Here Comes Garfield

The 1982 CBS special where Garfield breaks Odie out of the pound.

Here Comes Garfield is the 1982 animated TV special that gave Jim Davis's comic strip cat his first half-hour show on television. Phil Roman directed it, and Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield.

Quick Facts

Writer

Jim Davis

Director

Phil Roman

Starring

Lorenzo Music
Sandy Kenyon
Henry Corden
Hal Smith
Hank Garrett
Gregg Berger
Angela Lee

Theme music

Desirée Goyette
Ed Bogas (music and lyrics)
Lou Rawls
Desirée Goyette (vocals)

Country

United States

Executive producers

Jay Poynor

Producer

Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez

Editor

Chuck McCann; Roger Donley

Facts from the source article.

Background

CBS first broadcast the special on October 25, 1982. It did well in the Nielsen ratings and earned two Emmy Award nominations, and it was the first of twelve Garfield specials made between 1982 and 1991.

In the plot, Garfield and Odie bother a neighbour's dog, and the owner, Hubert, calls the pound. Garfield runs, but Odie is caught by the dogcatcher. Garfield goes to the pound to rescue him and is locked up himself, where another cat, Fast Eddie, tells him Odie will be put down in the morning.

After a night of flashbacks to good times with Odie, Garfield leads the other animals down the hall when a cell opens, bites the dogcatcher's hand and frees Odie. The two return home, where Jon Arbuckle thinks they were out having fun all night.

A soundtrack album came out on Epic Records in 1982, with songs by Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette performed by Goyette and Lou Rawls.