When I was younger I used to be completely obsessed with everything Garfield. I remember the TV we had up until I was about five years old was one of those big box TV’s with the built- in VHS tape player. I don’t remember what happened to it but I do remember getting a big flat screen TV at Sam’s Club before starting Kindergarten. When we got the new TV, we also got Netflix. I remember the first time I went on Netflix my dad helped me set up a kids account and together we scrolled through the shows. The first show I saw that caught my attention was this picture of an orange tabby cat with black stripes eating lasagna and a yellow-tan dog with long brown ears and a brown spot on his side. As soon as I saw that picture I knew I wanted to watch the show. I told my dad to press play on The Garfield Show so he did. I immediately loved the show. The first episode was called “Pasta Wars” and it showed Garfield’s birthday. Instead of Garfield having a cake, he had lasagna. As Garfield had finished scarfing down his lasagna, he noticed that he was missing one. He had one square of lasagna for each year of his age. He called over John, his owner, and signaled that one of the squares was missing. John immediately started freaking out and ran to the kitchen to make another square of lasagna but he didn’t have enough ingredients so he had to run to the store. Garfield decided to take a nap while John was gone and sometime during that nap Garfield woke up to a plate of lasagna. He was overly joyed and went to eat the lasagna but the lasagna begged him not to eat it. Garfield was so confused and probably a little bit scared too. The lasagna used this to its advantage and jumped out of the way and ran off. Garfield, of course, thought he was hallucinating so he went to his bed to hide under the covers. While Garfield was hiding, Odie went outside to investigate. He looked into a bush and saw the Space Lasagna talking into something. Odie immediately rushed inside to where Garfield was to let him know he wasn’t crazy and the Space Lasagna was real. When Garfield gets up to go check, he sees that there’s more Space Lasagna and freaks out and hides in their garage leaving Odie to fend for himself. The Space Lasagna crawl into the house using the doggie door and tie Odie up and leave him as they search the house for the fat orange cat, their enemy. While the Space Lasagna are looking for Garfield upstairs, Garfield gathers up the courage to exit the garage and untie Odie. After untying Odie, Garfield goes upstairs to where the Space Lasagna are and confronts them. The Space Lasagna are already terrified because they stumbled across John’s computer playing an edited six hour video of Garfield eating lasagna nonstop. When Garfield sees the Space Lasagna, he confronts them and they scream and run away to their spaceship leaving Garfield and Odie very confused. As Garfield and Odie follow the Space Lasagna outside, they find that they were too late as they watch the Space Lasagna fleeing Earth in fear of the fat orange beast.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve seen this episode so I’m sure I’ve gotten a few details wrong but I’ve remembered most of it. As I finish writing this blog in my room, I look up and see a sign that I got when I was in 6th grade, back when I was still obsessed with Garfield. It has a picture of Garfield on it and it says, “Keep your attitude I have my own!”
My sister loves this show. And she even got me an Odie plushie before I left for MSA.