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Garfield and Friends

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Garfield and Friends
File:Garfield and Friends.jpg
Garfield the Cat, as seen in the show's opening sequence.
Created byJim Davis (characters)
StarringLorenzo Music
Gregg Berger
Thom Huge
Julie Payne
Desiree Goyette
Victoria Jackson
Howard Morris
Frank Welker
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes363 (242 Garfield and 121 U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm)
Production
Running time60 minutes on CBS, 30 minutes syndicated per episode
Original release
NetworkCBS
Release1988 –
1995
There was also a never-related children's television series, titled Garfield Goose and Friends from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Garfield and Friends was an American animated television series based on the popular comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. This show was originally produced by Film Roman, and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from 1988 to 1995. In the United States, it is currently syndicated; while in the United Kingdom, it is on Boomerang.

Regular segments featured both Garfield and U.S. Acres, a lesser-known comic strip created by Davis. The latter was retitled Orson's Farm in all countries except the United States.

242 Garfield episodes and 121 U.S. Acres episodes were produced. There were two "Garfield" segments on each show, two "quickie" shorts based on sunday comic strips, and in between was an U.S. Acres segment. A total of 121 half-hours were produced, and as of December 6 2005, all 121 have been released on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

For a complete listing of episodes, see List of episodes of Garfield and Friends.

Voice actors and their characters

The cast

"Garfield"

  • Garfield: A fat, lazy tabby cat (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. 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 Garfield merchandise the characters appeared to own.
  • Odie: 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 character who cannot speak any sort of English, solely communicating with body language and his enthusiastic barking.
  • Jon Arbuckle: A bachelor cartoonist who has poor luck with women and a somewhat nerdy demeanor. Often annoyed by some of Garfield's antics, and he has an unrequited love for Dr. Liz.
  • Binky the Clown: 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 Jon try to avoid watching. Binky once had his own segment on the series called "Screaming With Binky" that was the length of a Quickie. (Most of these segments were removed in syndication.) His catchphrase is, "Heeeeeey, kiiiiiiids!" at the tops of his lungs.
  • Nermal: A cute gray kitten who's the self-proclaimed "World's Cutest Kitten". 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.
  • Herman Post: A mailman who loves delivering the mail. Is constantly the victim of booby traps set by Garfield.
  • Dr. Liz Wilson: Garfield's sarcastic veterinarian and long-time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters (often thanks to Garfield tagging along for the ride).
  • Floyd: A mouse who shows up at least once every season. A common running gag with the character is his continuous complaints over not appearing often.
  • Cactus Jake: 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: As his name suggests, he is a businessman and con artist who constantly swindles the perennially gullible Jon, but is eventually outwitted by Garfield.
  • The Buddy Bears (Bobby, Billy, Bertie): Three talking bears who spew various propaganda in the form of song and dance. Their messages include "never have an opinion of your own" and "if you ever disagree, it means that you are wrong". 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.
  • Penelope: Penelope is Garfield's girlfriend who takes the place of his love interest Arlene from the comics. (The reasons why Arlene does not appear in Garfield and Friends are unknown.)

"U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm"

  • Orson: A friendly pig whose favorite pastime is reading books and imagining himself into many scenarios, a la Walter Mitty.
  • Roy: A self-centered rooster who prides himself on his practical jokes.
  • Wade: A duck who wears a rubber flotation tube, and is admittedly afraid of everything, no matter how trivial. A weird thing about him is that the head on his floatation tube copies every movement Wade's real head does.
  • Bo: An affable sheep with a positive, laid-back attitude, whose mannerisms and vernacular are like a California beach bum.
  • Lanolin: A loud-mouthed sheep who spends most of her time disagreeing with her brother, Bo.
  • Booker: A small chick who is constantly in pursuit of an unnamed worm.
  • Sheldon: Booker's brother, who is still an egg, though his feet have popped out.
  • "The farmer": The unseen owner of the farm.
  • Mort, Gort, and Wart: Orson's older brothers, who are constantly trying to steal vegetables from the farm and torment Orson.
  • The Weasel: One of many predators who attempts to steal the chickens.
  • The Worm: A cunning worm who occasionally talks. Constantly pursued by the hapless Booker.

DVDs

File:Garfield and Friends Vol. 1, & 2.JPG
Vols. 1 & 2 of Garfield and Friends
File:Garfield and Friends Vol. 3, 4, & 5.jpg
Vols. 3, 4 & 5 of Garfield and Friends

U.S. Releases

  • Volume One: Released July 27, 2004 contains 24 episodes. Features all the episodes from Season 1 and part of Season 2.
  • Volume Two: Released December 7, 2004 contains 24 episodes. Features episodes from the rest of Season 2 and part of Season 3.
  • Volume Three: Released April 19, 2005 contains 24 episodes. Features episodes from the rest of Season 3 and 15 episodes of Season 4.
  • Volume Four: Released August 30, 2005 contains 24 episodes. Features the final episode of Season 4, all of Season 5, and part of Season 6.
  • Volume Five: Released December 6, 2005 contains the final 25 episodes. Features the rest of Season 6, and all of Season 7.

Each Garfield and Friends DVD Volume Box Set features Garfield with a U.S. Acres character. Volume 1 features Orson Pig, Volume 2 features Roy Rooster, Volume 3 features Wade Duck, Volume 4 features Booker and Sheldon Chick, and Volume 5 features Bo and Lanolin Sheep. Garfield and Friends Volume Box Sets contain 3 DVDs in each box. Volumes 1-4 contain 8 episodes on each disc. The first two DVDs on Volume 5 each contain 8 episodes, while the last DVD on Volume 5 contains 9 episodes. Each disc order of each set is like this: dics 1 always features Garfield, disc 2 features a U.S. Acres character, & disc 3 features a different character from the comic strip. Here's the order of the inside of each disc for each DVD set:

  • Volume 1: Disc 1: Garfield Disc 2: Orson Disc 3: Odie
  • Volume 2: Disc 1: Garfield (wearing pajamas) Disc 2: Roy Disc 3: Jon
  • Volume 3: Disc 1: Garfield (wearing a scuba mask & snorkel) Disc 2: Wade Disc 3: Pooky
  • Volume 4: Disc 1: Garfield (wearing a hankercheif) Disc 2: Booker Disc 3: Arlene (although she doesn't appear on the TV series)
  • Volume 5: Disc 1: Garfield (wearing a scarf) Disc 2: Lanolin Disc 3: Nermal

These DVD sets are also available in Canada.

U.K. Releases

A DVD has been released with episodes in the UK. Like the DVDs in the US sets, they consist of 8 episodes each. The first one, "Box of Fun" is exactly the same as that of the first disc in the first season set.

Trivia

  • When the show was originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes usually had three Quickies (30- to 45-second gags), usually two "Garfield Quickies" and one "U.S. Acres Quickie", the latter of which was never shown in syndication. Midway through the second season, "Screaming with Binky" Quickies were added. However, in the syndicated reruns, only one Quickie is shown per episode, and it's always at the end rather than around the shorts. After the third season, only one "Garfield Quickie" is shown per episode.
  • 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.
  • The U.S. Acres episode "Much Ado About Orson" is mentioned several times in the second season, but never actually appears. An episode titled "Much Ado About Lanolin" does appear in the third season, however.
  • The show has had three different theme songs. The first one was used during the first two seasons, and was also occasionally hummed or sung by the characters within the show. It was a song-and-dance style number about friendship, presumably based on the fact that the show was called "Garfield and Friends". The second theme song first appeared in the third season and was used for almost the rest of the show's run, although some of the clips in the sequence were changed in the sixth season. The idea of this song, which featured upbeat conga music, that watching the show was as much fun as going to a party. This theme song is the only one used in the syndicated reruns. In the seventh season, a rap-based theme song was used, and perhaps due to not being included in the international version, it does not appear on the DVD releases.
  • Only 89 episodes out of the 121 episodes are shown in reruns. This is due to CBS selling syndication rights when the show was still on air and wanting to keep the rights for certain episodes. When the series ended, the rest of the episodes were offered to the syndicate, but declined.
  • The show often broke the fourth wall and made references to the idea that it was a live-action sitcom, which, of course, it wasn't.
  • The show makes frequent references to the Klopman Diamond, a fictional diamond which, apparently, was originally an old Johnny Carson joke.
  • Lorenzo Music provided the voice of Garfield for this series and others; in 2004's Garfield: The Movie, Bill Murray voiced Garfield. Music previously took over a role of Murray's, playing Ghostbuster Peter Venkman on the first season of the television series The Real Ghostbusters (1986–1989). Both actors share a deadpan vocal delivery.
  • In one segment, Garfield answers the door saying, "This is Garfield your doorman," a nod to Music's previous famous role as the unseen Carlton the Doorman in Rhoda.
  • Mark Evanier, co-creator of Groo the Wanderer and other comic books, has often spoken highly of his time as a writer and director on the show.
  • In the U.S. Acres episode "The Name Game", Wade is wearing slippers that resemble Grimmy the Dog from Mother Goose and Grimm, another comic strip which also had an animated series on CBS at the time the episode aired.

Syndication History

After Garfield and Friends stopped airing on CBS in 1995, it went on other channels.

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