Garfield and Friends

Garfield and Friends is an American animated television series based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate and Paws, Inc., and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with reruns airing until October 7, 1995.^[1][2] The show's seven seasons make it one of the longest running Saturday morning cartoons in history, with most lasting no more than two or three seasons.

Regular segments featured both Garfield and U.S. Acres, a lesser-known comic strip also created by Davis. The latter was retitled Orson's Farm for foreign syndication, as that was the name of the comic strip outside of the United States.

The show produced 242 Garfield segments and 121 U.S. Acres segments. There were two "Garfield" segments on each show, two "quickie" shorts (often based on Sunday comic strips), and in between was a U.S. Acres segment. A total of 121 half-hours were produced, and all have been released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The first season aired in a half-hour format. In the second season, it switched to an hour-length format, showing two episodes each week. However, in the show's last season, the second half-hour of the show featured either an episode from the previous season or one of Garfield's TV specials.

Mark Evanier wrote or co-wrote every episode of the series^[3] and acted as voice director.

Characters

Garfield

Regular characters

• Garfield (Voiced by Lorenzo Music): A fat, lazy orange tabby (once described in the comic strip by his owner Jon as "an orange meatball with stripes") who wants nothing more out of life than to eat and sleep. He has a penchant for consuming lasagna, enjoys tormenting Odie, and likes trying to mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi. He made a small handful of appearances on U.S. Acres (once wearing nothing but a black mask over his eyes as his "disguise"), but was more often seen in the form of various pieces of Garfield merchandise the characters appeared to own. Deep down, Garfield loves Jon and Odie. Garfield's mouth doesn't move; the audience hears his thoughts.
• Jon Arbuckle (Voiced by Thom Huge): Garfield's owner, a bachelor cartoonist who has poor luck with women and a somewhat nerdy demeanor. He is often annoyed by some of Garfield's antics, and also has an unrequited love for Dr. Liz. Whenever Garfield gets in trouble, Jon will punish him by taking him to the vet. Jon also has a mission set before him: get Garfield to do the right thing. Jon occasionally forces Garfield to hunt and catch mice, which is always unsuccessful due to Garfield not wanting to eat mice and his friendship with Floyd.
• Odie (Voiced by Gregg Berger): A beagle who used to belong to Jon's former roommate Lyman (who never appeared on the show, but was a character who appeared in the earliest comic strips). Is often kicked off the kitchen table by Garfield. Looks incredibly stupid and gullible, but is actually much more cunning and smart than he lets on. Odie is the only animal character who doesn't communicate with any form of dialogue, solely communicating with body language and his enthusiastic barking and other dog sound effects, although Garfield is able to understand what he says.
• Nermal (Voiced by Desiree Goyette): A cute, androgynous, grey tabby kitten who's the self-proclaimed "World's Cutest Kitty Cat". Nermal seems kind and playful, but likes to annoy Garfield and brag about how much cuter he is. Garfield often attempts (usually unsuccessfully) to mail him to Abu Dhabi as a result. Though officially considered a male, Nermal's feminine preoccupation with being cute, and the fact that a woman provides a childlike voice of ambiguous gender for Nermal, allowed the character to be mistaken for a female cat.
• Pooky: Garfield's teddy bear and sleeping companion who Jon is jealous of. Found in a drawer, he is Garfield's only toy. Garfield adopted his alter ego "The Caped Avenger" after temporarily losing Pooky.
• Binky The Clown (Voiced by Thom Huge): A loud, obnoxious clown who appeared a few times in the strip before becoming a regular on the show. Within the series, Binky has his own TV show that Garfield and Odie try to avoid watching. Binky once had his own segment on the series called "Screaming With Binky" that was the length of a Quickie and ran at the midway point of an hour episode—Most of these segments were removed in syndication. Screaming with Binky segments were only aired in seasons 2 and 3 (1989–1991) of the show, and some were re-aired for a month after eight weeks of season 4 and 5 episodes (Nov.1991-Sep.1993). His catchphrase is, "Heeeeeey, kiiiiiiids!" , but to Garfield he yells "Heeeeeeeeeeeey, cat!" Binky the Clown was a reoccurring character for the first three seasons, but was removed beginning season four. He made a brief cameo appearance in a season 7 episode "The Feline Philosopher", where Binky then threw pies and discusses how he used to be part of an act to Odie.
• Herman Post: A mailman who loves delivering the mail. He is constantly the victim of booby traps set by Garfield.
• Dr. Liz Wilson (Voiced by Julie Payne): Garfield's sarcastic veterinarian and Jon's main love interest. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters often due to Garfield's actions.

Minor characters

• Dr. Garbonzo Bean: A mad scientist who is responsible for creating robot versions of Odie. He appeared in the second season and again two years later, complete with a flashback.
• Floyd (Voiced by Gregg Berger): Garfield's best friend. A mouse who shows up at least once every season. A common running gag with the character is how he continually complains about not appearing more often.
• Cactus Jake (Voiced by Pat Buttram): The foreman of the Polecat Flats dude ranch; behaves in the manner of an old-fashioned cowboy, and often refuses to have anything to do with modern technology.
• Al G. Swindler (Voiced by Carl Ballantine): As his name suggests, he is a businessman and con artist who constantly swindles the perennially gullible Jon, but is eventually outwitted by Garfield. In the episode Lemon Aid his name was given as Al J. Swindler. He also always says Jon's last name wrong; for example, "Mr. Arborday". He first appeared in the last week of season 2 episodes and last appeared in the first week of season 5 episodes.
• The Buddy Bears: Their names are Billy, Bobby, and Bertie (though they introduced themselves as William, Robert, and Bertram in "The Garfield Opera"). They are three talking bears who spew conformist propaganda in the form of song and dance ("Oh, we're the Buddy Bears we always get along... if you ever disagree, it means that you are wrong,": etc.) Their television show once replaced Binky's, and Roy Rooster of U.S. Acres has twice been stuck as the fall guy of their routines. The Buddy Bears are a satire of The Get Along Gang and other 1980s cartoons that placed the importance of group harmony over individualism. However, it is Garfield who always gets the last laugh sometimes causing arguments between the three bears. Later in the series there is a 4th female Buddy Bear, their sister Betty.^[4]
• Penelope (Voiced by Victoria Jackson): Penelope is Garfield's girlfriend who takes the place of his love interest Arlene from the comics. Mark Evanier recently explained that the reason Arlene only appeared once in the series was that Jim Davis had a very specific idea of how the Arlene character should be and told the writers that if they couldn't be faithful to it, they shouldn't use her.
• Brick: Brick (or Bonzo from the second and third season) is the ex-boyfriend to most of Garfield's love interests. They usually dump him because of Garfield. He usually is sensetive about his girlfriends so he usually pounds Garfield, but still does not win their hearts. He was first seen in Beach Bum Bonzo as Gwendelin's boyfriend. He later appeared in The Idol of Id trying to convince Gwendelin to dump Garfield and go back to him. In The Perils of Penelope he appeared as Bonzo for the first time, as dating Penelope and after he chase Garfield to a truck he was last seen in the back of a truck to mexico. He made a cameo in The Garfield Rap playing the guitar in one scene.
• The Singing Ants: The Singing Ants, ants who sing while stealing food, appeared first as the stars of the musical episode "The Picnic Panic," where they steal all of Garfield's picnic lunch. They later made a cameo appearance in "A Vacation From His Senses," where they are seemingly delusions of Jon, who thinks that he has gone crazy. Their final appearance is in "Another Ant Episode," where they have another starring role, this time taking over Garfield's house.
• Ludlow: A crow who only appeared twice. His father always beats up Garfield when he thinks he has eaten his son. The episodes in which he appeared are "Sweet Tweet Treat" and "Catch As Cats Can't."
• Rudy: A dog who beats on Garfield every time he hosts a television program and says something bad about dogs. His name was finally revealed on Dogmother 2.
• Mice: The Mice appeared in two episodes. The episodes were "Good Mousekeeping," and "Rodent Rampage." The mice don't include Floyd.
• Cat Burglar: The Cat Burglar appeared in only three episodes: "Mistakes Will Happen," "Safe At Home," and "Top Ten." He had two attempts to steal from Jon's home.
• Madman Murray and Demented Dave: Similar to Mr. Swindler, both try to get Jon to buy some cheap junk. They appeared in three episodes.
• Gramps: An old man character who doesn't appear in the comics but does have various stores around town.
• J.D.: (a.k.a. Jim Davis). The director of the cartoons who had five "appearances." He was in the episodes: "Mystic Manor" (as himself wearing a Garfield suit drawing a comic strip), "Flat Tired," "Star Struck," "Fill In Feline," and the U.S. Acres (Orson's Farm) episode "What's It All About Wade?"

U.S. Acres (a.k.a. Orson's Farm)

Regular characters

• Orson (Voiced by Gregg Berger): A friendly pig whose favorite pastime is reading books and imagining himself into many scenarios, à la Walter Mitty. Orson also has two missions set before him: get Roy to do the right thing and get Wade to be brave. A running gag is that Orson is a neat freak and constantly showers and keeps clean, one time making Wade comment, "Cleanest pig I've ever known." He's good friends with Wade, Roy, Bo, and Lanolin and a father figure to Booker and Sheldon. Orson's afraid of his brothers.
• Roy (Voiced by Thom Huge): A self-centered rooster who prides himself on his practical jokes. He's constantly into a scheme which more often than not Orson or another character has to bail him out of. Despite his selfishness he can be a good person but not too often.
• Wade (Voiced by Howard Morris): A cowardly duck who wears a rubber flotation tube, and has a bunch of phobias no matter how trivial. As a gag, the head on his flotation tube copies nearly every movement and appearance change Wade's real head does. He is Orson's best friend, and when he gets scared (which is almost all the time), he'll blabber with no one understanding what he's saying. Though afraid of seemingly everything, Wade's greatest fear is the Weasel.
• Bo (Voiced by Frank Welker): An affable sheep with a positive, laid-back attitude, whose mannerisms and vernacular are like a California beach bum. He's almost impossible to get mad and acts as a guide for Orson when dealing with his three older brothers.
• Lanolin (Voiced by Julie Payne): A loud-mouthed sheep who spends most of her time arguing with Bo. The arguments are often triggered by her being disagreeable seemingly for its own sake. A running gag throughout the series is Lanolin threatening to have the Farmer's wife turn Roy into a feather duster.
• Booker (Voiced by Frank Welker): A small, cute, but very assertive chick who is constantly in pursuit of unnamed worms. Got his name from Orson's love of books.
• Sheldon (Voiced by Frank Welker): Booker's brother, who, despite having hatched, still lives in his egg with his feet popped out of the shell so he can walk. He seems to have "all kinds of things" in his shell, including a pinball machine and a stove. In one episode it was revealed that Sheldon actually did hatch but that under his shell was nothing more than another shell. Nobody knows what happened to Booker and Sheldon's parents.

Minor characters

• Wart (Voiced by Howard Morris), Gort (Voiced by Thom Huge), and Mort (Voiced by Frank Welker): Orson's older brothers (unnamed until their third appearance) who act as bullies and are usually seen trying to steal the vegetables from the farm. They seldom refer to Orson by his name, calling him "the runt."
• Fred Duck: Wade's highly annoying cousin who wears a parachute when flying because he's secretly afraid of heights. Fred disappeared after the fourth season.
• The Weasel: Unnamed, the weasel is constantly seen sneaking around trying to kidnap the chickens. Usually Roy (or on rare occasions Wade or Sheldon) is the one to thwart him.
• The Fox: He is also an unnamed character who tries to kidnap the chickens, though he has more of a goofy persona. He was first seen trying to kidnap Sheldon, despite saying he "doesn't look ripe."
• Chloe: Roy's niece and a bookish chick. Roy likes her more than he'll admit. She was first introduced in "Uncle Roy to the Rescue", and then was seen again in "Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarfs, pts. 1-2".
• Edward R. Furrow: The farm's local psychiatrist badger whose named after Edward R. Murrow. His appearances include "A Mildley Mental Mix-Up" and "Daydream Doctor". He made a cameo in "Newsworthy Wade".
• Aloysius: A pig who appears in the seventh season of U.S. Acres. He works not only as a studio accountant but also as a television executive . He gave problems to Orson and his friends about their show (such as the "unwholesomeness" of nursery rhymes in "Kiddie Korner" and budget of the animators of the cartoon in "The Discount of Monte Cristo"). He has a dart board, which he uses to plan each season of TV. However, Orson and his gang find a way to pay him back near the end of each episode.
• Plato: A sophisticated rooster who came to the farm to do Roy's job. Roy got really jealous of him, although when Plato proved too cowardly to save the chickens from the weasel he was thrown out of the farm. Plato first appeared in the third season and had another appearance in Season 4.

Additional actors

Additional voices were also provided by Gary Owens and Neil Ross.

As well, there have been several celebrity guest stars who did voice acting on Garfield & Friends for both Garfield & US Acres portions, including Imogene Coca, Stan Freberg, George Foreman, Chick Hearn, James Earl Jones, Marvin Kaplan, Robin Leach, John Moschitta, Jr., Jack Riley, Rod Roddy, Will Ryan, Paul Winchell and Don Knotts.

Episodes

Production

When the show was originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes usually had three Quickies (30- to 45-second gags which were based on original Garfield and U.S. Acres strips, rather than original made-for-TV stories), usually two "Garfield Quickies" (the first one being played before the intro theme) and one "U.S. Acres Quickie," the latter of which was never shown in syndication. Midway through the second season, "Screaming with Binky" quickie-style segments were added. These "Screaming with Binky" segments were typically used at the halfway point of hour long blocks of Garfield and Friends (as Garfield ended each one with "We'll be right back.") to let the viewers know that unlike most Saturday morning cartoons at the time, it was not over in the usual half-hour. The DVD sets and Boomerang reruns restore the original rotation. After the third season, only one "Garfield Quickie" is shown per episode.

During the first season, most U.S. Acres segments were made to teach a social lesson, which is ironically the type of thing the show was against in its later seasons.

In syndication, Garfield and Friends aired in a thirty-minute format. Each episode consisted of a Garfield cartoon, a U.S. Acres cartoon, another Garfield cartoon, and a Garfield Quickie in that order. The theme for the rerun package was the same one that was in use on the regular television series at the time (having been introduced in season three), but none of the music from the earlier episodes was edited for syndication.

Episode segments and where they appeared

Each episode featured the following segments:

• Garfield Quickie: This was a segment of the show that featured Garfield Sunday strips from the mid-to-late 1980s. Very rarely would a weekday strip be shown.
• Theme Song: This usually started with a formal styled Garfield on the fence turning on a record player and an announcer introducing the show. See the theme song section below for more information.
• First Garfield Cartoon: This is a general Garfield episode taking on a more domestic nature mostly involving Jon and Odie.
• U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm Quickie: This Quickie usually aired before the main story and featured strips from the newspaper run for that series.
• U.S. Acres Cartoon: This episode featured the U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm gang in various situations. From Season 1 to Season Three there was a song segment that was built on the episode's theme.
• Screaming With Binky: Segment that was the length of a Quickie and ran at the midway point of an hour episode. These segments featured narration by Garfield where we would usually find ourselves in someplace where quiet is a must or a person is in a delicate situation such as a golfer making a crucial putt. This would be followed by a Binky appearing and yelling, for example, "Heeeeeeeeeeeey Golfer!," most often causing a mistake of some sort. Most of these segments were removed in syndication. On the DVDs, Screaming With Binky usually follows the U.S. Acres episode.
• Second Garfield Quickie: Just like the first quickie except it would be followed by another Garfield episode.
• Second Garfield Cartoon: Another cartoon starring Garfield. Though stories may have a domestic nature, the viewers might see a parody teaching segment that featured a Garfield lecture of some sort or learning situation.
• End Credits

Cancellation

The seventh season (1994–1995) was the last one because CBS wanted to cut the budget (and in fact, CBS's Saturday morning cartoon lineup would be mostly replaced by CBS News Saturday Morning two years later, which eventually evolved into the Saturday edition of The Early Show). The production company nixed this proposal, so they mutually agreed to cease production, even though Garfield and Friends had still been doing well in the ratings.

Awards

Garfield and Friends won the Young Artist Award in 1989 for "Best Animation Series".

Theme song

The first theme song was a song-and-dance style number about friendship ("Friends are there to help you get started / To give you a push on your way") and was used during the first two seasons (and was also occasionally hummed or sung by the characters within the show).

The second theme song first appeared in the third season and was used for almost the rest of the show's run. This theme was up-tempo and featured clips from episodes of the show. The second song supplants the first and third songs in syndicated reruns of the first, second, and seventh seasons.

In the seventh (and final) season, an upbeat rap-based theme song was used, sung by J.R. Johnston. This theme is not included on the DVDs because the show was already in reruns by the time the rap theme song came out, and the song was not well received by viewers.

The close of each version of the theme included a recurring joke made by Garfield (e.g., "Welcome to my world... Did you bring food?" and "It doesn't start till the fat lady screams.").

DVD releases

Region 1

Fox Entertainment and Jim Davis released all seven seasons of Garfield and Friends to Region 1 DVD in five volume box sets, with each set having 24-25 episodes on three discs. Each set features an image of Garfield with a character from U.S. Acres.^[5] These DVD sets show the original telecast versions, rather than the edited versions once seen in syndication and on cable networks.

Region 2

Fox Entertainment and Jim Davis released one volume of Garfield and Friends on DVD in the UK on 21 Nov 2005. It was called Box of Fun and it was the same cover as the Vol. 1 box set. Unlike the USA sets, this is just a single disc with 8 episodes.

Region 4

Fox Entertainment also released the Volume One set to Region 4 DVD on December 13, 2004. The contents of this set are exactly the same as that of the Region 1 release with only minor changes to the set cover. The set was also made available as individual volumes. The complete "Volume 1" set is now discontinued. The remaining four volumes were never released.

Also released was Garfield and Friends: Behind the Scenes in 2006.

Syndication history

Garfield and Friends has been syndicated on television around the world, beginning in the late 1980s and remaining on air in present day. In Latin America, it played on Cartoon Network from 1992 to 2005, on Boomerang from 2005 to the present, and on Warner Channel from 1998 to the present. Currently, all three of these networks have lost the rights to the show, however, though it still runs on Boomerang. Televisa's Canal 5 also played the show for many years, from the mid 1990s to early 2000s (decade).

In Australia, Garfield and Friends began syndication on Network Ten from 1989 to 1999. Most recently it played on FOX8 and ABC1 from 2004 to 2006.

The show was also syndicated in Chile from 1989 to 2003 on Canal 13 and from 1998 to present on Warner Channel. In Estonia, the show appeared on TV 3 from 2000 to 2002, and in Finland on YLE TV2 between the years 1992-1994 and 1998-1999.

The United Kingdom and the United States remain the highest syndicators of the show. In the UK, it appeared on CITV from 1989 through 2002, on Sky1 from 1998 to 2002, and on Boomerang from 2003 to 2006 with Season 1 and 2 only. It also appeared on The Children's Channel for an unknown period of time.

In the United States, the series appeared in syndication from 1993 to 2006, on TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network from 1995 to 1996, and Nickelodeon from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, it appeared on Fox Family Channel. Boomerang carried it from 2006 to 2007.

Garfield and Friends aired in Canada on the cable TV channel YTV from 1989 to 1996. As of September 5, 2011, Teletoon's 24-hour classic-animation network, Teletoon Retro (which launched in 2007) will rerun all episodes of the show.

Only 73 episodes out of the 121 episodes were syndicated by The Program Exchange between 1993 and 2007. This is due to the producers selling syndication rights when the show was still on air and CBS wanting to keep the rights for certain episodes. The show was removed from the Boomerang lineup on December 3, 2006, but returned in May 2007 only to be removed again.

The Garfield Show

A new CGI series of Garfield came out in 2009. Many people who worked on Garfield and Friends also work on this series such as executive producer and creator Jim Davis, and co-writer and voice director Mark Evanier.

Frank Welker replaces the late Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield, along with Gregg Berger and other familiar voice actors.

The series does not include the US Acres series and characters, as well as other main characters from Garfield and Friends. However, in one episode, Binky the Clown is mentioned, to which Garfield then replies "My contract says he's not allowed to be in this series".

References

External links

• Cat-O-Vision - The Guide to Garfield on Television
• Garfield and Friends at the Internet Movie Database
• Garfield and Friends at TV.com
• Garfield DVD Site