More 4k Stuff

Missed these when I first went through the remastered episodes. I'll let the differences speak for themselves.

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.

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...

Screaming With Binky: Baseball

HEEEEEEEY BLOG READER! I've just obtained CBS premieres for episodes 26 and 27, so feast your eyes upon this clip as Binky the Clown screams at a baseball player for the first time since 1989!

Check it out at the official Garfield Restored page on Facebook, or take a look at the screenshots below!

My Mission

Here's the episode guide I'm using for this project, courtesy of Mark Evanier (one of the show's key writers).

Although Garfield and Friends originally premiered in an hour long format for the majority of its run, my goal is to maintain the half hour length as that is how they were produced and thus how they would appear on a proper DVD set.

So what is proper?

The DVDs, while excellent sets, utilize the international masters. As a result, the U.S. Acres segments and quickies go by their international rename, "Orson's Farm," and two Screaming With Binky segments are missing. Additionally, instead of using the less popular rap-styled theme song, Season 7 uses the more universally liked "Ready to Party" theme song which was originally used from Season 3-6.

While some fans may be satisfied with what we got, I believe that these episodes were made exactly how we were meant to see them, and thus I started this project in September 2013 to recreate the episodes as they were originally produced. Over the past year, I have obtained over 90 original U.S. Acres title cards and more than 15 U.S. Acres quickies thanks to my own personal recordings, eBay hauls, and the generous donations of traders. It is my hope that through this project, Garfield and Friends will once again see the light of day in its originally intended format.



Until then, I'll continue my efforts and keep track of them here.

(Images in this post are courtesy of Peter Paltridge, aka Platypus Comix)