Since it's almost Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a good time to revisit a certain orange fat cat to whom every day is like Thanksgiving. Yep, good old Garfield got himself a Thanksgiving special, and unlike Halloween and Christmas, there aren't that many Thanksgiving specials, aside from Charlie Brown's. I never knew about this special until I bought the Garfield Holidays DVD. I don't remember ever seeing it on TV, so I assume it wasn't as popular as the others. How does America's favorite portly feline celebrate Thanksgiving? By eating everything in sight, of course, but let's see the events that lead up to the big day, shall we? It all began on Wednesday morning, when Garfield and Odie gave Jon his usual rude awakening, telling him to get thee to the kitchen and cook a truckload of pancakes. After his monstrous early morning meal, Garfield was about to kick Odie off the table when he noticed the tear-off calendar bearing a reminder that he had a vet appointment today. Determined to "make the day go away", he tears off Wednesday and discovers that Thursday is Thanksgiving. That's right, Thanksgiving, the biggest eating day of the year! He and Jon head to the store to buy a ton of food for the special occasion, but not before Jon remembers to take his reluctant cat to the vet. In case you didn't know, Jon's got a crush on the veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson, and will stop at nothing to embarrass himself in front of her to get her to like him. So, as Liz examines Garfield, Jon turns on the old Arbuckle charm and asks her 27 times if she'll go out with him, and he gets 27 no's in response, so like a little kid begging for a toy, he decides to hold his breath until she acquiesces. After diagnosing Garfield as being healthy, but too fat, Liz insists he go on a diet, and then reluctantly accepts Jon's invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, as she can't stand seeing dumb animals suffer. Suddenly, Garfield isn't looking forward to Thanksgiving anymore, because as we all know, it's the worst time of the year to start a diet. Now, we all know that Garfield won't take his diet seriously, but Jon certainly will, as he puts Odie in charge of making sure the cat doesn't eat anything fattening or sugary or delicious. Gave him a whistle and everything. How humiliating.
Thursday morning, with only three hours until Liz was due to come to dinner, Jon sets to work on cooking his Thanksgiving Day feast, and just how well does Chef Arbuckle fair? He's got a frozen turkey, no prepared stuffing, and when the cookbook says to rub butter on the skin, he rubs it on his own. Ha ha, oh Jon, you're a one man Abbott and Costello routine. After that, he goes to try on an array of goofy outfits and boy, he's got more outlandish costumes than an opera house wardrobe department. Deciding on a casual suit, he goes to welcome his date, and things get very awkward when she sees him without his pants. I know what you're thinking and you're wrong, he just absentmindedly forgot to put them on. So while he goes to check out his doomed Thanksgiving dinner, Liz is put off to discover that the diet has had no effect on Garfield, though to be fair, he's only been on it for one day. You can't expect to see instant results after only a day. In fact, if Garfield had lost a significant amount of weight within that time, it would be a much greater cause for concern. As a result, Liz decides to take Garfield off the diet and stick him on a steady regiment of mild exercises. Well, things may be looking up for the cat, but they're down for the Casanova. His turkey is hard as a rock. Well, it serves you right for not preparing it earlier, Jon, I mean you grew up on a farm and watched your mother and grandmother prepare dinner every year. You should know the bare minimum of preparing such a feast. That's when Garfield hit upon a brilliant idea: there was only ONE person who could help them now. But since the cat can't talk, he has to show Jon a bunch of Grandma's things before he gets the message that he should phone her tout de suite! In no time at all, Granny rides in on her Harley and takes full charge of the kitchen. She examines the turkey Jon tried to prepare and well, like the saying goes, there's no mix-up a chainsaw won't fix up. While that was going on, Jon tells Liz about what Thanksgiving means to him, even detailing his incredibly and pointlessly vast knowledge of the holiday. You know, the pilgrims were having a good harvest, so they invited their "Indian friends" to join them for supper. Yeah, it was the least the white man could do after slaughtering a bunch of the natives and stealing their land, but that's by the by. Good news: Grandma was able to save the turkey, and prepared some country style fixings, including her signature sweet potatoes and some pumpkin pie. She quietly sets the table and moseys on back to the farm. I'd say it wasn't a moment too soon, as Jon was boring Liz to tears with his tale of Thanksgiving around the world. So, did Liz like the meal? You bet she did. It was a happy Thanksgiving for everybody. After dinner, Jon tries to take the boys on a walk to work off the extra calories, only Odie is too logy to move, so Garfield gives him a little drill instructor action. Careful the dog doesn't vomit on your feet, Garfield.
So that was Garfield's Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't as good as the Halloween and Christmas specials, it's still a lot of fun and great to watch around that time of year. It originally aired a year after the premiere of Garfield & Friend, where we got to see Jon's further (and futile) attempts of trying to woo Liz, and while he didn't score many points there, at least we know they finally got together in the comic strip. As for this special, I liked the part where Garfield gets on the talking scale and it mistakes him for Orson Welles. It must have been an earlier model, because Mr. Welles was dead when this special took place. Speaking of Orson, watch for a cameo of that familiar bookworm pig during the vet visit. Oh, and of course the best part is when Grandma Arbuckle shows up to save the day. She's awesome! What would they do without her? As far as acting goes, Lorenzo Music is once again fantastic as Garfield, and Thom Huge, Gregg Berger and Julie Payne are great in their roles. Personally, I think Jon likes Liz so much because she looks just like him. Yeah, just put curly brown hair on her and she's the spitting image. You can't help but admire the absurd lengths Jon goes just to impress her. This time, he came pretty close. So, this Thanksgiving, in addition to the Peanuts' special, I suggest adding Garfield's Thanksgiving to the menu. Oh yeah, and there's one dish all these specials seem to forget: mashed potatoes. How can you possibly forget the taters?!
Thursday morning, with only three hours until Liz was due to come to dinner, Jon sets to work on cooking his Thanksgiving Day feast, and just how well does Chef Arbuckle fair? He's got a frozen turkey, no prepared stuffing, and when the cookbook says to rub butter on the skin, he rubs it on his own. Ha ha, oh Jon, you're a one man Abbott and Costello routine. After that, he goes to try on an array of goofy outfits and boy, he's got more outlandish costumes than an opera house wardrobe department. Deciding on a casual suit, he goes to welcome his date, and things get very awkward when she sees him without his pants. I know what you're thinking and you're wrong, he just absentmindedly forgot to put them on. So while he goes to check out his doomed Thanksgiving dinner, Liz is put off to discover that the diet has had no effect on Garfield, though to be fair, he's only been on it for one day. You can't expect to see instant results after only a day. In fact, if Garfield had lost a significant amount of weight within that time, it would be a much greater cause for concern. As a result, Liz decides to take Garfield off the diet and stick him on a steady regiment of mild exercises. Well, things may be looking up for the cat, but they're down for the Casanova. His turkey is hard as a rock. Well, it serves you right for not preparing it earlier, Jon, I mean you grew up on a farm and watched your mother and grandmother prepare dinner every year. You should know the bare minimum of preparing such a feast. That's when Garfield hit upon a brilliant idea: there was only ONE person who could help them now. But since the cat can't talk, he has to show Jon a bunch of Grandma's things before he gets the message that he should phone her tout de suite! In no time at all, Granny rides in on her Harley and takes full charge of the kitchen. She examines the turkey Jon tried to prepare and well, like the saying goes, there's no mix-up a chainsaw won't fix up. While that was going on, Jon tells Liz about what Thanksgiving means to him, even detailing his incredibly and pointlessly vast knowledge of the holiday. You know, the pilgrims were having a good harvest, so they invited their "Indian friends" to join them for supper. Yeah, it was the least the white man could do after slaughtering a bunch of the natives and stealing their land, but that's by the by. Good news: Grandma was able to save the turkey, and prepared some country style fixings, including her signature sweet potatoes and some pumpkin pie. She quietly sets the table and moseys on back to the farm. I'd say it wasn't a moment too soon, as Jon was boring Liz to tears with his tale of Thanksgiving around the world. So, did Liz like the meal? You bet she did. It was a happy Thanksgiving for everybody. After dinner, Jon tries to take the boys on a walk to work off the extra calories, only Odie is too logy to move, so Garfield gives him a little drill instructor action. Careful the dog doesn't vomit on your feet, Garfield.
So that was Garfield's Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't as good as the Halloween and Christmas specials, it's still a lot of fun and great to watch around that time of year. It originally aired a year after the premiere of Garfield & Friend, where we got to see Jon's further (and futile) attempts of trying to woo Liz, and while he didn't score many points there, at least we know they finally got together in the comic strip. As for this special, I liked the part where Garfield gets on the talking scale and it mistakes him for Orson Welles. It must have been an earlier model, because Mr. Welles was dead when this special took place. Speaking of Orson, watch for a cameo of that familiar bookworm pig during the vet visit. Oh, and of course the best part is when Grandma Arbuckle shows up to save the day. She's awesome! What would they do without her? As far as acting goes, Lorenzo Music is once again fantastic as Garfield, and Thom Huge, Gregg Berger and Julie Payne are great in their roles. Personally, I think Jon likes Liz so much because she looks just like him. Yeah, just put curly brown hair on her and she's the spitting image. You can't help but admire the absurd lengths Jon goes just to impress her. This time, he came pretty close. So, this Thanksgiving, in addition to the Peanuts' special, I suggest adding Garfield's Thanksgiving to the menu. Oh yeah, and there's one dish all these specials seem to forget: mashed potatoes. How can you possibly forget the taters?!