Garfield in The Fantastic Funnies (1980) First Animated Appearance

Jim Davis’ Garfield the cat first appeared in animated form in The Fantastic Funnies (1980), a strange special hosted by Loni Anderson. It was produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez who produced the Peanuts specials, and who did the first few Garfield specials afterward. Garfield was played by Scott Beach, who voiced “The Death Star plans are not in the main computer“ in Star Wars, among other things. The animation adapts a few early strips which had a fatter design for Garfield, and the thinner design here isn’t quite right. They’re still figuring out how to draw the cat. This follows a Tumbleweeds segment, which Jim Davis also worked on. You can see the whole special here with thanks to FuzzyMemories: