Well-Worn Arbuckle

Back when I started this blog, I knew my work was cut out for me. Seasons 2 and 3 had over a dozen quickies that were missing from the DVD releases, and the original U.S. Acres title cards were scarce to come by. While a lot of this stuff has turned up over the years (and some additional mysteries have come to light), something turned up recently that I didn't expect at all...

... a previously unknown quickie.

Hidden in the depths of Show 57's premiere (as part of a larger hour that also included the previous show), a Garfield Quickie was lurking that was not used in syndication, DVD, or even documented on Mark Evanier's episode list! Even the script I have only covers the international package, so I don't even know the official name! I've nicknamed it "Too Many Decisions" based on the dialogue and how these quickies tend to be titled, but that's only a rough guess.

Anyway, enough blabbering. Sit back and enjoy the Garfield Quickie that nobody even knew about!

Based on the Sunday strip from October 2, 1988, this is actually one of the most faithful adaptations I've seen from (comic) strip to screen. Humorous dialogue is added before Jon finally breaks down, and there's even some great ad-libbing from Thom Huge at the end--

"I'll wear my tuxedo! No, my T-shirt! Maybe a tuxedo with a T-shirt! Maybe my cowboy suit. Oooh, the catcher's outfit!"

The only other major standout differences I noticed are that Jon actually names Liz in the quickie, while his date isn't specified in the original. Jon's bedroom is also a lot messier in the comic strip, and in the quickie, he seems to be putting forth an extra effort to hold his pants up and keep us from seeing his polka dot underpants. Standards & Practices issue, or budget issue? Hmm...

The discovery of this quickie (or at least most of it; the only copy I'm aware of is unfortunately missing about a second at the start) brings to light another issue... what the heck happened to the U.S. Acres Quickie that was supposed to be in the episode. I went through the entire recording, and "Bouquets" was nowhere to be seen:

1990-11-17 SHOW 56/SHOW 57

Opening Line: Change channels and you'll never see your dog again.

Garfield: Mistakes Will Happen

Garfield Quickie: Hydrant

U.S. Acres: The Well Dweller

Garfield Quickie: Roll Over

U.S. Acres Quickie: Costume Trunk

Garfield: The Wise Man

Garfield Quickie: "What to Wear" [NOT ON DVD]

Garfield: Star Struck

Garfield Quickie: Loretta

U.S. Acres: Election Daze

Screaming With Binky: Cartoonist

Garfield: Dirty Business

I went through the other episodes in the season too (save Show 54, which I'm missing the premiere of), and "Bouquets" was again nowhere to be seen. Is it in the lone Season 3 premiere I don't have? Was it written for Show 57 and then never used? Is it the name of a scrapped U.S. Acres Quickie that got replaced with this mysterious Garfield Quickie instead?

So many questions. So few answers...

I'm hard at work on a detailed rundown of all the segments in Garfield and Friends. CBS, Syndication, DVD, and otherwise. It's still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to have something to share with everyone in the coming weeks.

A Mailman a Day...

What's the ideal snack? An apple? Potato chips? Chocolate cake?

For Garfield, it's the mailman's pants.

Based on the strip from June 22, 1986 (below), this is yet another quickie seen in the original CBS run but missing from all modern releases. I've actually had this quickie for a good while, but timestamp issues on the disc it came on posed too much of a challenge for me to upload it back when I first started this blog, and I basically forgot about it. Having come across another copy of the quickie in the big cache of recordings that was recently shared with me, I can finally share it with y'all! A big thanks to SOA, who has identified themselves in the comments of another post.

Comparing the quickie with the comic strip original, the adaptation is pretty faithful to the original, with only a few minor tweaks. Garfield doesn't mention milk in the quickie, instead substituting that for the inarguably sillier-sounding "moo goo gai pan." The rest of the adjustments are purely visual, mostly to create a more dynamic staging. I think the quickie loses a little bit of the original's energy by not showing Garfield and the mailman on screen together, but the latter's reaction to his forthcoming fate is great.

In the original, Garfield sits (presumably watching the mailman run off), while the quickie shows him walking back home with a more mischievous look on his face. proud of what he's done. It may boil down to personal preference here, but I think the original visual has a bit more edge. I like the idea that Garfield isn't just casually doing this. Making the mailman's life miserable is as important to Garfield as kicking Odie off the table or inflating Jon's grocery bill, and he's fully into it. Even after the mailman gets away, Garfield delights in his hasty departure.

Both gags are funny, but whenever given the choice, I like my Garfield with a little bit of an edge.

Come to think of it, how much do you think the mailman spends on pants every year?

Oh hey, I'm still here

... ah right, this blog.

Been over three years since I last wrote something here. Have to admit, I lost some interest for a good while, but some recent discoveries have made me want to revisit this place and possibly start things up again.

Eeeuugggh, just looking at the way I used to write here is a real headache. Whether I end up posting again after this or not, I can promise one thing... I won't sound like some snobby, Garfield-savvy know-it-all. At least not intentionally. 

There's too many updates to squeeze into one post, but it only makes sense to showcase my most recent discovery.

Behold on the left -- two more original U.S. Acres Quickie screens! The tape I got these on appears to be copied from an online source -- unfortunately I haven't been able to track down said source, so unless it shows up somewhere, this is probably the best quality we're going to get.

Nevertheless, I think we can all appreciate finally seeing the "Definitions" quickie gag in its original form.

Will there be more posts, or is this just a crazy one-off to tide you guys over until another three years pass by? We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

What's a Quickie?

Wade Duck ponders the very question in this video below.

Hold on, something's wrong here. Yes, it's the international Orson's Farm version. On top of that, the logo is annoyingly covering Wade's face. Move aside, logo.

Judging from the position of Wade's head and the fact that he's asking the question in the first place, it's clear that the original U.S. Acres version had a bit more fourth wall breakage with him actually looking at the word "Quickie" instead of it covering his face. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the original U.S. Acres version to compare with, but we can approximate what the original probably looked like.

The Pickaxe Won't Be Necessary, Simba

About a week ago, I made an interesting discovery in my Garfield research, and that called for a new post!

It started when I was transferring a VHS tape of mine where I'd recorded a few Garfield and Friends episodes from Toon Disney. Knowing these were of course the syndicated versions of the episodes, I wasn't expecting anything new. But then this little gem surprised me at the end of Show 25.



As you'll recall, the previously found quickie "Human Relic" was not used in the international masters. Naturally, I was very surprised to find it at the end of a syndicated episode where only one Garfield Quickie was shown. Keeping the odds in mind but not throwing away any possibilities of other missing quickies showing up in syndication, I checked more syndication recordings and sure enough... I found this.



Unfortunately, my syndication copies of Shows 14-21 are missing the quickies, so whether or not those have the missing quickies remains a mystery. I can confirm though that neither Show 28 nor Show 29 use the quickie "Balloons."

Finally, at long last you can see the Screaming With Binky segment "Baseball" in its entirety.



Following this find I have started work on a list of which Quickies are used in syndication. As I'm still missing several syndicated episodes, the list will be incomplete when I post it, but hopefully in due time we can track the rest of those down the same way we've already uncovered plenty of premieres.

Lots of Updates, Big and Small

As promised, here's an update sure to please everyone. Blog reader Trader tipped me off about some additional missing quickies from various Season 2 and 3 episodes, so I pulled out my DVDs and went through the entire seasons to see what else was missing. The result... unless Mark Evanier's guide is missing some, a total of 15 quickies from those two seasons are missing on the DVDs!

Bolded titles indicate quickies in my collection.

14/15- Garfield: "Asleep"
16/17- None
18/19- Garfield: "Little House"
20/21- Garfield: "Wide Awake"
22/23- Garfield: "Hungry"
24/25- Garfield: "Human Relic"
26/27- Screaming With Binky: "Baseball"
28/29- Garfield: "Balloon", Screaming With Binky: "Mountains"
30/31- Garfield: "Dresser Fun"
32/33- U.S. Acres: "Too Fat", U.S. Acres "Let's Play"
34/35- Screaming with Binky: "Ballerina"
36/37- None
38/39- None
40/41- None
42/43- Garfield: "Leftovers"
44/45- None
46/47- None
48/49- None

50/51- Screaming With Binky: "Pizza"
52/53- None
54/55- None
56/57- U.S. Acres: "Bouquets"

As you can see, 2/3 of the quickies are still missing. I've got a lead on Show 14/15's "Asleep" quickie, so hopefully that'll turn up soon. Regarding the quickies I have found, I'm meaning to post videos here, but unfortunately due to time code errors in the videos, I'm limited to just pictures for the time being. I know I've kept y'all waiting on the "Baseball" Screaming With Binky short, so I've posted a couple screenshots from it for everyone.

Another quick little update on Mark Evanier's episode guide also. Going through Seasons 2 and 3, I noticed a few quickies misnamed as Garfield Quickies when they were really either Screaming With Binky or U.S. Acres Quickies. Here's the true list of every Screaming With Binky segment:

Show 24 - Diamond Cutter
Show 26 - Baseball
Show 28 - Surgeons
Show 29 - Mountains
Show 30 - Circus
Show 32 - Building
Show 34 - Ballerina
Show 36 - Golf Pro
Show 38 - Laryngitis
Show 45 - Underwater
Show 46 - Clown Convention
Show 48 - Sand
Show 49 - Ear Plugs
Show 51 - Pizza
Show 52 - Wade
Show 57 - Cartoonist

And finally, I have a big update to announce. Previously the plan was to recreate the Garfield and Friends series following the originally intended half hour blocks as listed on Mark Evanier's episode guide. However, because the actual ordering of the segments in each episode is unspecified (which would make these recreations near impossible without the studio masters), I have decided to instead recreate the hour long version of the show. That way we can still view the series as it was originally meant to be seen, missing quickies and all.

And soon, we'll go over something I've discovered about the Season 7 quickies...

U.S. Acres Quickie Screens (Season 1)

To make up for the lack of posts in the past few weeks, here are all the original U.S. Acres Quickie screens from Season 1, courtesy of the German dub.

And as an added bonus, you check out three of them in action!