done with
a hero past his prime. The show has
spawned several spin-offs, including
Johnny Bravo strikes a pose and strikes out in the cafeteria
The Brak Show Starring Brak, whose
eponymous emcee is an erstwhile
Space Ghost nemesis-turned-brain
damaged raconteur. (See sidebar on
page 28.) And this, we’re told, will
pale in comparison with next year’s
Leave It to Brak, a “sitcom” featuring
a next-door neighbor played by anime
hero Gundam Warrior. Other forays
into postmodern pastiche have paid off
just as handsomely. Last year’s The
Scooby-Doo Project (a 24-hour mara
wco xajowauJ MMM du| spnpojj >(aiuja[/\j 0002©