Johnny Bravo
Blonde pompadour, sunglasses, a black T-shirt over a chest twice as wide as his hips, and an Elvis voice that never once worked on a woman. Johnny Bravo was Cartoon Network's highest-rated show in 1999 — and an early stop for the people who went on to make Family Guy and The Fairly OddParents.
Van Partible built Johnny out of his senior thesis at Loyola Marymount University, a 1993 short about an Elvis impersonator called Mess O' Blues. Pitched to Hanna-Barbera's What a Cartoon! showcase, the character was revised into, in Partible's words, "this '50s iconic James Dean-looking character that talked like Elvis," with the whip-crack sound of his poses borrowed from Michael Jackson. The name came from Partible's own middle name, Giovanni Bravo. A pilot short aired in March 1995, two more followed, and the series premiered on Cartoon Network on July 14, 1997.
Jeff Bennett voiced Johnny, a conceited, muscular narcissist. Brenda Vaccaro was his mother, Bunny "Momma" Bravo; Mae Whitman was Little Suzy; Tom Kenny was Carl Chryniszzswics, a geek who idolizes Johnny despite being bossed around by him; and Larry Drake was Pops, the unscrupulous owner of the local diner. It all happened in Aron City — Elvis's middle name. Guest stars ran from Donny Osmond and Adam West to Shaquille O'Neal, and Hanna-Barbera's back catalogue dropped in: the Scooby-Doo gang, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear. The adult jokes were frequent; when Suzy calls to ask if he wants to come over, Johnny tells her to call back in 15 years when she's a co-ed. The crew mattered as much as the cast: Seth MacFarlane worked on the show before Family Guy, and Butch Hartman wrote and directed before The Fairly OddParents. In 1999 it was Cartoon Network's highest-rated program, with a 2.2 household rating and a 4.4 among children six to eleven.
Behind the scenes it was messy. After the first season the show went on hiatus, then was picked up for an unexpected second in 1999 — by which point Partible had been fired during Warner Bros.' takeover of Turner, and Kirk Tingblad's retooling changed the look, tone, humor and characters. Partible returned for the fourth season in 2003 and restored the original style. The series ended on August 27, 2004, after 65 episodes and two specials. It earned four Annie nominations, IGN ranked it 71st among animated series in 2009, and in 2002 Warner Bros. secured live-action film rights as a possible Dwayne Johnson vehicle. Nothing came of it.
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