Years active 1994-present Name Andy Merrill | Role Television writer Education Asbury University | |
Full Name Andrew Ronald Merrill Born November 27, 1966 (age 57) ( 1966-11-27 ) Newark, Ohio, United States Occupation Television writer, television producer, voice actor Albums Brak Presents the Brak Album Starring Brak Movies and TV shows The Brak Show, Space Ghost Coast to, Cartoon Planet, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Col, Tales of Halloween Similar People C Martin Croker, George Lowe, Carey Means, Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis | ||
The Cartoon Gang - Interview with Brak
Andy Ronald Merrill (born November 27, 1966 in Newark, Ohio) is an American television writer, producer and voice actor best known for his comedy voice portrayal of the character Brak on Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Cartoon Planet, and other related productions from Cartoon Network utilizing characters from the Space Ghost series. He is a graduate of Asbury University, where he majored in media communications. Merrill is also known for creating Adult Swim's The Brak Show with Jim Fortier and Pete Smith.
Contents
- The Cartoon Gang Interview with Brak
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast
- Cartoon Planet
- Braks spin offs
- References
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Merrill joined Cartoon Network within several months of its inception (in 1992), coming over from sister company CNN. He started working in programming, and in 1993 he and then head of programming Mike Lazzo helped put together the first animated late-night talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He voiced Space Ghost in the first of two unaired pilots for the show. In April 1994, Space Ghost Coast to Coast (SGC2C for short) premiered on Cartoon Network. The concept of SGC2C was that 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon superhero Space Ghost had retired from being a superhero and was hosting his own talk show, in which he interviewed with real celebrity guests, with his old arch enemies Zorak and Moltar as band leader and director. To date, the show has had over 90 episodes aired on television, and was one of the motivating forces behind the creation of the Adult Swim programming bracket started in 2001. He helped produce and write for the show for years, and voiced "Council of Doom" members Brak and Lokar, who would appear on the show periodically, mostly Brak.
Merrill, along with Coast to Coast friend and co-star George Lowe, wrote on social media that their friend and co-star C. Martin Croker died on September 18th, 2016. It was then revealed that Adult Swim would play the first produced episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast aired 12:30 eastern, 11:30 central that night in honor of Croker's contribution not only to Space Ghost, but many Adult Swim shows in both animation and voice overs. The three of them, along with Dave Willis, Dana Snyder and Carey Means had been friends with each other since their days of working together.
Cartoon Planet
In 1995 a spin-off from SGC2C, Cartoon Planet, premiered on TBS (but later moved to Cartoon Network in 1996), with Andy once again writing and producing the show (along with a few other crew members that also worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast) and voicing the character of Brak. The three main characters on Cartoon Planet were Space Ghost, Zorak and Brak, and it was basically a show of skits and songs put together from the same limited animation used on SGC2C. Originally the skits and songs were just used as filler for showing old Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies and Popeye cartoons, until the skits and songs became more popular and Brak developed more of a personality and grew popular with fans. The show eventually just became made up fully of skits and songs.
Brak's spin-offs
In 2000 two Sonny and Cher-style variety show specials premiered on Cartoon Network, titled Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. The show featured new animation, and new songs with celebrity guests and fellow Space Ghost villain Zorak. However, the specials were met with mixed reviews from fans. In the early hours of December 21, 2000, a new sitcom parody cartoon premiered, titled "Leave It to Brak", which was actually the pilot episode for the future Adult Swim show The Brak Show, which premiered on Adult Swim in 2001 and ran for three seasons.