Changes: Garfield and Friends

Revision as of 02:40, 21 February 2020

Overview

Garfield and Friends was 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 1988 to late 1994.

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 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, and all have been released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. 9 Story Media Group is remastering the series for High-definition. The intro was reanimated in Flash 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 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.

The series has been acquired by Viacom, as part of the company's purchase of the franchise.^[1]

Segments

Garfield

The "Garfield" segments focus on the adventures of Garfield, Jon 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 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.

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; later segments focused more on comedy, breaking the fourth wall and slapstick.

Voice Cast

Lorenzo Music as Garfield
Thom Huge as Jon Arbuckle, Roy Rooster, Gort and Binky the Clown
Gregg Berger as Odie and Orson Pig
Howard Morris as Wade Duck and Wart
Frank Welker as Booker, Sheldon, Bo Sheep and Mort
Julie Payne as Lanolin Sheep and Liz Wilson
Desirée Goyette as Nermal

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; home video releases 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.

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.^[2] 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.
Also, 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 last 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, we see Sheldon and Wade 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 you eat lunch with Orson, you are depicted as 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.
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.

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 (2003-2006), and Boomerang (2006-2007). It was also re-run on local stations, such as UPN. As of 2018, the show airs on Starz Encore Family.
- On November 1, 2018, Boomerang began streaming the remastered version of the show from 9 Story Media Group [1].
In Canada, it aired on YTV from 1989 to 1996. It has aired on Teletoon Retro since 2011.
The series is available on Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video.

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 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 cartoon had also appeared in Hungary with two other sychronizations. 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 Canal Familie in France, starting in 1988.

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

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 also aired on Catalan network K3.

Garfield and Friends
Season One (1988)	Season Two (1989)	Season Three (1990)	Season Four (1991)

Season Five (1992)

Season Six (1993-1994)

Season Seven (1995)

Trivia

Among the voice actors considered for the show were Daws Butler and Jim Backus.^[3]^[4]
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 Japan and Cartoon Network 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. ^[5]
"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, an intro were Garfield says, "Don't bother checking NBC, kids. They don't air cartoons anymore" 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.

References

[1] ttps://licensinginternational.org/news/putting-viacoms-purchase-of-garfield-in-context/

[2] ttp://www.newsfromme.com/2014/01/13/artistic-license-fees/

[3] ttp://www.newsfromme.com/2007/02/08/jim-backus/

[4] ttps://www.newsfromme.com/2016/11/14/mister-storch/

[5] ttps://www.newsfromme.com/2008/01/02/todays-video-link-329-2/

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 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, and all have been released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. [[9 Story Media Group]] plans to remaster the series for High-definition.
+A total of 121 half-hour shows were produced, and all have been released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. [[9 Story Media Group]] is remastering the series for High-definition. The intro was reanimated in Flash 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 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.
+The series has been acquired by Viacom, as part of the company's purchase of the franchise.<ref>https://licensinginternational.org/news/putting-viacoms-purchase-of-garfield-in-context/</ref>
 ==Segments==
 ===Garfield===
-The "Garfield" segments focus on the adventures of [[Garfield (character)|Garfield]], [[Jon]] and [[Odie]] in the suburban world. The only characters from the strip not to appear are [[Doc Boy]], [[Grandma Arbuckle]], [[Squeak]] and [[Irma]]. Jon's parents and [[Arlene]] make cameo appearances. 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.
+The "Garfield" segments focus on the adventures of [[Garfield (character)|Garfield]], [[Jon]] 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 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.
 ===U.S. Acres===
@@ Line 63: / Line 65: @@
 ==Cancellation==
-With all the networks scaling back on their Saturday morning cartoon schedules, CBS asked Film Roman to reduce the show's budget. As the show had been doing well enough in syndication, the production company found it unnecessary to produce more episodes.<ref>http://www.newsfromme.com/2014/01/13/artistic-license-fees/</ref> 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".
+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.<ref>http://www.newsfromme.com/2014/01/13/artistic-license-fees/</ref> 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 ==
@@ Line 84: / Line 86: @@
 *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.
 *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.
@@ Line 139: / Line 142: @@
 *The ''U.S. Acres'' segments and Quickies are absent in Japan and Cartoon Network 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. <ref>https://www.newsfromme.com/2008/01/02/todays-video-link-329-2/</ref>
+*Mark Evanier has stated that he prefers the Spanish dub of "[[Friends Are There]]" over the original. <ref>https://www.newsfromme.com/2008/01/02/todays-video-link-329-2/</ref>
+*"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, an intro were Garfield says, "Don't bother checking NBC, kids. They don't air cartoons anymore" 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.
 ==References==