The newspaper comic strip For Better or for Worse (1979–2008; still running in reprint form) by Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston was popular from the start, with its ongoing, real-time portrayal of family life as experienced by the Patterson family of Milborough, Ontario. In the 1980s and 1990s, Animated Adaptations of comic strips were commonplace. Naturally, that extended to For Better or For Worse, all of them produced in Canada by noted Ottawa-based animation studios.
There are three "tiers" of FBORFW animations:
The first entry was a single Christmas Special from Atkinson Film-Arts (The Raccoons, Babar and Father Christmas, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin) called The Bestest Present. Telling an original Christmas story centered on the Pattersons, it first aired on HBO on December 19, 1985, but also appeared on CTV in Canada and on Disney Channel in later US airings. Interestingly, Lynn's own children, Aaron and Katie, provided the voices of their cartoon counterparts Michael and Elizabeth Patterson, while Lynn's then-husband Rod Johnston (the inspiration for John Patterson) makes a cameo appearance as the voice of a mailman.
Then in 1992, Lacewood Productions (Katie and Orbie, Hoze Houndz, The Nutcracker Prince) produced six more animated TV specials, which aired on CTV in Canada and Disney Channel in the States. These were the July 1992 special The Last Camping Trip, another Christmas special called The Christmas Angel (also in 1992), a 1992 Halloween Special called The Good-for-Nothing (Halloween), a 1993 Valentine's special called A Valentine from the Heart, the September 1993 special The Babe Magnet (a.k.a. The Sweet Deal), and the June 1997 special A Storm in April. These specials actually had a bit of an impact on the strip itself, as Lynn Johnston's involvement in designs the sets ended up influencing how she drew the strip and resulted in the backgrounds being given greater detail and a more sophisticated look.
Finally, in 2000, Funbag Animation (Freaky Stories, Toad Patrol, King) produced a full-blown animated television series for Teletoon. This series took a more Slice of Life approach to things, with every episode featuring Three Shorts from different eras of the strip — the mid-1980s (labelled "The Early Years"), the early 1990s (or "The Growing Years"), and the late 1990s (called "The Later Years") — with each short also being accompanied by a short adaptation of a strip from that era. Each episode also featured an introduction from Lynn Johnston herself, in which she would chat about the Central Theme shared across all three shorts while also drawing something related to said theme. This TV series ran for two seasons with eight episodes each between November 5, 2000 and December 16, 2001.
This page contains examples from all three works.
These works contain examples of:
- Adaptation Amalgamation: As Brian Enjo is cut out of the Teletoon shorts, Lawrence assumes his personality traits.
- Adaptation Expansion: The Teletoon segment "A New Year" is this for New Year’s Eve 1997 (when Mike announced that he loved Deanna). In the strip, we never saw what the Pattersons were doing at home that New Year’s Eve, nor Tracey showing Deanna around her house.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The Patterclan as a whole.
- Adapted Out: Mike’s second girlfriend, Rhetta. Also applies to his friend Brian, although Brian’s sister Dawn does appear.
- Meredith and Robin do not appear as the series ended before they were born into the strip.
- Surprisingly averted with April’s two friends, Becky and Duncan. They appear in one episode each.
- Also averted with the Pattersons’ neighbors. Connie appears in five of the Teletoon segments, and Anne and Steve Nichols appear once.
- Actually,Brian does make a brief appearance,but its briefness justifies his remaining under this entry.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Michael in the Teletoon segment "Jingle Jingle, Mrs. Dingle".
- Ascended Extra: Minor strip character Allyson Creemore in the Lacewood specials. Michael’s girlfriend Martha also counts as this. A third example is Gordon’s wife, Tracey, who actually gets a bit of dialogue in her three appearances in the Teletoon shorts.
- Babies Ever After: Although the Teletoon timeline doesn’t extend as far as showing Mike and Deanna’s children, Gordon and Tracey’s son Paul puts in an appearance - twice!
- Call-Back: Although never directly seen, the death of Farley the dog is mentioned by Michael in the episode "Farley’s Day".
- Cool Big Sis: Elizabeth Patterson is pretty much this in both the Lacewood and Teletoon cartoons.
- The Cutie: April, in both the Lacewood specials and the Teletoon segments. Also Liz, to a lesser extent.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: In the Teletoon show's episode segment 'A Tent's Situation', Michael, Gordon, and Lawrence go to the campground where Elly has taken Elizabeth and her friends to prank them. While waiting for the girls to return to their camp site after setting up parts of the prank, they head to the park lake to go skinny dipping. Unfortunately for the guys, Michael accidentally leaves his initialed knife at the girls camp, alerting the girls to their presence. While they're swimming, the girls steal their clothes from the beach and place them on a clothes line back at the camp. As the guys retrieve their clothes, assuming the girls are asleep, the girls jump out with flashlights and surprise them. The guys, covering their fronts with their clothes, run off screaming in embarrassment with their bare butts facing the girls who end the segment laughing their heads off.
- In-Series Nickname: Lizardbreath, for Liz.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Teletoon!Martha is implied to be this.
- Noodle Incident: Farley’s death, the car accident after which Michael and Deanna reconnected, how Mike and Martha met, basically almost anything that actually received a storyline in the strip.
- Averted with April’s birth,which received its own special.
- Sibling Rivalry: Michael and Elizabeth, just as in the strip.
- Twinkle Smile: April has one.
- Vague Age: In the Teletoon segments, especially the Later Years.
