Everything Action Theater: Garfield: His 9 Lives

A new version of Garfield hits theaters this Friday, and back in 1988, we saw several iterations of the orange fat cat in the animated special Garfield: His 9 Lives, which you can watch in the latest Everything Action Theater. Initially created as a short story collection in 1984, the book journeyed through history and took readers through each of Garfield’s 9 lives (with the comic book cat we know and love being his 8th life).  Some of Garfield’s past forms were a Viking, a private eye, a lab experiment, and a prehistoric saber-toothed cat.  The TV special adapted 6 of the stories from the book, with “Babes and Bullets”, the private eye story, getting its own Emmy-winning special in 1989.  The special added 4 new segments, and all the segments featured unique animation styles and tones.  Longtime Peanuts and Garfield special director Phil Roman directed all but two of the segments.  The special was included on two Garfield DVD releases, Garfield Fantasies and Garfield: Nine Lives, and is currently streaming on Peacock.  You can watch the special below, thanks to Archive.org.