Remember When Randy Savage Played Space Ghost’s Grandfather?

Friends, a couple of weeks ago I shared a segment from Space Ghost Coast to Coast that featured Howard Scott Warshaw of Atari fame – yesterday a friend sent me the link to another famous guest who appeared on that animated talk show. None other than the late and great Randy “Macho Man” Savage… but he wasn’t one of the guests chatting it up on the studio TV but played Leonard Ghostal – the Grandfather of Space Ghost. I had the opportunity to watch this at the arcade and I have to say that after it was finished – we had to watch it again because we were laughing too hard to hear everything. The episode which is entitled appropriately enough Piledriver originally was broadcast on November 14th of 1997 on Cartoon Network. A couple of fun facts for you – I’ve read that Space Ghost Coast to Coast is possibly the first original series that Cartoon Network produced – running from 1994 until 1997 – before being picked up for Adult Swim on May 7th of 2001 and lasting until 2004. In addition I’ve read online that Randy “Macho Man” Savage wasn’t the original actor to play Grandpa Space Ghost – they had R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket, The Frighteners) record dialogue for the part – but when they landed the iconic wrestler and showman they had Savage rerecord the dialogue. And with the “Macho Man” on the show you know it isn’t long before he manages to take the spotlight away from guests Rob Zombie and Raven-Symone!

For what it is worth I wasn’t lucky enough to see Space Ghost Coast to Coast until around 1996 as Cartoon Network wasn’t part of the standard cable package at the time. I caught it while house sitting for a former boss – since I was raised on reruns of the original ’60s series I was taken aback by the humor of the show. Space Ghost along with the Herculoids were childhood heroes of mine so it took me a couple of episodes to get into the groove of it all – but it quickly became one of the things I looked forward to most when I was house sitting.