The Brak Show

The Brak Show
Volume One DVD cover for The Brak Show
Genre	Animated Sit-com, Surreal humor
Format	Animated series
Created by	Jim Fortier Andy Merrill Pete Smith
Starring	Andy Merrill George Lowe C. Martin Croker Carey Means Marsha Crenshaw Joanna Daniel Don Kennedy
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	29 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	15 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Adult Swim
Original run	December 21, 2000 (2000-12-21) – December 31, 2003 (2003-12-31)

The Brak Show is an animated series consisting of 15-minute episodes on the Cartoon Network that aired during Adult Swim. The show was a spin-off of the hit animated TV show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and featured recurring characters from that show and Cartoon Planet. Both programs used stock footage from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Space Ghost and Dino Boy. The protagonist is Brak, voiced by Andy Merrill, who developed a quirky persona for the character.

Overview

The Brak Show was preceded by two specials entitled Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak. Despite the similarities in the titles, the two Brak Shows have very little in common. The former show was a spoof of early sitcoms, while the latter parodied the genre of variety shows. Both of the episodes aired in the US only once in 2000, although clips of the show could be viewed after the Space Ghost Coast to Coast time slot on occasion. In the UK only one of the two specials aired on Bravo on August 23, 2006 and then again on December 23, 2007. There are also clips from the shows on The Brak Show Volume 1 DVD and AdultSwim.com.

The Brak Show series premiered unannounced in the early hours of December 21, 2000, along with the "Radio Free Sealab" episode of Sealab 2021. This "stealth" pilot (titled "Leave it to Brak") featured hand-drawn backgrounds and different opening titles. The show's second showing was on Adult Swim's debut on September 2, 2001. As with most of the first original Adult Swim shows it was produced by Williams Street Studios.

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 suburbia with an extra-planetary hint. A Saturn-like planet appears in the background on occasion, and many of the extras are aliens. Often times, episodes are written doing a parody of steryotypical episodes on regular sitcoms (e.g. The son showing an interest in women, the Dad being reconnected with an old passion, the Mother temporarily leaving after a fight, etc.).

The show was canceled in December 2003. However, Adult Swim announced in a bump on October 22, 2006 that, The Brak Show would return to production as an internet cartoon on the network's website. On May 24, 2007, a new webisode premiered online. On August 1, 2008, Adult Swim had a retro night showing The Brak Show. The Brak Show currently runs in reruns every Friday night at 1:45 am (EST) on Adult Swim.

Characters

DVD boxsets

DVD Name	Cover	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Volume One		February 1, 2005	14	This two-disc box set contains the first 14 episodes of The Brak Show in production order. Bonus features include commentaries on two episodes, a never produced pilot for a radio version of the show, the Brak presents the Brak Show starring Brak episode, a few segments from Cartoon Planet, and a few "Easter eggs".
Volume Two		August 8, 2006	14	This two-disc box set contains the final 14 episodes of The Brak Show in production order. There are no bonus features. For this set, Cartoon Network abandoned their usual digipak packaging design in favor of a more traditional amaray style keep case.

See also

• List of The Brak Show episodes
• Adult Swim
• Cult television
• Space Ghost

External links

• Official website
• AdultSwim.co.uk - The Brak Show on Adult Swim UK
• The Brak Show at TV.com
• The Brak Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Brak Show at EpGuides.com
• The Dad Shrine: A website dedicated to Brak's Dad