Johnny Bravo

Johnny Bravo is an American animated series created by Van Partible. It premiered on July 7, 1997 on Cartoon Network and ran for 67 episodes and 4 seasons. The series originally lasted for 12 episodes and a half hour's worth of original pilots, was renewed in 1999 and officially ended in 2004, but later came back as reruns in November of 2009 on Cartoon Network. All 4 seasons of the show can be purchased on iTunes and reruns can still be seen on Cartoon Network.

Johnny Bravo originally appeared in two animated shorts created for Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons and was one of several characters to be given an ongoing series. Many celebrities starred on the show as well.

Initially, the show aired using the same creative format as the original animated shorts. However, the show was completely retooled in the latter seasons, changing the animation style and the personalities of several characters. The show's final season returned to the original format. Johnny Bravo was used in the show JBVO that involved taking the show requests from viewers. JBVO ran for roughly one year.

Some of the other directors include: Robert Alvarez, Kent Butterworth, Russell Calarese, John McIntyre (director), Rumen Petkov, and Kirk Tingblad.

Main characters

 * Johnny Bravo (voiced by Jeff Bennett) - Jonathan "Johnny" Bravo is the main protagonist of the series. He has the looks of James Dean and sounds like Elvis Presley. He is incredibly narcissistic and dim-witted, traits that lead to a severe incorrigible inability to attract women, becoming a running gag throughout the series. Ironically, only about three times does Bravo almost have a serious relationship with women—once with Velma Dinkley, but given a choice between Bravo and mysteries, Velma picked mysteries; on another occasion, Bravo becomes king of a planet of alien women—who give him the old heave ho when they fall for a handsome TV actor; and lastly, Bravo nearly meets the girl of his dreams, but unknowingly ruins any chance of both of them ever meeting. He claims to dislike his "best friend", Carl Chryniszzswics. Johnny can also be interpreted as a male representation of the "dumb blonde." One notable exception to this was that, during Cartoon Network's 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Award Show Spectacular Live in Stereo, during which Johnny served as the host and was very witty and suave. The character is memorable for his incredibly quick movements (usually done while trying to impress women), which were accompanied by the distinctive sound effect of a bullwhip crack, often flexing his muscles in a bodybuilder fashion. Johnny's catch phrase is "She wants me!" after women beat him up for refusing to leave them alone. He dresses in an oversized black muscle shirt and very small jeans based on creator Van Partible's clothes. Three running gags are his trademark sunglasses which he wore even when a baby; breaking the fourth wall and Bravo being beaten up by women who reject him. The name "Johnny Bravo" dates back to an episode of The Cheyenne Show, and was also Greg Brady's would-be stage name in an episode of "The Brady Bunch." However, Van Partible stated in an interview for Cartoon Network that he also derived the name from his full given name, "Giovanni Bravissimo Partible".  Since Johnny Bravo is depicted as a macho man, along with his vague resemblence to Duke Nukem from the game Duke Nukem 3D, some would think that Johnny was also inspired by Duke Nukem.
 * Carl Chryniszzswics (voiced by Tom Kenny) - Carlton "Carl" Chryniszzswics is Johnny Bravo's "best friend". He is a local genius and geek, who is very intelligent, but somewhat eccentric and timid. He was introduced after the show's retooling following the end of the first season, and seems to be Johnny's only friend, although Johnny often denies that. Carl sometimes uses Johnny for his experiments' sake. He used to make fun of Johnny in school, as Carl was much taller than Johnny at the time, which is why Johnny acts rudely to Carl and refuses to be his best friend. However, it is hinted that Carl and Johnny were best friends at some point in high school. Carl really likes Johnny and continues to hang out with him, even after all of the mean things that Johnny does to Carl and says about him. Carl remained in the show after the return to the original style, but was relegated to smaller roles.
 * Bunny Bravo (voiced by Brenda Vaccaro): Bunny Bravo is Johnny's mother. She has had a lively past and sometimes reveals a surprising hidden talent. The show's original format portrays her as a calm, nurturing woman, but was made into a louder, more extroverted character once the show was retooled. She's very dedicated to her son, but as a result of her awareness of his low intellect and womanizer attitude, does not always treat him and his problems seriously. Bunny hopes that Johnny will find that special someone he's been looking for. Bunny is mostly referred in the show as "Momma" by Johnny, who pronounces it in an Elvis-esque manner.
 * Lil' Suzy (voiced by Mae Whitman) — Lil' Suzy (or simply known as just "Suzy") is a little red-haired, intelligent, 5-year-old girl from the neighborhood (often called "Little Neighbor girl" by Johnny), who is very cunning and talkative. In many episodes, Suzy is shown to have a major crush on Johnny. Her parents were never shown, but she is often shown to be related to big time celebrities. For example, it was revealed in an episode during her birthday that Farrah Fawcett is her cousin. She also has a crush on an 8-year-old country music singer Lonnie Dash. In the early series, Suzy was more of a cute-type character with a round head, while in the retooled series, she is thin-looking and more grown up.
 * Lonnie Dash (voiced by Alanna Ubach) - Lonnie Dash is a famous well-renowned 8-year-old Mexican-American country singer and a guitarist. He was Lil' Suzy's favorite singing celebrity. He was also a young Hispanic boy parody of Johnny Cash. He has a father who was Mexican and a mother who was African-American. Like Lil' Suzy, he was cute and skinny. In the 1997 music video, he sings his most popular song I Wish, You're Fine which is a parody of I Walk The Line.
 * Pops (voiced by Larry Drake) — Pops is the greedy owner of a local chili restaurant who could be considered as Johnny's substitute father. He often gives fatherly tips and advice to Johnny; however, his advice often turns out to be useless, sometimes provoking trouble for Johnny. His diner's chili is made from rather suspicious ingredients and he serves food made from many animals, such as possums, pandas, cougars, seals, horses, and bald eagles. Like Carl, Pops was introduced in Season Two after the show's drastic retooling and remained even after the return to the original format, although he was relegated to brief cameo roles.
 * Master Hamma (voiced by Brian Tochi) — Master Hamma is a Japanese martial arts instructor. Johnny has taken, and failed, several of his martial arts classes and frequently ruins Hamma's life trying to learn his lessons. Like Carl and Pops, Master Hamma was introduced after the series was retooled.
 * Donny Osmond (voiced by himself) — Donny is a character who was often used as a minor, laughingly useless character in some key episodes. He is seen as cheery and extremely optimistic to the point of foolishness. This personality is a stark contrast to often very serious Johnny, thus causing tension between himself and Donny. In his first appearance he was Johnny's nanny. Donny only appeared in the show's original format, limiting his appearances to seasons one and four.
 * Jungle Boy (voiced by Cody Dorkin) - Jungle Boy is a little boy with incredible strength who lived in the jungle with talking animals. His appearances on the series were short-lived and he appeared only in season 1 episodes.

Running gags
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 * "The Zone, where normal things don't happen very often" was a running gag in an episode of the original series where an episode would be opened and closed by the words of a narrator, and the episode itself would consist of Johnny encountering something strange, for example, being at the mercy of a boy who can seemingly alter reality at will, or fighting a personal war with a clown trying to damage a plane's wing (only to discover he was one of two clowns kept to "balance" the plane) - the episode also included a talking doll that attempted to commit murder.
 * When Johnny enjoys something, usually something he tastes or sees, he often exclaims enjoyment by saying, "Mmm, (object)-y!" This joke was introduced and was most prevalent in the second season.
 * Many subtle pop culture references are also found. For instance, the song Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses is mentioned in one episode and Johnny sung the first few lines of the Depeche Mode song Just Can't Get Enough in the Christmas special, as well as several other songs, films, and other TV shows.

Guest appearances
The series has had numerous guest stars, which include: Don Knotts, Jessica Biel, Alec Baldwin, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Luke Perry, Farrah Fawcett, Vendela Kirsebom, Adam West, Dionne Warwick, Mick Jagger, Richard Simmons, Mr. T, Mark Hamill, Shaquille O'Neal, Donny Osmond, Seth Green, Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong, Chuck D, Jeffrey Tambor, Tia Carrere, and Laraine Newman.

The episode featuring Adam West inspired Seth MacFarlane (who once worked on Johnny Bravo as a writer and a cartoonist), who wrote the episode, to incorporate a similar character into Family Guy.

Other, more famous Hanna-Barbera characters have appeared in Johnny Bravo Episodes, including the cast of Scooby-Doo, Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, The Blue Falcon, and Huckleberry Hound.

Johnny has also hosted Cartoon Cartoon Fridays a number of times, mostly during the premiere of a new episode of his own show and rarely hosting a new episode of a different Cartoon Cartoon.

A live-action movie was planned, green-lit, and even did some casting (professional-wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was cast as the title character). It was slated for a November 2006 release, but for unknown reasons was canceled. It's unknown if plans will continue at all with the movie or not.

JBVO series
JBVO was a short-lived television series on Cartoon Network. The series aired on Sundays from April 2, 2000 to May 21, 2001. It was hosted by Johnny Bravo, along with some infrequent guest stars such as Chicken (from Cow and Chicken). Callers would write in to the show via mail or through the Cartoon Network website to call the show and request a cartoon from Cartoon Network's cartoon library, which would then be played, with an exception of half hour-long shows. Notably, one caller of the show requested an episode of Dragon Ball Z, being it was a half hour long, Johnny regretfully had to fast-forward through the entire episode with Johnny providing only expositional commentary. Afterward, Johnny apologized to the caller for the inconvenience. At one point somebody wrote to Johnny to tell him off for hitting on women and Johnny refused to listen.

NASCAR
The #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet was given a special paint scheme with Johnny Bravo on the hood. It was driven by Kyle Busch in the 2005 Sharpie 500 NASCAR race.

DVD releases
Johnny Bravo: Season 1, a two-disc set featuring the complete first season which contains all 13 episodes, was released by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand (Region 4) on October 10, 2007. On November 4, 2009, the complete second season was released.

A Region 1 release is set to be released March 9, 2010.