UnNews:UnNews remembers C. Martin Croker

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

ATLANTA, Georgia -- UnNews is shocked and saddened to learn of yet another notable death. But this one definitely hurts right in the childhood. C. Martin Croker died unexpectedly late Saturday night. He was 54.

I know what you're thinking -- "Who in the flying hell is C. Martin Croker? And how is he notable enough for an UnNews obit?" Let's take you back to 1994. Bill Clinton was President. Kurt Cobain was dead. Seinfeld was the #1 show on television. People were still wearing MC Hammer pants. Bart Simpson was the most popular cartoon character. But there was another cartoon making waves that year.

Cartoon Network devised an offbeat cartoon for adults. They took the 1960s Hanna-Barbera action cartoon, Space Ghost, and reinvented him as a late-night talk show host. They asked a man named Clay Martin Croker (or C. Martin Croker, if you will) to be the lead animator. Croker had the genius idea of adding Space Ghost villains Zorak and Moltar as sidekicks, and providing their voices. (George Lowe did the voice of Space Ghost.)

This is a very personal death to me. My cable company finally added Cartoon Network in December of 1996 and I watched Space Ghost: Coast to Coast (and it's spinoff, Cartoon Planet) religiously. Cartoon Planet was an animated sketch/variety show with Space Ghost, Zorak, and Space Ghost villain Brak (voiced by Andy Merrill, who also occasionally appeared as a live-action Space Ghost on both shows). These two shows meant a lot to me; I had never seen anything like it. My love for Space Ghost lead me to the original 1966 cartoon, and, in 1997, the original, Moltar-hosted Toonami. Now, I don't really remember watching the shows on Toonami, per se, but I do remember the ads and promos. I was probably watching Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, or Power Rangers. Or The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Maybe I was still at school. Who knows?

Maybe C. Martin Croker isn't notable enough for an Uncyclopedia article, but then again, Josh Server has one... and his most famous contributions to society were All That and a tiny role in Good Burger. But Croker definitely deserves an UnNews article to mark his passing. Space Ghost had to have had some effect on my burgeoning sense of humor. The show was random, bizarre, offbeat, subversive, self-deprecating, alternative, cult, trippy, and everything in between. It's quite fitting that two early Space Ghost guests were Judy Tenuta and (I'm not making this up!) Timothy Leary.

Here's to you, Clay, for being a prominent figure in my childhood. RIP.

Sources

• Rob Brak Rob Bricken "RIP C. Martin Croker of Space Ghost Coast to Coast" iO9, September 18, 2016