Johnny Bravo Was Delayed By A Natural Disaster At Cartoon Network HQ
Van Partible's animated series "Johnny Bravo" debuted on the Cartoon Network on July 14, 1997. It was one of four new shows that Cartoon Network premiered in 1997 and 1998 that served as a declaration for a new creator-forward direction the network was taking. "Johnny Bravo" debuted alongside Genndy Tartakovsky's "Dexter's Laboratory," David Feiss' "Cow and Chicken," and Craig McCracken's "The Powerpuff Girls." In 1999, that lineup would be complemented by "Ed, Edd n Eddy," and "Courage the Cowardly Dog." These shows were all quirky and idiosyncratic and attracted a generation of fans.
"Johnny Bravo" was about a barrel-chested, Elvis-voiced lug who lived with his mother and attempted to find love in the big city. His buffoonery and vanity, however, usually kept him single. Johnny was played by prolific voice actor Jeff Bennett, who has been acting professionally since 1991. Van Partible had been working on a version of the show as early as 1993 when he was still an animation student at Loyola Marymount University in Southern California. The story of his first short is astonishing. Partible was working on a short called "Mess o' Blues" about an Elvis impersonator, and right when he was set to screen it, he accidentally erased the entire soundtrack. Luckily, Partible had been working with producer Lee J. Bognar and was able to — on stage, on the fly — call up actors and musicians to perform the soundtrack live.
The filmed improv caught the attention of higher-ups at Hanna-Barbera, and Partible put together his pitch for "Johnny Bravo." It was successful. The show was scheduled to begin production on January 17, 1994.
That was the day, incidentally, of the Northridge Earthquake.
Partible talked about the earthquake drama on a 2020 episode of the video interview show "Speech Bubble."
The Northridge Earthquake
The 1994 Northridge quake was a massive 6.7 on the Richter Scale and did widespread damage across Southern California. Buildings fell, a two-level freeway collapsed, and Los Angeles didn't have potable drinking water for a few days. CSU Northridge was hit the hardest, suffering damage to all 58 buildings on campus. The exact death toll was never accurately reported, but even the highest estimates have the fatalities only in the 70s.
The quake also struck Hanna-Barbera, toppling walls and breaking down studio buildings. Van Particle was set to go to the studio that day, hoping to start a new gig with Cartoon Network, which was owned by Hanna-Barbera at the time. Sadly, the destruction kept him away. He remembers the date well, however, because he was presented with a chunk of broken wall with the date written on it, a dark keepsake of the destruction. Partible explained:
"I was going through my stuff because I'm Marie Kondo-ing my place, and I found this little piece of wall from the earthquake. And Kris Zimmerman, who was the recording director there, she collected pieces of wall and she wrote down the date and she gave them to all the different people at the studio. And I still have mine. But so that was the day that I was supposed to start. And so I was like, 'I don't know if I'm supposed to ...' So I called, and Lobby Bobby, who was the guard there, he was like, 'Yeah, no one's here so you're gonna have to call back.'"
The hosts of Speech Bubble were familiar with Lobby Bobby, the guard at Hanna-Barbera. The character of Ralph the Guard, who appeared in both "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries" and "Animaniacs," was modeled after Bob.
The delay
So, with the studio devastated and chunks of walls being passed around, how long did Partible have to wait before he could start his gig at Hanna-Barbera? Less time than you think. The hosts recalled the '94 quake and how long it took to get Los Angeles back into working order. This author was in high school at the time and recalled the school being closed for a few days. How quickly would Hanna-Barbera begin production again, allowing Partible to get "Johnny Bravo" off the ground?
"I started the following week," Partible explained.
Speech Bubble host Butch Hartman, a former Hanna-Barbera employee, recalled when Van Partible began, as he remembered the cutouts from Dynamite Magazine that Partible liked to hang in his cubicle space. There were pictures of Evel Knievel, "Mork & Mindy," and "Charlie's Angels." He sat across from Craig McCracken, who would occasionally sneak off to watch anime. It was, it seems, the Wild West, a space where the biggest up-and-coming luminaries of the animation world were growing into celebrities.
"Johnny Bravo" lasted 65 episodes over four seasons and has long remained a tentpole of Cartoon Network. Partible would go on to create "The Phabulizers" and return to LMU as a teacher. He also directed the animated "Pete the Cat" TV series for Amazon and made the animated segments for the TV series "Medium." All it took for Partible to be successful was a missing sound mix, a massive earthquake, and a lot of talent.