Garfield's 9 Lives is the one-hour-long television adaptation produced in 1988 featured ten separate segments, just like the book. Six of these were adapted from the book, and an additional four were newly written for the show. "Babes and Bullets" was adapted into a television special of its own, Garfield's Babes and Bullets, the following year, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program of 1989. "The Vikings", "The Exterminators," and "Primal Self" have never been adapted for television. The special is included on the DVD Garfield's Fantasies.
- "In the Beginning" (directed by Phil Roman): Unlike the rest of the special, this prologue sequence is shot in live-action. (The scene where the angels question why God gives cats nine lives varies slightly from the storybook version; God's feline features are not seen—yet; he simply states that it might make a great plot for a story.)
- "Cave Cat" (directed by Phil Roman and George Singer): "In my first life, I formulated many of my likes and dislikes. I disliked my rock bed. On the other hand, you wouldn't believe the size of the Pteranodon drumsticks." Evolution takes place as cat first swims out of the sea into its neanderthal-like state.
- "King Cat" (directed by Phil Roman and John Sparey): "2000 B.C. was a good year to be a cat in Egypt. We were revered, even worshipped. Ah, for the good old days." In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh's sacred cat discovers what happens to him if the Pharaoh dies. "King Cat" must try to defend the king from his evil brother to prevent this fate. This was the first of the new segments introduced in the special. Since cats were worshipped in Ancient Egypt, it was in this life where Garfield developed his love for being pampered and waited on.
- "In the Garden" (directed by Phil Roman and Ruth Kissane): "My third life was my favorite. My body grew old, but I never, never, never grew up." A young kitten and its human companion are tempted by a mysterious box in the middle of a wonderful garden.
- "Court Musician" (directed by Bob Scott): "I learned to think on my feet in my fourth life. Thinking was okay, I guess, but now I avoid it whenever possible." The king demands a concerto from "Freddie" Handel, and if the king doesn't enjoy it ... Under the pressure of a deadline, "Freddie" delegates the concerto's finale to his pet, one of Garfield's incarnations, a blue cat in this life. Like "King Cat," this segment and the following two were created specifically for television. Although he learned to think on his feet in this life, Garfield now avoids such thinking if at all possible.
- "Stunt Cat" (directed by Phil Roman, Bill Littlejohn and Bob Nesler): "Life No. 5 was short..." Garfield is (briefly) a stunt double forKrazy Kat. According to Garfield, his life as a stunt double was his shortest.
- "Diana's Piano" (directed by Doug Frankel): "Six must be my lucky number, because that's the life I fell in love with music. I also fell in love with a girl who played the piano just for me." A young girl, Sara, receives a cat, Diana, who goes with her everywhere, especially to piano lessons. This is the only one of Garfield's lives, in either the book or special, where the cat is explicitly identified as female. The story itself is told in a flashback, with the animation reminiscent of watercolor paintings. In addition, the story is closer than any of the others to reality; the cat, Diana, is just a normal cat. Taking into account the fact that Sara would play the piano only for Diana, Garfield considers this life as his luckiest since he developed a love for music in it.
- "Lab Animal" (directed by Phil Roman and Doug Frankel): "In my seventh life, I was a laboratory animal. To this day, every time I see a test tube, I throw up." Test animal 19-GB makes a daring escape to avoid dissection. 19-GB's appearance was similar to that of Oliver from Oliver the Kitten Films and Oliver & Company and the story and animation was similar to The Plague Dogs. Garfield's commentary varies slightly from the book, saying that he becomes nauseous at the sight of scientific equipment rather than medical equipment.
- "Garfield" (directed by Phil Roman, John Sparey and Bob Nesler): "All that I ever was made me what I am in my eighth life. Somehow it's falling short of my expectations..." Dating back to 1978, Garfield is born and soon taken in by Jon, who then buys Odie.
- "Space Cat" (directed by Phil Roman, John Sparey and Bob Nesler): "I'd like to think I'll live forever, but hey, I'm only human. Here's a sneak preview of my ninth life." In a "sneak preview" of his ninth life, Garfield and Odie try to retaliate when the IHGWF (led by "Commander Mendelson", named after Film Roman producer Lee Mendelson) threatens to destroy them.
- Garfield and Odie are killed at the end of Space Cat, and meet God in the afterlife. Because the odds were so unfairly stacked against Garfield and Odie (and because God hadn't been able to keep track of the lives Garfield had lived through due to Heaven's computers being down at the time), the pair are given all nine lives back. After they vanish, the special concludes when God, with his cat-like eyes now visible, says "We have to stick together, you know."
Cast[]
- Lorenzo Music - Garfield
- Thom Huge - Jon / Caveman #1 / "Junior" / Soldier / Computer
- Gregg Berger - Odie / Jester / Scientist #1 / Narrator: Cave Cat
Additional Voices[]
- Desirée Goyette - Chloe / Sara: Diana's Piano
- Nino Tempo - Luigi / Black Bart
- Hal Smith - George Frideric Handel / Scientist #2
- Sandi Huge - Garfield's Mom
- Carolyn Davis - Old Sara: Diana's Piano
- Frank Welker - Mendelsen
- C. Lindsay Workman - God
- Heather Kerr
- Ed Bogas