Garfield

Garfield, upstaging Baby Kermit and Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Garfield is a famed comic strip cat created by Jim Davis in 1978. The selfish, gluttonous feline has also starred in numerous television animated specials, the Saturday morning series Garfield and Friends, two live-action/CG feature films, and has appeared on countless pieces of merchandise, such as coffee mugs and suction cup dolls.

Garfield (voiced by Lorenzo Music) appeared along with Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, and Baby Gonzo in the 1990 animated television special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

References

In "The Real World Muppets" segment of Muppets Tonight episode 205, Bobo interrupts Clifford reading the comics in the tub, and expresses his fondness for Garfield, and the way he continually tricks Odie.

In episode 15 of From the Balcony, The State of Indiana mentions that Muncie, Indiana, is the home of Garfield (Jim Davis is from Muncie).

Muppet Mentions

The animated series Garfield and Friends occasionally made references to the Muppets.

• "Attack of the Mutant Guppies"- A group of giant radioactive mutant guppies disappear at the end of this episode, and show up in the subsequent "US Acres" quickie, scaring away Orson and Wade. One of the guppies says, "Come on, guys, let's go see if we can get a guest shot on the Muppet Babies." (Both series were airing Saturday mornings on CBS at the time.) In the Spanish version, this was changed to Sabado Gigante, a variety show popular among the Hispanic people.

• "Flat Tired"- Garfield is too tired, so the director needs someone to fill in for him. Odie tries to meet the director's requirements, but the director says jokingly, "I know who we can get! Get me Kermit the Frog on the phone!"

• "Mistakes Will Happen"- As one of several deliberately-made mistakes in the episode, Jon addresses Garfield as "Kermit" at the end.

• "Binky Gets Cancelled Again!" -  Garfield (who says something different at the start of each show) says "Today's show is brought to you by the letter K and the number 9," referencing the Sesame Street letters and numbers of the day.

Connections

Several performers in Muppet/Henson productions have also been heard in Garfield adaptations.

• Greg Berg voiced several guest characters on Garfield and Friends
• Stan Freberg voiced several guest characters on Garfield and Friends
• Buddy Hackett played a genie in a Garfield and Friends episode.
• Tim Hill directed Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
• Don Knotts played a security guard in a Garfield and Friends episode
• Robin Leach played himself in a Garfield and Friends episode
• Howard Morris played Wade Duck, Wart, and various other characters on Garfield and Friends
• Gary Owens played various announcers on Garfield and Friends.
• Debra Messing voiced Arlene in the 2004 feature film
• Julie Payne played Liz, Lanolin, the talking scale, and Jon's Mom in Garfield and Friends and specials
• Lou Rawls sang in most of the Garfield specials
• Will Ryan played a rabbit in one episode of Garfield and Friends, and a Casper-esque ghost in another.
• Scott Shaw! was a storyboard artist on Garfield and Friends.
• Frank Welker played Garfield in The Garfield Show, Garfield Gets Real (2007), Garfield's Fun Fest (2008) and Garfield's Pet Force (2009) and Booker, Sheldon, Bo, and various others in Garfield and Friends and the specials.
• George Wendt played Raoul in Garfield on the Town (1983) and a ranger in Garfield in the Rough (1984).