Animation Destination

**Animation Destination** (also called **ACME’s Animation Destination**) is an animated programming block which launched as an animated variety show that aired in two iterations that originally ran from 1995 to 1998 and 2012 to 2014 on Cartoon Network as **Cartoon Planet**. The block would adopt its current iteration on the ACME broadcast network, featuring a lineup solely made up of prime-time animation and adult animation carried as a majority of, or the whole of, the network's Friday evening schedule.

As Cartoon Planet, launched as a spin-off of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the series centered on Space Ghost recruiting his imprisoned evil nemesis Zorak and his loud and dimwitted archenemy Brak to assist him in hosting a variety show. Cartoon Planet began as an hour-long block of cartoons hosted by Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak. They would introduce full cartoons from the Turner Entertainment library, such as old theatrical shorts and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including the original 1960s Space Ghost episodes. The host segments were often original songs and ad-libbed skits. New material ceased being made in 1997, and most of the songs and skits were re-packaged into 22 half-hour episodes without classic cartoon clips.

The show's first run was from 1995 to 1998, premiering on TBS in 1995 and then moving to Cartoon Network later that year. New material stopped being made around 1997 and the show was repackaged into 22 half-hour episodes, consisting entirely of songs and skits. From September 24 to October 28, 2005, Cartoon Network briefly revived the show on its Adult Swim block, where it ran at 5:30 am Eastern time. The series ran again on Adult Swim from July 8 to October 29, 2006, on Sundays at 5:30 am Eastern time.

## History

### Original Run: as Cartoon Planet

Each episode included segments such as "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 Saturday-morning slot was shortened to a half-hour), "Vacation Spots Around the Universe" (pieced together from clips of Ultra 7 episodes; at the time Turner owned the distribution rights to a dub created in 1985), "Messages from Outer Space" (also from Ultra 7, featuring the 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 Merrill in the costume performing an amateur dance to the mambo-style theme music or sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, falling asleep to lullaby music.

For the first season of the show, the opening and closing theme songs were instrumental excerpts from "No One Knows My Plan" and "The End of the Tour" by They Might Be Giants.

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 Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Tex Avery cartoons, pre-August 1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts, 2 Stupid Dogs, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and other classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Clips from other Turner-owned properties were used as stock footage as well.

At the time, head writer/producer Pete Smith described Cartoon Planet "as a cross between The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Electric Company, and recess at the Richard M. Nixon School for Wayward Boys... Cartoon Planet skillfully steers clear of any semblance of sophisticated humor. Forced by network muckety-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."

Cartoon Planet resulted in three soundtrack CDs: Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes in 1996 (a non-commercial promotional album), Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que in 1997, and Space Ghost's Surf & Turf, the latter two published by Rhino Entertainment) in 1998. The albums consisted of songs and dialogue skits with different background music not used in the show.

### **2012-14: Revival series**

The revival of the series premiered on March 30, 2012, and ended on February 8, 2014, featuring a different format from the original series. Due to budget restrictions, Space Ghost did not appear in the revival, thus leaving Brak and Zorak to host the show as "roommates together in their own, stupid little apartment" (despite this, Brak made a mini clone of Space Ghost in one episode). Instead of classic 1960s-era cartoons being showcased, the revival featured Cartoon Network's original programming, mostly Cartoon Cartoons, from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s. Also, Zorak is not trapped behind a console, instead usually playing video games. Sometimes Zorak will get interrupted by Brak, causing him to lose the game.

Airing in a format based on The Cartoon Cartoon Show, the revival aired a variety of classic Cartoon Network shows in 7 or 11-minute segments per cartoon. This allowed for four or five different cartoons to be aired in the block one-hour time slot.

In October 2012, Cartoon Planet celebrated Cartoon Network's 20th birthday to which it released a special two-minute song sung by Brak. The song paid tribute to the shows throughout the network's history.

There have also been holiday-themed episodes, featuring several of the Cartoon Network programming presented in a holiday-themed episode, including Halloween and Christmas.

Starting on January 11, 2013, several Cartoon Network shows that have been short-lived, permanent hiatus, canceled, or officially ended joined up to Cartoon Planet's programming block starting with Robotomy, Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, and The Problem Solverz, all of which have since been removed in the transition back to the Cartoon Cartoon format. Other short-lived series including Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones, Sheep in the Big City, Mike, Lu & Og, Time Squad, and Squirrel Boy did not air on the block.

Starting on April 12, 2013, the block began airing YTV, Teletoon, and Warner Bros. Animation programming in which the first was Scaredy Squirrel, Almost Naked Animals, and Tom and Jerry Tales, breaking the show's tradition of only airing Cartoon Network original programming. They were subsequently removed. From June 27, 2013, to August 9, 2013, the block aired on Thursdays at 1:30 pm ET. On August 30, 2013, the block ran on a Friday night for the last time before it was replaced by Pizza Night with Pizza Steve. It has aired on Saturdays at 11:30 am ET and Sundays at 11:00 am ET since September 7, 2013. Also, on November 4, 2013, the block started airing on weekdays at 2:00 pm ET.

The revival was animated in Flash, rather than cel animation, like the original Space Ghost series (several cells, mainly Brak's, were duplicated in Flash). It also included stop motion scenes, such as the "Make You Go Splat!" music video.

#### **Skits**

The following are some of the skits that appeared on the 2012 revival:

* Advertisements – Fake advertisements for made-up products which the show indicates as "Not Real". On rare occasions, two advertisements were shown. The first advertisement aired was for "Bushido Potatoes".
* Music Video – Original songs are sung by Brak and Zorak. The first song was "Pizza Song", which received positive reviews and internet fame. Zorak also sang in his first music video "Make You Go Splat!" which received internet fame as well.
* Zorak's Poetry Beat – Series of poems told by Zorak involving ridiculous items and nonsense lyrics. In one episode, Brak recited the poetry segment because Zorak did not feel like it. The first poem was "Ode to a Diseased Chimpanzee".
* Brak's Comedy Jokes – This segment featured Brak telling jokes to the audience. In one episode, Zorak replaces Brak in the segment now renamed "Zorak's Comedy Jokes" telling jokes which are black comedy jokes involving the misfortunes of the people that the joke is centered on.
* Dating Tips with Brak – Brak gives out (usually bad) dating tips to the audience. At the end of each skit, he says "And that's a tip from me...".
* What's in My Mouth? – A rare segment in which Brak opens his mouth a little bit while saying "Aaaah" and Zorak had to guess what was in it. Usually, the objects are gross (such as a piece of dental cotton from five weeks ago).
* Make Stuff Happen on the T.V. – A segment in which Brak and Zorak are watching television and they interact with the programs by poking the characters on the screen, commenting to each other, voicing them, and even giving them root beer (Brak).
* Zorak Video Game Chats – A segment in which Zorak reviews a video game on his Zbox, which indicates that the games are not real. One example of a reviewed game is Pasta Grandma.
* Clones – A one-off skit reminiscent of the skits done on the original show. In on skit, Brak clones himself, Zorak, and even Space Ghost. The clones are smaller and have young kids doing their voices. The skit continued with the little Braks singing the opening theme for the modern show.

### **2021-present: Return to Friday nights**

On May 27, 2021, following its 2021–22 upfronts, ACME announced 9 new scripted series for the upcoming season. After the extension of Fox’s Animation Domination block to Monday nights, ACME Networks CEO Joey Villalobos asked Golden Entertainment Chairman Richie Ledford to develop programming for a time period that would compete with the Sunday night block. After several attempts at original program development, the network stated that it planned to commission and acquire more series from "independent" studios, and will look to showcase diverse stories by placing a larger emphasis on animation.

After being presented with many new pitches directly from their writers, and having them offered to outside producers, ACME aimed to gradually increase the amount of animated programming by modeling the new evening programming block to become the network's marquee night for premieres of new episodes and series. This model was introduced from 1999 to 2003 for Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block. It was announced the “Cartoon Planet” name would be resurrected for the new block as it was inspired by a large amount of interest in Cartoon Network’s legacy in being able to assess the potential of certain shorts to serve as pilots for spin-off series and sign contracts with their creators to create ongoing series through its What a Cartoon! animation showcase series. However, the name would later be dropped following reports that ACME executives were proposing a rebrand of the block including the expansion of programming appealing more toward young adults between the ages of 14 and 34 as opposed to families or teenagers.

On September 6, 2021, ACME Networks announced that Cartoon Planet would be rebranded as “**Animation Destination**”. Villalobos explained in describing that the block was intended to represent an "immense" collection of storytelling through the art of animation under one umbrella for viewers across multiple platforms but also citing possible confusion under the Cartoon Planet name not necessarily being catered specifically to children or all-ages audiences, and is mainly targeted and marketed towards adults and adolescents.

The current iteration of Animation Destination debuted on September 24, 2021. The first program to originate on the block was Moose and Molly, based on the comic strip created by Bob Weber. Rounding out the Animation Nation lineup alongside Moose and Molly were The Middletons (based on the comic strip created by Ralph Dunagin and Dana Summers), Geech (created by Jerry Bittle), and Dilbert (which was UPN's highest-rated comedy series in the network's history; and was revived as a series 21 years after its 2000 cancellation).

In October 2021, Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation announced they had ordered a revival of the cult hit Freakazoid! The show was revived twenty-four years later for a comedic, more mature third season that provides a continuation of slapstick, parody, and pop-cultural references.

## Programming

### **Current programming**

 The Middletons
 Geech
 Dilbert
 The Brak Show
 Robot Jones