Kid Show of the Week

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Watertender Francis Kelly (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on June 2, 1898, in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. His citation reads:

In connection with the sinking of the U.S.S. Merrimac at the entrance to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, 2 June 1898. Despite heavy fire from the Spanish batteries, Kelly displayed extraordinary heroism throughout this operation.

Corporal John JH Kelly (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on September 9, 1874, at Upper Wichita, Texas. His citation reads:

Gallantry in action.

Private John Joseph Kelly (US Marine Corps) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on October 3, 1918, at Blanc Mont Ridge, France. His citation reads:

Also received the Army Medal of Honor. Pvt. Kelly ran through our own barrage 100 yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machinegun nest, killing the gunner with a grenade, shooting another member of the crew with his pistol, and returning through the barrage with 8 prisoners.


The I’m just sayin… Kid Show of the Week

Our Kid Show of the Week this week is Garfield and Friends. Garfield and Friends is a cartoon series based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate and Paws, Inc., and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with reruns airing until October 7, 1995. The show's seven seasons make it one of the longest running Saturday morning cartoons in history, with most lasting no more than two or three seasons.

Regular segments feature both Garfield and U.S. Acres, a lesser-known comic strip also created by Davis. The latter was retitled Orson's Farm for foreign syndication, as that was the name of the comic strip outside of the United States. A total of 121 episodes were made, each consisting of two Garfield segments and one U.S. Acres segments, totaling 242 Garfield segments and 121 U.S. Acres segments. All episodes have been released in the U.S. on five DVD sets by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The first season aired in a half-hour format. In the second season, it switched to an hour-length format, showing two episodes each week. However, in the show's last season, the second half-hour of the show featured either an episode from the previous season or one of Garfield's TV specials.

The characters included:

Garfield (Voiced by Lorenzo Music): A fat, lazy orange tabby, who wants nothing more out of life than to eat and sleep. He has a penchant for consuming lasagna, enjoys tormenting Odie, and likes trying to mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi. He made a small handful of appearances on U.S. Acres (once wearing nothing but a black mask over his eyes as his "disguise"), but was more often seen in the form of various pieces of Garfield merchandise the characters appeared to own. Deep down, Garfield loves Jon and Odie. While Garfield's mouth doesn't move, the audience hears his thoughts.

Jon Arbuckle (Voiced by Thom Huge): Garfield's owner, a bachelor cartoonist who has poor luck with women and a somewhat nerdy demeanor. He is often annoyed by some of Garfield's antics, and also has an unrequited love for Dr. Liz. Whenever Garfield gets in trouble, Jon will punish him by taking him to the vet. Jon also has a mission set before him: get Garfield to do the right thing. Jon occasionally forces Garfield to hunt and catch mice, which is always unsuccessful due to Garfield not wanting to eat mice and his friendship with Floyd.

Odie (Voiced by Gregg Berger): A beagle who used to belong to Jon's former roommate Lyman (who never appeared on the show, but was a character who appeared in the earliest comic strips). Is often kicked off the kitchen table by Garfield. Looks incredibly stupid and gullible, but is actually much more cunning and smart than he lets on. Odie is the only animal character who doesn't communicate with any form of dialogue, solely communicating with body language and his enthusiastic barking and other dog sound effects, although Garfield is able to understand what he says.

Nermal (Voiced by Desiree Goyette): A cute grey tabby kitten who's the self-proclaimed "World's Cutest Kitty Cat". Nermal seems kind and playful, but likes to annoy Garfield and brag about how much cuter he is. Garfield often attempts (usually unsuccessfully) to mail him to Abu Dhabi as a result. Though officially considered a male, Nermal's feminine preoccupation with being cute, and the fact that a woman provides a childlike voice of ambiguous gender for Nermal, allowed the character to be mistaken for a female cat, to the point that in the first two seasons of the show, the Spanish version featured Nermal as a female kitten named "Thelma".

Pooky: Garfield's teddy bear and sleeping companion who Jon is jealous of. Found in a drawer, he is Garfield's only toy. Garfield adopted his alter ego "The Caped Avenger" after temporarily losing Pooky.

Binky The Clown (Voiced by Thom Huge): A loud, obnoxious clown who appeared a few times in the strip before becoming a regular on the show. Within the series, Binky has his own TV show that Garfield and Odie try to avoid watching. Binky once had his own segment on the series called "Screaming With Binky" that was the length of a Quickie and ran at the midway point of an hour episode—Most of these segments were removed in syndication. Screaming with Binky segments were only aired in seasons 2 and 3 (1989–1991) of the show, and some were re-aired for a month after eight weeks of season 4 and 5 episodes (Nov.1991-Sep.1993). His catchphrase is, "Heeeeeey, kiiiiiiids!", but to Garfield he yells "Heeeeeeeeeeeey, cat!" Binky the Clown was a reoccurring character for the first three seasons, but was removed beginning season four. He made a brief cameo appearance in a season 7 episode "The Feline Philosopher", where Binky then threw pies and discusses how he used to be part of an act to Odie.

Herman Post: (Voiced by Gregg Berger): A mailman who loves delivering the mail. He is constantly the victim of booby traps set by Garfield. As with Binky, he rarely appeared after season three.

Dr. Liz Wilson (Voiced by Julie Payne): Garfield's sarcastic veterinarian and Jon's main love interest. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters often due to Garfield's actions. She just appeared for the show's first two seasons.

I won’t list all of the minor characters of the show, but I did want to mention Dr. Garbonzo Bean (A mad scientist who is responsible for creating robot versions of Odie. He appeared in the second season and again two years later, complete with a flashback.). Why? Because he was voiced by Frank Welker (who, as I’ve told you, worked on every great cartoon).

This is another GREAT show to watch with your kids.

Thanks for the info Wikipedia!