Here Comes Garfield

Here Comes Garfield
Written by Jim Davis
Directed by Phil Roman
Starring Lorenzo Music
Sandy Kenyon
Henry Corden
Hal Smith
Hank Garrett
Gregg Berger
Angela Lee
Theme music composer Desirée Goyette and Ed Bogas (music and lyrics)
Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette (vocals)
Country of origin United States
Production
Executive producer(s) Jay Poynor
Producer(s) Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez
Editor(s) Chuck McCann
Roger Donley
Running time 24 minutes
Production company(s) United Media
Mendelson–Melendez Productions
Release
Original network CBS
Original release October 25, 1982
Chronology
Followed by Garfield on the Town

Here Comes Garfield is a 1982 animated television special based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. It was the first half-hour Garfield TV special. It is directed by Phil Roman and features Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield the house cat, as well as the voices of Sandy Kenyon, Henry Corden and Gregg Berger.

The special was first broadcast October 25, 1982 on CBS. It was a Nielsen ratings success and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. It was accompanied by a soundtrack album and a children's book adaptation and has been released on DVD.

Plot

Garfield and Odie are outside harassing a neighbor's dog when the owner, Hubert, calls the pound to capture Jon Arbuckle's pets. When the dogcatcher arrives, Garfield flees, but Odie is too stupid to run away and is caught. Garfield decides to go home, but is unable to communicate to Jon that Odie is in peril. Soon, Garfield realizes how boring life is without Odie around, so that night, Garfield decides to rescue him. He makes it to the pound, but the dogcatcher catches him and imprisons him in a cell, where he learns from another cat, Fast Eddie, that Odie is going to be euthanized in the morning.

During the night, Garfield has a series of flashbacks of all the good times that he and Odie had playing together. The next day, Garfield tearfully watches the dogcatcher take Odie down the hall to be euthanized. Meanwhile, a girl arrives at the pound for a pet and chooses Garfield. Garfield sees his chance to escape and when the cell opens, Garfield runs out the door and passed the girl. The rest of the animals flood out of the cell and break down the pound door, with the knocked-out dogcatcher on it.

As the animals run to freedom, Garfield and Odie return to the Arbuckle home and knock down its front door. Jon bets that Garfield and Odie were having fun during the night while he was worried about them, and Garfield and Odie are bemused and indicate this is correct.

Soundtrack

Lou Rawls performed for the Here Comes Garfield soundtrack, inspired by Bill Cosby's Fat Albert cartoons.

There was a soundtrack for Here Comes Garfield released on LP and cassette on Epic Records.[1] It featured songs from and inspired by the television special, composed by Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette and performed by Goyette and Lou Rawls.[1] Some of these tracks were re-released or re-recorded on the Am I Cool or What? CD.

Track list

  1. "Here Comes Garfield" - (Lou Rawls)
  2. "Move Me" (Desirée Goyette)
  3. "Foolin' Around" (Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette)
  4. "Long About Midnight" (Lou Rawls)
  5. "Big Fat Hairy Deal" (Lou Rawls)
  6. "Up On a Fence" (Desirée Goyette)
  7. "Life Is Just a Roller Coaster" (Lou Rawls)
  8. "So Long Old Friend" (Desirée Goyette)
  9. "Together Again" (Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette)
  10. "Here Comes Garfield (Reprise)" (Desirée Goyette)

Production

Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz advised Jim Davis on the animation in Here Comes Garfield.

Here Comes Garfield was Garfield creator Jim Davis' first television special, coming after his 1980 book Garfield At Large topped The New York Times bestsellers list.[2] For the opening sequence, Garfield dances to the theme song. In 1981, Davis was working in a California studio on how to convincingly depict this, as in previous comics, the fictional cat always walked on all four feet. Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz was in the same studio that day, and redrew Davis' work, advising him, "The problem is, you've made Garfield's feet too small. Little tiny cat feet."[3] Peanuts TV special producers Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson also produced Here Comes Garfield, a consequence of the two comics sharing the same syndicate, United Media.[4]

Lou Rawls, who had previously performed at army bases, joined the Garfield franchise with this project, and finished recording the soundtrack in summer 1982. He explained his decision, "I figured if Bill Cosby could do Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and live forever on the earnings, why can't I do Garfield?"[5]

Broadcast and release

Here Comes Garfield was first aired by CBS,[6] on October 25, 1982,[7] along with the 1966 Peanuts special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.[8] It was viewed by an audience of 50 million people.[9] This was considered a good rating, leading to speculation CBS could launch a successful series of Garfield specials similar to the Peanuts specials.[8]

Ballantine Books published a 64-page illustrated book adaptation in September 1982.[10] In July 2004,[11] Here Comes Garfield was released on the DVD Garfield as Himself, along with Garfield on the Town (1983) and Garfield Gets a Life (1991).[12]

Reception

At the 35th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1983, Here Comes Garfield was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and Phil Roman was nominated for the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animated Programming.[13] In 2004, DVD Talk critic Randy Miller judged the Garfield as Himself specials to be "quite enjoyable," highlighting "a daring dog pound rescue."[12] The DVD debuted 35th in sales.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Jerry Osborne, Movie/TV Soundtracks and Original Cast Recordings Price and Reference Guide, 2010, p. 260.
  2. ↑ Hans C. Schmidt, "Davis, Jim," Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas, ABC-CLIO, 2014, p. 987.
  3. ↑ Tina Hall, "Jim Davis," The Damned Book of Interviews, Crossroad Press, 2013.
  4. ↑ David Perlmutter, America Toons In: A History of Television Animation, McFarland & Company Publishers, 2014, p. 215.
  5. ↑ Robert E. Johnson, "Former Soldier Lou Rawls Now Entertains Armed Forces," Jet, August 30, 1982, p. 64.
  6. ↑ Frank Hoffmann and Beulah B Ramirez, Fashion & Merchandising Fads, Routledge, 1994, p. 96.
  7. ↑ "Garfield on Tube," The Evening News, October 24, 1982, p. 16E.
  8. 1 2 "Nielsen Ratings," Beaver County Times, November 7, 1982, p. 5.
  9. ↑ William H. Taft, Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Journalists, Routledge, 2016, p. 92.
  10. ↑ Jim Davis, Here Comes Garfield, Ballantine Books, September 12, 1982.
  11. 1 2 "Top DVD Sales," Billboard, July 24, 2004, p. 59.
  12. 1 2 Miller, Randy III (June 29, 2004). "Garfield As Himself". DVD Talk. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  13. ↑ "AWARDS & NOMINATIONS". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
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