Out of many phenomenons happening in cyberspace, I have never understood the one revolving around the argument, which franchise is better: Garfield or Heathcliff.
When you google this topic, you will notice that the fanbase is basically divided between those, who prefer Jim Davis's creations and those, who are more fond of George Gately's one. The material varies from quite sophisticated sources like this one https://kittentoob.com/argument-heathcliff-garfield/ to quite biased jokes like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbfOg45a-k which is funny indeed except that Garfield also has his own dates in comics strips and motion pictures, what the author of this video clip either failed to check or his ignorance is too deep to comprehend. And there are also amateur media going below the border of good taste (I shall not present those, check them yourself).
Certain arguments claim, that Garfield has to be Heathcliff's rip-off, which does not seem to make much sense at all. Sure, both felines are orange tabby males, who share the joys of eating, being mischievous and hanging around with the opposite gender, not necessarily the mainstream ones:
- Heathcliff was seen betraying Sonja with at least a couple of females ( Revenge of the Kitty is one example)
- so was Garfield in Garfield and Friends - Arlene was replaced with Lola, Miss Kitty, Gwendolyn, Penelope Pussycat, Mona and Lorelei (depends on the episode - check the Garfield Wiki https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Garfield%27s_Dates )
Still, the differences between characters are visible at first glance. Heathcliff is far more adventurous than Garfield (least in the comic strips) and he does not harass his owners, while Garfield torments Jon quite regularly in the media.
Personally, I enjoy both franchises quite equally - both have their own unique pros and are quite enjoyable to watch. I only regret that fully-dubbed Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats was shown in my homeland back in the 1990s and we had to wait till 2009 to have two and a half of a season of Garfield and Friends dubbed here.
PS. I have also noticed, that two Garfield dates https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/Lola and https://garfield.fandom.com/wiki/Gwendolyn do resemble Sonja a bit - just compare them in the photos below:
