A couple of folks who read this post about The Garfield Show wrote to me with concerns/questions like Judy Fiske's…
Say it isn't so. I read what you posted about how Season 5 of The Garfield Show is only four episodes and there may not be a Season 6. Why would Boomerang cancel such a great show? Please tell me it is not in danger as I just read on another website.
It is not in danger as you just read on another website. Or at least, it's not in danger if Boomerang cancels it, which they probably won't do because the ratings are quite good.
I guess I should have explained a little more than I did. The Garfield Show is not produced for Boomerang. In fact, I think we were well into doing Season 2 before that company — the division of Time-Warner that also owns Cartoon Network — bought it, first for C.N., then for both, then for Boomerang.
The show is done principally for the France 3 network and sold to many nations around this planet. The Cartoon Network folks purchased the right to broadcast it in certain countries including America. There's a long, complicated explanation of how it is decided if and when we will produce new episodes but it has very little to do with any one channel except for France 3.
CN/Boomerang can acquire whatever new episodes are made and they do…though they waited more than a year to begin airing episodes from Season 4 because the first three seasons were rerunning so well. I assume they'll continue to run the package as long as the ratings hold up and it fits into the general thinking of their schedule. And I assume that if and when they drop it, someone else will grab it. (If I were running the Food Network, I'd snatch it up and sell all the commercial time to lasagna companies.)
What I'm getting at is that the business model is quite different from the way most of us in this country think TV programming works. We think that, for example, CBS buys a series and then that series is produced to CBS specifications and then when CBS cancels it, that series disappears unless some other network grabs it up then.
With a program like The Garfield Show, the math is a little more complicated but it runs on a whole roster of channels around the globe and the episodes are rerun over and over…and those reruns will always be available to any channel that wants them so long as no other channel has that jurisdiction locked up. And then at times, there's enough demand for new episodes to justify the huge expense of making more. This show costs a lot of loot to produce.
I am fairly certain it will be around in some form and on some channel for some time. I just don't know yet when any of the current plans to make more might solidify. I'll let you know when that happens, assuming that happens. Gee, I hope that happens.
