The Brak Show is an animated series, produced by Williams Street, that aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. The Brak Show is a spin-off of the Cartoon Network original series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and featured recurring characters from the series. The protagonist of the series is Brak, voiced by Andy Merrill, who developed a quirky persona for the character.
An early version of the pilot episode, titled "Brak Presents The Brak Special Starring Brak", originally aired prior to the official launch of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network on December 21, 2000, as part of a preview of upcoming Adult Swim shows. The series made its official debut during the night Adult Swim officially launched on September 2, 2001, and ended on December 31, 2003, with a total of 28 episodes.
Although the series was canceled in December 2003, 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,[1] but no further webisodes were produced thereafter.
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.[2] The series has since appeared in Adult Swim's "DVR Theater".[3]
Plot
The series originally started off as a parody of sitcoms, but just like its sister Adult Swim series, 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, episodes are written doing a parody of stereotypical 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.).
Characters
Brak - is some sort of anthropomorphic "space cat" with an eccentric personality and a speaking lisp. He is quite unintelligent but with a very sweet and gentle personality and seems to be a preteen adolescent. He still has attachments to stuffed animals, yet nonetheless is starting to be attracted to girls. He often randomly breaks into song. The writers use a wide variety of musical styles for the songs — covering jazz, country, showtunes, rap and rock & roll. He considers Zorak a close friend, although in return Zorak treats him with open contempt and no respect whatsoever. Brak's character is derived from his appearances on the Space Ghost Coast to Coast spin-off Cartoon Planet.
Zorak - is another character from Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a human-sized mantis. On this show, he is 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 entire family, and is constantly criticizing and insulting them. Zorak also enjoys bullying Clarence, the neighborhood nerd.
Dad - is a small human illegal alien with a Cuban accent, who is extremely self-centered, lazy and nonsensical. Unemployed since 1984, most of his time is spent sitting at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper. An episode seldom goes by without him delivering a moral to the story that is completely incoherent, has no relevance to the situation and typically ends in a non sequitur. Occasionally, he displays prominent womanizing and male-chauvinistic behavior, which is sometimes rebuked by Brak's mom.
Mom - a creature of the same "species" as Brak, with the fashion sense of a housewife character on a 1950s sitcom. She is largely the only semi-sane character on the show. She displays little romantic or sexual interest in Brak's father, and often does not tolerate him. When she gets drunk, however, she finds him suddenly irresistible. As voiced by Crenshaw, she is most often an homage to June Cleaver and similar motherly characters, with occasional hints of discontent with her husband's laziness and sexism. When Daniel took over the role, Brak's mother inexplicably acquired a British accent, and became far more open in her discontent with domestic life and her annoyance with and disdain for Brak's father. Her change in accent has been commented upon several times on the show.
Thundercleese - Brak's next-door-neighbor, a militant Killbot (with the visual appearance of a Gundam or a similar anime-style robot) who is also passionate about his lawn and garden, particularly the gnomes that decorate it. A short-lived shtick on the show involved Thundercleese blasting Zorak often. He is very aggressive and warlike, always speaking in a loud, robotic monotone. When Brak is troubled, no matter what the problem is, Thundercleese invariably suggests swift and brutal retaliation. Thundercleese's social skills are rather lacking, and before social get-togethers he will study very bad "party jokes" in preparation. Thundercleese's creator is claimed to be MoroccoBotix, in an episode of the series, which contradicts a special 2003 New Year's Eve event on Adult Swim in 2003, where it was revealed that Aqua Teen Hunger Force's Frylock created him.
Clarence - a chubby purple alien and schoolmate of Brak's at Learnmore High School. He was a supporting character on the show who made more regular appearances towards the end of the series. Clarence is very socially awkward, but idolizes Brak. His constant talking often annoys those around him, and when faced with an extremely stressful situation he will wear his mother's sundress and bonnet for comfort. In a rap contest, he revealed that he dearly misses his father, who left them for unknown reasons. In this same contest, he also noted that his mom has since married a man named Gary that he does not like. Many of his appearances end with him being maimed, usually by Zorak.
Sisto - Brak's younger brother, and Dad and Mom's other son. His appearance is similar to Brak's but he is mostly red-colored. In early episodes, he would make random appearances walking across the scene farting. He was killed by aliens in the episode "Pepper".
Cast
- Andy Merrill - Brak, Clarence
- C. Martin Croker - Zorak
- George Lowe - Dad
- Marsha Crenshaw - Mom (episodes 1–14, 28 and the webisode)
- Joanna Daniel - Mom (episodes 15–27)
- Carey Means - Thundercleese
References
- ↑ "Adult Swim Video : Webisodes : Brak Show - Space Adventure". video.adultswim.com. http://video.adultswim.com/webisodes/brak-show-space-adventure.html. Retrieved on April 8, 2015.
- ↑ "Classic Night Schedule". BumpWorthy.com. http://www.bumpworthy.com/bumps/941. Retrieved on April 8, 2015.
- ↑ "DVR Theater". adultswim.com. http://video.adultswim.com/promos/dvr-theater-brak-sealab.html. Retrieved on April 8, 2015.