Garfield (character)

This article is about the cartoon character. For the comic strip, see Garfield. For other uses, see Garfield (disambiguation).

Garfield Arbuckle
First appearance	Garfield comic strip (June 19, 1978)
Portrayed by	Unknown stage actor (2010; stage adaptation)
Voiced by	Scott Beach (early commercials) Lorenzo Music (1982-2001) Frank Welker (2007-present) Bill Murray (live action films)
Information
Species	Orange Tabby cat
Gender	Male
Family	Raoul (half-brother) Jarfield (brother)
Spouse(s)	Arlene, Penelope Pussycat (Ex-girlfriend)

Garfield is a fictional character and the title protagonist from the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis.

Character

Personality

Garfield is an anthropomorphic orange tabby cat. He loves eating (especially lasagna), and sleeping. He is teased about being overweight. He is also selfish. For example in one strip his owner, Jon stubs his toe and Garfield comforts him, however he says "It's not like it happened to me." In one Garfield and Friends episode, it is shown that there are three things that Garfield does not eat. A snail, a raisin, and fruitcakes. He is best friends with Odie, but torments him occasionally, along with Jon. He hates Mondays, and is often struck by bad luck in Monday comic strips. He is also jealous of a gray tabby kitten named Nermal, often trying to mail him to Abu Dhabi.

He enjoys performing at the wooden fence next to Jon's house in the middle of the night, although he is usually criticized. He can't stand spiders, and although he doesn't chase mice (unless bribed to do so), he is often seen trying to eat birds (usually without success). He frequently destroys Jon's curtains and ferns, as well as the flowerbeds of Jon and their neighbor, Mrs. Feeny. He detests being taken to the vet. In one strip sequence in 1986, their home address is revealed that Garfield, Jon and Odie live in 711 Maple Street. However, in Garfield in Paradise, Garfield's fantasy dream had a cat named Mike say that he's from "Lost Wages" (Vegas), Nevada (this was a fantasy), and in a Garfield and Friends episode of the second season, Jon is running from a Chicago airport. In the TV special Garfield Gets a Life, Jon's car is revealed to have an Indiana vehicle registration plate at the end of the episode, indicating that they live in Indiana. In Garfield Goes Hollywood, while Jon, Odie and Garfield are on Pet Search, the announcer says that they're from Muncie, Indiana. This is possibly because Jim Davis is from Indiana, and Paws, Inc. is located in Muncie.

Although Garfield is typically depicted as having little imagination, in one Garfield and Friends episode he was shown to have a great imagination when he imagined himself, by use of a cardboard box, as being in a plane, racecar and life-raft floating on the open sea, in that order and was shown on many other occasions to have a vivid imagination. In the Garfield and Friends episode "D.J. Jon," Garfield is shown to dislike disk jockeys. In the life-raft, he pictured Odie as a savage killer whale. He was also depicted with an imagination in other episodes, including one episode inspired by monster movies where he eventually chases away Jon's date, and in the special Garfield's Feline Fantasies. He also once said in the episode The Hound of The Arbuckles that he prefers to use his imagination for dreams rather than reading books. The reason being shown in an episode where he reads Robinson Curosue and gets so into the book that he has a hard time snapping himself out of the fantasy, much like Orson from US Acres. Although this does not happen when he reads to others, like when he read Odie "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

Though he often treats Jon and Odie horribly, it is indicated that he does indeed care for them. This is prominent in Here Comes Garfield, and the two live-action films, Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. It is learned in the last episode of the Garfield Shorts shown on TV, in the episode Garfield Gets a Life that his favorite TV show is named and about a dog named "Yukon Stinky".

Garfield "speaks" through thought bubbles, and even though other animals can understand him, Jon generally cannot (although Jon is quite frequently shown having what looks like a conversation with Garfield's thoughts and has often guessed Garfield's thoughts verbatim). At rare moments, Jon's reaction imply he's hearing Garfield's thoughts, and he even declares that in one strip. Sometimes, after Jon states what he believes Garfield to be thinking (that he wants food), Garfield corrects him by stating that, for example, his car's on fire. However in The TV series Garfield and Friends Jon (and other humans) hear Garfield's thoughts much more frequently, even having conversations with them if Jon seems to be "listening." Certain episodes, such as a lecture about Odie, shows the human audience hearing everything Garfield thinks.

Garfield doesn't wear a collar or I.D. tag, but in the episode 'T3000' of the Garfield Show, he is identified with a microchip identity number of 3435BT-37Z22.

Name

Jim Davis named Garfield after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after President James A. Garfield. According to an interview with Jim Davis in the second Garfield compilation book, Garfield Gains Weight, the name "Garfield" makes him think of "...a fat cat...or a St. Bernard...or a neat line of thermal underwear." Due to the enormous popularity of the strip, many families have named their cats "Garfield" after the famous cat^{[citation needed]}.

History

Garfield, as portrayed on the back cover of Garfield At Large.

Garfield was born June 19, 1971, in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant and loved Lasagna the day he was born. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. According to his grandfather, he was born five pounds, six ounces (He was out of town at the time, and when Garfield asks how, his grandfather said he heard the scream), surprisingly enough, he managed to fit in a tiny bed. Later in his life, Garfield accidentally runs across his mother again one Christmas Eve, and meets his other grandfather for the first time. In June 18, 1978, when Jon came to the store, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Amoeba Man, one of Garfield's alter-egos, yet he was only shown in 6 strips (6-20 through 6-25). In February 2010, another alter ego was introduced called Super Garfield, and his sidekick Odieboy (Odie). Amoeba Man, and Super Garfield are only two of his few imaginary alter egos though, his most common one being the Caped Avenger. And for a very short period of time, Garfield would fall prey to various dogs e.g. Bungee Dog, Warm up dog etc. which would squish him in any direction. It is also given that Garfield uses the "sandbox" on occasion, such as in one 1978 strip, he says he hates commercials because they're too short for a trip to the sandbox. It was revealed on October 27, 1979 that he doesn’t like raisins. His birthday is 1978-06-19, the day the first Garfield strip was published. Interestingly, on Garfield's 25th anniversary in 2003, several strips were featured with him interacting with the version of him from 1978. Garfield frequently gets into many adventures, such as getting stuck in roll-up shades, sparring with mice, and getting locked up in animal shelters. In 2005, Garfield and Jon appeared in several comic strips of Blondie in honor of their 75th anniversary. Garfield got excited because he didn't have to think. There was an earlier Blondie crossover on the Garfield strip published April 1, 1997.

Garfield was one of the cartoon characters featured in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, although he was the only character to be used without the permission of his creator.

Voice-over timeline

• Scott Beach - For Garfield's first animated appearance in Snoopy Come Home; a brief television commercial.
• Lorenzo Music - 1982-2000; In the TV specials and the Garfield and Friends TV series.
• Bill Murray - 2004-2006; In the live-action movies.
• Frank Welker - 2007–Present; In "The Garfield Show" TV series and "Garfield Gets Real", "Garfield's Fun Fest", and "Garfield's Pet Force".

Other media

The CGI version of Garfield, as seen in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

• In the two live-action movies and Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest and Garfield's Pet Force, Garfield was created using CGI animation, though the Garfield Gets Real version is closer to his original form than his live-action movie form, when he looked and moved very much like a real cat.
• In Snoopy Come Home, he can't talk. In the animated series and prime-time specials, he was voiced by the late Lorenzo Music. In the live-action movies, he is voiced by Bill Murray. An interesting side note is that the two actors also shared the role of Dr. Peter Venkman as well. In Garfield Gets Real and the CGI series The Garfield Show, he is voiced by Frank Welker who played Bo, Booker, and Sheldon in Garfield and Friend's U.S. Acres Episodes, and also worked with Lorenzo Music as Dr. Ray Stanz in The Real Ghostbusters, in Garfield and Friends when Lorenzo was ill Frank would occasionally voice Garfield.
• Garfield is a plush animal licenced to the Dakin Company for manufacture circa 1988.
• Garfield has been a mascot of Kennywood, a traditional amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh since the 1990s. Furthermore, a popular ride at Kennywood; "Garfield's Nightmare" was created with the exclusive input of Garfield creator, Jim Davis.
• Garfield appears as a guest in a 1996 video called "Kids for Character".
• Garfield makes a cameo appearance in an episode of MAD, where a commercial advertises a product that makes any show a musical.

External links

• Garfield - The Official Site of Garfield
• Garfield at the Internet Movie Database