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Overview

Garfield and Friends is an American traditionally-animated television series based on the Garfield franchise. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate (until 1994) and Paws, Inc., and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from 1988 to 1994. Reruns of the show continued until October 7, 1995.

The series featured segments based on 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 well as the DVD releases. The original logo was retained in the 9 Story Media Group version.

242 Garfield segments and 121 U.S. Acres segments were produced. There were two Garfield segments on each show, two "quickie" shorts based on Sunday comic strips, and in between was a U.S. Acres segment.

A total of 121 half-hour shows were produced. All were released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment from 2004 to 2005. 9 Story Media Group is remastering the series for High-definition. Since 9 Story could not get in touch with the original film masters and the VHS master was too low to upscale, a full restoration could not be done. As a result, the intro was reanimated in Toon Boom, some special effects were affected and some animation frames are missing.

The first season aired in a half-hour format. In the second season, it switched to an hour-length format, showing two new episodes each week. In the show's last season, the second half-hour of the show featured either an episode from the previous season or one of the Garfield TV specials.

In early 1992, Garfield and Friends was described as "the second-ranked Saturday morning network cartoon (CBS) behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also CBS)."[1]

Segments[]

Garfield[]

The "Garfield" segments focus on the adventures of Garfield, Jon Arbuckle and Odie in the suburban world. The only characters from the strip not to appear are Doc Boy Arbuckle, Grandma Arbuckle, Squeak and Irma. Jon's parents and Arlene make one-off cameo appearances in "Feeling Feline" and "Remote Possibilities" respectively. While cartoons from earlier seasons focused more on Garfield's wacky antics, later seasons focused more on behind-the-scenes satire, parodies and breaking the fourth wall. Earlier segments would occasionally feature musical numbers.

U.S. Acres[]

The "U.S. Acres" segments were based on Jim Davis' lesser-known comic strip, which was about Orson Pig and his barnyard friends; Roy Rooster, Lanolin Sheep, Bo Sheep, Wade Duck, Booker and Sheldon and the life they run together on their farm. The only characters from the original strip not to appear are Blue and Cody. Originally, the segments were focused on morals and social lessons accompanied by a musical number; later segments focused more on comedy, breaking the fourth wall and slapstick.

Voice cast[]

Garfield and friends logo

Main cast[]

Additional cast[]

Theme songs[]

The series has had three different theme songs. The first one, "Friends Are There," featured Garfield, Orson, Roy, Wade, Booker and Sheldon fighting for screen time in a song about friendship. The second one, "Ready to Party," featured clips of Garfield and some costars in a song about fun times. The third and final one was a rap about Garfield. The third one was exclusively shown on CBS; international releases, home video releases, and the remastered version replaced the intro with "Ready to Party." At the end of each version of the theme, Garfield says something different.

Production[]

When the show was originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes usually had three Quickies (30- to 45-second gags), 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. In the syndicated reruns, only one Quickie is shown per episode, and it's always at the end rather than around the shorts. The DVD sets and Boomerang reruns restore the original rotation. After the third season, only one "Garfield Quickie" is shown per episode.

When Paws, Incorporated bought the worldwide rights of Garfield and U.S. Acres from United Feature Syndicate in 1994,[2] they also acquired the rights to Garfield and Friends. As a result, the last season of Garfield and Friends was the only one not by United Feature Syndicate, with its copyright replaced by that of Paws, Inc.[3]

Cancellation[]

With all the networks scaling back on their Saturday morning cartoon schedules, CBS, after the last episode of Garfield and Friends had been completed, proposed a reduction to the show's budget. As the show had been doing well enough in syndication, the production company found it unnecessary to produce more episodes.[4] An agreement was made to end the show after the seventh season, despite garnering high ratings. CBS scrapped its Saturday morning cartoon line-up in September 1997. In the intro of the final episode, Garfield states "After seven seasons, we've pretty much said everything you can say in this spot".

Cameos[]

In both of the segments, each one has numerous references, in jokes, or cameos, usually through merchandise.

U.S. Acres in Garfield[]

  • After the conclusion of "Attack of the Mutant Guppies", there is a second U.S. Acres Quickie that shows that the guppies, after being chased off by Nermal and Garfield, escaped to the farm. After they arrive there, they decide to try for a spot on Muppet Babies.
  • In "The Lasagna Zone," when Garfield is running through the channels with the help of Odie, one of the channels shows Booker and Sheldon turning their attention to Garfield. Apparently, this was the final shot of the quickie in that episode.
  • In "Mystic Manor", Garfield slides down a pole as Roy, Orson and Wade wave to him.
  • Garfield appears with Orson and Wade in "The Mail Animal". Orson tells Wade he has to help Lanolin with her job on the farm, only for Garfield to interrupt and bring the audience back to his cartoon.
  • Wade also makes a cameo appearance in "The Bear Facts" when Garfield shows Odie which animals live in the wild.
  • In "Happy Garfield Day", Orson and Roy appear on a couch watching the "12 Courses of Dinner" song. Also, for a few seconds in the song, Sheldon and Wade are shown on the same couch.
  • Orson, Wade, and Roy make cameo appearances in "The Lasagna Kid".
  • Wade makes an appearance in a "Screaming with Binky" segment.

Garfield in U.S. Acres[]

  • In season one, Bo owns pajamas with Garfield's face on it in "I Like Having You Around!"
  • In "Swine Trek", Orson has a walkie-talkie in the shape of Garfield.
  • In "Peanut-Brained Rooster", when the viewer eats lunch with Orson, the viewer is shown having a Garfield lunchbox.
  • In the Old Mother Hubbard scene of "Kiddie Korner", Odie is Old Mother Hubbard's dog.
  • Garfield also makes a cameo in "Day Dream Doctor" holding spaghetti.
  • In "Roy Gets Sacked", Binky the Clown appears in the unemployment queue, similar to "Binky Gets Cancelled!" and "Binky Gets Cancelled Again!"
  • In "Cock-a-Doodle Dandy", during the song, Binky The Clown makes a cameo appearance.
  • In "Newsworthy Wade" , a clock in the background has Garfield on it, with his hands serving as the clock hands.
  • Bo impersonates Garfield at one point in "The Bo Show". Frank Welker, Bo's voice actor, would later become the voice of Garfield, starting in 2007.
  • In "Fast Food", after asking the area code to the other half of the show, Booker calls Garfield, who then arrives to shut down Roy's "turbo-fast" food restaurant.
  • In "Mystery Guest" where Garfield is the mystery guest and people (even Jon) phone in to guess who he is, and fail to guess, despite it being obvious.
  • In "Flop Goes the Weasel", Booker sets a trap for a worm and uses a hamburger as bait. He catches Odie in his trap and tells Odie that he is on the wrong cartoon.
  • In "Barn of Fear II", in the song "There's NO Such Thing", after Orson sings the term "scaredy cat", Garfield slams the door on Orson's face, and walks by.
  • In "Badtime Story", Garfield makes an appearance during the story when Wade is reading.
  • In "The Thing in the Box", the titular "thing" turns out to be Nermal, whom Garfield attempted to mail to Abu Dhabi. Due to insufficient postage, Garfield instead mailed Nermal to U.S. Acres. Orson and the gang are soon dissatisfied with Nermal; they mail him back to Garfield, much to the latter's dismay.
  • In "Newsworthy Wade", there is a giant watch in the background that contains an image of Garfield, which changes in each appearance throughout the episode.

Awards[]

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

Episodes[]

See Garfield and Friends/Episode List

Reruns[]

  • In the U.S., the show later aired on TBS/TNT/Cartoon Network (1995-1997), Nickelodeon (1997-2000), Fox Family Channel (2001), Toon Disney (2003-2005), and Boomerang (2006-2007, 2019-2021). It was also re-run on local stations. In 2018, the show aired on Starz Encore Family.
    • On November 1, 2018, Boomerang began streaming Seasons 1-2 of the remastered version of the show from 9 Story Media Group.[5]
    • On November 3, 2019, Boomerang began streaming Seasons 3-4.
  • In Canada, it aired on YTV from 1989 to 1996. It aired on Teletoon Retro from 2011 to its shutdown in 2015.
  • The series was available on Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Video.

Streaming[]

  • On September 7, 2021, the show was given a channel on Pluto TV.[6]
  • The show used to be available to watch on Netflix until the mid-2010's.
  • Seasons 1-7 are available on Peacock, Tubi and The Roku Channel, with the prime time specials repackaged as an additional eighth season. The first three seasons were added to Tubi in January 2023, but only with the widescreen remasters.
  • Starting in 2021, the official Garfield & Friends YouTube channel has been posting full episodes of the series in sequential order, as well as some of the primetime specials. The channel also uses the "Orson's Farm" name for the U.S. Acres segments.
  • The show was available on Netflix from 2012 to 2017.
  • Seasons 1 and 2 are available on YAAAS! in the UK.
  • The show is also available on Fawesome and HappyKids (with The Garfield Show).

International[]

In the UK, it appeared on CITV from 1989 to 2002 and on Sky1 from 1998 to 2002, Boomerang aired the first two seasons from 2003 to 2006. It also appeared on The Children's Channel in reruns.

In Latin America, it aired on Cartoon Network from 1992 to 2005, on Boomerang from 2005 to 2008, and on Warner Channel from 1998 to 2002, as well as Tooncast from 2008 to 2016. Televisa's Canal 5 also played the show for many years, from the mid-1990s to early 2000s (decade). Telecorporacion Salvadorena's Canal 2 from 1991 to 2005.

In Mexico, it aired on MeTV from 1994 until 2007.

In Australia, Garfield and Friends began syndication on Network Ten from 1989 to 1999, and also on Nickelodeon from 1995 to 2004. Most recently, it played on FOX8 and ABC1 from 2004 to 2006.

The show was 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 cartoon had appeared in Hungary with two other synchronizations. Hungarian Television's channel M2 (what now repeats the whole series) broadcast the first season in 1994-95. RTL Klub then showed a re-synchronized first season (Garfield's voice, József Kerekes, was the same), which continued through the 121 episodes.

The show aired on German television network Junior on December 24th, 1989 and on Disney Channel in 1998 to 2006, and Canal Familie in Quebec, starting in 1988.

A Japanese dub was shown on WOWOW from 1992-1994. Episodes were later rebroadcast on Cartoon Network Japan in 2003. The U.S. Acres cartoons and Quickies are cut entirely for reasons unknown, and were replaced with Screaming With Binky segments and various other Garfield cartoons.

In the Middle East, the Arabic dub was aired on Arabic network Spacetoon, with censorship applied. Like the Japanese dub, the U.S. Acres cartoons and Quickies were also edited out or replaced in entirely, due to Islamic standards in which pigs were seem as haram (forbidden).

In Poland, the cartoon was originally aired on Polsat between 1997 and 1999, with Jacek Kawalec reading quotes of all the characters. Only 73 out of 121 episodes were broadcast; the same translated show was repeated by Polsat 2 and TV4 in early 2000s. A new Polish dub was developed in 2008 - Seasons 1 and 2 were shown on TVP1 between 22th September 2008 and 5th October 2009, while episodes from Season 3 were aired between 4th November 2009 and 13th March 2010. Only 52 episodes from the first 3 seasons had been broadcast.

The show aired on Catalan network K3.

The show aired with an official Valencian dub on Canal 9 in Spain.

The show aired in Romania under the name Garfield.

DVD Releases[]

Garfield and Friends

Volume One (1988)
Volume Two (1989)
Volume Three (1990)
Volume Four (1991)
Volume Five (1992)

Trivia[]

  • The theme music for this show is "Friends Are There" for the first two seasons, and "We're Ready to Party" for the last five seasons.
  • Among the voice actors considered for the show were Daws Butler and Jim Backus.[7][8]
  • Garfield and Orson are the only characters to appear in all episodes of their respective segments.
  • The fact that the show was still running at the end of the U.S. Acres strip was referenced one time.
  • The U.S. Acres segments and Quickies are absent in Japanese airings and are replaced by Garfield and Screaming with Binky cartoons and Quickies, although the characters still appear in cameos and the intro.
  • Although the U.S. Acres Quickies were dropped in later episodes, they are still referenced in Garfield cartoons.
  • Mark Evanier has stated that he prefers the Spanish dub of "Friends Are There" over the original. [9]
  • "Friends Are There" is the only intro to use original animation, instead of montages of clips from the show and TV specials.
  • On home video releases, the "Don't bother checking NBC, kids. They don't air cartoons anymore" introductory line was not included.
  • Although Garfield, Nermal, and Floyd are consistently shown to talk without their mouths moving, some Garfield cartoons feature other animals talking otherwise.
  • Although animals generally cannot talk to humans in the Garfield segments of the cartoon, there have been some exceptions. For example, in "Garfield's Garbage Can and Tin Pan Alley Revue", Jon could apparently hear Garfield singing. In "Binky Gets Cancelled Again!", humans could hear what the Buddy Bears were saying, and in the episode "Half-Baked Alaska", Jon could hear what Ichabod was saying when he whispered in his ear.
  • Mark Evanier has written that Arlene rarely appeared in the series due to the dearth of satisfactory ideas involving her character, the number of other characters appearing in the show, and the short length of each cartoon segment. Additionally, Jim Davis, at the time, had specific plans on what projects could feature her. Therefore, episodes where Garfield would have a romantic interest instead used new characters created by Evanier, most notably Penelope Pussycat.[10]
  • This would be the first known Garfield project to be outsourced to an animation studio overseas, as most of the specials were animated in-house at the former Meléndez and Film Roman studios.

References[]

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