with its seventh season. Episodes Garfield and Friends consists of 121 episodes in total, airing in seven seasons. Reception and legacy At the time of the series' release, critical reviews on it were generally negative. Charles Solomon of The Los Angeles Times wrote in 1988, "Garfield has lost all his feline qualities and become a crabby little man in a cat suit. With more than 3,500 Garfield products on the market, does anyone really need to see more of the character?" Gene Seymour of The Pittsburgh Press rated the show "D-", saying that the show "tries too hard to be hip" and "the jokes are flat". The quality of Garfield and Friends when compared with other 1980s animated television series is considered by animation historian Jerry Beck to "foreshadow the higher quality animation boom coming in the next decade". Hal Erickson says that "Garfield and Friends rapidly became the hub around which the rest of CBS' morning lineup was built," and it "seemed to get better with each passing season." Home media Region 1 In response to the financial success of Garfield: The Movie, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released all seven seasons of Garfield and Friends to Region 1 DVD in five volume box sets, with each set having 24-25 episodes on three discs. Each set features an image of Garfield with a U.S. Acres character. These DVD sets show the original telecast versions, rather than the edited versions once seen in syndication and on cable networks. As of October 2013, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print. On May 25, 2016, 9 Story Media Group announced that they had acquired worldwide distribution rights to Garfield and Friends and planned to remaster the series in HD and re-release it on DVD. On January 15, 2019, 9 Story Media Group (distributed by Public Media Distribution through its SkipRope label) released a best-of set entitled 20 Garfield Stories on DVD in Region 1. They have subsequently begun re-releasing the series on DVD in Region 1 in complete season sets; season 1 was released on July 16, 2019, season 2 was released on November 5, 2019, and season 3 was released on October 27, 2020. A 6-disc set titled The Grumpy Cat Collection containing the first three remastered seasons, was released on June 15, 2021. Syndication history Garfield and Friends has been syndicated on television around the world, beginning