Garfield and Friends

Ladies and gentlemen, Garfield and Friends! We're...

We're... Ready... Ready... To... To... Party!

We're ready to party, we're ready! I hope you

bring lots of spaghetti! Come on in, come to

the place where fun never ends! Come on in, it's

time to party with Garfield and Friends! That's

the end of the moment! Hey, you chewing the gum.

I hope you brought enough for everybody. Stop

clicking hello and welcome to the 60th episode

of tooncast brought to you by the geek cast radio

network I am your host Steve John Mike and joining

me as usual back this week He was gone last week

since he had nothing to talk about on SWATcast

is Kevin buskate out Thompson knows our hello

Are you I am good? Yes today. We will be talking

about Garfield and friends Yay, so what's been

going on with you? I don't know, I've been nailed

to the computer chair for a while, basically.

Trying to add all kinds of shows to Behind the

Voice Actors. Let's see, what have I added in

the last week? Century Ends, Denver the Last

Dinosaur, Captain Caveman, CB Bears, Jungle Cubs

is the last one I did. And the one that took

forever was My Little Pony. I was like, oh, My

Little Pony, I remember that. That should be

an easy one. Yeah, it has like over 70 characters.

So that took one whole day almost to do that.

So that's basically what I've been doing. I'm

still trying to do some work on the house. But

that's a pain in the butt. What else? Oh, I did

a new top 10 list over there too. I did top 10

American animation studios. Stuff like Deke or

Warner Brothers or stuff like that. So I added

that over at PTVA. It was kind of fun. What about

Filmation, dammit? They're on there. They're

on there Yes as we're recording this we were

recording this June 6th that probably will not

air until a couple weeks from now but we are

recording a Sunday night June 6th and Last week

news of actually I think you guys broke the story

of the new thundercats series and it's uh...

the enemy of christ help us it's it's uh... was

a lot of help us save us from this enemy bullshit

it could be all right still i i i'll hold i'll

hold back until i see it just from seeing that

that teaser image or it just doesn't it's warner

brothers those they should be able to do something

good and regardless if it's warner brothers or

not and it pisses me off to no end i'd get like

i read the article that you i don't know if you

you did it or whoever wrote the article over

at your all's behind the voice of dot com i don't

know if it was just the press information that

you guys copied or whatever but apparently it's

going to take you know the the earlier stories

beyond you know before the third earth stuff

right it's it's going to deal with king claudas

and and everything else and i'm thinking uh...

dammit i want larry kenny back as lionel of course

he's playing king claudas and just and i feel

like for some reason i feel like i'm all of a

sudden it's like nineteen eighty five again because

we got a new thundercats come out a new turtles

a new voltron a new transformers a new g i'd

you know quickly on a new transformers though

you really can't count that because New Transformers

cartoons have been coming out every year for

the past ten years. I mean, you've got, what

was it, 2002? You had Armada, and then Enter.

I mean, Transformers cartoons have pretty much

been like Power Rangers series. Like, one year

after the other, they would release one or another.

But yeah, you're right. And I guess the reason

why I say it seems like 1985 again is because

not only do we have all those cartoons coming

out, but then we've had the news so far of, like

you said, Larry Kenny being on the Thundercats

show, the news of Peter Collin and Frank Welker

being on the Transformers show. So it's just

kind of bizarre that everything's happening in

this next year, year and a half, just like it

did back then, it seems like. Yeah. Yeah. So

hopefully a couple of them are good. I know not

all of them will be good, but hopefully a couple

of them will be good. Yeah, I just... And it's

funny that a new Voltron show is coming out because

we mentioned back in episode 56 that Peter Keefe

a few weeks ago had passed away. Yeah. That's

very, very sad. I do have to mention, when we

posted that Thundercats thing, One of the users

made a comment right away. He's like, after the

Larry Kenny thing, he said, well, I hope they

respect all the other guys and let Earl and all

those guys have their roles back to it. I had

to post back, and I said, well, that's going

to be pretty hard since two of them are dead,

one of them's 84. Well, I don't think it would

be so hard for Mr. Hammond, Grandpa Cosby. I

don't think it would be so hard for him to do

it. He's up there, though. He might be up there,

but I don't think it would be so hard. I mean,

I don't know the guy. Personally, I can speak

for the guy. But just like from when I've heard

him in interviews and when I've seen him on clips

and stuff of stuff that he's done or whatever,

at least recently, his voice, it's not like it's

gone. Maybe he could be like a much older panther

or something like that. I don't know. I thought

Peter Newman might be a possibility only because

he has done stuff recently he was he's actually

in that we're just uh... that's a peter newman

yeah you mean richard newman for newman uh...

we're just talking about there that were both

ironically watching the human two thousand two

series and he was actually in the human two thousand

two peter newman wasn't peter newman was tiger

richard newman was right not you're getting them

confused okay peter newman was the one that did

tiger so peter hasn't peter's not yet done anything

in a while yes didn't confuse you're right yeah

uh... but uh... you know i know you're gonna

hate me for this but it'd be great to see Lynn

Lipton back as Chitara oh it wouldn't be yeah

what's up that user said the same thing and i

said my post was two of them are dead one of

them's i don't remember if he's eighty -four

ninety -four and i'm like and the other one i

don't want God, I did, though, come across another

show that she was in, and the recent things that

I was doing. What show was it that she was in?

Oh, that's gonna drive me nuts now. It was one

of them that I just added, and I couldn't find...

I don't remember if it was Jungle Cubs or My

Little Pony or one of those, but she had done

a voice, and it just brought bad memories for

me. I didn't add her yet as that character. Yeah,

I didn't think you would have But yeah, I know

the last what is it last four or five years It's

just been a resurgence of what we used to have

like the the unfortunately failed Knight Rider

reboot the failed bionic woman reboot The the

now fail audience, huh? failed American gladiators.

I thought that was, I thought it was okay. I

mean it failed as far as not lasting very long.

Yeah, yeah. Let's see, what else, what else,

what else? The failed after a pilot and it's

apparently going to be rewritten and sold to

a different network of, oh God, what's a damn

show, Rockford Files. Oh yeah. It was just kind

of weird because for a while there, as far as

old cartoons go, And their resurgence that they

were doing with them was more so in movies. I

mean, obviously, we've seen all the movies. We

don't need to mention them all. We know them

all. But it seems like it's kind of shifted now

from the movies to let's go into the... I mean,

I know Transformers has had shows over and over

again. You know, He -Man had the 2002. G .I.

Joe's had a couple. But, you know, Turtles has

been, seems like it's gone on forever. But it

seems like it's now being more of a focus that

let's do all these cartoons that were old. and

not just put out the live -action movies or the

animated movies like we've seen with so many.

I am so happy that they have not done a He -Man,

another He -Man live -action film yet. Yeah,

although I'd rather see that than the live -action

Thundercats that was thrown around. But you know,

that's still going around. I know. And I'm scared

about the next Turtles movie, so we're not even

going to go there. But, you know, it's just weird

and, you know, like you were saying earlier,

you and I have both, for some strange cosmic

reason, Zodak must have read our minds or something.

I don't know. We are both watching the 2002 He

-Man Masters of the Universe series, and I'm

not going to give anything away, but I'm writing

a review for it, which will be out before this

episode airs. It'll be out the week of June 6th

as we're recording this. And so far not to tip

my hand, I really, really, really enjoy it. I

know it's kind of tipping my hand, but it's not

like where... What's a good series I can compare

to? That was just a horrible, horrible reboot.

Oh god. The first version of the first reboot

of He -Man. Well, yeah, but no, I'm talking about

like more recently like something being rebooted

that was god -awful. I can't think of anything

at the moment. I know there's stuff out there

too. Watch, as soon as we're done recording this,

I pretty much guarantee it'll come back to me.

So far, the three best reboots is let's say since,

I don't know, 2000 or so of 80s stuff for me

has been the He -Man 2002, the Turtles 2003,

and probably actually, this is ironic since it's

this episode, but the new Garfield version. I

really like the new Garfield version. I like

that, I think, isn't Bill Murray voicing Garfield?

No, Frank Welker is. Frank Welker is voicing

Garfield? In the new cartoon the Garfield show.

Yeah, I thought that was Bill Murray. Nope. Sounds

awful. He did him in the movies, but it's Frank

Welker. I know he did him in the movies, but

it sounds awfully like him in the cartoon. Nope,

Frank Welker. But I think that's a good reboot,

too. So those three are the ones that come to

my mind. But like you, I can't think of a bad

one right off the top of my head. Oh, actually,

I can. I can think of a bad one. The girly ones

have been bad. The Care Bears newer one. I think

there's a new My Little Pony one that's bad.

And there's one other one that I've seen. The

little bits and pieces of it's bad. I don't know

if it would be, we've had 60 episodes, like two

or three reviews, two or three interviews on

this show. It's been 50 episodes since we did

our four -hour He -Man coverage for the original

series, and no, I'm not going to add the 2002

one to the schedule because it is going past

our timeline, but I'm wondering if a general

overall Masters of the Universe episode for Geekcast

Radio would be considered double -dipping, even

though we've already talked about... the original

cartoon because I mean just watching this I really

really want to talk about this show yeah it's

just amazing it's it's way better like I I kind

of just from the I had seen that what the characters

look like I had seen what the cartoon was gonna

look like basically so I kind of knew what to

expect visually and I knew that that was a good

It didn't scare me off. A lot of times you see

pictures and you're like, oh god. And it didn't

have that effect. So I kind of always had in

the back of my head that it was possibly going

to be a good show, but I didn't realize how good

it was going to be until I started watching them.

Obviously, I'm not watching them as fast as you

are, but I'm trying to... I got a conundrum,

so to speak, because I got... I started watching

the He -Man, and I got 10 episodes into it. But

then, in the back of my head, I also want to

watch all these things for the other episodes

of Tooncast that we have coming up. I want to

get through all 60, however many episodes of

Cops, and I want to get through all of the Dungeons

and Dragons collection since I have those on

DVD. And it's just like, that's a lot of cartoons

to watch. I better get going. Yeah, see, for

the ones like, you know, every now and then I'll

look them up on YouTube or whatever for the ones

that I don't have DVDs of. You know that's that's

pretty much it The days of me, you know the weeks

of me going Four days in a row watching every

single episode of thundercats or every single

episode of the original human cartoon or those

are those won't come back until probably The

the late 90s episode almost the close of the

show when we get into the DC anime universe stuff

You know if I have it on DVD and I can watch

it great, but I'm not gonna watch every single

episode as a as a refresher but yeah just gets

too much after a while yes it does and they're

really good by the time I got to season or volume

five of Voltron oh my god I was so sick of that

fucking thing even though I love Voltron don't

get me wrong you know I was just so sick of that

Well in between like in between I'm trying to

watch episodes for this and basically when I

do when I had shows over at BTV I basically watch

almost every episode and just screen cap as I

watch I mean sometimes I skip around and do a

little bit but it's just so much watching between

the two things it's I enjoy it but it depends

on what kind of show it is like even though the

the 02 Masters cartoon won't be covered on tooncast

because it has a very strict continuity and it's

not a bunch of throwaway episodes. Every episode

has some tie to the previous episode. I've been

able to watch this all the way through, but like

the original series, it's basically, it's one

story per half hour per 22 minutes or per whatever

the hell it is without commercials, you know?

And some of them do have continuity and some

of them don't. I can sit through, because I've

got it right here because I was... doing screencaps

the other day. I can sit through Secret of the

Sword eight times a day and watch it all day

long and love it still. But just some of the

cartoons that are just quote unquote episodic

and have no continuity to them whatsoever, I

have to take them. Well, I have to take them

one at a time. You know, like with the one that

we're going to talk about today, Garfield and

Friends. If it's something where I can watch

both the Garfield shorts and the U .S. Acre shorts

and at least get the main, you know, the idea

into my head of what it is, I'll be fine as far

as remembering it. Yeah, well I think it's a

lot easier to do episodic watching shows that

are episodic if it's more like a comedy or more,

you know, music -oriented or stuff like that.

I think the ones that we like the most that are

actually the hardest to watch are the action

ones that are completely episodic. Just because,

you know, it's hard to watch too many of those

in one sitting. It does remind me of something

else, you probably mentioned it on some of your

other shows, but just as we were talking about

it reminded me, you said Secret of the Soul or

that the news about She -Ra being released on

a complete series DVD set. I'm hoping that my

forever stand, you know, I've been holding out

on buying the He -Man. all the seasons I only

have the first volume of the first season basically

in hopes that it would be released in a complete

series so I'm hoping that if She -Ra was released

in a complete series we're eventually gonna see

He -Man also in a complete series I don't know

if we will ever see He -Man in the complete series

I'm not sure I'm gonna try to pull up the She

-Ra story and see because I want to see who's

doing the She -Ra complete series because I know

there was a story months and months ago, last

year sometime, that BCI shut down. Yeah, they

did. They stopped making the He -Man properties.

So I'm not sure. But their library was sold to

somebody. And I can't remember, because I remember

reading the Shearer article. And it said, it

made a mention of it, that there was a possibility

that we might see a He -Man one as well. So I

can't remember who owns it now. Yeah, I'm pulling

up the story. Oh, okay, classic media, okay.

I was hoping it wasn't going to be Mill Creek.

Yeah, I hate Mill Creek. Well, Mill Creek did

okay with the special features with this. I mean,

the majority of it's commentaries. But, you know,

apparently there's PDFs for all 40 episode scripts.

The only other feature outside of commentaries

is Like a 10 minute thing of Mattel back in 02

talking about the cartoon and talking about the

02 toys and all that Yeah, it's classic media

is doing this there's no real mention No mention

whether the Let's see Also, there is not be it

any word about a new DVD releases of the original

entry film nation he manned series So we just

have to stay tuned and find out if it will be

or not Hopefully well, I hope the sales now by

the Shira one. So maybe that'll well, yeah Yeah,

and that's probably what they're gonna do how

let's say with the DCIU stuff because they they

put out Batman the complete animated series Watched

how that sold and then they put out Justice League

and Superman the animated series. So Mean honestly,

it's up to you if you want to double -dip or

not I honestly like having the volume sets if

only because there's a on the bindings if you

put them all together Yeah, there's a mural of

grayskull and snake Mountain Yeah, I think that's

you know that makes a cool visual and I got mine.

Oh god three four years ago I got them for like

20 bucks a piece at Best Buy so more sets at

$20 apiece That's not bad at all. Well, the only

thing that the only thing that would kind of

swing the other way as you know with the with

the complete box sets of G .I. Joe and Transformers

now it'd be kind of cool to have and I have a

complete series of certain other Leon Blackstar

I have Dungeons and Dragons so I'd like to keep

that as much as possible. The only ones that

I just have the one volume of and nothing after

that is basically Thundercats and He -Man. Yeah,

I seriously doubt they're gonna do a Thundercats

complete series. I seriously doubt that they

will do that. As far as the He -Man one, The

other problem I have, and I have this with the

Transformers one as well, if they do do a complete

series He -Man, are they going to just... If

they're going to just port over the volume discs,

fine. But are they going to make new discs and

not include any of the bonus features that are

on those original volume sets? Because those

volume sets, they have like hours and hours and

hours of extras. Because they have all those,

you know, if you... You're talking about the

He -Man one? Yeah. If you play it by episode,

you get the little episode description. Yeah,

you get little fun facts from Oracle. You get

just a whole bunch of stuff. So if they're going

to just port over the discs from those four volumes

and put it in a nice little shiny box, That would

be great, but if they're not and they're going

to go the route Shout Factory went and take nothing

from the old DVDs as far as the special features.

That's the only reason why I'm hanging on to

my Rhino Transformers DVDs right now is for the

interviews with Flint Dilley and David Wise.

If those weren't on there, I would sell those

in a heartbeat because I have the Matrix set

now. It kind of made me mad when Shout Factory

did not include any of the old bonus features

because it's still... It's part of the history.

I understand you want to update with new features

and everything else, but still, those other features,

those interviews with those people, they're valid

and they should be on a complete series set.

Yeah, I agree. Anyways, we're getting completely

off topic here. So that's general thoughts there.

Yeah, yeah. We haven't gotten into the history

lesson yet. Well, I'm pretty much out of financial

debt for the most part. Of course, starting in

July, I have to start paying rent, which kind

of sucks. I haven't paid rent in the last five

years. I mean, that's good, but I would say you're

going to have to start paying rent. Yeah, well,

you know, it's not that bad, but still, it still

doesn't really. I've got stuff going on with

this week in geek nerd news network will probably

by the time this episode airs it will have already

launched but as we're recording this we are nerd

news will be coming back Monday June 14th yeah

yeah Monday June 14th so yeah I'm doing that

as I mentioned back in episode 56 we just celebrated

one year anniversary for GeekCast Radio one year

anniversary for this show So yeah, everything...

Oh god, I really... I was gonna start... I'm

not using that reference. So, take it away with

the history lesson, sir. Alright, Garfield and

Friends, that's what we're supposed to be talking

about, yes. Garfield and Friends is an American

animated television series based on the comic

strip... Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was

produced by Phil Maroman, who was on my top ten

list, in association with United Feature Seneca

and Paws Inc. and ran on CBS Saturday mornings

from 1988 to 1994. and a Nickelodeon in reruns

from 97 to 2000. The show's seven seasons make

it one of the longest running Saturday morning

cartoons in history, with most only lasting one

or two seasons, this one lasting seven. In Canada,

it aired from 89 to 96. Regular segments featured

both Garfield and U .S. Acres, a lesser -known

comic strip also created by Jim Davis. The latter

was retitled Orson's Farm for foreign syndication.

242 Garfield segments and 121 U .S. Acres segments

were produced. There were two Garfield segments

on each show, two Quickie shorts based on Sunday

comic strips, and in between was a U .S. Acres

segment. A total of 121 half hours were produced,

and all have been released in the U .S. on five

DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The first season aired in a half hour format,

in the second season it switched to an hour length

format, showing two episodes each week. However,

in the show's last season, the second half hour

of the show featured either an episode from the

previous season or one of Garfield's TV specials.

So what do you remember about Garfield and Friends?

I love this show. This was awesome. This is just

so funny. It was like bringing the comic strip

to life. Yes. It really was. And I think, I can't

be for certain, but I think Jim Davis worked

very closely with these people. Oh yeah, he had

a lot of control, we'll put it nicely. Yeah,

just awesome. Now I had never really, I don't

know, I remember watching the Garfield segments

and the Garfield Quickies, and then I remember

watching the US Acres stuff, but at first I didn't

really catch on to it. It wasn't really that,

you know, you watch a Garfield cartoon for Garfield.

Did he ever, did he or Odie ever cross over into

US Acres? Yes. Like, you know how Yakko, Wacko,

and Dot will do a run through of a Pinky and

the Brain cartoon? Yeah, they did. Okay, because

I wasn't sure. Because I vaguely remember that

happening and I thought that was kind of funny.

I don't think it happened very often, but I do

remember it happening at least once. Yeah. I

have good memories of this show as well, I mean,

just kind of like you. This was just a great

show. Obviously it was on. It kind of has the

same effect as, oh shoot, I'm gonna forget which

one we were talking about. I think it was Gummy

Bears or one of the ones we were talking about

where it aired for so long that basically, you

know, our childhood, it was almost, it seems

like it was almost always on. I mean, this one

was from 88 to 94. So basically for me, that

was from when I was about seven to when I was

about 13. So those are some prime cartoon years

where it's on the entire time. And I have good

memories. I think it was one of the best comic

strips made into a cartoon possibly of all time.

I can't remember every single... You know we've

had what we've had Marmaduke and we've had the

Archies and Beetle, I don't know if Beetle Bailey

ever, yeah he showed up in a cartoon form at

one point. Don't mention Marmaduke, oh god kill

me. I'm just saying we've had so many, we've

had so many that have shown up and you know with

the exception of Peanuts which is more just specials

instead of I mean I know there was a couple cartoon

series but it's basically better as the specials.

So with that exception I'd say Garfield's probably

one of the best comic to cartoon things that

we've seen. As far as we're talking Sunday comic

strip type stuff, we're not talking about comic

books obviously. I will differ from you a little

bit though. I actually liked the U .S. Acres

segment better. I love both segments. I love

both segments and I love Garfield and I loved

everything about that, but for some reason I

was always drawn a little bit more to the characters

in the U .S. Acres and some of the stories that

they did. Unfortunately, they're a lot harder

to find on... I mean, they're all on the DVD

sets, but I don't have the DVD sets on YouTube

and stuff like that. It's a lot easier to find

Garfield than it is the US Acres segments, but

for some reason, I don't know. I liked the US

Acres a little better, but that's not to take

away the fact that I love Garfield as well. Yeah.

Yeah, it was just a great... Great show. You

know, some of the U .S. Acres bids I liked, all

with the two eggs. Oh, geez. No, the chicken

and the egg. This brother that never hatched.

Oh, what the hell was his name? Bo and... I just

lost my brain. Let's see here. Bo and Booker.

There you go. Yeah. They were actually both voiced

by Welker. Uh, yeah, so getting into the voice

cast, you have Lorenzo Music as Garfield, Greg

Berger as Odie, Orson, and Floyd, Tom Huge as

John Arbuckle, Roy Rooster, Binky the Clown,

and Gort. Wait, what's a Nebulon doing in Garfield?

What's that? Oh, God. You so missed the Transformers

reference there. Gort was one of the names of

the Nebulons in Rebirth. Julie Payne voiced Dr.

Liz Wilson and Lanolin Howard Morris were voiced

to wave the duck and wart Frank Welker voiced

Bo Booker Sheldon and Mort and Yeah, well it's

Frank Welker and come on We aren't gonna try

to list all 200 and something out of his you

know credit, right? Doesn't really go yet Also

just to mention that Don Messick did appear in

this as Ludlow the Bird and I can't confirm this

a thousand percent but from everything I've read

when Lorenzo music was not available to do Garfield

if he was sick or this or that uh... cullier

from full house stepped in to do garfield for

him i need written newsworthy confirmation that

would surprise me because i don't believe that

i do because cullier stepped in for a lot of

people back in those couple years he did the

same thing on Muppet Babies and a couple other

shows where he took over for certain people and

i don't know he's such an impressionist that

i I'm pretty sure it could be, it could be true.

I don't know. But obviously the Renzo music was

the one doing it 99 % of the time. Yeah, in addition

to the regular voice cast, there have been several

celebrity guest stars who did voice acting on

Garfield and Friends. They're in, well, yeah,

we're not gonna do chronological order. Robin

Leach played himself. Let's see, Jack Nicholson.

What? Oh, yeah, his constant love of the Lakers.

Let's see, June Foray, reprising her role as

witch Hazel, or a witch character, essentially

reprising her role of witch Hazel. Paul Winchell.

Twice, yeah. Yeah. James Earl, wow, Darth Vader,

holy crap. Yeah. The Laker Machine guy. John

machida jr. Blur yeah, yeah Don knots oh god

Barney was in this woman yeah George Foreman

plays a boxer named George fisticuff Wow I think

I think as far as this voice cast goes it did

a good job of blending different areas together

we've had a couple shows that have done that

but you know with with some guest appearances

by paul when she'll and june fray and i'm messing

and you have one of the main voices there the

howard morris who you might be familiar with

as uh... adam ants uh... breezley from breezley

and sneezley mister people's from the gorilla

much mouse from a comparison much mouse much

mouse um... so you had all those old guys and

then you're letting them in with you know people

like Greg Berger, Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker,

who was kind of both old and new. But it was

just kind of a nice blend, I think, of past and

present voice actors. I'm honestly very, very

surprised that Greg Berger plays Odie, because

you would think that with... You know, honestly,

if you... I was at a Garfield, and maybe John...

Our buckle if you took the rest of the cast she

could have Frank talking to himself for hours.

Yeah, you could The interesting thing about Greg

burger is that he did he does od in the new one,

too Oh does he yep? He did od in the original

and he does od in the whatever year that new

one came out last year the year before whatever

it was Uh -huh, so that's kind of cool that he

kept the role. Yeah And like we said, Frank Walker

was in both shows just as different characters.

Great voice cast. Yeah, very, very well done

voice cast. As far as the characters, Odie was

yellow, wasn't he? Yeah. I don't think I've ever

seen a yellow beagle. Honestly. OK, Orange Cat,

I can kind of, you know, I've seen. orange cats

before but a yellow dog I've never seen like

and I'm not talking like golden yellow like a

golden retriever I'm not talking yellow like

you know some sort of dark very dark gray pouponish

character or color I'm talking about bright in

your face mustard yellow yep brown ears and mustard

yellow body Yeah, I've never seen a dog that

color. Ever. They must have spray painted it

like they did with the dog in Enemy of the State.

They were gonna spray paint it green. Oh god.

Yeah. You did just go there. Yes. Hey, Enemy

of the State's a good movie. Shut up. No, I don't.

I'm not saying it's not. have peter after us

for talking about spray -painting animals. I'm

just kidding. Now, now wait a second here. I

didn't say I spray -painted animals. Of course

I let a few cats run loose in the dryer while

it was going, but that was when I was 11 years

old. Oh, Jesus. But anyway. Oh, God. Guys, this

show is slowly going down the tubes. It's 60

episodes. Can you fucking believe us? We're going

crazy. There's only 40 episodes left. Exactly.

All right, so the characters. Why don't you take

Garfield, because I don't want to. Obviously

Garfield's the fat, lazy, orange tabby cat, once

described by his owner John as an orange meatball

with stripes, who basically wants nothing more

out of life than to eat and sleep. He's your

typical lazy person, so kids love him. He loves

lasagna, enjoys tormenting Odie, likes trying

to mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi, I always love that.

He did make a small handful of appearances on

US Acres. Once wearing nothing but a black mask

over his eyes as a disguise But was more often

seen in the form of various Garfield merchandise

the characters appeared to own Deep down Garfield

loves John and Odie Garfield's mouth doesn't

move the audience hears his thoughts. I Think

that's very well done because that that's the

point of And that, again, is going to be a difference

between this original cartoon and, of course,

the new cartoon. His mouth does kind of move

in the new one, I think. Yeah, well, and a difference

between Garfield's segments and U .S. Acres'

segments. Yeah, but the point of the Garfield's

segments was, how do you take Garfield off the

strip with the bubbles, animate him, and have

him talking to you? Like there are bubbles above

his head, but there aren't really and I think

that was very well done as far as not having

his mouth move I Think it was a very cool thing

that you don't see hardly ever you don't usually

see that You know we're gonna take these animals

that everyone knows can't really talk and we're

not gonna make them talk We're just gonna let

you hear their thoughts basically you know I

think that's I think that's an outstanding idea,

and I'm surprised more cartoons didn't take that

angle at some points Yes, um, Odie, a beagle

who used to belong to John's former roommate,

Lyman, who never appeared on the show, but was

a character who appeared in the earliest comic

strips, is often kicked off the kitchen table

by Garfield, looks incredibly stupid and gullible,

but is actually much more cunning and smart than

he lets on. Odie is the only animal character

who doesn't communicate with any form of dialogue,

solely communicating with body language and his

enthusiastic barking and other dog sound effects.

Yeah, Odie is awesome in this. I love, I love

Odie. Yeah. You don't need Odie to talk. You

just don't. No, you don't at all. And then of

course obviously the owner John Arbuckle, a bachelor

cartoonist who has poor luck with women. and

a somewhat nerdy demeanor. He is often annoyed

by some of Garfield's antics and also has an

unrequited love for Dr. Liz. Whenever Garfield

gets in trouble, John will punish him by taking

him to the vet. John also has a mission set before

him, get Garfield to do the right thing. John

occasionally forces Garfield to hunt and catch

mice, which is always unsuccessful due to Garfield's

general liking of the mice in the house. And

John constantly forces Garfield to go on a diet.

Yes. I think John was my least favorite character

out of the Garfield segments. Not that he was

a bad character, but just the other ones were

so good. You know, I just loved Garfield, I loved

Odie, and I loved some of the minor characters,

so John kind of fell in the shadows, even though

he was still a decent character. His voice fits

what I had, and like when I was watching this

when I was that age back then that it was on,

the voice that... Crap, I'm not scrolling the

page. Whoever voices him... This is the only

show I think he's ever done. He ever did too.

Yeah, it's uh It's the voice. I hear in my head

when I go to read the Garfield strip You know

You know say what you want about the character

of John but the voicing as we've kind of already

lamented on it, but When I like if I you know

very rarely now a day I will actually get us

on their favorite when I do when I read the Garfield

strip I hear that voice of John in my head when

reading that strip, so you know The character

may be meh, but at least the voice was good.

Yeah, I agree. And then, I don't know why this

is a damn character, but you have Pookie Garfield's

teddy bear, his sleeping companion, who John

is jealous of. Found in a drawer and he is Garfield's

only toy, Garfield's adopted alter ego, the Caped

Avenger, after temporarily losing Pookie. Oh,

he, yeah, okay, whatever. You can, I don't think

we have to say about Pookie. No, for the minor

characters though, we don't need to necessarily

go deep into them, but you have probably the

most famous two are Binky the Clown, which obviously

he's right out of a horror show or something

like that. It's Krusty the Clown before the Simpsons,

basically. Yeah, it basically is, and he even

had his own little starring little snippets,

but Binky the Clown, annoying, freaky -looky

clown. Everybody should remember him. Nermal,

the kitten that's always me, the cute little

gray kitten that Carpe wants to ship to Abu Dhabi.

And I think I'm right on this. Nermal in the

new series is a boy cat. Yeah. I don't know why

they changed that, but they did. And then the

mailman, Herman Post, and the vet that John loves,

Dr. Liz Wilson. So those are kind of like the

main. Main minor characters of the show of the

Garfield segments the normal changing sexes is

reminiscent of Care Bears Yeah, it is. It's kind

of freaky. Yeah I don't know why either because

normal was perfect as a cute little gray female

kitten. I thought that was great compared to

the fat lazy Garfield You know, it's a good cast

of characters for the Garfield segments. Fairly

small. I mean, obviously, most of the time you're

just focusing on Garfield. And I think that's

one reason why I kind of like the U .S. Acres

segments a little bit better. Just because they

have a bigger variety of characters to either

like or dislike. Yeah, I really quit getting

into the U .S. Acres. You know, Orson. Friendly

pig whose favorite pastime is reading books and

imagining himself into many scenarios. I love

Walter Mitty Orson also has two missions set

before him get Roy to do the right thing and

get Wade to be brave Yeah, like that's gonna

happen You got Roy who's the self -centered rooster

practical Joker You got Wade the Cowardly Duck,

who was in my top 10 duck rolls. Bo and Lamb

Ellen, which are the two sheep, male and female.

And then, like we said, Booker and Sheldon, the

egg and the chick. It's just kind of a crazy

idea to have an egg with feet popped out. Well,

it kind of makes you wonder which came first,

the chicken or the egg? Yeah. And Sheldon always

seems to have things in his shell that he can.

bring out or pull out and do. But it's just a

great main cast. I love Roy and I love Wade.

I just think they're great. Wade obviously Howard

Morris voiced him and Roy was the same guy that

did John. But I just love the egotistical or

practical Joker in Roy and the cowardly Wade

and then Orson trying to just be the good guy

trying to get everybody to get along and do the

right thing. I didn't really care for Bo or Lanolin.

Yeah, I didn't either. I mean, I just kind of

bickered back and forth with each other, but

meh. Yeah. Whatever. And the bad guys, I couldn't

stand the bad guys in this character, Mort Gorton,

Orson's older brothers, but they did do a good

job of being bad guys in the show. And then you

have the wolf, the weasel, the fox, the worms.

You had basically just other types of animals

as kind of antagonists. Mm -hmm. But I just I

just like the dynamics between Roy and Wade and

Orson. I just that's I love that I love the us

acre segments because of that mm -hmm I totally

agree So those are the main characters in both

segments. Who is your um? Who is your favorite

character out of the Garfield segment? Shoot

I don't want to say it but I'll probably save

Garfield. It seems like such a cheating thing

to say, but because there wasn't that many characters

in the Garfield segments and he was so funny

and his dialogue was written so well, obviously,

he was just, he's just a, you didn't have him

as a, there's, like, when you're in an action

cartoon or whatever, you know, you could say

Optimus Prime has a lot of the same character

traits as, you know, whoever, He -Man or like

Duke or whatever. But how many cartoon characters

were everything you're not supposed to be as

a kid or everything that your parents tell you

not to do or not to be? I mean, you've got this

guy that just loves to eat, loves to be lazy,

loves to get out of doing work, loves to torment

his, we'll call them siblings, you know, other

pets that are around. So, I mean, he's just everything

that a kid would want to be able to do and not

get yelled at. Outside of the sibling thing,

unfortunately, even to this day, I think I'm

Garfield. But I mean, name me one other cartoon.

I mean, I'm sure there is some out there, but

he's so unique because there's not very many

cartoon characters, at least in the shows that

we've covered, that have these personality traits.

No, there isn't. So I think that's really cool.

For me, it has to be. Just for the sheer fact

that I feel sorry for the thing. For the guy,

and I feel that just conveying emotions through

sound effects, it has to be Odie, for me, as

far as the Garfield segments, because now I think

that I like Garfield in the sense of him constantly

trying to ship Nermal off. That's so funny. Funny

as hell. But overall, for me, for the Garfield

segments, I like Odie. What about for US Acres

for you? Easily Wade the Duck. I love Wade the

Duck. I know he's this cowardice, just pathetic

character and maybe that's why I have sympathy

for him, but I don't know, I just love Wade the

Duck. I can't explain it, I just do. With Roy

as a second. Yeah, I actually have to go the

complete opposite way. I liked... I liked Booker

and Sheldon the most. Which one was it? Sheldon's

egg. Yeah, Sheldon. Wow, that's kind of weird.

I like Sheldon the best on this show, but I can't

stand Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory. Holy crap.

What? The Big Bang Theory is cool. Shut up. I

didn't say anything bad about it. Yeah, I just

thought that was so cool. Alright, moving into

the behind -the -scenes segments here. As far

as some of the production stuff, when the show

was originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes

usually had three quickies, 30 to 45 second gags,

usually two Garfield quickies, the first one

being played before the intro theme, and one

U .S. Acres quickie, the latter of which was

never shown in syndication. Midway through the

second season, Screaming with Binky quickie -style

segments were added. These Screaming with Binky

segments were typically used as a halfway point

of an hour -long blocks of Garfield and Friends,

as Garfield ended each one with We'll Be Right

Back, to let the viewers know that unlike most

Saturday morning cartoons at the time, it was

not over in the usual half hour. The DVD sets

and boomerang reruns restore the original rotation

after the third season. Only one Garfield quickie

is shown per episode. The syndication Garfield

and Friends aired in 30 -minute format consisting

of one Garfield cartoon, one U .S. Acres cartoon

with a quickie closing the episode. The rerun

package used the theme that debuted during the

show's third season. I just want to say real

quick on the quickie things. That was one thing

where I differed. In the regular actual cartoons,

I like the U .S. Acres segments better. With

the quickies though, I love the Garfield quickies.

The U .S. Acre Quickies were alright. I did not

like the Screaming with Binky Quickies. No, I

hated those. I could have done without those.

Especially because the Garfield ones were so

good that I just would have rather seen more

of the Garfield Quickies or even the U .S. Acres

Quickies. But I could have done without Screaming

with Binky. Yeah, like I said, Screaming with

Binky is basically Crusty the Clown before he

was Crusty the Clown. And Twice is more annoying.

I'm not going to go through the broadcast, the

CBS indication history, that's just where it's

been shown. As far as the cancellation, the seventh

season, 1994 -95, was the last one because CBS

wanted to cut the budget, and in fact, CBS's

Saturday morning cartoon lineup would be mostly

replaced by CBS News' Saturday morning, a few

years later. The production company nixed this

proposal so that they mutually agreed to cease

production, even though Garfield and Friends

had still been doing well in the ratings. I hate

when people do this. This is the darkest hour

of cartoon history. It was the mid -90s, I swear

to God. Oh, it was! I hate when people do this.

I hate the fact that if I turn on any of the

big four or five, whatever the hell it is now,

of network television on Saturday morning, Outside

of outside of CW, and I see fucking news programming

Well, they did one of two things they either

went to the news programming or they went to

and I'm not I'm not a hater on these types of

shows But they went to the saved by the bell

California dreams the more teenage Live -action

stuff is what they did. I don't have a problem

with the teenage live -action crap But I don't

either but when it's replacing cartoons is kind

of sucks. Well, right I agree to that, but what

I have an issue with is replacing like alright

Sunday through Friday you can have news Saturday

morning give us our fucking cartoons you bastards,

but I really literally think I mean It's not

the worst decade in cartoon history because the

70s might be but uh yeah, but it did a good job

of You know just taking a major hit to cartoons.

I mean we had Certain stations just canceling

all together by you know 92 to about 96 was just

a horrible set of years And if it wasn't for

a couple select cartoons like Animaniacs and

Tiny Toons and some of the other ones we've covered

the 90s would have almost just been a complete

loss for cartoons Just because of the damn Saturday

morning that you know cut cut back. I freaking

hate that yeah Sorry, that's fine. I'll contain

myself because I could get a lot more pissed

off it I already am so it doesn't matter to me.

There's something funny that I'll bring up later

though in a correlation to this though. Mm -hmm

So bring that up later, but uh going into the

the writers obviously of Jim Davis the guy who

did everything basically as the main writer I

don't know the other two Mark Avenir and and

Sharman Devano I've seen Mark Avenir's name places.

I don't know what else he's written, but I've

seen his name places. But it's basically the

Jim Davis show. Yeah. And I don't know any of

the directors. No. So going into the actual show,

this will be different than most of the other

ones that we do because of the fact that the

way it's broken up, it's broken up into the segments.

So each episode featured the following segments.

Garfield Quickie. This was a segment of the show

that featured Garfield's Sunday strips from the

mid to late 1980s. The best part of the show.

Well, right. Right. To me, that was the best

segment. The Garfield Quickie was the best thing

in the whole show. The theme. This usually started

with a formal style of Garfield on the fence

turning on a record player and an announcer introducing

the show. See the theme song section. Oh, OK.

Well, whatever. Stupid thing. The first Garfield

story. This is a General Garfield episode taking

on more domestic nature and mostly involving

John and Odie. US Acres. Quickie. This Quickie

usually aired before the main story and featured

strips from the newspaper run for that series.

U .S. Acres Story. Story episode featured the

U .S. Acres gang in various situations included

a song segment that built on the episode's theme.

Yeah, you can read the next one there. separated

the show, like we said, in between two and a

half hour segments. And then you go back with

the second Garfield Quickie, just like the first,

except it would be followed by another Garfield

episode. And then finally, the second Garfield

story, another story starring Garfield. Those

stories may have a domestic nature. We might

see a parody teaching segment that featured a

Garfield lecture of some sort or learning situation,

different themes like that. And then, of course,

the end musical theme. You know, like I said

before, I think the Garfield Quickie is my favorite

part. I still like the U .S. Acres story and

the Garfield story. And then after that would

be the U .S. Acres Quickie and then finally the

Screaming with Binky Quickie. Yeah, I did not

care for the Screaming with Binky anything. It's

basically Roy on drugs. Yeah, it's just horrible.

Remind me to come back to that after we're done

with this. Anyways, moving into the music segment

here, the theme song. The show had three different

theme songs. The first one was used during the

first two seasons and was also occasionally hummed

or sung by the characters within the show. It

was a song and dance style number about friendship.

Friends are there to help you get started, to

give you a push on your way. It was animated

by alternating segments of Garfield and the U

.S. Acres characters. The second theme song first

appeared in the third season and was used for

most the rest of the show's run. The theme was

an uptempo version featured clips from shows

and based on party theme lyrics. In the seventh

and final season, an upbeat rap -based theme

song was used by, uh, sung by JR Johnston. Oh,

God. Oh, Christ. A recurring joke in the theme

song is that in an EJ episode, Garfield says

a different quote at the end, such as, "'Welcome

to my world. Did you bring food?' Um, it doesn't

start until the fat lady sings." I think that's...

I use that one a lot. Yeah. I think you got this

thing confused. I'm real and you're animated.

I can't believe we get away with this every week.

Or, hey, Heathcliff, eat your heart out. Wow.

That's going to come back to haunt us next week.

Yeah. Well, this is what I want to bring in the

other thing that I was going to say. Because

one of the other things that Heath said at the

end of the show, I love this one. It was during

the first show of the 1992 -1993 season. And

he says, and don't bother checking what's on

NBC. They're not running cartoons anymore. So

that directly relates, obviously, to the fact

that NBC had stopped before CBS on running cartoons

at all. So it's kind of a jab at them, even though

they would do the same thing in a couple years.

But I thought that was hilarious. The series

music was done by Ed Bogus and Desiree Goyette.

And all the voice actors. The theme song was

all right. I wouldn't put it in my top 50 of

the 80s theme songs. Well, I shouldn't say that.

I wouldn't put it in my top 25. It'd probably

be in the top 50. But it was an alright song.

It just wasn't as good as a lot of other ones

we talked about, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah, I,

you know... It's iconic, but it's just not as

good as... I like the one they used in Season

3. The one where Gary Owen says, hey kids, or

hey, it's Garfield in whatever the alley said.

Whatever that one is is what the actual theme

is that I play for this episode. Yeah, that's

the best one out of them. So I guess going into

the legacy segment. Before you go too far, I

just want to interrupt you again. because I gotta

get some some something off my chest here yes

IGN oh yeah it wasn't on the uh not on the top

100 well no it wasn't on the um it wasn't on

the wiki so I don't have it yeah it's not in

the they don't have Garfield in the top 100 cartoons

of all time oh okay that's why I don't have it

because not only is that absolutely ridiculous

that's probably the biggest snob in IGN's entire

list possibly. I would put Garfield as one of

the top 10 to 15 cartoons of the 80s. Easy. Probably

top 10. Yeah. Just because of how long it was

on and how good it was, and how it stands up

to the test of time, and all that stuff. IGN

didn't even fricking put it on their list, because

they're fricking morons. And one other thing

I wanted to add, just because I didn't see it

anywhere else, is Garfield and Friends actually

did win a Young Artist Award in 1989 for Best

Animation Series. Oh, cool. So it did win one

award. So I'll stop interrupting. Fox Entertainment

and Jim Davis released all seven seasons of Garfield

and Friends, two region 1 DVD and five volume

box sets, with each set having 24 to 25 episodes

on three discs. Each set features an image of

Garfield with a character from US Acres. Collections

of individual episodes were also released in

three themed volumes that had 13 to 15 episodes,

and were packaged with mini beanie plushies of

Pookie, Odie, and Garfield. Oh, God. Oh, crap.

Yeah, so and these are all released between 2004

and 2008. So very, very cool. I don't have information

on it because it wasn't in the wiki article when

I grabbed this. Should we talk about the movies?

I don't know. Well, I'll give it one. We have

talked about the other cartoons, so I suppose

it's only fair to say a few things about them.

I haven't, I don't think I've seen Tale of Two

Kitties, the sequel, but I saw the original one

with Breckenmire and, I almost said Julia Louis

-Dreyfus, Jennifer Love -Hewitt. That's the only

reason it's worth talking about, by the way.

Jennifer Love -Hewitt. Good Lord, anyway. I thought

that Breckenmire did okay as John. Yeah. I thought

he nailed the... the love -lorn thing for Liz

thing, and I thought those two did well together.

Bill Murray as Garfield is just a sheer stroke

of genius. Oh, yeah. And Jennifer Pugh is a sheer

stroke of genius. I just prefer being Jennifer

Pugh. Well, yeah. What I'm saying is that we

don't have Mr. Music anymore, or we didn't. You

know, even then when the original film was made,

four, five, six years ago, however long it's

been, Bill Murray just nailed it. Oh yeah. As

far as the actual plot, what plot? There didn't

need to be a plot. Yeah, exactly. You had Bill

Murray doing a cartoon cat and you had Jennifer

Love you to look at. That's all you needed. Yeah.

Did, did Welker do Odie? I don't know who did

Odie in the movie. I know Berger did Odie in

both series. We'll have to look it up really

quick. So Scarfield had some great voices. Yeah.

Learn some music, Frank Welker and Bill Murray.

It's just ridiculous. Yeah. You know, I think

the movies are what they were. I mean, they're

not the best adaptation of a cartoon into a movie

that we've seen, but they're probably better

than... I mean, I haven't seen Underdog and a

couple of those other ones, but... You don't

want to see Underdog. I'm telling you. Garfield

ones were probably better than that. You don't

want to see Underdog. I don't think it's... I

don't think Garfield was as good as the album

in the Chipmunks movies, but that's just me.

Yeah. Like I said before, I do like the second

series, too. I think... Most Garfield stuff that

I've seen I've liked. I liked the comic strip,

I liked the original cartoon, I liked the new

cartoon, and the movies were okay. Movies are

the worst part of all of them, but at least you

got to listen to Bill Murray. Yeah, well, you

know, and I wish he would be in the cartoon.

I really do. I thought that, you know, that would

have been a really, really good thing. Oh, come

on. He's too busy. Well, yeah, that too. uh...

you know i'm going to be now and i have to actually

clicks i have to click see more to even see if

all these even listed i don't think he is uh...

nervous listed but only isn't what the hell was

my eyes are deceiving me uh... only is even was

only even in the first film maybe not i don't

know here had to be there you think it had to

be i haven't seen it so long i don't know Yeah,

and I'm not rewatching it to find out. Yeah,

somebody watch Garfield and let us know. Garfield

the movie, 2004. Kevin the mystery caller, get

on that. Tell us if Odie was in it and who voiced

him, if he had a voice or sound effects. All

right, so we're gonna head out and we'll be back

with final thoughts. Geekcast will be back after

these questions! This is the Brain, and you're

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. Yes!

Do not be alarmed. This transmission is being

jacked by The Lunch Room. We are here to tell

you that The Lunch Room has been rebooted. It

is now a part of the Geekcast Radio Network,

and is still available at thelunchroom .net.

It debuts every Monday, or Wednesday, or whenever

we see fit to give it to you. Any further information

can be found... at the lunchroom .net. We will

now return you to your regular program. Did you

know that Justin Bieber's actually Webster in

a girl suit? Did you know that Teddy Ruxpin's

friend Grubby actually a tapeworm? Did you know

that Gargamel was really a cat lady? Did you

know that Billy Zane is the only man to ever

be Chuck Norris? If you didn't know any of these

things, then you should be currently listening

to Chicken Pop Pod Retro Comedy Podcast. Catch

it at chickenpoppod .com. Indeed I am, Michael.

And I am here to help you and Kevin take over

podcasting. Now that's a good guess. So final

thoughts on Garfield and Friends? You know, I

think Garfield and Friends was absolutely great

for what it was. I think it... I think it broke

the mold for certain types of cartoons. I mean,

obviously you had similar cartoons to it beforehand,

but I think, I almost look at Garfield and Friends

as kind of like the precursor to Animaniacs and

Tiny Toons and some of the stuff that they did

there. Oh yeah! Just because it was one of these

shows that wasn't just for kids, it was for all

ages. It did clever things with the you know

having the voice without the mouth movement it

had a lot of comic type stuff obviously the whole

show is basically a comedy I mean it did a lot

of things that you didn't you didn't really couldn't

find in any other shows in the 80s at that time

I mean the closest ones to it I don't even know

if you could have a closest ones to it I mean

Alvin and the Chipmunks maybe but it's not even

really the same type of show so I mean it was

kind of in a league of its own in the 80s and

it ran for so long that to me there's absolutely

no doubt that it deserves a spot in the top ten

cartoons of the entire decade. It was just a

great cartoon and I think one of the things that's

best about it is the fact that you can still

watch it today and still enjoy it and it's not

really dated or it's not like a lot of my other

favorite shows where it's a little harder to

watch these days. It's absolutely watchable now.

Oh yeah, I completely agree. I completely agree,

so Yeah, I you know I really don't have any problems

with it other than that every now and then I

wanted to just strangle Wade the duck Just because

Jesus Christ man just get in the way Take your

fucking duck thing off your fucking head or your

waist or whatever and get in the fucking water

and swim you dumb fucking duck Go take some lessons

from Daffy and Donald, you bastard. I love Wade.

Anyways, thank you for joining us here on DudeCaster.

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posts every week about all the episodes that

we have for the previous week that have been

released So we hope you enjoyed this episode

of tune cast and wish you'll join us next time.

We'll be reminiscing on None other than Garfield's

rival Heathcliff Why am I thinking about Cosby

show right about now? Oh my god. For now I am

TFG1 Mike Whip. Optimus Solo from BehindTheVoiceActors

.com. Thank you for listening, until next time.