Here Comes Garfield

Here Comes Garfield
Written by	Jim Davis
Directed by	Phil Roman
Starring	Lorenzo Music Sandy Kenyon Henry Corden Hal Smith Hank Garrett Gregg Berger Angela Lee
Theme music composer	Desirée Goyette and Ed Bogas (music and lyrics) Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette (vocals)
Country of origin	United States
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jay Poynor
Producer(s)	Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez
Editor(s)	Chuck McCann Roger Donley
Running time	24 minutes
Production company(s)	United Media Mendelson–Melendez Productions
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	October 25, 1982
Chronology
Followed by	Garfield on the Town

Here Comes Garfield is a 1982 animated television special based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. It was the first half-hour Garfield TV special. It is directed by Phil Roman and features Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield the house cat, as well as the voices of Sandy Kenyon, Henry Corden and Gregg Berger.

The special was first broadcast October 25, 1982 on CBS. It was a Nielsen ratings success and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. It was accompanied by a soundtrack album and a children's book adaptation and has been released on DVD.

Garfield and Odie are outside harassing a neighbor's dog when the owner, Hubert, calls the pound to capture Jon Arbuckle's pets. When the dogcatcher arrives, Garfield flees, but Odie is too stupid to run away and is caught. Garfield decides to go home, but is unable to communicate to Jon that Odie is in peril. Soon, Garfield realizes how boring life is without Odie around, so that night, Garfield decides to rescue him. He makes it to the pound, but the dogcatcher catches him and imprisons him in a cell, where he learns from another cat, Fast Eddie, that Odie is going to be euthanized in the morning.

During the night, Garfield has a series of flashbacks of all the good times that he and Odie had playing together. The next day, Garfield tearfully watches the dogcatcher take Odie down the hall to be euthanized. Meanwhile, a girl arrives at the pound for a pet and chooses Garfield. Garfield sees his chance to escape and when the cell opens, Garfield runs out the door and past the girl. The rest of the animals flood out of the cell and break down the pound door, with the knocked-out dogcatcher on it.

As the animals run to freedom, Garfield and Odie return to the Arbuckle home and knock down its front door. Jon bets that Garfield and Odie were having fun during the night while he was worried about them, and Garfield and Odie are bemused and indicate this is correct. The next morning at breakfast, things are back to normal as Garfield derides Odie's begging at the table, but decides to try it himself after seeing Odie get a steak from Jon. However, the result is not the same as all Garfield gets from Jon is a plate of bacon and eggs which he angrily throws back in to Jon's face before admitting "I'm only human." as the special comes to close.

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