Season 4, Episode 3: Edelweiss
Nov 13, 2013 18:13:12 GMT -5
K. Thrace, Yuri Petrovitch, and 3 more like this
Post by The Narrator Returns on Nov 13, 2013 18:13:12 GMT -5
Season 4, Episode 3, “Edelweiss”
Let’s start with this; Space Ghost Coast to Coast is the founding father of pretty much all Adult Swim programming that’s currently airing. Without it, there would be no Aqua Teen Hunger Force, no Sealab, and definitely no Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. But while it’s influenced all those shows, its perfect balance of absurdism and banality remains hard to imitate. Some of those shows succeeded in recreating that balance (Harvey Birdman, whose title character was originally a side player on SGC2C), and others tipped the scale far too much to one side (I’m looking at you, Tim & Eric). The absurdism comes naturally from the premise, where a washed-up 60s cartoon superhero (Space Ghost) is hosting a talk show, with his former nemeses (Zorak, a giant mantis, and Moltar, a lava man) serving as his staff. The banality comes from the standard workplace dynamics (Space Ghost is a buffoon, Zorak still despises him, Moltar is the only competent one in the bunch), and from the talk show itself, which is simply awful in most ways. The interviews with b-grade celebrities are either stiff and unconvincing or just openly hostile (there’s one superb episode where Space Ghost interviews Carrot Top with all the contempt that he truly deserves). The cherry on top is the often bizarrely hilarious dialogue, full of quotable material (I’ll say some of it down there). It ran for 10 seasons, although only seven of them are available on DVD (and the last three of them are very expensive to come by). And now I’m reviewing it for you, the nice people on the Tolerability Index Forum (or the Community board, or The Dissolve, or wherever I repost this). Given that the show doesn’t really call for a chronological order in its reviews, and since that order would result a lot of the best episodes having to wait, I will be going through the show in a more general, “greatest hits” sense. Now, let’s move this baby to twenty-one thousand leagues under the sea. It’s more fantastical.
Credits Sequence
A CGI tour through Ghost Planet Industries. It is the only credits sequence used during season 4. It’s definitely reminiscent of many a cheesy talk show intro, but I still prefer the first (and most widely-used version).
Guest of the Week
Beck
It’s a wonder Beck hadn’t appeared on the show earlier. His songs are practically SGC2C in musical form, with their witty and strange imagery. Beck is completely game here, spouting out some hilarious nonsense.
Space Ghost starts the show by stating he will blast Zorak because he wrecked SG’s apartment earlier. Zorak shows up, and taunts Space Ghost with the knowledge that he can blast Zorak all he wants, he’ll just regenerate seconds later. However, when Zorak tells him that he smashed all of SG’s ceramic figurines of the Presidents, Space Ghost goes over the edge, and blasts Zorak until he’s completely dead. This leaves Moltar with Zorak’s job as band leader, and, with the help of Don Hester's Flip and Learn Song Book for the Wee Piano Player, Volume One, he’s able to sing Space Ghost to his desk and onto his interview with Beck. The interview chugs along bizarrely, and Beck receives a taco from Moltar (which he finds to be not too friendly, due to it sitting out on Moltar’s dashboard for days). Moltar then sings Beck (wearing a lampshade, no less) to sleep with a German lullaby.
When he wakes up, Space Ghost offers him and his band a job as the show's houseband, now that Zorak is gone. Then, Zorak shows up in Moltar’s control room, revealing that he just went downstairs after SG kept blasting him. He then hatches a plan to mess with Space Ghost, pretending to be a ghost, warning of three oncoming visits by spirits (two of them mess with the light switch). The episode ends with Zorak blowing a fuse by messing with the light switch.
Of course, this episode would be great if it was just that, but it has to go and end with an all-time classic bit, advertising a twelve-week plan that is supposed to increase your profits (how, god only knows). This is obviously the result of the episode running rather short (eight minutes to the show’s normal eleven), but it brings up my estimation of the episode substantially. Want to know what I’m talking about? Listen to these quotes.
Funny Things
- Beck on: his interests
“I like to plug things in, and then I like to unplug them, and then I go to sleep.”
- Beck on: third person
“Third person is always a good way to, to approach the second and first persons.”
- Beck describes his band.
“We got Stagecoach on the drums. We have Smokestack on guitar. Uh, Hound Dog is playin' the keyboards. And, uh, we have Showboat playin' the bass.”
- Space Ghost attempts to lure Beck in with his knowledge of his music.
“I got two turntables and my mommy’s home!”
- Beck on: the miraculous power of Space Ghost’s program
“I bought about thirty-five thousand acres, and for about sixty cents an acre, in about twelve minutes, my profits have gone up six thousand percent, and it’s all because of the tapes.”
“See, I didn’t have a tape machine, I just had the tapes. So, I mean, if I got to listen to the tapes, I would really be making some headway.”
- “I saw the tapes! Boy oh boy!” - TV’s Brak
- “Hello.” - TV’s Squiggy
Coming Up: I’m a reviewer. Reviewin’ “Knifin’ Around”. Cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut
Don’t forget that my Brak Show review is tomorrow, so don’t eat three hams prior to reading it.
Let’s start with this; Space Ghost Coast to Coast is the founding father of pretty much all Adult Swim programming that’s currently airing. Without it, there would be no Aqua Teen Hunger Force, no Sealab, and definitely no Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. But while it’s influenced all those shows, its perfect balance of absurdism and banality remains hard to imitate. Some of those shows succeeded in recreating that balance (Harvey Birdman, whose title character was originally a side player on SGC2C), and others tipped the scale far too much to one side (I’m looking at you, Tim & Eric). The absurdism comes naturally from the premise, where a washed-up 60s cartoon superhero (Space Ghost) is hosting a talk show, with his former nemeses (Zorak, a giant mantis, and Moltar, a lava man) serving as his staff. The banality comes from the standard workplace dynamics (Space Ghost is a buffoon, Zorak still despises him, Moltar is the only competent one in the bunch), and from the talk show itself, which is simply awful in most ways. The interviews with b-grade celebrities are either stiff and unconvincing or just openly hostile (there’s one superb episode where Space Ghost interviews Carrot Top with all the contempt that he truly deserves). The cherry on top is the often bizarrely hilarious dialogue, full of quotable material (I’ll say some of it down there). It ran for 10 seasons, although only seven of them are available on DVD (and the last three of them are very expensive to come by). And now I’m reviewing it for you, the nice people on the Tolerability Index Forum (or the Community board, or The Dissolve, or wherever I repost this). Given that the show doesn’t really call for a chronological order in its reviews, and since that order would result a lot of the best episodes having to wait, I will be going through the show in a more general, “greatest hits” sense. Now, let’s move this baby to twenty-one thousand leagues under the sea. It’s more fantastical.
Credits Sequence
A CGI tour through Ghost Planet Industries. It is the only credits sequence used during season 4. It’s definitely reminiscent of many a cheesy talk show intro, but I still prefer the first (and most widely-used version).
Guest of the Week
Beck
It’s a wonder Beck hadn’t appeared on the show earlier. His songs are practically SGC2C in musical form, with their witty and strange imagery. Beck is completely game here, spouting out some hilarious nonsense.
Space Ghost starts the show by stating he will blast Zorak because he wrecked SG’s apartment earlier. Zorak shows up, and taunts Space Ghost with the knowledge that he can blast Zorak all he wants, he’ll just regenerate seconds later. However, when Zorak tells him that he smashed all of SG’s ceramic figurines of the Presidents, Space Ghost goes over the edge, and blasts Zorak until he’s completely dead. This leaves Moltar with Zorak’s job as band leader, and, with the help of Don Hester's Flip and Learn Song Book for the Wee Piano Player, Volume One, he’s able to sing Space Ghost to his desk and onto his interview with Beck. The interview chugs along bizarrely, and Beck receives a taco from Moltar (which he finds to be not too friendly, due to it sitting out on Moltar’s dashboard for days). Moltar then sings Beck (wearing a lampshade, no less) to sleep with a German lullaby.
When he wakes up, Space Ghost offers him and his band a job as the show's houseband, now that Zorak is gone. Then, Zorak shows up in Moltar’s control room, revealing that he just went downstairs after SG kept blasting him. He then hatches a plan to mess with Space Ghost, pretending to be a ghost, warning of three oncoming visits by spirits (two of them mess with the light switch). The episode ends with Zorak blowing a fuse by messing with the light switch.
Of course, this episode would be great if it was just that, but it has to go and end with an all-time classic bit, advertising a twelve-week plan that is supposed to increase your profits (how, god only knows). This is obviously the result of the episode running rather short (eight minutes to the show’s normal eleven), but it brings up my estimation of the episode substantially. Want to know what I’m talking about? Listen to these quotes.
Funny Things
- Beck on: his interests
“I like to plug things in, and then I like to unplug them, and then I go to sleep.”
- Beck on: third person
“Third person is always a good way to, to approach the second and first persons.”
- Beck describes his band.
“We got Stagecoach on the drums. We have Smokestack on guitar. Uh, Hound Dog is playin' the keyboards. And, uh, we have Showboat playin' the bass.”
- Space Ghost attempts to lure Beck in with his knowledge of his music.
“I got two turntables and my mommy’s home!”
- Beck on: the miraculous power of Space Ghost’s program
“I bought about thirty-five thousand acres, and for about sixty cents an acre, in about twelve minutes, my profits have gone up six thousand percent, and it’s all because of the tapes.”
“See, I didn’t have a tape machine, I just had the tapes. So, I mean, if I got to listen to the tapes, I would really be making some headway.”
- “I saw the tapes! Boy oh boy!” - TV’s Brak
- “Hello.” - TV’s Squiggy
Coming Up: I’m a reviewer. Reviewin’ “Knifin’ Around”. Cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut
Don’t forget that my Brak Show review is tomorrow, so don’t eat three hams prior to reading it.
