Space Ghost Coast to Coast/Pavement

Pavement
Season 4, Episode 15
Airdate	October 24, 1997
Production Number	9715-48
Written by	Tad Ghostal
Directed by	C. Martin Croker
← 4x14 Sphinx	4x16 → Untitled
Space Ghost Coast to Coast — Season Four

Pavement is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and is the fourty-eighth episode overall. Space Ghost writes his first television show and replaces the band with "The Beatles," or more accurately an indie rock band named Pavement.

Guest Stars: Colin Quinn (Himself), Pavement (Themselves), Steve Smith (Red Green), Goldie Hawn (Herself), Tommy Davidson (Himself)

Voices: George Lowe (Space Ghost), C. Martin Croker (Zorak/Moltar), Chip Duffey

Plot Overview

Guess who wrote tonight's show?

Space Ghost has written an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. In his vision, he is the most powerful man in the universe and also a successful defense attorney up against the fight of his life (but that hasn't been revealed yet). After doing a lousy job of playing Space Ghost to the desk, Zorak and the other band members are sent to prison and he asks for them to be replaced with the Beatles. When Moltar questions Space Ghost, he is also sent to prison, where he and Zorak go off script and Space Ghost separates them.

Moltar calls out Colin Quinn, but after Space Ghost decides that he has successfully launched Quinn into super-stardom, he asks for another guest. Red Green replaces him, but Space Ghost doesn't let anyone else talk until after he finishes his ice cream and reads a poem. Green gets in a couple more comments but is also sent away before he can plug either of his videos.

After Green is removed from Space Ghost's monitor, "The Beatles" arrive and set up where Zorak's bandspace usually is. However, this (of course) isn't really the Beatles but the popular indie rock band, Pavement. Mysteriously, Colin Quinn has reappeared on the monitor and Space Ghost continues to "show Hollywood his range" in his segment, "Space Ghost of the Cosmos Calling" where he talks to "Timmy" (that is, he's talking to himself) and declares that it is the best show ever.

After the intermission, Pavement plays "Space Ghost Living the High Life," a song about the host, while Space Ghost attempts to introduce Goldie Hawn. He tries to have a conversation with Hawn, but the band continues to play loudly over their interview. He eventually abandons the interview entirely and moves onto interviewing Tommy Davidson after the song has finished. Moltar angrily comments that this is the worst show ever while Zorak attempts to "dig himself out of prison" with help from the Great Gazoo, but eventually Zorak stops the show with a question for how Space Ghost will do the expensive finale with his enemy Fidor attempting to eat Jupiter.

Cut to a sock puppet dog attempting to eat the Ghost Planet prop while an action figure on clearly visible wires swings into action. A hand off-screen helps Space Ghost punch Fidor into submission and Space Ghost declares that all evil has been vanquished and that he will now write all the world's shows. He frees Zorak from prison and "The Beatles" play another song.

Notes

Guests

• Colin Quinn: Colin Quinn is a stand-up comedian and former cast member of Saturday Night Live, where he eventually replaced Norm MacDonald as the anchor of Weekend Update. At the time this episode aired, he was still a featured player on the cast. Space Ghost's comment that he would rocket him into super-stardom seems accurate because in the next season, he was upgraded into the main cast and took over Update.

• Red Green: Steve Smith is a character actor most famous for his character Red Green, from the popular Canadian comedy series, The Red Green Show. The character was often used to come up with quick solutions to complex problems, often involving fixing something with duct tape and ending in disaster.

• Goldie Hawn: Goldie Hawn is an Academy Award winning actress who has stared in comedy films like Private Benjamin and Cactus Flower. She also appeared as a cast member on Laugh-In and is mother to Academy Award winner Kate Hudson. At the time of the interview, Hawn was not in a film of note, but had starred in The First Wives Club a year before.

• Tommy Davidson: A regular on MADtv and In Living Color, Tommy Davidson is a comedic character actor and stand-up comedian who is recognizable for his impression of Sammy Davis, Jr. (which he did on this episode). In 1997, Davidson was promoting Booty Call, a film in which he starred alongside Jamie Foxx.

• Pavement: Pavement is an indie rock band from Stockton, Washington who only reached moderate commercial success, but gained a large cult following. The band's debut album, Slanted & Enchanted, was released in 1992 where it was overshadowed by the behemoth that was Nirvana's Nevermind. In 1997, the band released Brighten the Corners, which contained two of the band's most well known singles, "Shady Lane" and "Stereo." The band members were credited at the end of the episode as such: Mark Ibold, S.M. (Stephen Malkmus), Spiral Stairs, Bob Nastanovich, Steve West.

Trivia

The Show

• Music: The songs that Pavement plays in this episode are "Space Ghost Living the High Life" and "Space Ghost End Jam." These songs were recorded specifically for Space Ghost Coast to Coast and were initially not released on any albums by the band. In 2008, the songs, retitled to "Space Ghost Theme I" and "Space Ghost Theme II", were released as part of the 2-disc reissue of Brighten the Corners.

Behind the Scenes

• Writers: This episode was credited to Tad Ghostal, Space Ghost's secret identity, but was actually written by the season's core writing team of Chip Duffey, Andy Merrill, Pete Smith and Dave Willis

Quotes

• Space Ghost: This show's so good, I'm thinking about not even airing it.