Johnny Bravo

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Johnny Bravo

Johnny Bravo
Genre Animated television series
Running time 30 minutes (7 minutes per short)
Creator(s) Van Partible
Starring Jeff Bennett
Mae Whitman
Tom Kenny
Larry Drake
Brenda Vaccaro
Donny Osmond
Country of origin United States
Original channel Cartoon Network
Original run July 7, 1997–February 14, 2003
No. of episodes 51 (154 shorts) (List of episodes)

Johnny Bravo was an American animated television series about the boorish, skirt-chasing title character who constantly searches for a woman willing to date him. Even when he seems to find one, something goes wrong.


Contents

[edit] Plot

Main article: List of Johnny Bravo Episodes

Johnny Bravo looks like James Dean and sounds like Elvis Presley, except for having blonde hair and a Fonzie-like appearance. He is incredibly narcissistic and dim-witted. He lives in the fictional town of Aron City (Aron being Elvis's middle name). The cartoon is shown on Cartoon Network and was created by Van Partible. Johnny Bravo originally appeared in two animated shorts created for Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons animation showcase (also known as What-A-Cartoon! and Cartoon Cartoon), and was one of several World Premiere Toon characters to be given an ongoing series. The earlier seasons were written and animated by Partible and a who's who of future animated comedy kingpins, including Butch Hartman and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who would perfect many of his future jokes and occasional characters from that show in this series.

After the first season, Cartoon Network "retooled" the series, without Partible's involvement, and with new writers and character designs. Partible returned with the "final" episode of the series, a Christmas special; and, with the aid of some of his original writers, brought Bravo back for another special in 2004, but was not met with much critical applause. The series was eventually cancelled. Directed by Robert Alvarez, Kent Butterworth, Russell Calabrese, Butch Hartman, John McIntyre, Van Partible, Rumen Petkov, Kirk Tingblad.

[edit] Main Characters

  • Johnny Bravo (voiced by Jeff Bennett) - the title character, described above. He is also notable for the distinctive sound effects that accompany his often blindingly quick movements (usually done while trying to impress a woman) - the crack of a bullwhip being the most popular.
  • Bunny Bravo (voiced by Brenda Vaccaro) - Johnny's mother - a rather atypical person - she seems to have a "flower power" past and sometimes reveals some surprising hidden talent or other. She's very dedicated to her son, although she's aware of his low intellect and womanizer attitude, so she sometimes doesn't treat him and his problems seriously.
  • Little Suzy (voiced by Mae Whitman) - a little girl (8-year-old) from the neighborhood, very cunning and talkative. She seemed to have a crush on Johnny in earlier seasons.
  • Carl Chryniszzswics (voiced by Tom Kenny) - local genius and geek, very interested in science, but somehow weird and timid. He seems to be Johnny's only friend, although Johnny often denies that. He sometimes uses Johnny as a guinea pig for his experiments' sake. He used to bully Johnny in high school, as he was much taller than Johnny.
  • Pops (voiced by Larry Drake) - greedy owner of a local chili restaurant, could be considered as Johnny's substitute father. Alas, his tips and advice often turn out to be useless and provoke trouble for Johnny and the gang. Johnny's real father does not appear in the show.
  • Donny Osmond (voiced by himself) - Often used as a minor, laughingly useless character in some key episodes, Donny is seen as cheery and extremely optimistic to the point of foolishness. This personality is a stark contrast to often very serious Johnny, thus causing tension between himself and Donny.

[edit] Celebrity characters

[edit] Trivia

  • When Johnny enjoys something, usually something he tastes or sees, he often exclaims enjoyment by saying, "Mmm, (object)-y!" and laughs. For example, he would say "Mmm, lemony!" when tasting something with a lemon flavor. This gag started on the show Pee-wee's Playhouse and was later used on The Simpsons by Homer Simpson.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic, Luke Perry, Vendela Kirsebom, Farrah Fawcett, Don Knotts, Mr. T, Donny Osmond, Mark Hamill, Adam West, Richard Simmons, Dionne Warwick, Mick Jagger, Shaquille O'Neal, and Seth Green have all appeared in the cartoon. They have said in some interviews, whenever their guest spot on it was brought up, that they are fans of the cartoon. In particular, Adam West's appearances on Johnny Bravo as a ludicrously over-the-top version of himself was the precursor to his playing an even wackier self-parody as Catman on Fairly Oddparents and Mayor Adam West on Family Guy.
  • Johnny appeared in the video game Backyard Baseball 2005 on a poster advertising "Channel 12". ("Channel 12" is probably a spoof of Cartoon Network.)
  • When the series was retooled, the artwork style was adapted to resemble the Sam & Max underground comics of Steve Purcell.
  • Previously, there was some belief that the character Johnny Bravo was based on the south Australian post-modern artist Bill Page, but it has now been resolved that Bill actually re-invented his image after watching the cartoon, and then tried to claim credit for being a model for the character in a poorly thought out publicity stunt.
  • It is popularly believed that Johnny's name came from Greg Brady's stage name from an episode of The Brady Bunch, and it is possible that creator Van Partible was influenced by this source. However, in an interview that aired on Cartoon Network prior to the debut of Johnny Bravo as an ongoing series, Partible stated that "Johnny Bravo" was a derivation of his full given name, "Giovanni Bravissimo Partible".
  • In the episode "Perfect Gift", a cow kicks over a lantern, starting a fire, which is a reference to The Great Chicago Fire
  • In the episode "Aunt Katie's Farm," after destroying the set and ruining the show, Johnny jumps up and down and continues to yell, "Four feet good! Two feet bad!" over and over. This is an obvious reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm.
  • Several episodes have spoofed The Twilight Zone, including Nightmare at 20,000 feet (with a clown instead of a gremlin), It's a Good Life (where Johnny has to babysit Timmy, an all-powerful six year-old who can actually make people go to the cornfield), and Living Doll (where Little Suzie gets a homicidal doll called Little Talky Tabitha). These episodes usually begin and end with a narrative similar to that of Rod Serling's, referring to "the zone where normal things don't happen very often."
  • Some notable inclusions include Mark Twain and Scooby Doo and the gang. The episode with Twain was a reworking of The Prince and the Pauper and ended with Johnny, his duplicate, and Mark Twain in prison for doing another rendition of the story.
  • In one episode, Suzie mentions a cat that loves lasagna from a book. This is a reference to Garfield comic books. The book was also orange with black stripes, Garfield's fur pattern.
  • Some Hanna-Barbera characters have also made appearances on this show including The Flintstones and Huckleberry Hound.
  • In one episode of Johnny Bravo, Johnny is invited to his next door neighbour's birthday party. A part of this episode features a teenager examining the presents of guests before they are allowed into the party. In the initial airing of this episode, when one of the present is examined and suspected to be a bomb, it is quickly disposed of. When the present is revealed to have actually been a clock, the respective child refers to the teenager as "Captain Spaz", this episode was later re-aired with the line "Captain Spaz" being changed to "Captain Stupid".
  • The episode "Panic in Jerky Town" was a satire of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which also included a reference to the movie Soylent Green when Johnny believed Pops had been ground up into Jerky as Jerky Jake's secret ingredient, he yells "It's people! Jerky Jake's Beef Jerky is made of people!", an altered form of the famous quote from the climax of the movie.
  • The cartoon character is unrelated to Puerto Rican record producer and former salsa bandleader (now a Latino gospel producer) Johnny Lopez, whose alias since the mid-1960s is "Johnny El Bravo".
  • The titles of many Johnny Bravo episodes are send-ups of famous films and stories, such as 'Backdaft' (As opposed to Backdraft), 'A Reject Runs Through It' (A River Runs Through It) and '20 000 Leagues Over My Head' (20 000 Leagues Under The Sea). One of the more obscure ones is 'Schnook of the North' a reference to the documentary film Nanook of the North, considered by some to be the first true documentary film ever made. There is also an interestingly-titled episode called 'Auteur! Auteur!' where Johnny Bravo directs a film. In it's most simplified definition, auteur is a French term for a director who can take a script and, from that, craft a unique film through his own artistic abilities (the opposite being a hack director who takes the script and uses it like an instruction book). The joke is that in this episode, Johnny himself is the 'auteur', though it becomes quite evident that he is no artist.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
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Codename: Kids Next Door • Courage the Cowardly Dog • Cow and Chicken • Dexter's Laboratory • Ed, Edd n Eddy • Evil Con Carne • The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy • Grim and Evil • I Am Weasel • Johnny Bravo • Mike, Lu & Og • The Powerpuff Girls • Sheep in the Big City • Time Squad • What a Cartoon! • Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
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