Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)

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2005 DVD release showing characters from the film. (Clockwise from top) Rudolph, Sam, Misfit Toys, Hermey, Bumble.
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2005 DVD release showing characters from the film. (Clockwise from top) Rudolph, Sam, Misfit Toys, Hermey, Bumble.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a long-running Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin-Bass. It first aired December 6, 1964 on the NBC television network in the USA and was sponsored by General Electric. It is based on the song by Johnny Marks, and in turn taken from the 1939 poem of the same title written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired over CBS, who unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version in 2005.

Contents

[edit] Additional characters

In the story of Rudolph (voiced by Billie Mae Richards) numerous new characters are introduced for the first time as it was told by Romeo Muller. From the original song lyrics, the show features Santa (voiced by Stan Francis) and Mrs. Claus (who speaks with a vaguely Irish brogue) and the reindeer mentioned in the song. Of them, Donner is identified as Rudolph's father, and Comet is presented as the coach of the reindeer team. (Donner and Comet are voiced identically by Paul Kligman.)

The show also introduces:

  • Sam The Snowman — The narrator, voiced by and styled to resemble folk singer Burl Ives, who also contributes several tunes throughout the show. Among the special's most famous numbers is "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas", which has since become a Christmas standard in its own right.
  • Hermey the Misfit Elf (voiced by Paul Soles) — who prefers studying dentistry to making toys. Hermey became the best-known of all the characters introduced by Rankin Bass. Quitting Santa's workshop, he and Rudolph run away together seeking "Fame And Fortune." One of many memorable songs from the show, "Fame and Fortune" was added to the special beginning with its 1965 airing as a slightly shorter replacement for the reprise of a number called "We're A Couple Of Misfits," sung by Hermey and Rudolph soon after their initial meeting. The special's 1998 restoration saw "Misfits" returned to film context while the 2004 DVD release showcases "Fame And Fortune" as a separate number. Note: This may not be the case in every market. In New York, WCBS only started airing the "Fame & Fortune" song in the late 80s, early 90s. It was then restored in 1998 back to "We're a Couple of Misfits".
  • Yukon Cornelius (voiced by Larry D. Mann) — a prospector who leads audiences to believe that he's searching for either gold or silver, but is actually seeking peppermint as revealed at the end of the original version of the special. His greedy behavior inspires the song "Silver And Gold," sung by Ives and previously well-known in its own right. Yukon is a blustery but benign character and ends up helping not only Rudolph and Hermey, but an abominable snowman, or "bumble" (Yukon calls abominable snowmen "bumbles" because he has trouble pronouncing "abominable"), as well. Yukon Cornelius can be seen throughout the special tossing his pick ax into the air and tasting the end that contacts the snow or ice. The removal of the scene near the end of the special (for subsequent telecasts) in which Yukon Cornelius discovers a "peppermint mine" by that method near Santa's workshop left audiences assuming that he was attempting to find either silver or gold by taste alone. The scene was returned to the film in 1998 as well.
  • So-called Tall Elf is a minor character who appears in the "We Are Santa's Elves" and "Holly Jolly Christmas" scenes. Tall, thin and bespectacled, this character was an integral part of the stop-motion commercial and subsequent print ads produced for General Electric for the inaugural broadcast.
  • Head Elf (voiced by Alfie Scopp) is the portly and ill-tempered goateed foreman and songleader of Santa's workshop. He is outraged at Hermey's persistent disruption of the assembly line with his dentistry studies. He also conducts the elves in their song for Santa, "We Are Santa's Elves". However, for all their rehearsals, and because of them, Santa finds the song annoying. In one of the show's bloopers, Head Elf's voice changes in the musical scene as he begins conducting the group.
  • The Bumble a.k.a. the Abominable Snow Monster of the North — an abominable snowman who pursues Hermey and Rudolph throughout their adventure since the sight of Rudolph's glowing red nose drives him into a rage. When he threatens Rudolph and his family at his cave, Yukon and Hermie come to the rescue by knocking the monster unconscious and have all his teeth extracted.

Several new members of Santa Claus' herd of reindeer include Clarice (voiced and sung by Janet Orenstein), a young doe with a crush on Rudolph, and Fireball. Fireball is a young buck with a distinctive shock of blond hair who befriends shy Rudolph at the 'Reindeer Games', the annual contest where Santa Claus evaluates the flight skills of his youngest reindeer. It is Fireball who encourages Rudolph to meet Clarice a young doe who has developed a crush on Rudolph. Clarice informs Rudolph that she finds him cute. Inspired by Clarice's affection, Rudolph impresses all the reindeer assembled with his flying ability. A playful scuffle with Fireball ensues and the clay/mud cap Rudolph has been wearing to hide his glowing nose comes loose. Fireball is the first to witness Rudolph's true appearance and is terrified by the sight.

Though Fireball does not appear on screen to be among the reindeer who mock Rudolph at the Reindeer Games, his voice is clearly heard doing so. He can be heard calling him "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and then some other bucks laugh.

[edit] The Island of Misfit Toys

The "Island of Misfit Toys," another canonical addition to the original story, is an island sanctuary where defective and unwanted toys are sent. Among its inhabitants:

  • King Moonracer — a winged lion who acts as the island's ruler. King Moonracer is responsible for flying the entire world each night in search of unwanted toys.
  • Charlie-In-The-Box is a misnamed, but otherwise normal jack-in-the-box who acts as the island's sentry. Charlie is voiced by Carl Banas, who also voices several other toys in this scene.
  • Misfit Doll (voiced by Corinne Conley) is an unnamed, but seemingly normal girl rag doll. Her presence on the island is never explained, although it has been said that her problem is more psychological than physical. [1]
  • Various other toys including a train with square wheels on its caboose; a toy boat that sinks rather than floats; a squirt gun that shoots grape jelly; a bird with the characteristics of a fish who swims instead of flies, and an airplane that can't fly.

It is during this scene that the Marks standard, "The Most Wonderful Day Of The Year" is performed by the inhabitants. Toy versions of nearly every character from this show were produced in the 1990s.

Viewers were so taken by these forlorn characters that were many complaints that Santa is not seen fulfilling his promise to include them in his annual delivery. In reaction, a new scene for subsequent rebroadcasts was produced with Santa, with Rudolph in the lead, making his first stop at the island to pick up the toys.

[edit] Additional background

The songs and incidental music were written by Johnny Marks. In addition to the songs previously mentioned, the score also includes the film's love theme "There's Always Tomorrow", sung by the reindeer Clarice after Rudolph is kicked out of the reindeer games (the song is included in the version aired on CBS and in the DVD version, but is removed from the version aired on CBC Television in Canada). As previously discussed, the song "Fame And Fortune" replaced the "Misfits" reprise for later television broadcasts from 1965 until 1998.

[edit] Sequels

The special (which currently airs on CBS) inspired numerous television sequels made by the same studio. The best-known Rudolph sequel is "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" from 1976 which first aired on ABC and is still aired annually.

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July paired Rudolph with another famous creation inspired by a song - Frosty The Snowman, and was released in the summer of 1979, which Arthur Rankin, Jr. would later acknowledge was a bad idea.

A direct-to-video sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, was a CGI-animated release by Goodtimes Entertainment in 2001.

[edit] Parodies of, and homages to Rudolph

The television special's familiarity to American audiences through its annual rebroadcasts coupled with its primitive stop-motion animation that is easy to recreate with modern technology has lent itself to numerous parodies over the years:

  • In 1997, the Fox Network's comedy series MAD TV produced "Raging Rudolph" (directed by Corky Quakenbush) which parodied Martin Scorsese's films. In it, Rudolph and the misfits seek violent Mafia-style revenge on their tormentors. This was followed by two sequels: "The Reinfather" (which spoofed The Godfather trilogy) and "A Pack of Gifts Now" (which spoofed Apocalypse Now).
  • ESPN, in a promo for their coverage of their Winter X Games, had a lookalike of Sam the Snowman getting crushed by a skier.
  • In the 2001 animated film Monsters, Inc., there is an Abominable Snowman character (voiced by John Ratzenberger) that bears a significant (and intentional) resemblance to the Bumble.
  • On Saturday Night Live in 2001, Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse had Sam the Snowman refusing to narrate the story because of the September 11 attacks. He then took two children to Ground Zero at New York City, but Santa Claus convinced him to narrate the story because people need comforting stories like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Sam decided to narrate the tale, but was immediately interrupted by a special news report. Three years later, TV Funhouse would again parody Rudolph, this time referencing the Red state-blue state divide. In the segment, Santa hangs out with liberal celebrities Natalie Merchant, Margaret Cho, Al Franken, and Moby while skipping over the Red states ("screw the red states, voting for that dumbass president just because of that moral values crap. I don't want any part of them!"). Rudolph's red nose turns blue. [2]
  • In Christmas of that same year, an episode of That '70s Show ("An Eric Forman Christmas") featured a subplot where Kelso was taunted by his friends for still watching "kiddie shows" like Rudolph even though he was in high school. Later in a dream sequence produced and directed by Corky Quakenbush, Kelso himself appears in stop-motion form in the cartoon, where Rudolph and Hermey encourage him to continue watching the show, telling him that he can never be too old to enjoy it.
  • That same year, office supplies retailer OfficeMax released a new commercial featuring the popular "Rubberband Man" character (played by dancer Eddie Steeples) that they had introduced for the back to school shopping season earlier that year. The new holiday ad featured a stop motion puppet likeness of the Rubberband Man handing out Christmas presents to animated characters resembling those from the special.
  • The North Pole in the 2003 movie Elf strongly resembles the one in Rudolph, including a snowman character named Leon that parallels Sam the Snowman. Additionally, when Will Ferrell's character Buddy sets out to find his father, he leaves by stepping onto a hunk of ice bordering the sea, which detaches and drifts away; this same means of transportation is used by Rudolph and others at various points in the special. Buddy and the rest of the elves are attired in outfits that are similar to that of the special's Head Elf.
  • In December 2005, the George Lopez Show featured an animated segment produced and directed by Corky Quakenbush in which the star sees a stop motion version of himself on television in a Rudolph-style special mirroring the theme of the holiday episode.
  • The main character of Tigers' Quest, Tiggra, comments that his brother -- named Donner by the author in an intentional nod to his favourite Christmas story -- once suggested that he should have been born with a "glowing red nose" instead of his abnormal white coat. Additionally, Tiggra's mate, Clairese, was named as an homage to Rudolph's girlfriend of the same name (but different spelling).
  • In an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Cookie attempts to force some younger students into making toys, and goes as far as dressing them in costumes much like the elves in the Christmas Special. One even exclaimes he would rather be a dentist.

[edit] Trivia and goofs

  • When Rudolph leaves the house on “The Island Of Misfit Toys” he leaves the front door open, despite the blizzard outside that had forced him to seek shelter. It is unknown whether this was planned or if it was just a glitch in animation.
  • At the end, when the Misfit Toys are being dropped from the sleigh, the elves assume the bird toy can fly and don't give him an umbrella to float down with. It was shown earlier that the bird could only swim, not fly.
  • The town where Santa lives is called Christmas Town even though he is always associated with living at the North Pole.
  • The dogs pulling Yukon Cornelius's rickety sleigh are a Dachshund, Poodle, Beagle, St. Bernard and a Shetland Sheepdog or Collie.
  • The copyright date is given as MCLXIV, which in Roman numerals translates to "1164" instead of MCMLXIV for 1964.
  • Although not depicted in the film, Yukon and the Bumble have somehow managed to bounce back up after falling into a deep canyon. Yukon explains this to the gathered crowd at Santa's house.
  • Between the moment that Santa asked Rudolph "won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" and when he boards the sleigh (apparently only minutes later), Santa gains weight to become the "fat Santa" that everyone expects.
  • The "storm of all storms" hits just before Santa is supposed to deliver presents, yet no indication of any bad weather is seen on Misfit Island.
  • The song "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" in the show has a different arrangement from the better-known radio version.
  • On an episode of Antiques Roadshow, two of the featured antiques were the original production puppets from RTRNRD, which the owner had kept in a box upstairs in her attic. Her mother had worked at the production company that made the show, so she was given the puppets (all of which except Rudolph and Santa melted away in the heat upstairs). The puppets have since been restored and put on display.
  • Award-winning soundtrack composer Michael Giacchino keeps an 18" stuffed toy figure of Bumble in his office/studio. His Bumble holds a conductor's baton in one hand in place of the silver Christmas tree star originally included with the figure.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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