''Garfield Goes Hollywood'' is a 1987 American

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

based on the ''

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

'' comic strip. It once again featured

Lorenzo Music Gerald David "Lorenzo" Music (May 2, 1937 – August 4, 2001) was an American actor, composer, musician, performer, writer and producer. Music began his career in the 1960s with his wife, Henrietta, forming the comedy duo Gerald and His Hen. He ...

as the voice of Garfield. The special was first broadcast on May 8, 1987 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program at the

39th Primetime Emmy Awards The 39th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 1987. The ceremony was broadcast on Fox for the first time, as the network premiered a year earlier from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. For the second str ...

. It has been released on both

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

home video. This was the sixth of twelve

Garfield television specials 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 Davi ...

made between 1982 and 1991. In the special, Garfield attempts to raise money to go to Hollywood and appear on ''Pet Search''.

Storyline

One night, Garfield, Jon and Odie happen to be watching a show called "Pet Search" (a pets' version of ''

Star Search ''Star Search'' (later known as ''Ed McMahon's Star Search'') is an American television show that was produced by T.P.E./ Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Al Masini. A relaunch was produced by 29 ...

'') where they learn that the winner receives $1,000 as well as the chance to compete in the national finals in Hollywood. Jon wishes that Garfield and Odie had talent so they could be on the show. The two perform a dance number for him, which excites him greatly. However, Garfield starts to have second thoughts when Jon gets involved and they see how bad he is at music. The night to perform arrives and the opening acts turn out to be shoddy, from a trained bird mysteriously dying, to tap-dancing pigeons flying the coop, to a roller-skating bear unable to maintain his balance. Seeing this, Jon is confident that they have the competition in their favor, since there's only one act following them. They perform as an

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's sexuall ...

style trio named "Johnny Bop and the Two-Steps" (rather reluctantly, because they did not want Jon involved in their act, as they think he is awful at music). Garfield believes it is embarrassing because they all have to wear kitschy 1950s-era costumes. Despite the silly act, they win the regional competition (after a dog that plays five instruments simultaneously is disqualified after Odie exposes him as just a man in a dog

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress and/or makeup of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, occupation, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch—in short, culture. The term also was traditionally used to describe typica ...

) and are able to compete at the national competition in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. Garfield at first thinks he will embarrass himself in front of America, but changes his mind when he sees the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and gets lodged at a fancy hotel. Garfield and Odie agree that their act is too mediocre to win first prize, so they destroy Jon's guitar when he is not looking. Jon is more worried than shocked, saying the finals are around the corner and there is no act. Garfield tells Jon not to worry as they plan their own routine. Meanwhile the "Pet Search" finals are underway with a different host named Burt and an announcer named Bob. Bob tells Burt about the prizes the top winner will receive such as a Hollywood contract, a trip around the world and $1,000,000 and the second place winner will receive a boat. While Jon, Garfield, and Odie watch the other competitors, Jon has a talk with them which is opposed to his giddiness at winning $1,000 in the first competition, he says that even though he would love to win all those prizes, he thinks that Garfield and Odie should lose this contest so that they can have their old lives back at their home and it would better for them which Garfield protests. Garfield and Odie compete in the finals as a

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

dancing duo named "The Dancing Armandos," only to receive the boat for second place and lose the top prize package to an opera-singing cat. Angry over losing, Garfield destroys the set, but Jon assures him they still have each other. The special ends back home where Garfield finally admits to Jon that it was all for the best that they are home again, as they are on their boat fantasizing about sailing to exotic locations worldwide, which the camera pans out to show it in their backyard and revealing they live in a

landlocked A landlocked country is a country that has no territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie solely on endorheic basins. Currently, there are 44 landlocked countries, two of them doubly landlocked (Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan), and t ...

part of the country (identified as

Muncie, Indiana Muncie ( ) is a city in Delaware County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It is located in East Central Indiana about northeast of Indianapolis. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 65,195, down from 70,085 in the 2010 c ...

in their national introduction - this is series creator Jim Davis' hometown).

Cast

- Garfield * Thom Huge - Jon Arbuckle *

Gregg Berger Gregory Alan Berger (born December 10, 1950) is an American voice actor. He is known for his roles as Jecht from ''Final Fantasy X'' and the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' games, Grimlock from ''The Transformers (TV series), The Transformers'', Myste ...

- Odie / regional Pet Search host / Bob / Grandma Fogerty *

Nino Tempo Antonino LoTempio (January 6, 1935 – April 10, 2025) was an American musician, singer, and actor. He was a duet partner with his older sister April Stevens as well as the frontman for a 1970s funk band, 5th Ave. Sax. Biography Early life Anto ...

- Herbie *

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

- Burt

Uncredited

Desirée Goyette Desirée Goyette-Bogas (''née'' Goyette) is an American singer, composer, lyricist and voice-over artist. She has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has voiced such characters as Betty Boop, Barbie, Nermal, Petunia Pig, Honey Bunny a ...

- Desirée the Classical Cat

Songs

* "They Love Us" performed by

Lou Rawls Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Min ...

* "The Wizard of Love" performed by Thom Huge,

and

* "Hollywood Feels So Good" performed by

* "Desiree's Meow Solo" performed by

References

External links

* {{Film Roman Garfield television specials 1980s American television specials 1980s animated television specials 1987 television specials 1987 in American television CBS original programming CBS television specials Television shows directed by Phil Roman Hollywood, Los Angeles in fiction Film Roman television specials Television shows written by Jim Davis (cartoonist)