#ThrowbackThursday/#FlashbackFriday Bonus – Space Ghost “Interviews” Jim Carrey!

Ooooh, a bonus post! And a weekend one?! Alert the presses!

There was this fairly straightforward process when it came to watching a movie at home in the days before Digital Downloads, DVDs and Blu-Rays. There were trailers (and sometimes commercials) at the before the movie, the actual movie, and then…nothing Some videos had stuff afterwards, usually previews (Exhibit A and Exhibit B, if you will, can be watched below).

We also had video stores, something called videocassette, something else called VCRs, and this other ridiculously foreign concept of no internet, no downloading, and nothing instant.

I also think dinosaurs roamed the earth, and people had to walk to school fifteen miles each way, up and down the hill.

*Sigh* Life was soooo simple back then!

Before I got sidetracked about a time in life that millennials would never know about, I was talking about what life was like to watch a movie at home back in the days before instant stuff and digital life. It was hardly the struggle – if we didn’t want to watch what happened before the movie, we fast forwarded it. Yes, we had to wait for the satisfaction of skipping through something, but we still got where we wanted to go. So to everyone under the age of say, oh…25, that may read this: things were not that bad. They really weren’t.

If something other than a trailer came on the backend of a videocassette-based movie, it really felt like a big deal. It was also a rarity, but something I noticed pop up in the early 2000s. I recall seeing something other than previews on the backend in the form of deleted scenes on my Scooby-Doo VHS (yes, the live action movie – don’t judge!). But before that, there was one other movie I had that had something truly special – not previews, not deleted scenes, but a cool little piece of nostalgia.

So…humor me. You’ve heard of Space Ghost, right?

The original Space Ghost was created by Hanna-Barbera, and aired on CBS in 1966. He fought villians in outer space, had teenage sidekicks, a monkey, and was voiced by Gary Owens. That name may not seem familar to you, but you’d recognize his voice if you were to hear it.

In 1994, Cartoon Network premiered a spoof of talk shows called Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which aired on Cartoon Network until 1999, and returned sporadically over the next five years. George Lowe and Andy Merrill shared the role, with Lowe playing the part to this day.

Oh, and Zorak was his sidekick. He’s a funny preying mantis!

In this super bonus Throwback/Flashback weekend special, we’re going to see one of those early instances of “special features” on a videocassette, where Space Ghost conducts a short interview with both Jim Carrey and The Mask’s director, Charles Russell.