The animated television series Johnny Bravo was an iconic show that was a part of a lot of people's childhoods...and it also was not what I was planning on reviewing today but oh well, these things happen.
"Johnny Bravo", like MAAANY Cartoon Network programs of its' day started off as shorts on "What A Cartoon!". Specifically, 3 shorts which aired in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Later on in 1997, Johnny got his own series which only lasted for 1 season before being put on hiatus. It was picked back up again in 1999 and lasted 3 more seasons before ending in 2004. Johnny was initially a show where each episode was made up of 3 segments, each 7 minutes long. In the 4th and final season, they lengthened each segment to 11 minutes long and made it so that each episode only contained 2 segments. Personally, I prefer the first way of doing things because Johnny Bravo was such a light show that it really didn't need segments that were too long, and also because the "3 segments" format of doing things has just become less and less common in recent years, but truely it didn't make a big enough difference to detract from the viewing experience.
The series followed the titular "Johnny Bravo" a 20-something man who is very muscular and cares a lot about his appearance. Strangely enough, despite these two qualities that jjust scream "popular kid" he only really has two friends. Even more sad is the fact that one, Carl Chryniszzwics (wait what kind of name is that?) , a total geek, and the other, Suzy, is an elementary school girl. And to cement Johnny loser lot in life, we have the fact that he doesn't appear to have any job and definitely still lives with his mother (Bunny "Mama" Bravo). Oh, and even his mother doesn't ever really take him seriously.
Now you'd think someone in Johnny's position would focus his life on getting a job, getting out of his mothers' house, and making some friends his own age (besides just Carl), but no. Johnny spends all of his time trying to pick up chicks and failing miserably despite his attractive appearance. Ironically enough, it's not even the fact that he's unemployed that repels the girls (he almost never gets far enough to let them know that). Instead, it's Johnny's dumb, shallow, and arrogant personality that manages to instantly repel women 90% of the time. The show generally focuses on the antics Johnny gets himself into trying to impress women. Now, the suspense is not in whether or not he succeeds, because he always fails. The suspense is instead in how ridiculous the way he fails will be and how exasperated Mama and Lil' Suzy will be with him afterwards.
Honestly you'd think this would get irritating with such an obnoxious protagonist, yet Johnny always manages to balance on that thin line between "too obnoxious" and "not obnoxious enough". He's just ignorant enough of his surroundings to pull off that "lovable idiot" character and he shows on multiple occasions that he's actually pretty kindhearted. Notably, he once is running late for a date and stops to help a kitten out of a tree (though that ends up leading into a complicated time travel plot). INTERESTING SIDENOTE: Considering how appearance-centered and dumb he is, I always assumed Johny was a popular jock in high school who never grew out of it, but we actually see in a flashback episode that he was scrawny and unpopular in high school and bulked up BECAUSE of that. Now, you never see Johnny ever get a second date or a real girlfriend, and he always remains a loser, but you know he'll be ok so long as he has his supporting cast, and you know that so long as he has that cast, he will not only be a loser, but a hilarious, lovable loser. And THAT is why I love Johnny Bravo. If you're a fan of things such as the Flintstones or Tom and Jerry, this will be your cup of tea.
"Thank you, thank you very much."
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