PUZZLE #86: Patchwords

PUZZLE #86

PATCHWORDS

Boy, was this weekend an eventful one! After all, my sister Alex just got married last Saturday! Since this was such a momentous occasion, I've decided to make this week's puzzle sort of a tribute to Eric, the man that my sister married! I've had a FINAL ANSWER related to the groom already in mind, but none of the puzzle types I've posted on this blog so far seemed to work for it, so I've opted to do it in the form of a word search.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first word search related to the wedding that I've made; a month before the wedding happened, I was commissioned to create a word search for my sister's bridal shower. To tell the truth, I actually wound up using a web site that automatically makes word searches; all I did was add a list of wedding-related words and chose a heart-shaped grid. But don't worry, not only is this word search completely handmade (er, keyboard-made), it's also not a traditional word search! Read on to see how to solve it!

Each of the words hinted at by the clues below can be found in a continuous line in an irregularly-shaped "patch" inside the grid. (To make a patch, just draw a thick line surrounding all of the letters in the word) The line that each word takes goes vertically and horizontally, but NOT diagonally. Each letter in the grid will be used exactly once, and none of the patches overlap.

Once you've completed the puzzle, combine the two patches that don't have corresponding clues to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: One of the groom's all-time favorite TV shows

CLUES

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Board game where you remove ailments from Cavity Sam
* Dreamworks movie featuring a song called "The Snail is Fast" (yes, really)
* Emulate a lifeguard
* "Food, Glorious Food" musical
* Ghouls and goblins
* The Good _____ (Pixar movie)
* Greek letter before beta
* High gear on a car, probably
* _____ Jack (Cartoon Network series returning this year)
* Last name of Chuckie from Rugrats
* Lightning's companion
* Many a character from DC or Marvel
* Merging together
* Naruto or Sasuke, e.g.
* Organ-playing figure "of the Opera"
* Pikachu's fur color
* Power wielded by the Jedi
* Rock opera by The Who featuring "Pinball Wizard"
* Super Mario _____ (video game that introduced Rosalina)
* The lion is the king of this habitat (even though it lives in the grasslands...)
* Use a credit card
* The Wild Thornberrys network

* Wookie or Ewok, for one

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!