That Time Garfield Had Friends

追加: 2026-05-17

[00:00:04]Garfield is a character who needs no introduction. He's an orange cat who hates Mondays. You were born knowing who he is. I'm not going to pretend his 50-year-old comic strip has the best comedy in town. It's got its moments, but what's kept the Garfield franchise going is its accessibility.

[00:00:22]The strip is easy to find and easy to relate to, whether or not you're a big eater or a pet owner. And the characters are appealing enough to throw into any media and get funny results, including this video's subject, his first animated series, Garfield and Friends. I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE.

[00:00:42]FOR MANY, THIS series is their preferred iteration of the character and his world. It came around at the right time and is looked back on fondly as not only a pillar of an iconic cartoon character in their heyday, but an innovative kids comedy show that brought some wit back to TV animation. That might be putting unneeded pressure on it, but I had seen and heard very good things about this show. Since my primary experience with Garfield growing up was the Bill Murray movies, I could put my expectations on the floor and they'd be met. All I knew about Garfield and Friends for a couple years was from this ad for its box sets on the DVD of Robots, but even from this little taste, I knew it had something to offer.

[00:01:25]Garfield is the creation of cartoonist Jim Davis. First appearing as a weekly strip in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana in 1976, before going nationwide on June 19th, 1978, it was pretty much designed to be a roaring success. I've already brought up its accessibility, but the art and humor were so simple, yet effective in selling this grouchy tabby cat as a media franchise. Within a few years, Garfield could be seen on all the merchandise you could imagine, plus a few TV appearances throughout the 80s.

[00:01:58]A few of the early strips were animated for a 1980 TV special called The Fantastic Funnies, but a bigger break came 2 years later with the half-hour CBS special Here Comes Garfield, featuring songs performed by Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette, and Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. It was a huge success and ensured a steady stream of further Garfield specials every year or so until 1991.

[00:02:23]But as they went on, the characters and their world would be embellished in tandem with the strip. Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz assisted in a redesign for Garfield, making it easier to show him standing on two legs, which Jim Davis would integrate into the strip in mid-1983 and that year's special Garfield on the Town. The year after, they switched from Bill Melendez's animation studio to a new one founded by animator Phil Roman, Film Roman. They would also move into a more lighthearted, adventurous tone than the drama of the first two specials.

[00:02:58]It's clear to see the animated specials had a profound effect on the direction the Garfield franchise went in art style and tone as the strip started to toy with zanier gags on a regular basis in the mid-to-late 80s. It all led to the biggie, becoming a full-fledged TV series. Jim Davis's production company, Paws Incorporated, actually tried to pitch a Saturday morning cartoon based on his less popular but more child-oriented strip U.S. Acres first, but CBS passed on it until they made the pitch for a Garfield show that had U.S.

[00:03:31]Acres segments in the middle.

[00:03:33]Garfield and Friends would prove to be very successful in the ratings as soon as it premiered on September 17th, 1988.

[00:03:41]So much that the second season was double the length and given a 1-hour time slot to air two new episodes a week. Later seasons would be 16 to 18 episodes, which I think is a fair amount to make and see each year, even if they still aired two each morning. So, they'd usually burn through the full season by mid-November. But, eventually it ran its course and ended after its seventh season on December 10th, 1994. CBS threatened to cut their budget for future seasons, presumably feeling that seven seasons with 121 episodes was plenty for a show that was already being syndicated. The show ended as did Garfield's 12-year association with Phil Roman. But, the franchise has continued for decades with other animated media to hypothetically fill the void. Because Garfield thrives on its accessibility, Garfield and Friends has, of course, been easy to find since. The episodes are available on YouTube and Tubi, always giving young fans a chance to rediscover this bastion of Garfield's peak popularity in the '80s and early '90s, a period I've heard folks online call the '80s.

[00:04:50]Some people have so much time on their hands they're inventing new decades with it.

[00:04:56]Happy birthday. Whoop-dee-doo.

[00:04:58]Whoop-dee-doo.

[00:05:00]People who sing like that should be dragged out into the street and shot.

[00:05:04]Jon Arbuckle is a cartoonist who owns a cat and a dog, Garfield and Odie. They cause mischief and go on adventures. By this point, Garfield was well established to have two clear likes and dislikes, lasagna and Mondays, respectively. But, the show worked to give him a few more motivations and a few more obstacles to his goals, just enough to keep things interesting from episode to episode. So, if you're worried that you're just going to get the same two jokes on an endless loop, I understand, but this show isn't guilty of that. They take a few leaps here and there. The characters themselves don't differ much from their comic counterparts. Garfield is lazy, greedy, and mean, but still likeable. He's clearly grateful that he lives such a leisurely life and will put what energy he has into keeping it that way. I don't think this version of the character would be half as entertaining without Lorenzo Music's vocal performance. It just is the character to me, a 60-year-old in the body of an 8-year-old in the body of a cat. His owner, Jon, is a bumbling doofus who has a hard time keeping his cool. If you've seen enough Garfield media, you'd know by now that his habit of dumping all his feelings onto Garfield makes his behavior appear even more erratic in universe. We can hear what the animals are thinking, but he can't. That said, he's still a fun character, even if they have to play up his stupidity sometimes for the plots to flow. Odie is Jon's dog and has all the traits you tend to find in dog characters. He's messy and stupid, but loyal beyond compare. Unlike other animals, he can't communicate through telepathy, but he can bark basic phrases like "Ta-da!" and "Uh-oh!" Garfield sees him as a little brother he can use for entertainment. Sometimes that can mean playing with him, other times that can mean kicking him off the table. He never gets seriously hurt though and is without fail my favorite Garfield character, just in general. Garfield, Jon, and Odie are the main trio, but the next most prominent character from the strip would have to be Nermal, a disgustingly cute kitten who Jon keeps pet-sitting to Garfield's annoyance. The show's good at balancing out how much you're supposed to hate Nermal.

[00:07:14]Sometimes he'll be too brash in showing off his cuteness, other times the joke is how unfair Garfield treats him in retaliation. No one's a hero in this dynamic. For better or worse, he's the most prolific Garfield side character on the show. Garfield's vet, Liz, appears in the early seasons, but gets phased out as Jon pines for other women. His teddy bear, Pooky, rarely appears, which is an injustice, plain and simple. His love interest, Arlene is reduced to a single voiceless cameo, and it's not even really her, just part of Garfield changing reality with a remote. Garfield does later get a love interest exclusive to the show, but I'll bring her up when I get to the later seasons. The show has its own long list of side characters, but the strange thing is how they revolve in and out over the course of the show's run. For instance, over-the-top TV host Binky the Clown, who originated in the 1985 Halloween special and is a prolific character in the first three seasons, even getting his own recurring segment, but he falls out of focus in the later seasons, relegated to jokes about how the show doesn't use him anymore. It's common for shows to experiment and try new things, but it gives the illusion that Jon and his pets are watching an ever-changing world go by. Whether your favorite of these is Binky, the aforementioned TV host with energy for days and a voice of sandpaper, Dr. Garbanzo Bean, a mad scientist who really wants to make robots shaped like Odie for some reason, Cactus Jake, a cowboy in the Old West who Jon visits on occasion when he's feeling rural, Al Swindler, the most successful of the scam artists who constantly prey on Jon's naivete, the Buddy Bears, a troop of moralizing children's show hosts whose productions border on dystopian entertainment, Mr. Burnside, Jon's neighbor who has it out for Garfield stealing all his food, Madman Murray, disturbed owner of a faulty electronics store, Penelope, Garfield's new love interest who's carrying a very one-sided relationship, the ants, who will ruin your picnic and sing like angels, Ludlow, a bird who keeps playing with Garfield despite his father's and Garfield's warnings, Ichabod Cricket, Jiminy Cricket on a copyright-friendly holiday, or the feline philosopher, a motivational speaker who shoves the most demotivating hypotheticals in your face. The winner for the staff was Floyd, a mouse in Jon's house who starts complaining for more parts on the show, and by chance, he gets them. And this is all just one side of the show. The other half, or rather third, is centered around U.S.

[00:09:49]Acres, or Orson's Farm as it was renamed overseas. It's sometimes about work, sometimes play, but it nearly always acts out a story with a clearer moral message in it. If you don't remember this segment or never cared for it, you were not alone apparently. There's reasons U.S. Acres didn't catch on as a franchise the same way Garfield did.

[00:10:10]Farm animals may be less universally relatable than house pets, and even if they weren't, the newspaper strip held little appeal for adults, the people who buy newspapers.

[00:10:21]But Garfield and Friends running so long gave the characters a chance to be fleshed out in animated form. Orson is a smart, relatively tidy pig whose love of books and reading can open up a world of adventures. I've already made a nervous breakdown in video form about that. He's okay, a bit too nice and bland to be funny sometimes, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows with Orson. He can get bossy sometimes. Booker is a freshly hatched chick who's usually seen chasing worms or listening to Orson's stories, always wanting them to be more exciting and action-packed. He's okay, too. Not much to like or loathe about him for me personally. Sheldon is an unhatched chick who remains in his egg. On the show, he's usually just a second Booker.

[00:11:07]The strip gave Sheldon a philosophical side that the show didn't touch on, which could have made him more distinct from Booker. Roy is a rooster who loves to play pranks on the other animals.

[00:11:18]He's a huge jerk at the start, but learns to fear the consequences of his actions in due time. Probably my favorite U.S. Acres character because he adds some spice to this otherwise innocent world and is by design the funniest character on the farm. Wade is a duck who's afraid of everything and thinks the world is out to get him, and is proven right as long as it's funny.

[00:11:40]Another top-tier character for US Acres.

[00:11:43]It would have been easy to keep him a wuss the whole way through, but they occasionally give him some chances to act brave. If Wade can overcome his fears, so can anybody. Bo is a sheep who's relaxed to the point I'm questioning what the unseen farmer's feeding him. Seriously, between his surfer dude lingo and wavering intelligence, sometimes smart, sometimes dumb, the inner machinations of his mind are an enigma. I like him a lot, though.

[00:12:10]His sister Lanolin doesn't have the same temperament, working just as hard for the farm, but always being in a grouchy, argumentative mood. She is useful as the only one who can keep Roy in check, so in those instances, you're glad she's around. The sheep are used less over time, but they're both up there with Roy and Wade for me. I like most of the US Acres cast, but find myself being lukewarm on the leader and the kid characters. These guys have their own host of friends and foes. The foes are mostly intent on stealing from the farm.

[00:12:42]Orson's brothers, Mort, Gort, and Wart, are slovenly bullies who want nothing but vegetables. I guess there are less healthy things they could be stealing, but I think it's good the show is saying you should protect your tomatoes at all costs. There's a weasel and a wolf who try to steal chickens from the hen house.

[00:13:00]Oh, yeah, they have hens. You'll get to know them better in season eight.

[00:13:03]Aloysius Pig is a different kind of predator, a network executive preying on the show's integrity and forcing it to conform to his tastes. You can tell he was created much later on. On the friendly side, you have Wade's goofy relatives who explain a little bit why he turned out the way he did. His therapist, who's a badger, there's a pun in there I'm not getting. And Roy's niece, Chloe, they have an okay relationship, but it's telling that she's the only family who ever visits.

[00:13:33]To delve further into US Acres lore, on Roy's official plush from 1987 comes his official backstory. He had to leave the farm he was born on because it already had a rooster to do wake-up calls. This is never ever brought up in the comics or the show. The only time we hear from any of his other family members is when his mother writes in asking for the autographs of all the other cast members.

[00:13:59]I'll move on to the writing before I start to feel bad for this guy.

[00:14:03]They never do [music] things like that on cartoons. Cartoons teach you you should be sweet and nice and always agree with everyone. Yeah, [music] sure.

[00:14:10]Whether or not you like Garfield and Friends, you'll find that the writing is remarkably consistent. It has the same points of interest regarding the universes it's playing around with and the same sense of humor throughout.

[00:14:23]That's because the overwhelming majority of episodes were written by one person, Mark Evanier. This wasn't his first or last show, but it was certainly the busiest point in his career. Jim Davis oversaw everything as a producer, making sure the material of the writers meshed well with his comics, but let them have their fun, seemingly more so than other cartoons from the late '80s. It was still an age of action and fantasy shows that only existed to promote toy lines. That's not to say Garfield and Friends was much better in this regard. It was obviously an extension of a hugely popular strip that Jim Davis has been honest in stating was created with mass media appeal as his top priority. But there was more snap and crackle in the writing for this than anyone was expecting. It has some very mild satire about the suburban life and culture Garfield stuck with Jon living in. What they eat, how they relax, who Jon runs into. The Arbuckle lifestyle is well conveyed. Self-aware and fourth wall-breaking humor is also a common occurrence, and it's organic enough because Garfield is a cynical enough character to see through television, including his own contribution to it.

[00:15:33]This humor was uncommon in '80s cartoons, but it did become more common in '90s cartoons. So, while Garfield and Friends was an innovator, it appeared less innovative by the time it was wrapping up. Still impressive that because the show had a three shorts format and ran for 121 episodes, they ended up being 359 unique segments overall, accounting for four two-parters, but unaccounting for shorts like the Quickies, which were remakes of select strips in animated form. But, I digress. There's a lot of content in this show all the same.

[00:16:09]Because of this, the show loves its plot templates and sequel episodes. No need to fix what isn't broken, even if there's a self-imposed challenge in place to keep these templates fresh.

[00:16:21]After a John going on a date episode, you might get a John getting scammed episode, if not a John taking his pets on a vacation that goes wrong episode.

[00:16:29]Stay tuned for Garfield's Tales of Scary Stuff, followed by Garfield hosting a pro-cat anti-dog broadcast. These are undisguised propaganda. More creative are the meta episodes, where they'll have Garfield try to keep the show afloat when it's apparently hanging by a thread. And if all else fails, they'll take an unrelated public domain story and throw the Garfield cast into it.

[00:16:52]Results may vary. This is to say nothing of the USA Cat formulas. You've got the awesome daydreams and story readings, which can be just as guilty of slapping the characters onto an unrelated story.

[00:17:04]Roy pulling a dirty trick, sometimes taking it too far and leaving the farm.

[00:17:08]Wade conquering his fear of the week.

[00:17:11]And Bo coming over to steal from the farm. I don't think the show ever runs out of ideas. There's a lot of templates they can cycle through. But as time went on, I started to prefer some story types over others, as you will soon see. But now it's animation talking time, and the animation on this show works. It's cheap and simple. I mean, the Garfield animals thinking their lines instead of speaking them saved a lot of mouth movement animation. But choices like that bring the comic strips of the time to life convincingly. There's no other animated version of Garfield this faithful to it, and there's no other animated version of U.S. Acres at all. So, I savor this with the hindsight of the more experimental approaches of later attempts to animate these characters. What I was surprised by was the art style actually subtly evolved as the Garfield strip was still changing. Look at the first and last season, and you can see they'd made Garfield a little taller and thinner to keep up with how he was drawn in the '90s. In its own right, you can see how Film Roman and the outsourcing Wang improved the quality over the 7 years the show was made. The backgrounds and line art went from a little rough and sketchy in the first three seasons to cleaner and more solid in the latter four seasons. As with any animated series produced this long, it was a result of practice making perfect instead of a deliberate artistic choice.

[00:18:37]There's an HD remaster more readily available nowadays courtesy of Nine Story Media Group, but most of it is cropped, the uncropped parts of it are placed in borders, and the first intro and credits were done in a hurry.

[00:18:50]So, if you can find it, treat yourself to the original 4x3 copies of the show, at least until they take the remastered negatives and present them in their original aspect ratio. They clearly still exist.

[00:19:03]Let me guess.

[00:19:05]You're an ocean liner, right?

[00:19:10]Get off. Get off. Get off.

[00:19:12]Although the comedic identity of the show was apparent from day one, the kinds of jokes and gags they go for, season one was a lot more reliant on its source material for ideas. What I mean is there are multiple episodes such as Peace and Quiet and Nighty Nightmare, where the basis of the story is a gag from the Sunday strips. Others still, such as Wade You're Afraid and Forget Me Not, are loose adaptations of story arcs from the daily strips. Funnily enough, both of these examples are about a forced change of identity, which is a neat coincidence because season one was still about finding ways to forge an identity distinct from the funny pages it spawned from. With Garfield, they had more to go off of, including a history of animated specials to build off, but U.S. Acres was still taking shape during season one. This first batch had stories that were more sentimental and moralistic in nature, with weekly song numbers to make the morals even more obvious. Stand up for yourself and others against bullies, being short has its advantages, don't take your family members for granted, et cetera. Most of these aren't bad episodes, but they feel like a pace breaker between the more carefree turn of the Garfield segments, and almost as patronizing as other '80s cartoons. I went in knowing the U.S.

[00:20:27]Acres segments would improve over time, so I had that and the rest of the show's evolution to look forward to. Plus, season one was the shortest anyway at 13 half hours, so it's merely a sample was capable of.

[00:20:48]I think we all saw that one coming, didn't we? Season two remained the longest of the series with 26 half hours or 78 total segments. They had a lot to produce and a lot to prove. We're lucky this isn't a case of quantity over quality, and that season two is better than the first across the board. Not to say the first season was mundane, but this is where they begin to inject fantasy elements more regularly. The show is taking advantage of the fact it's a cartoon in more ways, even playing with the art style of the want to rises. The more witty and creative aspects of the show are still usually found in the Garfield segments. US Acres has better jokes this time, but it's morals and songs are still its bread and butter. The characters will jump from one segment to another more frequently for cameos, so they were working a little harder to make the US Acres characters feel integral to the show.

[00:21:41]Season 2 is far from my favorite collection of episodes though. I still think these first two are quite restrained compared to the direction they'd later take. The later seasons had more consistent and manageable lengths, whereas season 2 was a lot at once.

[00:21:56]But it could always be worse. During this season, Garfield appeared in the very special crossover Cartoon All-Stars to the rescue.

[00:22:04]Barely.

[00:22:06]It's a pretty infamous little chip of pop culture for how preachy, weird, and creepy it is with what should be a very simple message. Minors should stay away from cannabis. It's not wrong that the special, proudly brought to us by McDonald's, is warning us about addictive substances, but I watched it for the first time for Garfield and only got two quips about lasagna, a small part in the big musical number, and that's that. Work on season 3 must have been busy. Garfield's been a very bad dog lately. I'm going to teach him a lesson he'll never forget. The new decade was marked by a new theme song with Friends Are There being replaced by the superior Ready to Party. I'll be unapologetic with my preference. Sure, there's no new animation, instead a montage of older scenes, but it's more exciting and paints US Acres as less of an intrusion on the Garfield segments and more as part of the entertainment.

[00:22:59]Right time to make the change too because it's during this season the U.S.

[00:23:02]Acres segments start to come of age.

[00:23:05]They stop with the song numbers, the morals are de-emphasized in service of letting the characters behaviors speak for themselves, and also introduces Larping to his friends, opening up more storytelling possibilities. The Garfield segments were also rejigging things, specifically in the side character department. An issue that I have with their output this year is there are just too many Cactus Jake episodes. He's a fine character, but not fine enough to appear as much as he does in season 3.

[00:23:33]But it's here where they drop Liz, instead giving John other ladies to fumble the ball with, introduce the Buddy Bears, and by proxy de-emphasize Binky the Clown. This might have been done to avoid stepping on the same territory as Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons. That is something interesting about Garfield and Friends, that it had a year's head start on The Simpsons and also satirized American lifestyle and consumption habits. Granted, The Simpsons went further and covered a more expensive range of topics, but Garfield was onto something.

[00:24:06]This is as bad as I could possibly look.

[00:24:10]I was wrong. This is worse. The goal for season 4 was to trim the fat, no pun intended. The yearly episode count is permanently standardized at 16 half hours, and they now just have one Garfield quickie in between the A and B segments, instead of the original passion of two Garfield quickies and a U.S. Acres quickie. It's at this point in the series run where they fully embrace that John's life is unhinged.

[00:24:36]The sense of humor is still the same, but now in service of more ridiculous ideas. By the time John was getting chased by his new car who's madly in love with him, I knew there was no turning back. This was a prominent season for the Buddy Bears. The writers knew the '80s animation trends were burning away painfully and sought to ridicule them as much as they could, even on USA Kids, which used to be the closest thing to that kind of show, they're a symbol of an outdated way of thinking. Garfield and Friends' biggest duty across the board now was to make you laugh, and by this point, they were doing that pretty well. What is the name of the guy fixing the roof?

[00:25:14]>> No, what is the name of the guy cleaning the tool shed? WHO'S CLEANING THE TOOL SHED? NO, WHO'S fixing the roof?

[00:25:20]>> Who is the guy plowing the snow?

[00:25:21]>> 5, we reach the less remembered because they were never added to the syndication package era. If you watched Garfield and Friends on cable TV in the late '90s and 2000s on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, or Toon Disney, they only went up to season 5 episode 10. For the first portion of the season, there's not much to distinguish it from four, still leaning heavily on the weirdness, snark, and fourth wall. The biggest advancement is the credits theme being redone.

[00:25:49]Season 3 and 4 had Ready to Party, but it was just the title version with the vocal channel turned down. This is a new arrangement, very important distinction.

[00:25:58]The latter six episodes of season 5 get a little more confident, with no less than three musical showcases from the Garfield segments. They're a mixed bag, but at least they're a varied mixed bag, and a sign the show is willing to diversify its material. The end of the season also introduces Penelope, a love interest for Garfield who throws herself onto him to escape an abusive ex. The problem is this isn't the sort of show that can prioritize character arcs. So, by her last few appearances, she has to keep learning to stay in the friend zone with Garfield, who's more interested in her food than her anyway. It's depressing, but it's just the way this show works. What do you mean this is the only show you can get me on, Bernie?

[00:26:41][music] Isn't Hanna-Barbera casting?

[00:26:44]Well, how about cable? I hear they're considering doing a funny version of Ren and Stimpy.

[00:26:48]Season 6's breakthrough for for show was the introduction of multi-part stories with Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarfs being a two-parter. The next season would feature three more two-parters, so this seemed to be a sign of the way things were going. Stories that were dense enough to cover more than 7 minutes.

[00:27:05]Storytelling in general is a more common theme in season 6 with the cases of slapping the Garfield characters into classic stories being more blatant and feeling more like filler episodes. This is the first and only season where I would say USA Kids had the slightly stronger output. It's almost a different show compared to its season 1 self, but in a good way. These segments too are getting snarkier about the way the characters behave and the audience had responded to them. They've reached a point in their run where their most flawed characters, Roy and Wade, are being motivated to overcome their flaws more frequently, but their shenanigans are still as important as they've ever been. This refresh to the dynamic will carry over into season 7 where they're practically roommates by that point, but what of the Garfield segments?

[00:27:53]Hi Odie, better get a good seat for John falling off the roof.

[00:28:02]They had a bounce back. This is my favorite season of the show, just ahead of four, with the Garfield episodes being more surreal than ever and the USA Kids episodes maintaining the sense of humor. To say nothing of the latter, it's cool to see how the Garfield episodes of the seventh season are a lot more out there than the first season.

[00:28:21]The crew had gotten better at treating the show like a canvas for nutty scenarios, like a sorceress kidnapping men to make them play baseball against rats, or John becoming invincible after an alien orb lands in his pants. You'd have to be very creative and or disturbed to reach into your mind and come out with these ideas. I wouldn't say this season was perfect. Infamously, Ready to Party was replaced with a rap-themed song on its original airings.

[00:28:48]It's not the worst I've heard, but it still doesn't fit the tone of the show.

[00:28:52]I don't like the Garfield rap episode from season 5, but at least that seems aware of how try hard it is. You've also got the introduction of Aloysius Pig, who's a good character, make no mistake, but also a harbinger of the show's demise, being a parallel to CBS monitoring its budget and content more vigorously. I'll try to remember him more as a fitting adversary to the USA Kid's gang than a sign of an end of an era. It went out while it was still good, which is great to say about any seven season show. And I've got a lot of episodes to spotlight, 25 to praise and 10 to criticize, starting with the Garfield lists. The genuine article pits Garfield against a literal copycat, Gabriel, who shares his personality and lifestyle. It's a bizarre crisis for both of them, but at least Gabriel takes the healthiest way of becoming more of an individual. As for Garfield, he now knows how Heathcliff feels. Invasion of the big robots is an early example of the show pushing its own boundaries, throwing Garfield into a typical action cartoon and seeing how he reacts to it.

[00:29:59]It holds a mirror back on the state of TV animation in the 1980s and makes you more grateful for the era that followed.

[00:30:06]Brainwave Broadcast is about Garfield demonstrating the device that allows the audience to hear his thoughts. He uses it to read other people's thoughts and then things sort of spiral from there. I was thinking of making a joke about the animals being telepathic, but that's actually part of the show, beat me to it. A vacation from his senses is a tale of two halves, one where Garfield and Odie try to trick John into putting off a vacation, and another where they trick him into thinking he needs one. And this is an excuse for them to fill John's house with surreal art and have him react to it. That's funny just to think about. The feline felon is one of Garfield's major run-ins with the fuzz, albeit entirely in his head, as he dreams how stealing a pie could send him down a path of thievery. It's more realistic than cops and easier to watch.

[00:30:56]Learning lessons is my favorite Buddy Bears episode because of how useless they are to the story, just popping in every couple seconds to spout barely relevant trivia. This approach isn't going to make your audience smarter. It just gets in the way of your entertainment. Flat Tired is one of Odie's first times to shine, with Jim Davis hiring him as Garfield's replacement. It doesn't end well for Odie, but it shows that there are things besides food that will motivate Garfield and keep the show going on. Truckin' Odie is a more successful adventure for our favorite yellow drool machine, as he goes on a cross-country road trip with the most random set of people to the catchiest song of the whole show. The Cartoon Cat Conspiracy is an inspirational tale. Garfield tries to buck the stereotypes cats have been subjected to in cartoons by making his own.

[00:31:47]It's not very good, but you have to respect the hustle and how weird it must have felt to see a cartoon character make an episode of their own show. Video Airlines is the definition of simple but effective. John and his pets don't want to watch Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2, but they keep getting subjected to this movie about creatures who know Kung Fu and are on a rampage, which happens to be a sequel. You'd think the joke would get old, but no.

[00:32:13]Twice Told Tale is our Rashomon episode where the house fills with yogurt, and Garfield and John each explain what happened, blaming the other. Never mind that John imagines Garfield with the voice that he's never supposed to hear.

[00:32:26]I want to see cutdowns of these flashbacks where it's just Garfield and John acting nice to each other, or just acting mean to each other. That would be an experience. Clash of the Titans is another take on invasion of the big robots' premise with Garfield and Odie winding up in a '90s action cartoon inspired by X-Men. There are some jokes at its expense, but it's much kinder to the show than the earlier episode. It's more like a bootleg crossover than a parody. The man who hated cats is a different kind of episode from the norm.

[00:32:58]Yes, it's another musical, but it goes for 10 minutes, making it the longest episode of the show. It earned that runtime with a more emotional storyline about a man who hated cats, past tense, whom Garfield helps rediscover his love of. Rest in peace, Fufu. We'll never forget you.

[00:33:17]The automated animated adventure is the one where Jon's cartoon idea is finally picked up by an executive who then steals his cat and transports him into a computer that can generate show ideas. I agree with the message here, that getting an algorithm to barf a copy of what's already worked doesn't qualify as authentic expression. My favorite episode of all is Mistakes Will Happen, where Garfield confidently challenges you, the viewer, to spot if there are any mistakes in the episode.

[00:33:48]By my count, there's at least 90 in 7 minutes.

[00:33:52]It's got everything, an original premise, off-kilter jokes, it rewards you for paying attention, and it hinges on one of Garfield's most enduring traits, his laziness. But now it's time for the first of the worst lists.

[00:34:06]Surprisingly, only one normal episode, and it's hardly about him. School Days is your typical TV plotline about a stricter school with Garfield running into trouble but liberating himself.

[00:34:18]Nothing bothersome about the episode, but it's not that funny. China Cat can represent some of the awkward stereotype humor this show uses from time to time, having the worst of it. There's more offensive cartoons in this regard, but there can be very little grace in the caricatures on Garfield and Friends sometimes. It's like, yeah, this show was made decades ago, and I'm sure most of the crew had good intentions, but you'll still feel that time difference.

[00:34:45]The Garfield Rap is just embarrassing and not worth a 7-minute runtime. There are some neat visuals paying homage to early '90s music videos, but you can hear in Lorenzo Music's voice that he doesn't give a crap about the idea of Garfield rapping. Brain Boy is kind of miserable. If you ever wanted to see Garfield get tossed around by a nerdy kid with a boring father, this is the episode for you. Garfield does get back at him, but the journey there is hardly worth it. My least favorite Garfield episode is Garfield's Moving Experience.

[00:35:19]Another one where he's got to put up with an annoying kid. It's an early season 1 episode that's still getting its bearings, but it fell way behind in the rankings for me because the show got so much more entertaining after. Now for the U.S. Acres lists, starting with my 10 favorites. Big Bad Buddy Bird is the one where Roy gets fed up with the farm and gets a gig on the Buddy Bears show, where he gets hit with several safes for having different opinions. There's honestly a good lesson in here to beware of group think that may stay relevant forever. A Mildly Mental Mix-Up sees the introduction of Howard R. Furrow, the local therapist who is just dull enough to juxtapose well with the cast. Wade needed some counseling by now, but the jury's still out on the veterinarian.

[00:36:06]Edward's next appearance, Daydream Doctor, is slightly more successful for her in which she hypnotizes Orson into manifesting all the books he's recently read and goes full Freudian on the weasel. Two sessions for the price of one, you can't beat that deal in today's economy. Kitty Corner is Aloysius Pig's finest {slash} most intrusive hour, forcing the cast to perform nursery rhymes only to get offended at every one they do. You can't please everybody, that's the joke, but also that telling stories from centuries ago removed from their original context is less appropriate for this show than a rooster throwing pies.

[00:36:44]Who Done It is the attribute to Abbott and Costello's Who's on First routine.

[00:36:48]These who, what, and where dogs seem like nice, courteous fellows who just want to do some honest work for their community, but Roy and Wade stressed themselves out trying to get their names. Who was my favorite. Fan Clubbing is a tale of arrogance, power, loss, gavels, and pigs taking showers. Roy starts a fan club because his parents don't love him, and Wade hijacks it and votes to make it a Wade fan club. If they look hot enough on the internet now, they could find people who will devote their lives to them. This represents a different era of fandom culture, but it's got a classic comedy flash to it. Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarfs is the series first and best two-parter.

[00:37:30]A parody of Snow White, the Disney version specifically, which naturally means it has to end in true love's kiss.

[00:37:37]Everyone's afraid to kiss Wade, not out of homophobia, they're actors here, but because they'll be kissing a duck. On the other hand, it's revealing how getting kissed by a man is one of the only things Wade isn't afraid of.

[00:37:51]Getting kissed by a woman is a different story. Double Trouble Talk chronicles Roy's career as a BS artist. He gets a CD that teaches him nonsense words he can use to get out of work, but it backfires when Orson and Lanolin learn them, too. It's delightful to hear them all spout pure gibberish so proudly. The Beau Show is a big character spotlight for Beau, not by choice, all the other characters got kidnapped by Orson's brothers. So, he has to carry multiple scenes all by himself. While not my favorite of the U.S. Acres crew, he needed a little more focus, so it's great that it was given to him in such a wacky way.

[00:38:30]But my favorite U.S. Acres episode is What's It All About, Wade, which sees Wade run away from all his troubles in the cartoon world, but working up the courage to save his friends after having a talk with Jim Davis. I like how this was written not long after the 1989 Halloween which revealed Garfield's worst fear was loneliness, but Wade's case loneliness is something he could indulge in. He then he learns he has to be there for his friends and that gives his existence meaning. It's life-affirming in a way.

[00:39:02]But there are reasons U.S. Acres isn't super popular. Here's five of them.

[00:39:07]Return of Power Peg is pretty forgettable. A lot of cartoon characters have superhero alter egos, but Orson's just has no hook to it in the comics or the show. A dark and gritty reboot might change my mind. The Impractical Joker gets kind of aimless out of nowhere. Roy tells too many mean jokes directed at Orson and gets fired, and the episode is so unsure where to go that they have to bring back a character from last season just to make Orson want Roy back. Gort Goes Good is pointless as a story. One of Orson's brothers claims to be turning over a new leaf, but it's all a trick.

[00:39:45]The problem is I don't care about Gort as a character at all, just as a cog in a pack of villains, so there's no intrigue here.

[00:39:53]The Worm Turns mostly consists of Booker chasing the worm that he always chases.

[00:39:58]You can see why they don't do any full episodes about the chase after this, leaving it to quickies and it as a running gag in other episodes. Banana Knows is the worst episode of Garfield and Friends because of how needlessly preachy it is. Today's subject is name-calling with Lanolin making fun of Roy's nose and it making him so depressed that he leaves the farm.

[00:40:21]Ridiculing others for their appearance is obviously wrong, but later episodes will have the characters do it to each other with thicker skin. And there are episodes where Lanolin will retaliate against Roy like she does here that are portrayed as more positive acts of standing up for yourself. The USA Acres cast of the later seasons would be embarrassed that they did Banana Nose.

[00:40:42]Despite some duds from both segments, I think Garfield and Friends is overall a pretty good show. The legends are true.

[00:40:49]Garfield can be funny. You can see in the series Film Roman collaborations the larger transition between Maudlin 80s TV writing and tongue-in-cheek 90s TV writing. Even by the end, it was still a show that had to survive by its wits more than its animation quality, which was okay animation for the time.

[00:41:10]Thankfully, it was a show that they rushed in show that was in some ways ahead of the curve. Even the less popular characters should have something to offer. It's a show that was dense and long-running enough where there's always something great to unearth. So, give it a watch, remain open-minded about the conditions under which it was made, and whether it's Garfield or USA Acres, enjoy the pig out.

[00:41:35]We'll be right back with more of tonight's Evil Con Carne and Card vs. Hector right here on Friday.

[00:41:42]>> [music] >> Don't ever ask anyone to hit you over the head with a baseball bat.