3914: The Twilight Zone, starring Garfield
| The Twilight Zone, starring Garfield |
 Made by: A Guy Called Squid |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
The Twilight Zone is a 1959 anthology series created and hosted by Rod Serling. Each episode tells a standalone story involving characters in supernatural or surreal events, with the occasional twist ending or moral. The series was such a success in it's time that it spawned an entire franchise with new stories to tell, including 3 revival series in different decades, with the most recent revival airing from 2019-2020 and hosted by Jordan Peele. In recognition of that series, the author made a retelling of the notorious October 1989 Garfield strips inspired by the original series.
In the strips being adapted here, Garfield wakes up to find himself all alone in an abandoned, rundown version of his house. With no sign of Jon or Odie anywhere, and no clue how much time has passed, he's left faced with his greatest fear: loneliness. Fortunately, the final strip reveals that it was all a bad dream, and Garfield finds that the world has returned to normal, and he isn't alone anymore. In keeping with the tone of the original Twilight Zone series, all of the strips are shown in black and white, and the story is preceded by an opening monologue from Rod Serling accompanied by the first panel of a strip from earlier in the month (the 11th), which sees Garfield eating Jon's lasagna and trying to frame his teddy bear, Pooky, for it. The transcript further suggests that the dialogue that isn't coming from any of the characters is further dialogue from Serling.
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
Made in recognition of the recent Twilight Zone revival.
Original strips: 1989-10-11, 1989-10-23, 1989-10-24, 1989-10-25, 1989-10-26, 1989-10-27, 1989-10-28.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Title Card: The Twilight Zone
{Garfield runs up behind Jon and eats his lasagna}
SFX: ZIP
SFX: GULP!
Rod Serling: "Indiana, 1989. Spotlight on Garfield, an ordinary housecat with an extraordinary appetite. His idyllic life of food and sloth is about to be turned inside out, for he is about to enter...The Twilight Zone."
Garfield: Brr, there's a chill in here this morning
Garfield: What an eerie sensation...
Garfield: This doesn't feel like my home
Garfield: Jon? Odie?
Garfield: Anybody home?
Garfield: I'm alone
Garfield: Steady, Garfield. There must be a good reason why the house is empty
Garfield: Jon must be at the grocery
Garfield: My home as been abandoned. No one has lived here for years!
Garfield: But, that means... I haven't lived here for years!
Garfield: What's that?!
Garfield: Jon! Odie! You're home!
Jon: Hello, Garfield. Have some food
Narrator: Locked fast within a time when he no longer exists, Garfield
grapples with his greatest fear... Loneliness
Rod Serling: After years of taking life for granted, Garfield is shaken by a horrifying vision of the inevitable process called "Time". He only has one weapon...
Rod Serling: Denial
Garfield: I don't want to be alone!
Jon: Want some breakfast, Garfield?
Garfield: Who needs it? I need you!
Rod Serling: An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice... or terrify, all depending upon how we conduct ourselves today...
