Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials

UPDATE 10/2008:

Here's an update on the currently available/released Rankin/Bass Christmas specials.

With this month's annual release of another Rankin/Bass box set from Warner Bros., fifteen of the eighteen Rankin/Bass specials are now on DVD! The new titles are found on disc one of the Classic Christmas Favorites set and include The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981), Pinocchio's Christmas (1980), and The Stingiest Man in Town (1978).

This leaves only three titles still M.I.A.:

• The First Christmas (1975)
• The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1976)
• The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)

Hopefully, these last three specials will see the light of day next year; maybe in yet another box set so consumers can re-purchase the ones they already own!

FYI, the specials currently available can be purchased in these sets/singles:

Classic Christmas Favorites (Amazon Link)

• The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981)
• Pinocchio's Christmas (1980)
• The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
• The Year Without a Santa Claus Deluxe Edition (1974)
• Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
• Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey ((1977)
• Frosty's Winter Wonderland ((1976)
• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
• Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
• Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas Deluxe Edition (not Rankin/Bass, but included in this set!) (1966)

The Original Christmas Classics (Amazon Link)

• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
• Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970)
• Frosty the Snowman (1969)
• The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
• Cricket on the Hearth (1967)
• Frosty Returns (not Rankin/Bass, but included in this set!) (1992)
• Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (not Rankin/Bass, but included in this set!) (1962)

And not available in either set:

• Jack Frost Deluxe Edition (1979) (Amazon Link)

(original post):

As far as I can tell these are the only Rankin/Bass Christmas specials available on DVD now:

• The Year Without a Santa Claus/Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey/Rudolph's Shiny New Year
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town/The Little Drummer Boy
• Frosty the Snowman/Frosty Returns
• Jack Frost (Canadian release)

Are there any plans for any more Rankin/Bass classic releases? There are quite a few more specials out there begging to be released on disc (The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Pinnochio's Christmas, The First Christmas, Leprechaun's Christmas Gold, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, The Little Drummer Boy: Book 2, Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Stingiest Man in Town, and maybe a couple more I can't think of right now - whew!).

Any info would be greatly appreciated. Are any of these available in other regions?

mike.

I would definitely love some of these on dvd. Sorry no news, just support.

I'd like Little Drummer 2. Also T'was the Night Before XMAS, but on this one, I remember long ago, a version of it true to the story of the father writing the poem, not the stupid one with the mice. Does any else remember this one? And can we get that one on DVD?

Hey, I happen to like "the stupid one with the mice."

Let us figure out together who we make our requests to...


Classic Media owns all the R/B material up to 1974 (this includes the "classic four" already available on DVD), except the Embassy Pictures-distributed feature films, which are owned by MGM/Studio Canal (Anchor Bay, under separate sub-license with Studio Canal, has already released "Mad Monster Party", and soon "The Storyteller" and "The Wacky World of Mother Goose", on DVD). Sony Wonder has a video output deal with Classic Media, so it is Sony you should write to on that part of the library.

Everything past 1974 belongs to Warner Bros. OK, 'nuff said?

Let's just get The Flight of Dragons out, it's one of their best productions. I know they show it on Disney occasionally but I don't have cable.

South Park does one of the songs from the "stupid one with the mice"

I want "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" - the real Frosty sequel (where Frosty and Crystal get married, and Jack Frost tries to mess things up...) - not that lame "Frosty Returns".

"Christmas in July" would be totally cool on disc also.

Just supporting here. I'd really love to see "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," my longtime favorite Christmas special available on DVD.

I'd love a DVD with the 'Twas... with the mice. We have a crappy old VHS copy, and it's really showing its age.

Me too. I think that Winter Wonderland should've been on the Frosty DVD instead of Frosty Returns. It bugs the heck out of me to wonder why in the world R/B seems to adopt Frosty Returns as the "official" sequel to Frosty.

I know the one you're talking about, John. I had actually forgotten about it, but when I was a kid I preferred the "true" version, too. But I like them both. I don't think that one is Rankin/Bass, though.

But are you sure that what it was called? I thought so, too, but I looked up both "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas" on the Internet Movie Database and can find no listing for the "true" one. All I know is it first aired sometime in the seventies.

I would LOVE "Rudolph and Frosty Christmas in July." The others I can pass on. I think I was a little bit old when "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" came out to have an emotional attachment to it. I remember I didn't care for it when it was first broadcast.

On a related note, last night I purchased the new soundtrack CD for "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town" and "Frosty the Snowman" from Rhino. It's got both soundtracks on it, in their original LP versions. No great revelations with "Santa Claus" -- it's just the straight mono soundtrack from the special with dialog and effects. Stereo masters did exist for the special at sometime, because Rick Goldschmidt, who wrote the liner notes, owns a promo red-vinyl LP that was issued for the show back in 1970, and he says that's in stereo. But apparently they couldn't locate the stereo tape masters, because the CD is in mono.

The really interesting thing is the "Frosty" soundtrack. It's identical to the TV special except for the fact that character voiceover legend June Foray does the voice of little Karen. She was was originally cast in the role and recorded her part for the film, but at some point in production it was decided to dub over her dialog with a real little girl. It was either too late or the producers didn't bother replacing her voice when the soundtrack album was released in the mid-sixties. It's interesting to finally hear June Foray's original interpretation of the role after all these years.

P.S.

The soundtrack for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was recorded in stereo, too. The sountrack album (which is available as a budget CD) was issued (I think years later...seems like I read 1970) with the music tracks in true stereo, but the vocals dubbed in mono from the completed sountrack. (Except Burl Ives, who re-recorded his songs, apparently with the original stereo backing tracks.)

If only they could find these original multi-tracks they could actually remix these special in real surround sound! But I think they were lost years ago.

Brian W. - Thanks, I knew I wasn't going senile, not yet anyway. I'm not sure of the title, I'll check IMDB too. Perhaps, "A Visit from St. Nicholas"?

I thought I saw the easter bunny one at Costco the other day.

Checked that and it wasn't there. Also looked under Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. and did not see it. I have never heard of this version and would be curious to see it, the mouse version is my all-time favorite christmas show. I'm so glad I decided to tape all the christmas shows a few years back, now that the networks deem it unimportant to show them anymore (other than Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown).

Chris

Well I looked for it on IMDB and so far, no luck. But I know it existed and at least one other person has seen it (Brian W.). Maybe more people will chime in. I just could never get into the mouse one, with the whole clock and all, I don't know.

Dug up some info.

"The Night Before Christmas" 1968 by Elba Productions.

Where did you get that info, John?

More of the it is coming back to me now. In the show, his daughter is sick and he writes the poem for her. Correct?

I love 'Twas the Night Before Christmas & would really love to have that on dvd. Also some other "obsucure" ones like "Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus" (an animated re-telling of the Times letter) and "Christmas All Year Round" (I think...at any rate, that was the plot).

One I've always liked was The Night They Saved Christmas . It was released on VHS but no DVD.

I'd like to see some of Will Vinton's stop-motion animation hit DVD, especially A Claymation Christmas Celebration.

Brian W. - Yes you are right, that is the one I am talking about. I don't know why stations/networks stopped showing it in favor of the clock mouse version. Anyway, here is the link where I found it.

Toonarific Web Site

Anyone know anymore about the 1968 Elba Productions version of The Night Before Christmas? I was trying to find info on it again and cant'. Even the link I found a couple years ago, above, doesn't work now.

Also, sorry to those above who like the mouse version of Night Before Christmas. Didn't mean to offend anyone. Just to me, knowing the version where Clement Moore is writing the story for his sick daughter, then seeing the one with the mice, well that just seemed such a let down.

I absolutely love all these shows being discussed.

My mom had this tape of Christmas specials she recoreded when I was about 4 years old (around 1984). I watched it so many times at Christmas time growing up that the tape actually broke and had to be spliced and reloaded on another VHS cartridge. On it were the following titles:

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (the version with "Fame and Fortune" in place of "Couple of Misfits.") (available on DVD with "Fame and Fortune" as an extra)
Frosty The Snowman (available on DVD)
Charlie Brown Christmas (available on DVD)
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (available on DVD)
The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas (with a scene where Ted actually goes into the church for a minute when he gets to the city - that scene is not on the commercial VHS) (available on VHS only)
Fat Albert Christmas (available on DVD)
Little Rascals Christmas (available on VHS only)
Jack Frost (Rankin/Bass) (available on DVD)
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (available on DVD)
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (available on VHS only)
Mickey's Christmas Carol (available on DVD - Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Vol. 2)
Cabbage Patch Kids First Christmas (available on VHS only)
'Twas The Night Before Christmas (with the mice)(available on DVD with Frosty's Winter Wonderland)

Also, there was a second tape with "The Night They Saved Christmas" (Art Carney/Jacklyn Smith). I got that for her on R2 PAL DVD from Amazon.co.uk. Since she doesn't have region-free/PAL capability, I converted it to NTSC Region free for her. I have been working to update her with a DVD of all these titles. I bought her all of the commercial DVDs available. I even edited her commercial Rudolph DVD myself to reinsert Fame and Fortune in place of Couple of Misfits since that is the way she always watched it the last 20 years (that song is a bonus feature on the DVD so I just spliced it in). I purchased the commercial VHS tapes for her of all those that are not available on DVD and transferred them to DVDR for her.

Sorry for the rambling. I have so many good memories watching these with her growing up. It has been a fun project hunting them all down and buying them for her. All these titles that are not available on DVD would be IMMEDIATE purchases for me if they were ever released. I would love to replace all the VHS tapes I had to hunt down!

Here's a few UK ebay items you might be interested in.

Rankin/Bass stuff

I still wish "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" were available on DVD. It's pretty much the only major Rankin/Bass title not on the format. I say next year they put this on a disc with "The Story of the First Christmas Snow," and that would make me happy.

Does anyone know if Little Drummer Boy Book 2 is on DVD. I can't seem to find that one.

John, as far as I know, LDBB2 is still not on dvd. Each christmas season I check eagerly on all the dvd web sites and local stores but have yet to see it. This and Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus would make my Christmas collection complete.

Now waitaminnit...every time I've seen Rudolph, either on TV or the old VHS (haven't seen the DVD), it's had the Fame And Fortune number AND We're A Couple Of Misfits, although the latter is heard in pieces, one piece sung by Hermie, and one sung by Rudolph. On the CD soundtrack, Fame And Fortune is nowhere to be found, but We're A Couple Of Misfits is a version I'd never heard before, sung in duet by Hermie and Rudolph. Is there a scene of the special I've never seen that contains Hermie and Rudolph singing this version of the song? And, if so, why cut Fame And Fortune? Why not leave it in as well?