Garfield and Friends: Volume One

Garfield and Friends, a Saturday morning animated series based on Jim Davis' popular comic strip about the lasagna-loving, sardonic fat cat, was the result of consistently good ratings earned by the Garfield primetime specials during the 1980s on CBS. The weekly episodes proved a little less soulful than the intermittent programs, but they were far wittier and more spirited than almost anything the major networks were offering kids at the time. Each of the 24 episodes collected here consist of two eight-minute vignettes about the narcissistic feline, his bubble-headed canine pal Odie, and human owner/hapless single guy Jon, together with a sandwiched-between-the-shorts running cartoon called U.S. Acres (a delightful animated comedy about the critter friends at a family farm that proves to be as lively and intelligent as the main attraction). Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)