Andy Merrill
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Andy Merrill (born November 27, 1966 in Newark, Ohio) is a television writer, producer, and voice actor. He is a graduate of Asbury College where he majored in media communications.
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[edit] Space Ghost Coast to Coast
He 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. Andy even 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. SGC2C was about the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon superhero Space Ghost hosting his own talk show with real celebrity guests and 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. Andy 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.
[edit] 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, Merry Melodies, and Popeye cartoons, until the skits and songs became more popular and the Brak character developed more of a personality and grew popular with fans. The show eventually just became made up fully of skits and songs.
[edit] 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.
Andy has also done voice work on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, namely that of the Plutonian Oglethorpe.
He left Atlanta briefly, moving to New Jersey for a year, and joining the Boomerang (TV channel) (an asset of the Turner Broadcasting System) in its programming department.
