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Garfield vs. Winnie The Pooh - 35 years ago (6/19/1978)

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Jimmy Delach

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Jun 19, 2013, 6:53:55 PM6/19/13
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35 years ago Today two comic strips made their debuts in newspapers.

One was Disney's "Winnie The Pooh", the other was an unknown cat named "Garfield".

I'm not 100% certain but my belief is more newspapers picked up Pooh that day than they did Garfield (in large part due to the obvious name recognition).

From looking up the Tampa Bay Times online and the Tampa Tribune via microfilm both papers picked up Pooh that day. I think the Tampa Times (the Tribune's sibling paper not the current one) picked up Garfield from the beginning or maybe a few weeks after but I'm not certain (The St. Petersburg Evening Independent picked up Garfield on 2/2/1981 - the same day they also picked up the based on the popular TV show at the time "Dallas" strip). Both the Tribune and Times didn't pick up Garfield (save for their respective Sunday papers) until 1982 and 1986 respectively when their sister publications folded.

Brian Henke

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Jun 21, 2013, 4:37:46 PM6/21/13
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Here in Cincinnati, the Post picked up Winnie on June 19, as I told
you in the Post Comic Strip Index Retro. The E------r picked up Garfield
on Sept. 18.

Cincy...@aol.com

------

Judge Parker, One Big Happy, broadsheet newspapers

- Name three things that used to be in Cincinnati you can now find in
Atlanta

Jimmy Delach

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Jun 23, 2013, 4:18:53 PM6/23/13
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As far as Winnie The Pooh's run in the Tampa Bay area went. In the Tampa Bay Times, Pooh and his friends replaced "Best Seller Showcase" on 6/19/1978. Then close to nine months later - on 3/12/1979 - "Winnie The Pooh" was replaced by "Star Wars" (Although the Sunday edition of Pooh had a much longer run as it had been running in the Times as late as 1984).

As far as the Tampa Tribune went, they also got rid of "Best Seller Showcase" to make room for Pooh but I can't give you an exact timetable on how long his run was there. When I ordered some microfilm to look at from February 1980 (when I was born), Pooh was gone by then - both Daily and Sunday.

Jimmy Delach

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Jan 4, 2014, 8:17:29 PM1/4/14
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On Sunday, June 23, 2013 4:18:53 PM UTC-4, Jimmy Delach wrote:
> As far as Winnie The Pooh's run in the Tampa Bay area went. In the Tampa Bay Times, Pooh and his friends replaced "Best Seller Showcase" on 6/19/1978. Then close to nine months later - on 3/12/1979 - "Winnie The Pooh" was replaced by "Star Wars" (Although the Sunday edition of Pooh had a much longer run as it had been running in the Times as late as 1984).
>
>
>
> As far as the Tampa Tribune went, they also got rid of "Best Seller Showcase" to make room for Pooh but I can't give you an exact timetable on how long his run was there. When I ordered some microfilm to look at from February 1980 (when I was born), Pooh was gone by then - both Daily and Sunday.

For the record, I went to the University of South Florida library Today and I checked the Tampa Times archives as far as "Garfield"'s start date was. It turned out to be 8/14/1978 (it replaced "Jeff Hawke").

I should've checked to see how long Winnie the Pooh's run at the Tribune was but didn't bother to. Maybe next time.
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