Garfield and Friends

Characters

''Garfield''

Regular characters

• Garfield : A fat, lazy, sarcastic orange tabby, who wants nothing more out of life than to eat and sleep. He has a penchant for consuming lasagna, enjoys tormenting Odie and trying to mail Nermal, his rival tabby, to Abu Dhabi. He makes a small handful of appearances on U.S. Acres, in "Mystery Guest", "Fast Food", "Quack to the Future", and "The Thing In the Box", although he is more often seen in the form of various pieces of Garfield-themed merchandise the "U.S. Acres" characters appear to own. Deep down, Garfield loves Jon and Odie. Garfield does not speak aloud, but his thoughts are heard by everyone. This is revealed in one episode to be via the use of a special microphone which amplifies the thoughts of animals apart from Odie.
• Jon Arbuckle : Garfield and Odie's owner, 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, Jon will punish him by taking away his lasagna, not letting him watch television, or taking him to the vet. He also tries to convince Garfield to do the right thing whenever the cat gets into trouble. Jon occasionally forces Garfield to lose weight and catch mice, which is always unsuccessful due to Garfield not wanting to eat mice and his friendship with one such mouse named Floyd.
• Odie : A yellow Beagle who is Garfield's best friend. He used to belong to Jon's former roommate Lyman. A running gag has Garfield kicking him off of a kitchen table. Though he does not seem very intelligent, Odie is actually much more cunning and smart than he lets on. Odie is the only animal character who does not communicate with any form of dialogue, solely communicating with body language and his enthusiastic barking and other dog sound effects, although Garfield is able to understand what he says.
• Nermal : A cute grey Tabby cat kitten who Garfield is jealous of. Nermal is the self-proclaimed "World's Cutest Kitty Cat". Nermal seems kind and playful, although he frequently tends to annoy Garfield by bragging about how much cuter he is. Garfield often attempts to mail him to Abu Dhabi as a result. Though officially considered a male, Nermal's feminine preoccupation with being cute, and the fact that a woman provides a childlike voice which is also very soft for Nermal, thus allowing the character to be mistaken for a female cat to the point that, in the first two seasons, the Spanish version features Nermal as a female kitten named "Thelma".
• Binky the Clown : A loud, obnoxious annoying clown who appeared a few times in the strip before becoming a regular on the show. Within the series, Binky has his own TV show that Garfield and Odie try to avoid watching. Binky sometimes has his own segment on the series called "Screaming with Binky" that lasts the length of a Quickie and runs at the midway point of an hour episode—Most of these segments were removed in syndication. "Screaming with Binky" segments were only aired in seasons 2 and 3 of the show, and some were re-aired for a month after eight weeks of season 4 and 5 episodes. His catchphrase is, "Hey, kids!" with the vowels prolonged; to Garfield, he yells "Hey, cat!" with a prolonged E. Binky is a recurring character for the first three seasons, then appeared sporadically afterward. He "returns" in the season 7 episode "The Feline Philosopher", which became his last episode in the show.
• Herman Post : A mailman who loves delivering the mail, despite being the victim of Garfield's booby traps. As with Binky, he rarely appears after season 3.
• Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Wilson : Garfield and Odie's sarcastic veterinarian and Jon's main love interest. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters often due to Garfield's actions. She only appears for the show's first two seasons, except for one appearance in the season 4 episode Frankenstein Feline.
• Floyd : Garfield's mouse friend who takes place of his mouse friend Squeak from the comic. He originally appears as an antagonist in the season 1 episode "Good Mousekeeping", when he and his fellow mice stay at Jon's house after discovering that Garfield does not eat mice; they are eventually driven out of the house. He becomes friends with Garfield in his second appearance, the season 1 episode "Identity Crisis". He appears in every season of the show only in one or few episodes each. He has a friend named Tyrone in the season 3 episode "Rodent Rampage" and a wife named April in the season 6 episode "The Floyd Story".

  Minor characters

• Pooky: Garfield's teddy bear and sleeping companion of whom Jon is jealous. Found in a drawer, he is Garfield's only toy. Garfield adopts his alter ego "The Caped Avenger" after temporarily losing Pooky.
• Cactus Jake : The foreman of the Polecat Flats dude ranch; behaves in the manner of an old-fashioned cowboy and often refuses to have anything to do with modern technology. He also has a massive extended family. His appearances include "Polecat Flats", "Cactus Jake Rides Again", "Cactus Makes Perfect", "How the West Was Lost", "Urban Arbuckle", "The Cactus Saga" and "The Legend of Cactus Jupiter".
• Al G. Swindler : A car salesman with a large nose. As his name suggests, he is a businessman and con artist who constantly swindles the perennially gullible Jon, only to be eventually outwitted by Garfield. In the episode Lemon Aid his name was given as Al J. Swindler. He also always incorrectly pronounces Jon's last name; for example, "Mr. Arborday" or "Mr. Arbarnacle". His other episodes were "Skyway Robbery", "Wonderful World" and "Home Sweet Swindler".
• The Buddy Bears, Thom Huge and Lorenzo Music ): Their names are Billy, Bobby and Bertie. They are three talking bears who promote conformist propaganda in the form of song and dance. Their television show once replaced Binky's, and Roy Rooster of U.S. Acres has twice been stuck as the fall guy of their routines. The Buddy Bears are a satire of The Get Along Gang, The Care Bears, The Smurfs and other 1980s cartoons focused on "caring", emotions, pleasant human interactions, harmony and a general lack of plot or conflict. Garfield tends to get the last laugh with them, at one point bringing an argument between the three bears over pizza toppings. In one episode, there is a fourth female Buddy Bear, their sister Betty.
• Penelope : Known as Lola in "Beach Blanket Bonzo" and Gwendelin in "The Idol of ID" . Penelope is Garfield's girlfriend who takes the place of his love interest Arlene from the comics. Evanier recently explained that the reason Arlene only appeared once in the series was that Davis had a very specific idea of how the Arlene character should be and told the writers that if they could not be faithful to it, they should not use her.
• Lola:
• Brick: Brick is the ex-boyfriend to most of Garfield's love interests. They usually dump him because of Garfield. He usually is sensitive about his girlfriends, so he usually pounds Garfield, but still does not win their hearts. He was first seen in Beach Blanket Bonzo as Lola's boyfriend. He later appeared in The Idol of ID trying to convince Gwendelin to dump Garfield and go back to him. In "The Perils of Penelope", he appeared as Bonzo for the first time, as dating Penelope and after he chase Garfield to a truck he was last seen in the back of a truck to Mexico. He made cameos in The Garfield Rap playing the guitar in one scene, and "Cutie and the Beast" who was then unnamed.
• The Singing Ants : Ants who sing while stealing food, appeared first as the stars of the musical episode "The Picnic Panic", where they steal all of Garfield's picnic lunch. They first appeared in "A Vacation from His Senses", where they are seemingly delusions of Jon, who thinks that he has gone crazy. Their final appearance is in "Another Ant Episode", where they have another starring role, this time taking over Garfield's house.
• Ludlow : An adolescent crow who appeared in two episodes. His father always beats up Garfield when he thinks he has eaten his son. The episodes in which he appeared are "Sweet Tweet Treat" and "Catch As Cats Can't".
• Irving Burnside : A next door neighbor to Jon in which Garfield invades. Whenever this happens, he threatens to beat up Jon. He appeared on six episodes which are "Frankenstein Feline", "Bad Neighbor Policy", "Next Door Nuisance", "How to Drive Humans Crazy", "A Matter of Conscience" and "Fair Exchange".
• Rudy : A dog who beats up Garfield every time he hosts a television program and says something bad about dogs. His name was first revealed in "Dogmother 2". He also appeared in "Reigning Cats and Dogs", "Annoying Things", and "It Must Be True". Rudy also once victimized Nermal for insults about dogs.
• Mice: The Mice appeared in two episodes. The episodes were "Good Mousekeeping" and "The pie-eyed piper." The mice do not include Floyd.
• Moe the Cat Burglar : A burglar who appeared in three episodes: "Mistakes Will Happen", "Safe at Home" and "Top Ten". He made two attempts to steal from Jon's home.
• Madman Murray : A second-hand junk salesman. Similar to Mr. Swindler, He tries to get Jon to buy some cheap junk. He appeared in "Guaranteed Trouble, "Rolling Romance," and "Madman Meets His Match." He makes a cameo in "Jumping Jon".
• J.D. : The cartoons' director who had six "appearances": "Mystic Manor", "Flat Tired", "The Garfield Workout", "Star Struck", "Fill In Feline" and the U.S. Acres episode "What's It All About Wade?"
• Dr. Garbanzo Bean : A mad scientist from "Robodie" and "Robodie II".
• The Feline Philosopher : A feline philosopher that talked Garfield into stealing pie. This character was a parody of Lawrence's "Old Philosopher" routine. His appearances are "The Feline Philosopher" and "The Farmyard Feline Philosopher"; he made a cameo appearance in "The Man Who Hated Cats".
• Icabod: A cricket that was Garfield's conscience. He appeared in "A Matter of Conscience" and "Half Baked Alaska".

  ''U.S. Acres'' (a.k.a. ''Orson's Farm'')

Regular characters

• Orson : A pig who is the main character of the series. His favorite pastime is reading books and imagining himself into many scenarios, à la Walter Mitty. Orson also has two missions set before him: get Roy to do the right thing and get Wade to be brave. A running gag is that Orson is a neat freak and constantly showers and keeps clean, one time making Wade comment, "Cleanest pig in the world." He is a good friend of the other denizens of the farm and a father figure to Booker and Sheldon. Orson's afraid of his brothers. Orson has a superhero identity well named Power Pig, and a Roman-themed alter-ego named Hogcules, as well as a James Bond-figure character named Double Oh Orson.
• Roy : A loud and sometimes self-centered rooster who prides himself on his practical jokes. He is constantly into a scheme which more often than not Orson or another character has to bail him out of. Despite his tendencies of selfishness, he is a good rooster when he wants to be and is more often than not the saving grace of his friends when it comes to antagonists such as Orson's brothers or the chicken predators. Despite some of his and Wade's differences and the fact that they argue sometimes, they became closer friends later on in the seasons. It was even implied that Roy and Wade knew each other for fourteen years or so. His most common practical jokes include dropping food on Orson or taking advantage of Wade's excessive fear.
• Wade : A cowardly duck who wears a rubber flotation tube, and has a bunch of phobias no matter how trivial. As a gag, the head on his flotation tube copies nearly every movement and appearance change Wade's real head does. When he gets scared, he will blabber with no one understanding what he is saying. Though seemingly afraid of everything, Wade's greatest fear is the Weasel. Like most ducks, Wade has the ability to fly with his wings, but seldom does so due to his phobia of heights. Despite some of his and Roy's differences and that they argue sometimes, they became closer friends later on in the seasons.
• Bo : An affable sheep with a positive, laid-back attitude, whose mannerisms and vernacular are similar to a California beach bum. Though not especially bright, he is almost impossible to get mad and acts as a guide for Orson when dealing with his three older brothers.
• Lanolin : A loud-mouthed sheep who spends most of her time arguing with her twin brother Bo. The arguments are often triggered by her being disagreeable seemingly for its own sake. Out of all the main characters in this segment, she seems to be the nicest to Orson.
• Booker : A small, cute, but very assertive who is constantly in pursuit of unnamed worms. His name was inspired by Orson's love of books.
• Sheldon : Booker's twin brother, who, despite having hatched, still lives in his egg with his feet popped out of the shell so he can walk. He seems to have "all kinds of things" in his shell, including a pinball machine and a stove. In an early episode, Sheldon actually hatches, with another shell subsequently appearing. Booker and Sheldon's parents are unseen in the show; Orson noted that their mother abandoned them.

  Minor characters

• Mort, Gort and Wart : Orson's cruel older triplet brothers who are jealous of Orson and usually appear either to bully Orson or trying to steal the fruit and vegetable crops from the farm. They seldom refer to Orson by his name, calling him "the runt". Despite being apparent triplets, they are different in size: Mort is the shortest and the ringleader who grunts in his dialogue, Gort is the smartest and has yellow eyes, and Wart is the tallest with buck teeth. Gort is seen alone in "Forget-Me-Not Newton" and "The Old Man of the Mountain" and Wart appeared on his own briefly in "Orson's Diner". None of them were seen in the sixth season, although they were mentioned in "How Now Stolen Cow?" Mort, Gort, and Wart are jealous of Orson.
• Frederick "Fred" Duck : Wade's highly annoying cousin who wears a parachute when flying because he is secretly afraid of heights. He appeared on six episodes. His first appearance was in "Shy Fly Guy". He later appeared in "The Impractical Joker", "Mystery Guest", "Orson at the Bat" and "The Ugly Duckling". He also had a cameo appearance in "Orson in Wonderland".
• Worms : Booker often chases them unsuccessfully. They were unnamed on the show, although there was a worm named "Filbert" in the comic strip.
• The Weasel : Unnamed, the weasel is constantly seen sneaking around trying to kidnap the chickens in a bag. Usually Roy is the one to thwart him. He first appeared on "Flop Goes the Weasel" and last appeared on "Deja Vu". His only appearance in the fifth season was a cameo appearance in "Badtime Story".
• The Fox : An unnamed fox who has more of a goofy personality than the weasel. He tries to kidnap Sheldon, despite saying he "doesn't look ripe". He appeared on "Shell Shocked Sheldon" and "Little Red Riding Egg"; he later made a cameo appearance in "Hare Force".
• The Wolf : An unnamed wolf from the fifth season who, like the weasel, tried to steal chickens. He appeared in "The Wolf Who Cried Boy", "Sooner or Later", "Gross Encounters" and "A Mildly Mental Mix-Up".
• Chloe: Roy's niece from the sixth season and a bookish chick. Roy likes her more than he will admit. She appeared in "Uncle Roy to the Rescue" and made her final two appearances in the two-part episode "Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarfs".
• Edward R. Furrow : The farm's local psychiatrist badger who is named after Edward R. Murrow. His appearances include "A Mildly Mental Mix-Up", "Daydream Doctor" and a cameo in "Newsworthy Wade".
• Aloysius : A pig who appears in the segment's seventh season; he was originally intended to be a main character. He works as a studio accountant and as a television executive. He gives problems to Orson and his friends concerning their show. He has a dart board, which he uses to plan each season of TV. Orson and his gang find a way to pay him back near the end of each episode. His catchphrase is "That's not right!"
• Plato : A sophisticated rooster who came to the farm to do Roy's job. Roy became jealous of him, although when Plato proved too cowardly to save the chickens from the weasel, he was thrown out of the farm. Plato first appeared in "The Bunny Rabbits Is Coming!" and again in "Cock-a-Doodle Duel". He later had a cameo appearance in "The Ugly Duckling".

  Additional actors

Episodes

Production

Episode segments

• Garfield Quickie: This was a segment of the show that featured Garfield Sunday strips from the mid-to-late 1980s. Very rarely would a weekday strip be shown.
• Theme song: See below.
• First Garfield cartoon: This is a general Garfield episode taking on a more domestic nature mostly involving Jon and Odie.
• U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm Quickie: This Quickie usually aired before the main story and featured strips from the newspaper run for that series. These ran from seasons 1 to 3.
• U.S. Acres cartoon: This episode featured the U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm characters in various situations. From seasons 1 to 3, there was a song segment that was built on the episode's theme.
• Screaming with Binky: Segment that was the length of a Quickie and ran at the midway point of an hour episode. These segments featured narration by Garfield where the audience would usually find themselves in someplace where quiet is a must or a person is in a delicate situation, such as a golfer making a crucial putt. This would be followed by Binky the Clown appearing and yelling, for example, "Heeeeeeeeeeeey, fisherman!", most often causing a mistake of some sort. All but one of these segments were removed in syndication. On the DVD releases, Screaming with Binky usually follows the U.S. Acres episode, while four segments were excluded.
• Second Garfield Quickie: Just like the first quickie except it would be on before or after the second Garfield episode.
• Second Garfield cartoon: Another cartoon starring Garfield. Though stories may have a domestic nature, the viewers might see a parody teaching segment that featured a Garfield lecture of some sort or learning situation.
• End credits

• Theme song
• First Garfield cartoon
• U.S. Acres cartoon
• Second Garfield cartoon
• Garfield Quickie
• End credits

  Reception

Cancellation

Theme song

Home media

Region 1

Region 2

Region 4

Syndication history

Remastered

''The Garfield Show''