Happy Birthday, Garfield

Happy Birthday, Garfield
Written by Jim Davis
Directed by Jim Davis
Starring Lorenzo Music
Gregg Berger
Thom Huge
Narrated by Gregg Berger
Music by John Powell
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Jim Davis
Cinematography Michael Knapp
Editor(s) Harry Hinter
Running time 60 min.
Production company(s) Paws, Inc.
Distributor CBS-TV
Release
Original network CBS
Original release 17 May 1988 (USA)
Chronology
Preceded by A Garfield Christmas
Followed by Garfield: His 9 Lives

Happy Birthday, Garfield is an hour-long television special dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Garfield comic strip, hosted by its creator Jim Davis. The special was first broadcast May 17, 1988 on CBS. It has only been released on VHS home video.

Synopsis

The program featured the people behind the strips and animated adaptations, a very brief animated short made in 1980 (two years before Here Comes Garfield) by Bill Meléndez and Lee Mendelson (more known for their Peanuts specials) featuring jokes from the strips of June 21 and August 2, 1978 and July 7, 1979, a recording session for the upcoming Garfield and Friends series (with Lorenzo Music, Gregg Berger and Thom Huge), apart from some footage from it and from Garfield's 9 Lives. Also Spanish- and German-dubbed clips of Here Comes Garfield and Garfield Goes Hollywood respectively were shown, apart from a sneak peek for the unproduced feature film Garfield's Judgment Day, a rehearsal for the theme song of Garfield's Babes and Bullets, and a chat Davis has with Dik Browne (Hägar the Horrible, Hi and Lois), Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm) and Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse). The last part of the program features the celebrations held for the strip's anniversary, most notably the one where fellow cartoonists drew their characters as their "presents", followed by man-in-the-street interviews about Garfield, before the camera shows him and Odie (both played by human actors) living the "good life" in Hollywood (even Garfield takes its time to kick Odie). Finally, Davis acknowledges the audience before getting off on a Garfield-shaped hot air balloon.

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