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.

Mystery Guest Redux

"Mystery Guest" has always been one of my favorite U.S. Acres segments on Garfield and Friends. Roy always brings a comedic energy to the episodes starring him, so putting that into a story that's (for all intents and purposes) pretty random is a match made in Heaven.

Roy pops in and invites Orson to play the Mystery Guest Game. That's it. Orson's just chasing a butterfly when Roy comes in and decides "Nah, we're gonna make this episode more exciting than that." Cue the Mystery Guest theme song.

The song offers us two clues to the mystery guest -- he's not a singing raisin, and he's not painted blue. Pretty obvious nods to the California Raisins and the Smurfs.

For decades, all we saw of these character clues were their silhouettes.

Then, 9Story's restoration came along, straight from the film negative! For the first time in about thirty years, it revealed that the character images were originally uncensored. I'd assumed that the characters were animated that way, and it was changed before the episode made it to air for legal reasons. Unfortunately, the footage was cropped to widescreen, and it looked like that was all we'd ever see.

... Until a fan sent me a copy of the episode's original broadcast, revealing to me that the uncensored character images were in fact originally broadcast the way they were animated! I guess you could say we've solved the bonus round, or something.

Here's the entire uncensored first stretch of the song, seen in its proper aspect ratio for the first time in nearly 35 years.

Why not sing along? You know you want to.

Can you guess the Mystery Guest?

Take a shot and give it your best

If you need help, I'll give you a clue

He's not a singing raisin, and he's not painted blue

If you're at home and you've got the gall

Pick up your telecan and give us a call

Use your brain -- but, wait, that's not fair!

I forgot that there's nothing there!

Ha ha ha ha!

The Garfield Shuffle

Let's recap what we know so far -- When Garfield and Friends was repackaged for international distribution and domestic syndication, segments and opening gags (those witty one-liners at the end of the theme song) got shuffled around or omitted entirely. While the 9Story restorations reinstate references to U.S. Acres as originally aired (mostly), they are otherwise formatted exactly like the international broadcasts and FOX DVD releases. 

 So what's the point of this post? 

 Well, a cache of recordings somebody recently shared with me (more on that soon!) revealed something to me that I was unaware of... the "Garfield Shuffle" as we'll call it dates back to the original CBS run! When earlier episodes were rerun during at least Season 4, the packaging was completely shuffled around. Quickie segments were either switched around or added to episodes they were never originally a part of. Garfield's opening lines were also altered for episodes in this rerun package. Gag lines I previously believed to have been recorded only for the international package were in fact used in these CBS reruns. Sometimes as many as three quickies in a row would be aired. 

 The whole thing's a mess that warrants a much longer, more in-depth post to show just how crazy things can get. But for simplicity's sake, I'll illustrate this with segment breakdown for a Season 2 episode. 

1989-10-14 - SHOW 22/SHOW 23 

Garfield Quickie: Country Club 

Opening Line: Eat and be lazy, kids, and someday you'll have your own show too. 

Garfield: Pros and Cons 

Garfield Quickie: Hungry 

U.S. Acres: Rooster Revenge 

Garfield: Lights! Camera! Garfield! 

U.S. Acres Quickie: Morning Blast 

Garfield: Polecat Flats 

U.S. Acres Quickie: The Race 

Garfield Quickie: Snacking 

U.S. Acres: Hogcules 

Garfield: Brain Boy 

1991/2-xx-xx - SHOW 22/SHOW 23 (RERUN)

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

Garfield: Pros and Cons 

Garfield Quickie: Hungry 

U.S. Acres: Rooster Revenge 

Garfield: Lights! Camera! Garfield! 

Garfield: Polecat Flats 

U.S. Acres Quickie: The Race 

Garfield Quickie: Snacking 

U.S. Acres: Hogcules 

U.S. Acres Quickie: Morning Blast 

Garfield: Brain Boy 

Garfield Quickie: Country Club 

International - Show 22 

Garfield Quickie: Country Club 

Opening Line: Eat and be lazy, kids, and someday you'll have your own show too. 

Garfield: Pros and Cons 

U.S. Acres Quickie: The Race 

U.S. Acres: Rooster Revenge 

Garfield: Lights! Camera! Garfield! 

International - Show 23 

Garfield Quickie: Snacking 

Opening Line: Eat and be lazy, kids, and someday you'll have your own show too. 

Garfield: Polecat Flats 

U.S. Acres Quickie: Morning Blast 

U.S. Acres: Hogcules 

Garfield: Brain Boy 

 As you can see, this one example is all over the map. Segments originally in the Show 22 half have been redesignated to Show 23 and vice versa. The "Hungry" quickie is completely absent in all modern releases of these episodes. My long term goal is for this blog to serve as a reference point for Garfield fans with keen editing skills to faithfully reconstruct the series as originally broadcast. Garfield and Friends was a key player in the TV animation renaissance of the late 80s and early 90s, and I firmly believe the series should be seen in the most complete form possible. Of course, this means a lot more research, a lot more documentation of things that have been overlooked for decades... and maybe a snack or two while I'm at it. 

 Professor CDCB is on the case.

Garfield's Opening Lines

Boy, a lot's happened since I last updated this blog! People may know me as the Nickelodeon guy now, but there's still a little Garfield in me. Last night, I was thinking about Garfield's opening lines at the end of the show as a Garfield and Friends tape was digitizing, and I realized that Garfield's lines in the syndication package are inconsistent across the map and don't match up with the CBS broadcasts or international syndication. 

As I discovered in 2022, some of Garfield's "teaser" lines didn't even make it to the international package but are retained in syndication.

The folks at the Garfield Wiki have cobbled up a good list of these opening lines, but it doesn't make note of any of the inconsistencies I've spotted. So, I thought this would be a good reason to bring back the Garfield Restored blog, at least for this one post.

As I've discovered, several of Garfield's opening lines in the syndication package were borrowed from later episodes that otherwise weren't syndicated. Some were shuffled around, while others were only aired once or never syndicated at all. It's a crazy mess, but I've tried to make sense of it all in this spreadsheet below. Opening lines that were not used in international prints/DVD/9Story's restorations are written in bold text. 

I'll update it as new discoveries are made. And no, it won't take five years.

The REAL Correct Episode Guide: A Work in Progress

For a while, it seemed like this was the correct episode guide. Having come from show writer Mark Evanier itself, it seems like it'd be darn near perfect right?

Unfortunately, as it turns out, recent research shows that even this episode guide has some inaccuracies. At least 3 quickies are missing from the episode guide. Because I want this project to be as complete as it possibly can, I'll need to obtain CBS airings (preferably premieres) for every episode. And thus, the project is just a smidgen more ambitious than I had planned.

Nevertheless, I'm going to finish what I started and seek the aid of collectors and traders to help me track down what I need and add corrections to Mark's episode guide as I go through the series. As for what I need, I'm working on a list of my current collection holdings and what I'm missing which should be posted shortly.

The Saga of Season 7

Alright it's not so much of a saga as it is a catchy title, but it drew you into this post, right?

Anyway, today we'll go over the history of the final season in Garfield and Friends which, as it turns out, is just as altered as the previous seasons. Let's start off with the most obvious thing, the one any longtime fan will remember...



As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Season 7 originally featured this rap-styled theme song as a replacement for the more familiar "Ready to Party" song. However, as you can see in this video, two notable things that remained the same throughout the many theme song changes are curiously absent here. The first change is pretty obvious. CBS goofed on the original broadcast of Show 110--the first episode to use the rap theme--and thus Garfield is missing his witty tag at the end. According to Peter Paltridge, this was corrected later on for Show 110, and as we can see below, the premieres that followed had Garfield's end tags properly reinstated.



The second change, as you may have observed, is a significant decrease in U.S. Acres clips with a total of only 6 clips from those segments being used. The reason for this isn't certain, although my best guess is that with the Garfield-centric theme song, they figured including too many non-Garfield clips would be awkward.

Now, let's move on to the credits. If you watched the video start to finish, you saw the Season 7 credits at the end, albeit with an annoying advertising voiceover over nearly half of it. Unfortunately, this is the only full copy of the Season 7 credits that I have been able to track down. If anybody has a "clean" copy of the Season 7 credits audio, please share!

Now let's go over the episodes themselves. By Season 7, the quickies were almost entirely phased out of the show to the point where only 4 episodes in the entire season used quickies. As a matter of fact, Show 113 was the final episode to use quickies. However, such is not the case on the DVDs! As it turns out, even though the final episodes of the show had no quickies, the DVDs lift quickies from previous episodes and repeat them in the show's final episodes anyway! So, how do the quickies on the DVDs compare to how they originally were presented? That is an answer for a later post...

The quickies weren't the only victims. The original premieres for Shows 120 and 121 were originally switched around for reasons unknown, and the ordering on the DVD set reflects that. Here's how they're listed on Mark Evanier's episode guide.

Show 120 - The Ocean Blue / The Monster Who Couldn't Scare Anybody / Arbuckle the Invincible
Show 121 - The Horror Hostess Pt. 1 / Newsworthy Wade / The Horror Hostess Pt. 2

The former's segment order raises a mystery. Although Mark's episode guide lists "The Ocean Blue" as the first segment in the episode, a snippet at the end of this recording of the Season 7 theme song suggests otherwise.



As we can see here, "Arbuckle the Invincible" is the first segment, revealing that the DVD set's ordering of the episodes was also used by CBS. This could mean one of three things--the first, this ordering may be a mere error on Mark Evanier's part. The second, the episode may have been originally produced in this order, but had its segments switched around by CBS before the premiere. The third, the episode may have originally premiered with Mark's order, with reruns using the switch. Of course, without a copy of the premiere, there's no way of knowing for sure.

That's about all there is to say about Season 7 for now. But, because you're probably craving more original title cards, here's the original for "Thing in the Box."



Image Credit: Mimitchi33