Garfield and his friends, the 1988 animated series
Garfield and his friends (original title: Garfield and Friends) is an American animated series based on Jim Davis' Garfield comic. In America it premiered on CBS on Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with reruns running until October 7, 1995. Seven seasons of the series were produced. In Italy it was broadcast starting from 1990 on Rai 1 as part of Big! and Solletico and later on Rai 3 as part of Melevisione in 1999. It was later broadcast on Italia 1 and RaiSat Ragazzi in 2003.
In addition to segments with Garfield, the series also included segments with characters from US Acres, a comic that Davis was drawing at the same time as Garfield when Garfield and his friends (Garfield and Friends) was first presented on television. Like the comic on which they were based, the animated segments have been renamed Orson's farm for viewers outside of the United States (named after their main character, Orson Pig). Although Davis stopped producing new strips of US Acres / Orson's Farm seven months after the debut of Garfield and his friends (Garfield and Friends), the characters continued to appear on television for the duration of the show.
A total of 121 episodes were made, each consisting of two segments of Garfield and one segment of US Acres, for a total of 242 segments of Garfield and 121 segments of US Acres. All episodes were released in the United States on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The first season aired in a half hour format. Starting in season two, it switched to a one-hour format, showing two episodes each week. During the final season, while the series still ran an hour, the second half hour of the show featured an episode from the previous season or one of Garfield TV's specials. On May 25, 2016, 9 Story Media Group acquired the worldwide distribution rights of Garfield and his friends (Garfield and Friends) and its specials
Characters
Garfield
Grafiled is a fat, lazy, sarcastic orange tabby who wants nothing more from life than to eat, sleep and watch television. He has a penchant for lasagna, likes to pester Odie and try to send Nermal, his Tabby rival, to Abu Dhabi. Deep down, Garfield still loves Jon and Odie. Garfield appears in a handful of segments of US Acres ("Mystery Guest", "Fast Food", "Quack to the Future", "Daydream Doctor" and "The Thing In the Box"), usually in the form of various items from the Garfield-themed merchandise, which the characters in “US Acres” seem to own. Garfield doesn't speak aloud, but his thoughts are heard by all. In the episode "Brainwave Broadcast", it is revealed that this happens through the use of a special microphone, which amplifies the thoughts of the animals, apart from Odie.
Jon Arbuckle
Jon is the owner of Garfield and Odie, a bachelor cartoonist who has little luck with women and somewhat nerdy demeanor. He is often bothered 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 his lasagna away, not allowing him to watch television or taking him to the vet. He also tries to get Garfield to do the right thing whenever the cat gets in trouble. Jon occasionally forces Garfield to lose weight and catch mice, which is not always successful due to Garfield not wanting to eat mice and his friendship with one of these mice named Floyd.
Odie
Odie is a yellow Beagle and is Garfield's best friend. He belonged to Jon's former roommate, Lyman (an early comics character who is absent from the show). In a gag, Garfield is seen throwing him off the kitchen table. Although he doesn't seem very smart, Odie is actually a lot smarter and smarter than he suggests. Odie is the only animal character who does not communicate with any form of dialogue, communicating exclusively with body language and her enthusiastic barking and other typical dog sound effects, although Garfield is able to understand what he is saying.
Nermal
Nermal is a cute gray Tabby kitten that Garfield finds annoying. Nermal has proclaimed himself "the cutest kitten in the world". Nermal seems kind and playful, although he often tends to antagonize Garfield by bragging about how cute he is. As a result, Garfield often attempts (usually unsuccessfully) to ship him to Abu Dhabi. Although officially considered a male, Nermal's female concern for being cute and the fact that a woman provides a childlike voice that is also very soft for Nermal, thus allowing the character to be mistaken for a cat to the point that, in the first two seasons , the American-Spanish version features Nermal as a kitten named “Thelma”.
Binky the Clown
Binky the Clown is a loud, hateful and generally annoying 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 which Garfield and Odie try to avoid watching. In seasons 2 and 3, Binky starred in his segment, “Screaming with Binky,” which aired in the middle of an hour-long episode (as a result, most of these segments were removed from syndication). In this segment, a character is carrying out a task that requires a lot of accuracy and precision, only that Binky distracts him, causing him to fail (usually resulting in the character chasing Binky). His slogan is "Hey, guys!" with prolonged vowels; to Garfield, he yells "Hey, cat!" with an extended E. Binky he was a recurring character for the first three seasons, then appeared sporadically thereafter. He "returns" in the seventh season episode "The Feline Philosopher," which became his last episode on the show.
Herman Post : a postman who loves delivering mail, despite being a victim of Garfield's booby traps. As with Binky, he rarely appears after season three.
Dr. Liz Wilson : Garfield and Odie's sarcastic vet and Jon's primary love interest. She goes out with him from time to time, but these outings always turn into disasters often due to Garfield's actions. He only appears in the first two seasons of the show, with the exception of an appearance in the fourth season episode “Frankenstein Feline”.
Floyd : Garfield's mouse friend who takes the place of his mouse friend Squeak from the comic. He originally appears as an antagonist in the first season episode "Good Mousekeeping," when he and his fellow mice stay at Jon's house after discovering that Garfield doesn't eat mice; eventually they are kicked out of the house. He becomes friends with Garfield in his second appearance, the first season episode "Identity Crisis". He appears in each season of the show in only one or a few episodes each. He has a friend named Tyrone in the third season episode “Rodent Rampage” and a wife named April in the sixth season episode “Floyd's Story”.
pooky: Garfield's teddy bear and sleeping companion that Jon is jealous of. Found in a drawer, it is Garfield's only toy. Garfield adopts his alter ego "The Caped Avenger" after temporarily losing Pooky.
Cacti Jake : the foreman of the Polecat Flats ranch; he behaves like an old-fashioned cowboy and often refuses to deal with modern technology. He also has a large extended family. His appearances include "Polecat Flats", "Cactus Jake Rides Again", "Cactus Makes Perfect", "How the West Was Lost", "Urban Arbuckle", "The Cactus Saga" and "The Legend of Cactus Jupiter".
Al G. Swindler : a car salesman with a big nose. As the name suggests, he's a businessman and con artist who constantly scams the perpetually gullible Jon, only to be tricked by Garfield in the end. In the episode Lemon Aid his name was given as Al J. Swindler. He also always spells Jon's surname incorrectly; for example, “Mr. Arborday "or" Mr. Arbarnacle ". His other episodes were "Skyway Robbery", "Wonderful World" and "Home Sweet Swindler".
The Buddy Bears , Thom Huge (Bobby), Lorenzo Music and Howie Morris (Bertie)): their names are Billy, Bobby and Bertie (in “The Garfield Opera”, they introduced themselves with their names William, Robert and Bertram). They are three talking bears who promote conformist propaganda in the form of singing and dancing (“Oh, we're the Buddy Bears we always get along with… if you ever disagree, it means you're wrong”; etc.). Their TV show once replaced that of US Acres' Binky and Roy Rooster has been stuck twice as the fall man of their routine. The Buddy Bears are a satire of The Get Along Gang, The Care Bears, The Smurfs and other '80s cartoons focusing on "caring", emotions, pleasant human interactions, harmony, and a general lack of plot or conflict. Mark Evanier had worked on many of these series and used the Buddy Bears as an outlet for his frustration with moral messages). Garfield tends to get the last laugh with them, leading to an argument between the three bears over pizza toppings. In one episode, there is a fourth female Buddy Bear, their sister Betty.
Penelope is Garfield's girlfriend, taking the place of his love interest Arlene from the comics. Evanier explained that the reason Arlene only appeared once in the series was that Davis had a very specific idea of what Arlene's character should be and told the writers that if they couldn't be loyal to him, they shouldn't have used her.
Brick: Brick is the ex-boyfriend of most of Garfield's love interests. She usually dumps it because of Garfield. She usually she is sensitive to her girls about her, so she usually beats Garfield, but she doesn't win their hearts yet. He was first seen in Beach Blanket Bonzo as Lola's boyfriend (appeared in a different color). He later appeared in "The Idol of Id", trying to get Gwendolyn to leave Garfield and return to him. In “The Perils of Penelope,” he first appeared as Bonzo, dating Penelope and after chasing Garfield in a truck he was last seen in the back of a truck in Mexico. He made cameo appearances in The Garfield Rap playing guitar in one scene and “Cutie and the Beast,” which was unnamed at the time.
The ants that sing : Ants singing while stealing food first appeared as the protagonists of the musical episode “The Picnic Panic”, where they steal all of Garfield's packed lunches. They first appeared in "A Vacation From the Senses of Him", where they are apparently disappointments of Jon, who thinks he's gone mad. Their last appearance is in “Another Ant Episode,” where they have another starring role, this time taking control of Garfield's house.
Ludlow : a crow appeared in two episodes. His father always beats Garfield when he thinks he ate his son. The episodes in which he appeared are "Sweet Tweet Treat" and "Catch As Cats Can't".
Irving Burnside : a neighbor of Jon whose property invades Garfield (usually stealing his barbecue). Whenever this happens, he threatens to beat Jon up. He has appeared in six episodes, which are "Frankenstein Feline", "Bad Neighbor Policy", "Next Door Nuisance", "How to Drive Humans Crazy", "A Matter of Conscience" and "Fair Exchange".
US Acres
Orson a pig who is the main character of the series. His favorite pastime is reading books and imagining himself in many scenarios, à la Walter Mitty. Orson also has two missions ahead of him: to get Roy to do the right thing and to get Wade to be brave. A recurring gag is that Orson is a neat freak and constantly showers and keeps himself clean, once making a comment to Wade: "The cleanest pig in the world." He is a good friend of the other inhabitants of the farm and a father figure to Booker and Sheldon. Orson is afraid of his brothers. Orson has a superhero identity well named Power Pig and a Roman-themed alter ego named Hogcules, as well as a James Bond character named Double Oh Orson.
Roy a loud and sometimes self-centered rooster who prides himself on his practical jokes. He is constantly involved in a pattern from which more often than not Orson or another character has to save him. Despite his tendencies towards selfishness, he is a good rooster when he wants to be and is more often than not the saving grace of his friends when it comes to antagonists like Orson's brothers or chicken predators. Despite some of the differences between him and Wade and the fact that they sometimes argue, they have become close friends over the seasons. In the episode "Once Upon a Time Warp", it was implied that Roy and Wade had known each other for over fourteen years. His most common practical jokes include dropping food on Orson or exploiting Wade's excessive fear. From time to time others will turn to Roy whenever a dirty game is needed, most frequently in Season XNUMX as a response to Aloysius, where in Kiddie Korner he is called "the dirty tricks department".
Wade: A cowardly, melodramatic duck who wears a rubber buoyancy tube and has a lot of phobias, no matter how mundane. Like a gag, the head on its buoyancy tube (which is identical and smaller than Wade's head) copies nearly every movement and change in appearance that Wade's real head does. When she gets scared (which she almost always is), she will babble without anyone understanding what she is saying. Though she apparently is afraid of everything, Wade's greatest fear is weasel. Like most ducks, Wade has the ability to fly with wings, but he rarely does due to his height phobia. Despite some of his and Roy's differences and that they sometimes argue, they became close friends later in the seasons.
Bo : an affable sheep with a positive and relaxed attitude, whose mannerisms and vernacular are similar to a California beach wanderer. While he's not particularly bright, it's nearly impossible to get angry and acts as a guide for Orson when he's dealing with his three older brothers.
Lanolin : a high-mouthed sheep that spends most of its time arguing with its twin brother Bo. Arguments are often triggered by her being unpleasant about her seemingly to herself. Of all the main characters in this segment, she appears to be the kindest to Orson.
Booker : a small, cute, but very assertive chick who is constantly on the lookout for nameless worms. His name was inspired by Orson's love of books.
Sheldon : Booker's twin brother, who, despite hatching, still lives in his egg with his feet out of the shell so he can walk. It seems he has "all kinds of things" in his shell, including a pinball machine and a stove. In the episode "Shell Shocked Sheldon", Sheldon actually hatches, with another shell appearing later. Booker and Sheldon's parents are not seen in the show, as Orson has noticed that their mother has abandoned them.
Production
When the show originally aired on CBS, the episodes usually had three Quickies (30- to 45-second gags based on the original Garfield and US Acres strips, rather than original stories made for TV), with usually two " Garfield Quickies "(the first was played before the introductory theme) and a" US Acres Quickie ", the latter of which was never shown in syndication (except occasionally, mainly whenever a Quickie had something to do with the normal full episode that followed; for example, the 'Quickie of the Acres of the United States' that follows the episode “Moo Cow Mutt”). Midway through Season XNUMX, “Screaming with Binky” quickie-style segments were added. These segments of "Screaming with Binky" were typically used in the middle of the one-hour blocks of Garfield and Friends (as Garfield each ended with "We'll be right back.") To let viewers know that unlike most Saturday mornings cartoons at the time, it wasn't over in the usual half hour. Boomerang DVD sets and reruns restore original rotation. After the third season, there was only one "Garfield Quickie" shown per episode.
During the first season, most of the segments of US Acres were made to teach a social lesson, a concept the show later mocked.
Garfield and Friends had outlived most of the animated series by the time it reached its seventh season in 1994. Although the series was still doing well on the charts at the time, the show had become expensive to make and the Saturday morning cartoon format was declining by this point. Also, while the series itself was doing well, CBS as a whole was a distant third behind NBC and ABC for much of the series, and was in the midst of Laurence Tisch's cost-cutting leading to CBS losing broadcasting rights to the National Football League for four years starting in 1994 and subsequently losing many longtime affiliates to Fox, which had overtaken CBS for its NFL package. As a result, CBS has proposed cutting the budget for the series for another season as part of the budget cuts imposed by Tisch. As the syndication of the series was going well, the producers ended the series in 1994 with its seventh season.
Technical data
original title Garfield and Friends
Original language English
Country United States
Author Jim Davis
Producer George Singer (ep. 1-21), Mitch Schauer (ep. 22-38), Bob Curtis (ep. 22-55), Bob Nesler (ep. 40-72), Vincent Davis (ep. 70-121)
Subject Mark Evanier, Sharman DiVono
Roman film studio
Network CBS
Date 1st TV 17 September 1988
Episodes 121 (complete)
Relationship 4:3
Episode duration 22 24-minute
Italian network. Rai 1, RaiSat Ragazzi, Italy 1
1st Italian TV 1990
Italian dialogues. Rodolfo Cappellini, Luigi Calabrò, Daniela Pulci Redi, Edoardo Salerno, Deddi Savagnone
Italian dubbing studio Comet (special)
Dubbing direction Tiziana Valenti (specials), Renato Cortesi, Danilo De Girolamo
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_and_Friends
