Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989): A Cold Turkey but a Warm Slice of Nostalgia

Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989) follows our favorite lasagna-loving cat as he battles a dreaded diet and navigates Jon’s disastrous attempts at holiday cooking. Luckily, Grandma saves the day.

Thanksgiving television in the late 1980s had its own rhythm: football games, parades, and a handful of animated specials that promised family warmth and familiar laughs. Among them, one pudgy orange cat waddled onto the screen with a full plate of sarcasm and stuffing.

Garfield’s Thanksgiving premiered on CBS in November 1989 and combined two of America’s greatest passions — food and cats — into a 24-minute celebration of overindulgence, chaos, and comfort.

It captures everything viewers loved about Jim Davis’ lazy feline while wrapping it all in cozy holiday spirit. 

Save

The Garfield Specials: A Holiday Tradition

Before Garfield strutted across Saturday-morning screens in Garfield and Friends, which featured short cartoon segments and recurring jokes, the orange cat first made his mark on television through a series of animated specials. 

These half-hour primetime programs brought Jim Davis’ beloved comic strip to life in standalone stories, combining humor and heart. 

The journey began with Here Comes Garfield (1982), followed by classics such as Garfield on the Town (1983), Garfield in the Rough (1984), and A Garfield Christmas (1987). 

By 1989, Garfield had starred in ten of these specials, each offering fans a self-contained adventure that expanded on the comic strip’s universe.

Save

Garfield’s Thanksgiving is part of this rich tradition. It was the tenth in that lineup and the third to revolve around a holiday, following Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (1985) and A Garfield Christmas (1987).

Together, these formed an unofficial holiday trilogy, each spotlighting a different side of the famously cynical cat. Where Halloween leaned spooky and Christmas sentimental, Thanksgiving let Garfield do what he does best: eat.

A Feast of a Plot

The story begins with Garfield demanding breakfast.

Unfortunately, his morning takes a turn when he spots an ominous note on the calendar: today’s vet day. This sends Garfield into panic mode.

Jon drags Garfield to see Dr. Liz Wilson — Jon’s longtime crush and Garfield’s least favorite person.

Liz tells Jon that Garfield is overweight and needs to go on a diet.

To Garfield, this sounds less like medical advice and more like a personal tragedy, especially with Thanksgiving just around the corner. Or as Garfield states it, “the day people celebrate having food by eating as much of it as possible!”

Back home, Garfield’s worst nightmare begins.

His bowl holds only half a lettuce leaf, and Odie stands guard with a whistle, blowing it the moment Garfield tries to sneak a snack. It’s pure torture.

The following day marks Thanksgiving and Jon’s first date with Liz.

Jon dreams of impressing her with a homemade Thanksgiving feast. 

There’s only one issue: he can’t cook.

Garfield, still bitter over his diet, does nothing to help.

That’s when Garfield comes up with a brilliant idea: call Grandma Arbuckle.

Save

Jon’s motorcycle-riding, tough-talking grandmother indeed rescues the day (and the meal). 

With pots clanging and pans flying, she turns the culinary catastrophe into a picture-perfect Thanksgiving dinner. 

(By the way, Grandma Arbuckle’s Thanksgiving menu has become a bit of a legend. You can find her recipe below!)

As everyone gathers around the table, Garfield finally gets what he’s been waiting for: a full plate and a full heart.

The special closes on Garfield and Odie, too stuffed to move, deciding to go on post-dinner “exercise duty.”

Themes: Food, Family, and a Little Bit of Self-Control

While the special keeps the humor front and center, its charm lies in how it quietly mirrors real holiday life. 

Everyone has their own Thanksgiving struggle: Garfield wants to eat, Jon wants to impress, Liz wants some sanity, and Grandma just wants to get things done.

In the middle of it all sits the idea of indulgence versus restraint. It’s a perfect theme for both Garfield and Thanksgiving. 

Save

The cat’s diet subplot plays like a metaphor for every human who promises to “be good” during the holidays, only to cave when the turkey hits the table. Garfield’s inevitable surrender to food feels both funny and relatable.

As such, Garfield’s Thanksgiving celebrates the messy, human parts of the holiday: failed recipes, contradictory expectations, and the simple joy of sharing food.

The Voice of Garfield

Lorenzo Music was the original voice of Garfield and played the role for nearly 20 years.

He started with Here Comes Garfield in 1982, which was the very first animated Garfield special, and continued through every single one that followed, right up to Garfield Gets a Life in 1991.

After that, Lorenzo Music kept voicing the famous cat in Garfield and Friends from 1988 until the show ended in 1994. 

Sadly, he passed away in 2001, so later versions of Garfield were done by others. 

Bill Murray took over in the live-action movies, Garfield (2004) and Garfield 2 (2006). Frank Welker became Garfield’s voice in newer animated shows like The Garfield Show. And Chris Pratt gave him new life in the more recent The Garfield Movie (2024).

The Other Voice Cast Members

The other voice actors weren’t always the same from one special to the next, though.

In the very first TV special, Here Comes Garfield, actor Sandy Kenyon voiced Jon. Thom Huge took over after that and became the familiar Jon in nearly all the later specials, as well as in Garfield and Friends.

Save

Julie Payne first brought Dr. Liz Wilson to life in Garfield on the Town (1983). She continued portraying Liz in several subsequent specials and later on in Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show, where she also played other characters.

Pat Carroll gave her first performance as Grandma Arbuckle in A Garfield Christmas (1987). She reprised the role just once more, in Garfield’s Thanksgiving, making these two specials the only ones to feature her take on the beloved grandmother.

Garfield’s Thanksgiving Book

Several key changes make the Garfield’s Thanksgiving book stand apart from the animated version.

Garfield’s hunger gets the spotlight this time. He’s starving and exhausted, but without Odie or the scale to torment him. Meanwhile, Jon is too focused on impressing Liz to see that his cat is miserable.

When the big day arrives, Garfield’s frustration boils over. He secretly ruins Jon’s cooking out of spite, pours dish detergent into the vegetables, and dumps salt into the pumpkin pie.

Jon’s kitchen ends up a total disaster. The turkey never thaws, the vegetables bubble like soap, and the pie comes out burned. Jon calls Grandma for help—without Garfield needing to suggest it.

By the end, no one mentions diets or disasters anymore. All three agree on one thing: Grandma saved Thanksgiving.

Grandma Arbuckle’s Thanksgiving Menu

Everyone who loves the Garfield Thanksgiving special wants to try Grandma Arbuckle’s recipes at least once.

They include turkey croquettes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, split-second cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

Below are the recipes:

Save

Turkey Croquettes

• Combine a white sauce (made with parsley, lemon juice, and grated onion) with cooked turkey.
• Mix the turkey-sauce mixture and form it into balls.
• Roll the balls in breadcrumbs and deep-fry them.

Sweet Potatoes

• Prepare sweet potatoes and top them with butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows.

“Split-Second”Cranberry Sauce

• Grandma Arbuckle’s “split-second” cranberry sauce is simple — just open a can of ready-made cranberry sauce and serve.

Pumkin Pie

• Mix pumpkin purée with sugar, eggs, milk, and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Pour into a pie crust and bake until the filling is firm and fragrant.

Save

Final Thoughts

Are you planning on revisiting the Garfield Thanksgiving movie this holiday season? Will you be trying Grandma Arbuckle’s Thanksgiving recipes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Watch Garfield’s Thanksgiving on YouTube

About the Author

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampires Movies, Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children, and Meow! Cats in Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Movies. She also published one cat book (Avalon) and four supernatural thrillers (Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders). Three of her stories became movies. She introduces movie screenings at several European cinemas and film festivals and is also a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Brussels. When she is not writing, you will probably find her eating out or taking photos of felines for her website, Traveling Cats.

Discover more cat movies in my book Meow! Cats in Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Movies.

Save