Space Ghost Coast to Coast was the brainchild of Cartoon Network's then-Senior Vice President of Progamming and Production
Mike Lazzo, and staffers
Khaki Jones and
Andy Merrill, at a meeting in
1993. Believe it or not it actually evolved from a planned update of the old
Wacky Races show. In fact, Lazzo was half-joking when he made the suggestion of Space Ghost being introduced as a late-night
talk show host. Eventually the ideas solidified into the first pilot, which was born of spliced clips of
Space Ghost and Dino Boy and a
CNN interview package of
Denzel Washington. The pilot got the show in as far as production goes, and the
debut episode (although not the first episode produced) premiered on
Cartoon Network on
April 15, 1994.
Since then, the show has been a staple of latenights on Cartoon Network. As of May 13, 2002, 88 seperate episodes have been shown, 81 have been originals, and 7 have been alternate versions of other episodes. The show has been produced by Cartoon Network staffers and staff from Atlanta's Crawford Communications, operating under the name Ghost Planet Industries (now known as Williams Street). The current production staff includes producers Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford, writers Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, and voice talent George Lowe and C. Martin Croker (who also does most of the non-stock animation).
The show was also one of the charter series for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, which was premiered in September 2001. As of January 12th, 2003, the show is off the programming schedule temporarily, although word is the series will be making a return in the spring. The show hasn't been canceled no matter what anybody says outside of CN, Williams Street, Mike Lazzo, Turner Networks, or AOLTW.
Episode List: (* marks noded episodes, if you wanna help out then /msg me with what you want to node)
Episode list courtesy of Ghost Planet Central's Episode Guide at http://snard.com/sg/guide/