This thinpack has Orson on the front.
Garfield: Quickie
Jon gives Odie party invitations to put in the mailbox. Odie takes them. It's rather windy outside. Garfield figures it to be a rather large mistake. Odie is fighting the wind as he proceeds up the sidewalk. The wind wins, blowing away all the invitations.
That evening, the guests' vehicles look like they were purchased on sale from the scrapyard. The guests befit their vehicles. The classiest one is the Elvis impersonator. Jon sets down a tray of toothpicked snacks, and tells Garfield he was expecting the upper crust. Garfield points out that he got the crumbs.
("Friends Are There")
"Don't forget, kids, look both ways before crossing your teacher."
Garfield: The Binky Show
Garfield awakens, but doesn't get out from under the covers yet. He does peek out, wondering what day it is. He fears that it might be Monday: even though yesterday was Friday, Mondays are sneaky, and would likely bump off Saturday and Sunday to get at Garfield sooner. He goes to check, pleading for it not to be Monday. In fact, it is explicitly labeled Not Monday, much to Garfield's relief.. It's also labeled "Jon's Birthday". Garfield is worried, as he has no money to get anything for him. The man on the TV has an idea for him, however: win a prize on "Name That Fish"! Garfield considers himself an expert on the subject, after all.
Gary, the announcer, introduces the show, and its host, Binky the Clown! Binky comes out on stage. The audience seems as bored as a lumberyard, but Gary's hand-cranked applause machine is taking care of that aspect of things. Binky sings, then has Gary call the first contestant. It's Garfield... who takes more than one call to get him going. Binky's reading the paper when he gets there, then tosses it aside and has Gary say something about him. Garfield lives about 8 blocks from the studio. Convenient! Back to Binky. He gives Garfield something just for having the guts to show up. It's... a tomato bender! Apparently, when the pros want bent tomatoes, that's what they use. Garfield has a snarky thought about it.
Binky says Garfield has to answer a question or name that fish. The question is about Christopher Columbus's breakfast on the morning of the discovery of America. He gets half a second to answer, and it's not enough. It was a trick question, however: Cristobal Colón didn't have breakfast that morning. Garfield's annoyance at the trick is mitigated somewhat by the fact that he doesn't talk, and therefore couldn't answer anyway. But they do have a prize for him: an ostrich waxer! Apparently, when the pros want waxed ostriches, that's what they use.
But now it's time to name that fish. A board with fish names on cards hanging from hooks comes down: perch, salmon, bass, tuna, flounder, shark, trout, cod, and halibut. Binky holds up a fish, and Garfield will apparently win $500 if he names it. It's blue, with a lighter blue belly, and of a pretty normal size. Binky asks the audience to help him, but whether it's the audience or another recording is unclear. Either way, someone keeps suggesting red snapper, and that's definitely not a choice. After some indecision, he takes the "Trout" card to Binky. Well, the fish Binky had was... "Walter"! Garfield doesn't like this game. Although Garfield didn't win the money, there's another prize: an elephant collar! Apparently, when the pros want collared elephants, that's what they use. Hey, it's more likely that they'll need to do that than bend a tomato. And he also gets a copy of the Home Game, which is a box with fish sticking out. Garfield tosses it aside.
Sirens go off and the spotlights move around. Binky asks if Garfield knows what that sound means. Garfield hopes it means the show's been cancelled, but it's actually time for the Bonus Round! He might well win a vacation, where he'll "spend three glorius days and sixteen miserable nights at the beautiful Hotel Trousers, where the cockroaches are smaller than the bellhops, but not by much." A closeup reveals broken and boarded-up windows, a tree with a branch going through a window and out the overhang, a grimy pool with a broken diving board, a dilapidated fence, a door holding on by the lower hinge, and a "de" between "Hotel" and "Trousers". Next prize: a new car, the Spaghetti 7, made completely out of ravioli! It takes unleaded marinara sauce. It also has a broken windshield, and a plate on the front that says "Kitsune". The Bonus Round involves Garfield going into the booth. Binky pulls a lever, and the booth starts filling with water and a few fish. Garfield has 30 seconds to name them. He decides, however, as he's floating in the booth, that it can't be happening, and must be a dream. He swims to the top, and falls to the floor. He starts running away, as Binky asks where he's going. Garfield leaves the building.
About 8 blocks away, Garfield finds himself sleeping in his bed. He kicks it, jolting himself awake. Indeed, it was a dream. Garfield hopes he never sees Binky again. The doorbell rings, and Jon gets it. It's Binky. He asks Jon if he's Jon Arbuckle and if today is his birthday. Jon warily says yes. Binky calls on Gary to tell him what his present is. It's Binky's Birthday Surprise, which involves Binky singing "Happy Birthday to You" to Jon in a restaurant and embarrassing him in front of his friends. (I thought Binky already had a birthday song, to the tune of "Frère Jacques". It was in Episode 1. Is he shelling out for royalties, then?) It also involves presenting him with humiliating gifts, hit him with pies, dressing him in a costume that'll make him wish he hadn't been born, and more that Gary doesn't specify. While Gary is listing his presents, Garfield gets a hose. When Binky asks, "Well, what do you say?" Garfield sprays him into a wheelbarrow which promptly sends him rolling down the sidewalk. Garfield considers getting rid of Binky to be Jon's present. He tosses the hose aside, goes inside, and blows a noisemaker, saying "Happy birthday".
Orson's Farm: Quickie
Orson is giving Booker and Sheldon a ride like a horse. Roy, 160-cup hat on his head and a bandanna around his neck, stops Orson and ejects the young'uns, and mounts up for his own ride. Roy has him go faster and faster, but suddenly, Orson stops, sending Roy flying into the mud. Roy protests, as pigs love mud. Orson point out that horses are afraid of it. Roy sinks into it.
Orson's Farm: Keeping Cool
Orson is standing on an ironing board in front of a background of mud waves. He's pretending to surf, even hanging ten, er, four. Wade comes running with a letter in hand, announcing a calamity and catastrophe. He trips on a rock and goes flying into Orson, his momentum propelling across the real mud, over a hill, down a ladder leaning on a fence, into the henhouse and out the back, finally smashing into the side of the barn (with no damage to the barn). He takes the swim trunks off his head and tells Wade he has to stop panicking. Wade tries to justify it because it's bad bad news, but Orson doesn't think news is ever so bad as to induce that level of panic. He asks what it is. Wade tells him his brothers are coming to visit. Cue Orson running around and echoing Wade's earlier sentiment. Wade tackles him down and reminds him what he said earlier. Orson figures it's serious enough for it. He begins to relate his brothers' treatment of him.
Apparently, they'd play runtball with him. Orson, of course, was the runt, and therefore, the ball. (They even took him away from reading a Garfield book. The nerve! After some investigation, the book looks like it must be "Garfield World Wide" to me.) In Orson's memory, one picks him up and gets into a position to hike him. After catching him, one of the others throws him for a pass. The one who was supposed to catch him fails to do so, allowing him to land on a well bucket and fall to the bottom. Then he decides to look pious or something, and a Holy Halo appears.
Back in the present, Orson rates the impending visit as the worst thing in the whole world. Bo comes along and advises him to calm down. Wade asks Bo how he stays calm. Bo figures there's no point in getting bananas just because things go wrong. He sings about it. Orson figures that's great advice in general, but what about a real problem? Bo says to look at the problem at hand: it's either the kind you can solve, in which case you solve it, or the kind you can't, in which case you just sit back, because you can't solve it either way. No point in worrying either way. As Bo dances into the distance, Wade remarks on the coolness of the sheep.
Orson decides to follow his advice...
"Hey, brudda, where are ya?"
...right after they leave. He hides in storage. The shorter one with flat teeth asks "wool-face" where Orson is. Bo tells them to cut Orson some slack. The yellow-eyed one with rounded teeth sarcasticly says the sheep's going to hurt them. The one with buck teeth tells Bo to take it on the lam. Wade comes up behind Bo and tells the three they can't get Bo mad, so they're wasting their time. One of them questions this, and Bo reasserts this. One decides to test this statement be pulling on his wool. He pulls on it as if a string, and it unravels, leaving everything from his waist down uncovered. He simply walks over to an outdoor closet in which is a single hanger with wool bottoms. He takes them and puts them on. He goes back and says it wouldn't make him mad. Another forms Bo into a ball, dribbles him, and throws him into a basketball goal. Bo says, hanging by his feet, that it wouldn't make him mad. Orson's brothers decide to go elsewhere for entertainment, specifically, finding Orson.
They find Wade, who feigns badly that Orson must be somewhere other than the storage whose door he's leaning on. That is, until he finds himself menaced by the three, at which point, he opens the door for them, then apologizes to Orson for his cowardice. Orson understands, and steps out to face the music. (Not Lorenzo.) They get him into a game of runtball. Bo overhears the action as he's scrubbing in the water trough. One brother intentionally misses, allowing Orson to skid into the ground. The yellow-eyed one lands on him, claiming to have "it". The straight-toothed one lands on him, making the same claim. The buck-toothed one follows suit.
One wipe later, the yellow-eyed one has his finger on Orson's head as the other brothers argue over whose turn it is to kick the extra point. Bo offers, instead, to play tug-of-war, dangling the "carrot" of possibly getting him mad. This possibility intrigues them enough to take the bait.
The rope is stretched over a mud waller. (Notice that we don't actually see Bo, and therefore, neither do they.) They have the rope wrapped tight around them. The last one even has it tied around him. The first one says they're going to pull him into the mud. Bo comes up beside them and asks how they're going to do that. The last one starts to explain, but then they all realize...
"Uh, who is at the other end of this rope?"
"Bus."
"Bus?"
"Yeah, the 3:14 bus to the next county, dudes."
The first one asks for the time. The last one's watch says 3:14. The bus promptly pulls them away. Orson thanks Bo a thousand times. Wade notices that Bo get mad. Bo says he saves it for when his friends are being mistreated. Orson wonders what they'll do in four hours when the bus returns. Bo has a train schedule, and figures he'll send them to California.
Garfield: Quickie
Jon and Garfield are walking along the sidewalk when Garfield spots a frankfurter-shaped hot dog truck, which he springs onto and bites. Jon hopes he feels like a complete idiot as he dangles there by his teeth. Garfield feels kind of silly, but then does the same thing with an ice-cream-cone-shaped truck, as he has to have dessert. Jon does a Face Palm.
Garfield: Don't Move!
Garfield leaves the house, singing the song from "Return of Power Pig" to himself. He's in the mood for something exotic, so he plans to go to the tropical fish shop. He's promptly joined by Odie. Garfield initially doesn't want to take him along, but Odie's sad reaction changes his mind. Garfield says he might come in handy, as they can follow his drool home if they get lost.
They come to an intersection, where they stop at the "Don't Walk" sign. Garfield teaches Odie about obeying signs. The sign changes to... "Bark"? Odie complies. Then it changes to "Don't Bark", and finally, to "Polka". They waste a little time polkaing on the corner. Garfield doesn't understand it, but compliance means he won't get a ticket. They polka across the street.
They come around a corner and pass a hardware store. They come to the tropical fish shop. It's his favorite place to eat, except that they get rude when you bring in tartar sauce. Odie sees another sign. It shows a lit cigarette with a slashed red circle around it. Garfield explains that it means "No Smoking". The next is a picture of an ice cream cone done the same way, which Garfield extrapolates to "No Food". The next one... is clearly directed at him. It means he needs a brillant disguise. You know what that means: Groucho Glasses. He figure they won't recognize him, but Odie might blow his cover. He draws a circle with an X in it. This means there'll be a bean there when he digs — er, I mean, that Odie's supposed to stay there and not move. Garfield enters and heads straight for the "menu". On it are such fish as the goldfish
, which is more yellow than any goldfish I've seen, the minnow, the seahorse, Walter (a reference to Garfield's "Name That Fish" dream), Salema (or possibly this one), and Robald. He wonders what the guppy du jour is, and notes the abundance of fish jokes this week.
Meanwhile, Odie is waiting on the X when a dogcatcher scoops him up and puts him in the pound's truck. But as he's driving along, a bump knocks the door open, letting him out. He gets out of the way of someone driving on the left side of the road, who mysteriously didn't collide with the truck. While he's recovering from that, a truck comes along, spraying the sidewalk and scooping up discarded refuse. He's deposited in the garbage on the truck, a single scoop of which is loaded onto a scow which is nearly full. He fights with a pelican over a bone, but ends up in its beak just in time for it to be scared off the scow.
There's a building smoking from the inside, and firefighters are spraying it. A man is on one of the ledges, scared to jump onto the waiting trampoline. The smoke makes the pelican cough Odie out of its beak, and Odie falls past the man, making him lose his balance. Odie falls onto the trampoline, and gets out of the way of the falling man. Odie jumps into the arms of one of the firefighters and licks his face. The firefighter says "Nice doggy," but says they have to call the animal shelter about him. However, a call on Grove Avenue makes them put it off and take him with them. Odie can't hang onto the bar that well for long periods, and he falls into a shopping cart, which starts rolling. It collides with a fire hydrant, and he goes flying, landing about a foot from the X, just in time for Garfield to leave the shop. (The disguise apparently allowed Garfield to get his fill.) He looks at the X, then at Odie, and says "You moved."
Next time: Episode 10!
