While Gary Larson’s Far Side comics are best remembered as a newspaper staple, the short movies Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side and Tales From The Far Side II brought the strip’s macabre humor to the small screen. Although Charles M Schulz’s Peanuts spawned numerous TV movies, holiday specials, and even a big-screen adaptation, there are not many other cases of newspaper comic strips making the jump to on-screen success. Dilbert’s animated adaptation lasted only 2 seasons despite a voice cast brimming with iconic 90s comedians, while The Boondocks was critically adored but still couldn’t get a season 5 revival despite promising reports in 2020.
Of all the comic strips to make it to the screen, Gary Larson’s dark, offbeat Far Side was about the least likely to sustain a successful TV adaptation. Larson’s one-panel comics had no recurring cast members and relied on the cartoonist’s macabre, often esoteric sense of humor. Despite this, there were not one, but two award-winning short movies based on Larson’s comics, 1994’s Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side, and its 1997 sequel, Tales From The Far Side II. Both short films were (nearly) dialogue-free anthology films that jumped from one spoof of genre movie clichés to another, accurately recapturing the surreal appeal of Larson’s newspaper strip.
Tales From The Far Side Explained
Like the original Far Side comics, Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side and its sequel didn’t have a traditional plot. Instead, the animated specials depicted corny horror movie tropes, sci-fi clichés, and familiar stock characters like cowboys, aliens, zombies, castaways on desert islands, and (a lot of) hunters. Each segment set up a visual pun, a goofy subversion of audience expectations, or a gruesome, blackly comedic punchline before moving on to the next, barely-connected vignette. The specials were both accompanied by Bill Frisell’s jazz guitar, alongside a lot of absurd sound effects. While Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side aired on CBS as a 1994 Halloween special, Tales From The Far Side II only aired on British TV.
Why There Were Only Two Far Side Specials
Despite the popularity of Larson’s Far Side comic strip, only two animated adaptations of the cartoonist’s work were produced. This could be due to a lack of source material, as some of Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side (and a lot of its sequel) are lifted directly from Larson’s strips. The Far Side’s lack of recurring characters, meanwhile, may have also had a part to play in the limited scope of these adaptations. However, the primary reason that only two Gary Larson adaptations were produced is that the artist himself finished the Far Side strip and retired after the first special’s release.
Larson produced Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side in 1994 and, in 1995, the cartoonist retired. While he did return for a few unexpected strips in 2020, Larson remained mostly inactive for the intervening years, which might explain why Tales From The Far Side II features less original work than Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side and includes more direct adaptations of existing strips. As such, there was no new material for future adaptations to bring to life after Gary Larson retired the Far Side, and viewers were left with two 30-minute standalone specials to commemorate the strip onscreen.
Gary Larson’s Simpsons Cameo Explained
While Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side and its follow-up remain the only screen adaptations of the comic strip, that doesn’t mean that Larson himself steered clear of the public eye for good. Although he was notoriously reclusive and media-shy at the height of his fame (and remained so for much of his retirement), Larson made an exception when another titan of American cartooning came calling. Larson played himself in The Simpsons season 21, episode 10, “Once Upon A Time In Springfield.” One of many Simpsons celebrity cameos in the episode, Larson appeared alongside Eartha Kitt, Jackie Mason, and Anne Hathaway.
In the outing, Larson was employed by a rival power plant that wanted to poach Springfield’s employees. One of the perks they offered was fresh new daily Far Side cartoons, with the plant having convinced Larson to come out of retirement. The brief cameo was one of Larson’s only public engagements after his retirement, although he did draw a New Yorker cover in 2003. Outside of that cover and 2020’s trio of new cartoons, however, the cartoonist has not produced much in the way of new work, although Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side and Tales From The Far Side II are available to stream on Mubi for viewers who want to relive the glory days of Larson's Far Side.