GARFIELD AND TREMENDOUS! TEAM UP TO CELEBRATE A QUARTER CENTURY OF BIG FAT HAIRY FUN!


28th Aug 2002 SSA Public Relations

The World's Favorite Fat Cat Turns 25
Tremendous! Entertainment, a leading TV and film producer, distributor and rights acquisition company, has secured the international television rights to the popular animated television series, Garfield & Friends, on the eve of the tubby tabby's 25th birthday.

To mark the big event, Tremendous! Entertainment will produce and distribute a Garfield 25th anniversary television special for broadcast in the U.S. and around the world in conjunction with the release of the animated series and Garfield primetime specials.

Garfield, the cynical, lasagna-loving, Monday-hating, dog-punting, mailman-mauling cat will be reintroduced to international broadcasters at this year's MIPCOM Jr. and MIPCOM 2002. The notoriously lazy fat cat has also agreed to make a personal appearance at the market to be held in October in Cannes, France, contingent on the approval of a "lasagna clause" in the cat's contract.

"Garfield is one of those exceptional characters that viewers of all ages love," said Colleen Needles Steward, President of Tremendous! Entertainment. "At the risk of this going to his head, we are delighted to be associated with such a celebrated worldwide superstar."

Under terms of its agreement with Paws, Inc. and Lee Mendelson Film Productions, co-owners of the Garfield television property, Tremendous! will distribute 121 half-hour programs entitled, Garfield & Friends, as well as 12 stand-alone prime-time specials, three of which will be holiday related.

Garfield's 25th Anniversary Special is slated to begin production in January 2003, for broadcast in June 2003 and Tremendous! Entertainment will release special home video and DVD Collector Editions in fall 2003. Introduced in 1978 by cartoonist Jim Davis, GARFIELD made its debut in just 41 newspapers. Today, GARFIELD is the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world running in 2,570 newspapers worldwide with an estimated 263 million daily readers.

The franchise has licenses in books, toys and other merchandise in 111 countries around the world, ranking it as one of the highest grossing animated properties of all time. Paws, Inc., the creative and marketing company founded by Davis in 1981, licenses Garfield.

"I'm delighted Garfield will be in the good hands of the talented and experienced folks at Tremendous! Entertainment. The 25th anniversary of Garfield provides an excellent backdrop for the release of our TV library. It is especially exciting to know that Tremendous! will open doors into some markets where Garfield TV and video has never been seen before," said Garfield cartoonist Davis.

Based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Tremendous! Entertainment, Inc.(TEI) has emerged as an industry-leading, fully integrated film, television, video and music production and distribution company. As a leading independent distributor, TEI has achieved successful representation associations with many of the world's most prominent entertainment companies, including such prestigious programming partners as acclaimed reality producer Termite Art Productions, leading public broadcaster-producer WNET, top documentary production company Atlas Media and publishing phenomenon Chicken Soup for the Soul. As a producer of original programming, Tremendous! is actively engaged in a wide array of film, television, home video and music projects.

CONTACT:

SSA Public Relations
Los Angeles: Sabrina Propper (818) 501-0700
New York: Blanche Frankel (212) 679-4750
London: Jamie Lynn 44-(20)-7494-2833