The Brak Show

''The Brak Show'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Andy Merrill, Jim Fortier, and Pete Smith for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. ''The Brak Show'' serves as a spin-off of the animated television series, ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', for which the show's creators originally wrote, and featured recurring characters from ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' and ''Cartoon Planet''. Both programs used stock footage from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon ''Space Ghost'', for which ''The Brak Show'' serves as a prequel for. The protagonist is Brak, voiced by Merrill, who developed a quirky persona for the character.

"Leave it to Brak", a pilot episode that serves as an earlier version of the fifth episode "Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk", originally aired prior to the official launch of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network on December 21, 2000. The series made its official premiere debut during the night Adult Swim officially launched on September 2, 2001, and ended on December 31, 2003, with a total of 28 episodes. On May 24, 2007, a webisode for the series was released on Adult Swim Video, ending the series.

Premise

''The Brak Show'' takes place in the fictional town of Spacetown, where Brak lives with his mom, dad, brother, his best pal Zorak, and Thundercleese, his giant robotic warrior neighbor.

History

''The Brak Show'' was preceded by a two-part special titled ''Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak''. Despite the similarities in the titles, the two ''Brak Shows'' have very little in common. The specials parodied variety shows, while the series was a spoof of early sitcoms. Each of the specials aired in the United States only once in February and March 2000 respectively.

The series premiered with a sneak peek 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 official showing was on Adult Swim's debut on September 2, 2001.

It originally started off as a parody of sitcoms which depicts the day-to-day lives of the dysfunctional Guerta family, including Brak, as well as Zorak, various other neighbors, and peers from the local Learnmore High School, but just like its sister show, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', the plot dissolved over time and became increasingly bizarre. The setting is American suburbia with an extra-planetary hint. A Saturn-like planet appears in the background on occasion, and many of the extras are aliens. Often, episodes parody stereotypical episodes of 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 single webisode premiered online, but no further webisodes were produced thereafter, hence serving as the de facto series finale.

On August 1, 2008, Adult Swim had a retro night, an all-night marathon of shows featured on Adult Swim in 2001 and 2002. Two of the earlier episodes of ''The Brak Show'' were aired during the marathon. The series has since appeared in Adult Swim's "DVR Theater". Since 2019, Adult Swim has aired The Brak Show as part of "Pete Smith" Day, a yearly event celebrating the career of one of The Brak Show's co-creators.

Characters

* Voldemar H. " Brak" Guerta (Andy Merrill) is a sort of anthropomorphic teenage "space cat" with an eccentric personality and a speaking lisp. He is 15 years old, as he attends as a student at Learnmore High School. He is quite silly and unintelligent but with a very sweet and gentle personality, and seems to be a teen adolescent. He still has attachments to stuffed animals but is starting to be attracted to girls. He frequently breaks into impromptu songs, lyrically about events in the episode. The writers use a wide variety of musical styles for the songs — covering jazz, country, show tunes, rap, and rock & roll. His closest friend is Zorak, although in return Zorak treats him with open contempt and little respect. Brak's character is derived from his appearances on the ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' spin-off ''Cartoon Planet''.
* Zorak Robert Jones ( C. Martin Croker) is another character from ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', a human-sized mantis. On this show, he plays the role similar to that of Eddie Haskell character, who is also a sociopathic, sadistic, morally bankrupt misanthrope. He often hangs out with Brak, but usually only as a way to force him into doing something for his own benefit. Zorak considers himself "above" Brak and his family, and is constantly criticizing and insulting them. Zorak also enjoys bullying Clarence, the neighbourhood nerd. Like Eddie Haskell, he also expresses more than a platonic interest in Brak's Mom. It had been confirmed in a New Year's 2003-2004 bumper on Adult Swim that this Zorak is canonically different from his ''Coast to Coast'' counterpart.
* Javier Guerta "Dad" (George Lowe

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