Lasagna Cat (partially found unreleased/prototype episodes of "Garfield" parody web series; 2008-2017)
Lasagna Cat is a YouTube web series created by Zachary Johnson and Jeffery Max/Fatal Farm, served as a parody of Jim Davis' popular Garfield comic strip. Each episode consists of two parts; a live-action re-enactment of a Garfield strip, paired with a "tribute to Jim Davis", which is almost always a music skit relating to the strip used. The series recieved praise from online communities for its surreal editing and humor, intriguing continuity and clever jabs taken at Garfield's apparent mediocricy.
The series ran for two seasons, the first one releasing on January 14th, 2008, and the second on February 23th, 2017. The footage of the second season was actually shot pretty shortly after the first, but the production of it went through development hell; up to 22 episodes were shot, but only 12 ended up being released (not counting the infamous Sex Survey Results video), as Fatal Farm couldn't come up with something satisfying with the rest.[1][2] The released episodes also went through heavy revising thorough the years.
Shelved episodes
Although no exact details are known about the 10 alleged shelved episodes, the original 1 (800) 591-3274 trailer of season two contains some unidentified footage, possibly from one of the episodes.
Starting at 1:05, in-between Jon talking are three unidentified clips of Odie holding a trombone and wearing a costume, as explosions go off around him, eventually forcing him to cover his ears in the third clip. It is currently unknown what song were the clips referencing, or if the clips were part of an episode at all, rather than just being made for the trailer.
Episode prototypes
As Fatal Farm experimented with the recorded season two footage, there was bound to be several revisions made of the episodes.
On November 17th, 2008, the Lasagna Cat cast did a live performance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.[3] The cast would perform the comic strip parts live (while the original strip was displayed), then show the music skit on a projector. Four episodes were shown; the previously released 01/19/1987 & 05/16/1987, and two then-unreleased episodes, 07/30/2000 & 06/19/2002. The latter two's music skits are notable for being drastically different/"lower budget" than the YouTube counterparts eventually released in 2017. The original title card format and laugh sound effect was also used here, both getting replaced in the final version of season two. Almost the whole performance was uploaded by YouTube user VonRankinstein, although in low quality.
It can be assumed that more episodes were made around this era with the "lower budget" feel, ready for a nearby release before getting delayed and revised for 2017.
Availability
Fatal Farm has shown interest in continuing the series, which might mean revisiting of the shelved episodes.[4][5] The prototype episodes will probably not be released however, for obvious reasons.
External Link
- IMDb page on Lasagna Cat. Retrieved 24 Aug '19
References
- ↑ The Nerdy Show's interview with Fatal Farm, mostly focusing on Lasagna Cat. Retrieved 24 Aug '19
- ↑ ConsequenceOfSound.net's condensed, written version of the Nerdy Show interview. Retrieved 24 Aug '19
- ↑ The LACMA videos' uploader explaining the background story of the clips. Retrieved 24 Aug '19
- ↑ /r/LasagnaCat post where Zachary states that an ARG may be done "next time", indicating a possible return. Retrieved 24 Aug '19
- ↑ Lasagna Cat's twitter page, which is still fairly active. Retrieved 24 Aug '19