The Show
Brak started out as a villain in the original "Space Ghost" cartoons, but when those shows were recycled as a talk show by Cartoon Network, the once-dastardly cat-alien became a man-child who sang about his love of beans and riffed on bizarre subjects. He also became one of the most popular characters in Cartoon Network's late-night line-up. It made perfect sense to give him his own show, to milk the most out of his mildly-retarded sense of humor.

To create this sitcom, Brak needed a supporting cast that would humor his peculiar behavior while giving him something to do. Sticking close to home, they paired him up with fellow former "Space Ghost" villain Zorak. Zorak's ill-tempered evil was a good foil for Brak's childlike innocence, and allowed the show plenty of plotlines. Innocent people rarely see much action, but with Zorak around, there would be no lack of trouble.

Since Brak is very childish, he would need parental figures to keep him in line. Thus, his Mom and Dad were born. Mom is a larger, feminine version of Brak, who s sweetly attentive to her little boy, while suffering her husband and Zorak and keeping a very clean house. Dad, on the other hand, is an egomaniacal human about half the size of Mom, with a Latin accent and the most twisted brain this side of Brak. Rounding out the regular cast is Thundercleese, a giant heroic robot with a tendency to fly off the handle and blow up anything that annoys him...especially Zorak.

Unlike Brak's previous appearances, the animation here is new; a mix of cartoon characters and photo backgrounds. The stories are unique as well, focusing on Brak's friends and neighbors. Some of the best episodes on this set include "Time Machine," where the boys try to use a...time machine...to give them more time to do their homework and play video games; "War Next Door," in which Zorak becomes a silky-smooth singer; "Expiration Day," which sees Thundercleese lose his weapons systems; and "President Dad," a Dad-focused episode that pits him against the neighborhood association president over the issue of his bikini briefs. At just over 11 minutes each, they fly by, though, admittedly, Brak's frequent musical moments slow things down a bit.

The DVD
The first season of "The Brak Show" arrived fresh from the oven on two DVDs, packaged in a slipcased digipak. The packaging has a spot-UV coating over a paint-by-numbers theme that's well done and very appropriate for the show. Each disc has a static widescreen, anamorphic main menu, with options to play all the episodes, select single episodes, and choose the language of the subtitles from English, Spanish and French. There are several easter-eggs included, as well as closed captioning.

As this is the first volume of "The Brak Show," there's more than just the first season's nine episodes. Depending on who you ask, the episode order is a bit off. Adult Swim's web site matches the order on the DVD perfectly (as would be expected), but the well-regarded TVTome has a slightly different order. Here's a comparison:

The Quality
The full-frame video has vivid color and doesn't suffer from the pixilation that other cartoon exhibit in thin lines. The photo backgrounds look similarly good. The level of detail is impressive, and there's no evidence of dirt or damage. The improvement over the original broadcasts is quite large. The audio is presented in the show's original Dolby 2.0, and sounds excellent, without any distortion in the dialogue or music.

The Extras
There are four commentaries on the first disc, on three episodes. The first episode, "Goldfish," has two commentaries. The first is an in-character commentary with Brak, who basically describes what's going on on-screen. It's silly but funny. The second "Goldfish" track finds Brak joined by Kim McFarlane, the woman behind the web site "Brak's Scrapbook." She plays along with Brak, asking him various questions about the show and acting silly. It's cute.

"War Next Door" has a commentary by show creators Jim Fortier, Pete Smith and Andy Merrill, which is more informative, but since these guys work on this show, you can expect some oddness too. There's some good background info on the show here. Information is the last thing you'll get from the fourth commentary, which really isn't a commentary. On "Bawkgabawk," there's a radio play of an unheard/unseen Brak pilot episode. Listening to it while watching the visuals of "Bawkgabawk" is a bit difficult, so just look elsewhere, or play it through your receiver with the TV off.

The rest of the extras, found on the second platter, are mainly clips from other Brak appearances. "[adult swim] News" has five faux news-desk segments with Brak as the anchor. Maybe it's because there's a purpose or theme to these bits, but they aren't as good as his other "work." They each clock in at about a minute in length.

Eight clips from the two episodes of "Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak" present some rarely-seen sketches starring the goofball. Almost like a cartoon "Saturday Night Live," the show was silly, even for Brak, and never caught on. More recognizable and enjoyable is the nearly 20 minutes of Brak-centric clips from "Cartoon Planet," the "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" spin-off that really established Brak's new persona. Full of songs, poems and various oddities, this footage is almost as fun as "The Brak Show." As it was made almost entirely with recycled animation from the original show, the quality isn't as high, but it's not terrible. These extras are really a bonus.

The Bottom Line
"The Brak Show" took the silliness of "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast," put it into a sitcom setting and made Brak a true cartoon star. 14 episodes of his singing-dancing insanity might be too much to take in in on sitting, but being able to watch them whenever you want, instead of having to stay up until two in the morning, makes this set well worth the cost. Even better, the DVD extras are a tremendous gift for fans of the series, compiling footage that's nearly impossible to find and combining it with some new material that's fun. If you enjoy Brak and his goofy fun, this DVD set is an easy pick-up.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.