Has it really been thirteen years since Johnny Bravo premiered on Cartoon Network? It says something about how far that network has fallen that I can't even name one of the shows it is now running in place of Bravo and other iconic series from ten years ago: Dexter's Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog ...
 Johnny Bravo was one of a clutch of series that really put Cartoon Network on the map. The kidnet was already the destination of choice for discerning toon-watchers, what with it being the home for Looney Tunes, the great Hanna-Barbera shows, the informative/entertaining Toonheads, and other series. But the first class of "What-a-Cartoon" shorts, which birthed more than just the Van Partible series, suggested a network with the guts (or maybe just the desperation) to give cartoonists their heads. And for the next few years, at least, Cartoon Network was a very hip place to hang out.
But I have to confess that I didn't watch that much of Bravo; of all the "classic alums," this one ranked down at the bottom of my list. It was bright and it was clever, but it didn't have the same spark as Dexter or Powerpuff Girls or Cow and Chicken. I might light on it and watch a single short, but there wasn't enough to keep me from flipping to another channel and not coming back. And, truth to tell, Johnny Bravo: Season One, which has just come out on DVD, reminds me of why Bravo never made much of an impression.
You can sense the problem just in the pitch. The other series can be quickly and vividly summarized. Dexter: a boy genius battles bullies, retards, the occasional monster or alien, but mostly his older sister. Powerpuff Girls: three girly tots with superpowers save the city of Townsville. Cow and Chicken: Ren and Stimpy in cow and chicken costumes. But Johnny Bravo? A buff, blonde Elvis-soundalike chases chicks? That's a one-joke idea, and it doesn't even sound all that funny. And too often the show doesn't advance past that joke.
But even at its most boring and inane, Johnny Bravo has at least some wit. The very first short is sustained by a funny gorilla and the second by a funny elephant. And even the otherwise very predictable "Substitute Teacher" benefits from Mark Hamill's performance as a Jon Lovitz-like crook. Johnny himself is a very sweet doofus, and Jeff Glen Bennett gives him a lot of energy without making him overbearing.
Luckily, series-creator Van Partible and his crew sensed that Johnny worked best as a foil for other characters rather than as the star of his own show. They quickly paired him with a girl neighbor, Little Suzy, who had great chemistry with the big dummy. As Partible neatly explains in one of the commentary tracks on this set, Johnny is like an overgrown kid himself, so she fits perfectly into his world even as he towers humorously over her. When Suzy wasn't around they stuck Johnny next to other oddballs. They dropped him between a couple of feuding clowns in "I Used to Be Funny"; sent him on a date with an antelope in "Date with an Antelope"; and let him play straight man to such guest stars as Farrah Fawcett, Adam West, Donny Osmond, and the Mysteries Inc. gang. (Less successful is a three-short Twilight Zone parody episode, possibly because the Rod Serling classic is already so kooky that it nearly parodies itself.) By the end of this set you can feel the series getting its groove, and the thirteenth episode, with its " ... Meets Adam West" and "... Meets Donny Osmond" shorts, is a terrific climax that finally leaves you wanting more.
 Bravo was also an incubator of talent and of trends. It's hard to remember these days, but once upon a time cartoon characters moved from one point to another, and moved rather slowly and liquidly between them. Bravo seems to have initiated a trend toward a more "snappy", pose-to-pose animation style. Partible admits that he developed this style, at least in part, because it could save him some animation work; the rest of it was inspiration taken from the Chuck Jones classic "The Dover Boys." Since the late nineties this technique has become something of a cliché and a crutch, but it works very well in Bravo because Partible uses it to characterize Johnny himself, and there are some lovely movements and poses, especially in the early shorts, when Partible gives the otherwise very flat cartoon some depth by exaggerating the foreshortening of Johnny's outstretched limbs.
As for talent: It's startling to see the names of some of the people who worked on this show, which range from oldsters like Ed Benedict (credited as a backgrounds consultant) to up-and-comers like Butch Hartman (of The Fairly Oddparents and Danny Phantom) and ... Seth MacFarlane? Yeah, the creator of Family Guy did a lot of writing for Johnny Bravo, and (you have no idea how much it hurts for me to say this) the best stuff on this set has his name on it: smart, absurd, subversive, and completely unpredictable. There are even musical numbers which he wrote the lyrics to. Readers who adore The Family Guy should probably pick this set up for no other reason than because of MacFarlane's presence; you can see his style in embryo, when it still had a freshness and before it became something rote and hackneyed and eminently worthy of demolition by the South Park guys.
Warner Home Video and Cartoon Network have provided a very well-appointed set. Johnny Bravo: Season One comes with the first 13 episodes, three of which have commentary tracks. There is also a short featurette on the development of the show; the complete pencil tests for the first two shorts; and MacFarlane's demo tapes for the songs on "The Sensitive Male!" There is one glaring error on the menus—two images have gotten swapped—but it is easy to navigate and there is no padding with silly "games" or even trailers. All in all, it's a superior and well-crafted collection that gives casual watchers what they want but will also please collectors.
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