Johnny Bravo

Original Air Date: 1997-2004

Network: Cartoon Network

Another by-product of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons block (a.k.a. the What a Cartoon! Show, which also spawned such series as Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and Cow and Chicken), Johnny Bravo started out as a collection of seven-minute shorts, like the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The series' titular star, Johnny Bravo, was a not-so-bright manchild who talked like Elvis and thought he was God's gift to the ladies (even if he struck out every time). He'd often strike body-building poses to show off his physique, was completely full of himself, and was generally over-the-top ridiculous.

Johnny Bravo the show, like Johnny Bravo the character, was mindless fun -- a show that never tried to be anything more than it was but was still enjoyable for both kids and adults. The popularity of Johnny Bravo and other "Cartoon Cartoon" characters from the mid-'90s -- Dexter, the Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd & Eddy -- helped elevate Cartoon Network beyond a repository of random, vintage cartoons into a home for unique, original animated programming.