When you think of the year 1978, what do you think of? If you said "It's the year that some awesome people were born in, particularly awesome blog writers" then thankyou, and stay off the medication. However, if you're thinking about the first appearance of a fat, orange cat, you'd be right too.
Yes, folks. 1978 marks the comic strip debut of that lasagna eating feline, Garfield. So, yeah, Garfield turns 30 next year, joining me and other luminaries such as Ashton Kucher and Ben Cousins.
Garfield appears in over 2500 newspapers, has featured in two movies, an animated series, a computer game and, most importantly of all...he used to be funny. I think.
As a kid, I used to collect the Garfield strips from the newspaper and then paste them in a big black folder. And I used to think they were hilarious. But maybe they weren't. Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield (and who doesn't even draw the strip anymore - other people do it for him!) said that he had made a conscious attempt to avoid social commentary. And boy did he succeed. Garlfield predates Seinfeld as a comedy about 'nothing' (aside from a fat cat).
Oh, and I used to have two 'read along with me' Garfield books. You know, you listen to the tape and read along at the same time. Only you read along with the Garlfield comic strips. And my books were not on tape, but on vinyl. And I really like italics.
There's lots I could write about Garfield, but the main thing I wanted to address was the "voice of Garfield" conspiracy. You see, in 1988 (when Garfield was 10 and so was I), he had an animated series (which went for about seven years). And on the series, his voice was provided by the excellently named Lorenzo Music. Here he is...
And here is a tiny, tiny bit of Mr Music in action as Garfield (you'll have to wait until the end - don't worry, it's quite short).
Unfortunately, Lorenzo Music passed away in 2001, so he couldn't be the voice of Garlfield in the feature films. That job went to the hilarious (although sadly, not in this case) Bill Murray. Bill Murray, you might recall, played Dr Peter Venkman in a little film I like to call...Ghostbusters.
Now, Ghostbusters became super popular in the 80s. So popular that like all popular things in the 80s it was given its own cartoon called The Real Ghostbusters. It was called "The Real" Ghostbusters because there was another cartoon called "Ghostbusters" which was based on a black and white TV series. I know, I know. It does not make sense. Don't get me started. Anway, my point is that Bill Murray didn't play Dr Venkman in the cartoon. Guess who did? Yep, Lorenzo Music. (Again, it's near the end of the clip)
So there you have it. The guy who was the first voice of Garfield was the cartoon voice of the guy who would be the voice of Garfield. Get your head around that!
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