People might be at little excited to see Garfield returning to Nickelodeon as Mike Jones from ScreenRant has reported, but in truth the love that a lot of us have had for the orange, lasagna-snarfing feline has never really waned throughout the years. It’s true that not thinking about him has been kind of easy but all the same he’s been one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time and has been something of an inspiration for other characters whether people want to admit it or not since his mannerisms and overall personality have been seen as a part of pop culture that many people willingly embraced.
For a long while Garfield was confined to the comics section of the newspaper, then came the books that were released that featured various strips, which in turn led to entire adventures that he and Odie generally took together. Eventually Garfield did make his way to TV and then to the big screen where he was voiced by none other than Bill Murray. The movies weren’t exactly loved by critics, but they did well enough to turn a profit. Fans didn’t seem to really agree that the movies were all that great, and for a time Garfield kind of faded off, though he’s always been present when it comes to merchandising and other venues where he’s been a constant for so long. Rick Porter of The Hollywood Reporter reminds us that he had his own show through the 80s and 90s and was still on TV up until 2012, so it’s not really accurate to say that he’s been gone from TV for all that long. But once you go without seeing something for so long and then finally get reintroduced to it you can’t help but be grateful, especially if it was something you happened to like.
Nickelodeon has been known for their programming for a while now, and have also been known for taking on some of the strangest but most loved animated shows to come along. If not for Disney and the Cartoon Network it might be that Nickelodeon could have reached the top spot when it comes to kids’ networks and stayed there for a while, but of course it’s kind of hard to compete with such huge corporations as Disney or a channel like the Cartoon Network that can churn out one show after another with enough reruns to keep things rolling for an indeterminate period of time. Nickelodeon is still one of the top networks around as it’s been around for long enough to be counted as a true powerhouse in show business, but also has had to sit and bide its time now and again to see what kind of competition it can provide for the other networks. The great part about that as a kid however is that between the networks there’s always bound to be one show that you want to watch, or a movie that might be coming on, and therefore you’ll continue to change back and forth between the stations in order to catch them all.
When it comes to cartoon characters Garfield is right there with Peanuts, Heathcliff, and in some ways even Calvin and Hobbes when it comes to popularity since he was written in as a character that has a definite personality all his own and has never been seen as shy or even hesitant to state his piece of mind. Jim Davis created an orange-furred monster of sorts that loves lasagna, coffee, sleeping in, and absolutely hates Mondays. In short he created the average everyman and made him a cat, as Garfield is the kind of character that a lot of people have related to for a very long time now, and will no doubt be glad to see back on TV so that their kids can enjoy the same kind of laughs that they did when they were younger. The characters with him, Odie and John primarily, have always been good for a laugh as well since they tend to get the short end of the stick a lot of times when they’re around Garfield, who makes it known that it’s his world, we’re living in it. Perhaps one of the best examples of how he’s affected pop culture in the comics comes with Get Fuzzy, which is about a guy, a cat, and a dog that share an apartment. The cat, Bucky, is a holy terror as he’s an annoying and very egotistic Siamese while the dog, Satchel, is at least a little more intelligent than Odie, while Rob, their human counterpart, is quite intelligent but about as outclassed as John is to to Garfield in many ways.
It’ll be good to see him back on TV where he belongs, especially if new cartoons are bound to come.
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