Garfield's Babes and Bullets | |
---|---|
Created by | Jim Davis |
Based on | Garfield's Babes and Bullets by Ron Tuthill |
Written by | Jim Davis |
Directed by | Phil Roman |
Starring | Lorenzo Music Thom Huge Gregg Berger Desirée Goyette Julie Payne Lindsay Workman Nino Tempo |
Narrated by | Lorenzo Music |
Theme music composer | Desirée Goyette and Ed Bogas (music and lyrics) Lou Rawls (vocals) |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Executive producer | Phil Roman |
Producer | George Singer |
Editors | Sam Horta (supervisor) Tim Borquez Mike Gollum Julie Gustafson Brian Mars |
Running time | 24 minutes |
Production companies | Film Roman United Media Paws, Inc. |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | May 23, 1989 |
Related | |
Garfield's Babes and Bullets is a 1989 animated television special directed by Phil Roman, based on a short story of the same name by Ron Tuthill in the book Garfield: His 9 Lives . It features Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield, the house cat, re-imagined as a private detective named Sam Spayed attempting to solve a murder mystery.
The special won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (One Hour or Less). It has since been released on DVD.
This was the ninth of twelve Garfield television specials made between 1982 and 1991.
Feeling bored, Garfield looks into a closet and finds a trenchcoat and fedora. Donning both, he begins to fantasize he is Sam Spayed, a second-rate private investigator in a film noir atmosphere. Sam receives a visit from Tanya O'Tabby, a beautiful woman who hires Sam to investigate the death of her husband, Professor O'Tabby, who apparently drove off a clifftop road. Tanya believes it was murder, as her husband was an excellent driver, but the death was ruled as a simple car accident. Despite initially suspecting foul play (that Tanya killed her husband either for his money or because he was unfaithful), Sam agrees to take the case.
No solid proof of murder comes to light when Sam visits the morgue, although he notes that O'Tabby's shirt, chest and stomach hairs have yellowish-brown stains on them and secretly pockets a mysterious, painted "stone" that the coroner overlooked. Next, Sam goes to the university where O'Tabby worked and meets the late man's colleague and former advisor Professor O'Felix. He tells Sam how O'Tabby was on his way to visit an elderly benefactress the night he died, but dismisses Sam's idea that the professor was having an affair, saying his one weakness was instead a coffee addiction.
Sam phones Tanya to tell her what he knows so far, only for his newly-hired secretary Kitty to spill coffee on him when he mentions talking to O'Felix about O'Tabby's "woman trouble". While cleaning himself up, Sam realizes that the "stone" is actually a ceramic fragment from a broken coffee mug and the stains on the late professor's clothing and body must have been coffee. He deduces that Kitty worked for O'Tabby before she came to Sam's office, and accuses Kitty of O'Tabby's murder, believing her motive was that she loved O'Tabby but the professor didn't love her. Kitty breaks down into tears, insisting that she did not kill the professor, having simply left the university out of being unable to bear not having him. She also explains that she did more than make coffee for O'Tabby, also filling his prescriptions for potent sleeping pills to counter his coffee-induced insomnia.
Deducing O'Felix is the murderer, Sam brings him to court. O'Felix was jealous of his former student's success and, having had his eyes on O'Tabby's position within the university for some time, murdered him by spiking his coffee with some sleeping pills, causing O'Tabby to fall asleep at the wheel and drive off the cliff to his death. Tanya visits Sam one last time, making it very clear that the romance he had hoped to have with her will never happen. Kitty starts to seduce Sam, only for reality to intrude via owner Jon Arbuckle asking Garfield what he's doing in the closet. Garfield responds to Jon: "Gettin' ready to roll the credits, pal!", breaking the fourth wall, and goes back in the closet, continuing his fantasy.
Garfield: His 9 Lives was published by Ballantine Books under the Garfield franchise in 1984, with creator Jim Davis writing he and his staff wrote the book to explore the character beyond what could be achieved in the comic strip. [1] Ron Tuthill wrote the "Babes and Bullets: The Continuing Adventures of Sam Spayed" chapter, illustrated by Kevin Campbell. [2] Film noir parodies were popular in films, with Sam Spayed and Tracer Bullet in Calvin and Hobbes marking the parody's crossover to comic strips.
The television adaptation was written by Davis. It was directed and produced by Phil Roman under his company, Film Roman. [3]
After the airing of the initial animated Garfield: His 9 Lives special on November 22, 1988, Garfield's Babes and Bullets aired on May 23, 1989. [4] It played on prime time on CBS. [5]
The special was included on the DVD Garfield Fantasies , released in May 2005. It was featured along with the specials Garfield: His 9 Lives and Garfield's Feline Fantasies (1990). [6]
The special won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (One Hour or Less) in 1989. [7] The animated version of Garfield: His 9 Lives was also nominated that year. [8]
In his DVD Talk review, Randy Miller III called Garfield Fantasies the most unusual of the Garfield DVD collections, adding Babes and Bullets "ain't exactly Sin City here, but this amusing caper is one of the best of the bunch." [6] Author Mitzi M. Brunsdale described Sam Spayed as one of the "strange spinoffs" of the Sam Spade character, created by Dashiell Hammett in the novel The Maltese Falcon . [9] Turner Classic Movies identified Sam Spayed particularly as a parody of 1940s film detectives and Humphrey Bogart, who starred as Spade in the 1941 film version of The Maltese Falcon . [10]
Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as Jon in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, Odie the dog, and their owner Jon Arbuckle. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals; the comic held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.
Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon and/or give the render a characteristic paper-like texture. There are similar techniques that can make an image look like a sketch, an oil painting or an ink painting. The name comes from cels, clear sheets of acetate which are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation.
Drawn Together is an American adult animated series and sitcom created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein for Comedy Central. The show premiered on October 27, 2004, and ended on November 14, 2007, after three seasons and 36 episodes. The series is a parody of house-based reality shows, and follows the misadventures of the housemates in the fictional show of the same name and uses a sitcom format with a reality TV show setting.
Dog City is an animated television series that was produced by Nelvana Limited and Jim Henson Productions in association with Channel 4 and Global Television Network. The series ran for three seasons, airing on Fox Kids from September 26, 1992, to November 26, 1994; in Canada, the series aired on YTV until 2000. The series contained both animation made by Nelvana, and puppetry by Jim Henson Productions - similar to Little Muppet Monsters - and invoked a mixture of detective fiction with police comedy.
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.
Garfield on the Town is a 1983 animated television special, directed by Phil Roman and based on the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis. It once again starred Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield, and also featured the voices of Thom Huge, Gregg Berger and Julie Payne.
Garfield in Paradise is a 1986 animated television special directed by Phil Roman, based on the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis. It features Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield the house cat, other regulars Thom Huge and Gregg Berger, and guest star Wolfman Jack. It originally aired on CBS on May 27, 1986.
Garfield: His 9 Lives is a 1984 anthology book that showcase the "nine lives" of Jim Davis' comic strip character Garfield. The book is divided into ten segments, detailing the creation of cats and the lives of Garfield. The book was later adapted into an animated television special in 1988, and a comic book by Boom! Studios from 2014 to 2015.
Philip Roman is an American animator and the director of the Peanuts and Garfield animated specials. He is the founder of the animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment.
Garfield's Feline Fantasies is a 1990 American animated television special based on the Garfield comic strip and is produced by Film Roman, United Media/Mendelson, and Paws, Inc. It once again featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The animated short was first broadcast on May 18, 1990, on CBS and September 10, 1991, on CITV and was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards. The events of the special take place between the second and third seasons of Garfield and Friends. It has been released on both VHS and DVD home video.
Garfield is a fictional cat and the protagonist of the comic strip of the same name, created by Jim Davis. Garfield is portrayed as a lazy, fat, cynical and self-absorbed orange tabby Persian cat. He is noted for his love of lasagna and pizza, coffee, and sleeping, and his hatred of Mondays, Nermal, the vet, and exercise.
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a 2006 adventure comedy film directed by Tim Hill and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. It is the sequel to Garfield: The Movie (2004), and stars Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Bill Murray reprising their respective roles as Jon Arbuckle, Dr. Liz Wilson, and the voice of Garfield. New cast members include Billy Connolly, Ian Abercrombie, Roger Rees, Lucy Davis and Oliver Muirhead in live-action roles and Tim Curry, Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Vinnie Jones, Joe Pasquale, Richard E. Grant, and Jane Leeves as the voices of the film's new animal characters. In the film, Garfield, Odie, Liz and Jon travel to the United Kingdom, where Prince, another cat that looks exactly like Garfield, is ruling over a castle after the death of his owner. His reign is soon jeopardized by an evil aristocrat, who plans to remodel the castle into condominiums, destroy the estate, and get rid of Prince. The story is loosely inspired by Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, while its title is a parody of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
Edgar Noel "Ed" Bogas, sometimes credited as Edward Bogas, is an American musician and composer whose work has been featured in films, animations, and video games.
Monster in the Closet is a 1986 horror comedy with a veteran cast, including Howard Duff and John Carradine, as well as Stacy Ferguson and Paul Walker in early roles. The film was distributed by Troma Entertainment. In the GotchaMovies article "Final Destinations and Killer Condoms", Monster in the Closet was selected as the 8th greatest moment in teen slasher history. The film was directed and written by Bob Dahlin.
Futurama: Bender's Game is a 2008 American direct-to-video adult animated science fantasy comedy film and the third of the four Futurama films that make up the show's fifth season. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 4, 2008.
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. It uses both live-action and animation.
Garfield merchadise is the merchandise based on the "Garfield" comic strip by Jim Davis. Garfield is one of the world's most prominent and widely syndicated comic strips, and was specifically designed to be marketable. Before the sale of Paws, Inc. in August 2019, all the profits from merchandise went to Paws, Inc., of which Jim Davis is the CEO and founder. The following is a compiled list of selected merchandise based on the franchise.
Cameron's Closet, also known as Cameron's Terror, is a 1989 American supernatural horror film. The film was directed by Armand Mastroianni and stars Scott Curtis, Cotter Smith, Mel Harris, Tab Hunter, Kim Lankford, Gary Hudson and William Lustig.
The Garfield television specials are a series of twelve half-hour long American animated television specials based on the Garfield comic strip of the same name created by Jim Davis. Most specials were directed by Phil Roman, written by Davis, and featuring the voice of Lorenzo Music as the character. The specials were originally broadcast on CBS from 1982 to 1991. Although the first two specials were produced by Lee Mendelson Films, this boutique studio was fully committed to the production of the Peanuts animated specials and could not allocate resources for the Garfield specials. All of the remaining Garfield specials were produced by Roman's own production company and namesake Film Roman.