Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985)

Before Garfield had his own saturday morning series, there were a string of specials. Everyone I knew watched them every time they were aired. It's probably difficult for kids nowadays to understand just how HUGE Garfield was among elementary school kids in the 80s, now that he's fallen out of favor with most comic readers. It's his own fault, though - his strip eventually became little more than Garfield sitting around, talking to Jon and maybe squashing a spider (though it's gotten better lately).

The best known of the specials probably remains "Garfield's Halloween Adventure," which was first aired in 1985 under the name "Garfield in Disguise." It was the first of the specials that wasn't based on the Garfield strips themselves, and featured a handful of catchy songs (the Pirate song, in particular, will stick in your head mercilessly) as Garfield and Odie, dressed as pirates, went off in search of "candy, candy, candy."

FINALLY ON DVD:

At one point, they sail off to an island (which, conveniently enough, is in row-boating distance from their neighborhood), where they meet a spooky old man who tells them that the house is haunted by pirate ghosts who buried a treasure under the house a century ago, vowing to come back for it that very night. And there's no use running, for "they know who you are!"




The old man then runs off with their candy, leaving them to fend for themselves as the ghosts (which are a lot scarier than anything one would expect to see in a Garfield cartoon) come to the cabin to claim their treasure.


The show won an Emmy in 1986, and went on to be a perenniel favorite for over a decade on television - it was about the last of the great old specials besides "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" to be aired annually on one network or another. Today you can get it on youtube or on DVD, but, as countless others have pointed out, watching it on tape and watching it on tv and knowing that all of your friends are watching, too, just aren't the same.

This is the one special that really stands to fight against It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for the title of "the" halloween special, if only due to its longevity. Certainly they've both lasted longer than other comic-strip oriented specials. I think it's time we brought this custom of Halloween cartoons for comic strips back. I want my Zits Halloween Special, please!

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PART 2:


PART 3: