We Three Kings Of TV Are.....

thebigthree
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Well it seems that in this day of instant everything, and use everything to make a buck, and Christmas is the season of using everything to make instant bucks -- there is an exception. Christmas specials made for TV hit their zenith in the year that I turned five! The troika has been established -- the greedy need apply elsewhere.

It all began in 1964 with "Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer." It was stop action animation directed by the Japanese Kizo Nagashima (bet you didn't know that!) It stunned audiences with a talking snowman who as narrator stood both within and without of the story -- an innovation that we today take for granted (and reached it's apex in Stephen Sondheim's "Into The Woods".). The models for show were quickly relegated to the prop room after the production. Rudolf was eventually purchased at an auction and used as a centerpiece for a candy dish by an up-state New York family for years; Cornelius Klondike was "melted down"..... All of this predicated upon an already popular novelty song first recorded by Gene Autrey in 1949. And this song's lyrics began as a poem created by an American advertising executive called Robert May. He was requested to produce a poem that could be given away to children by the Santa Claus employed by Department Stores at Christmas! Johnny Marks was the composer who eventually set the words to music.

In 1965, Charles Schultz's beloved Charlie Brown entered the pantheon. This special banked it's future on the wild success of the Charlie Brown cartoon franchise. And perhaps because of that cache, it dared to break new ground of it's own. 1) It used the voices of actual children. In animation circles in the 1960's this was a radical idea. 2) It told the nativity story using the Bible. This was Charles' idea, and it initiated the very first time that anything in the Bible was presented as animation (Veggie Tales, eat your hearts out!) 3) The score was commissioned by Jazz musician Vince Giraldi. The music was bouncy and yet contemplative which matched the slower pace of the animation. And up until this time, successful TV animation was all fast paced, sight gags, and momentum driven. "Charlie Brown's Christmas" forever changed that.

In 1966, the final member of the trinity arrived in the presentation of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas". Like Charlie Brown it was based on a popular children's literary work....a work that today is a classic. In 1966, the written work had been in publication for 9 years. And with this animation a once popular (then somewhat forgotten) actor was chosen to play the title role: Boris Karloff. It's a hallmark of anything "classic" that aspects of it's place in culture take it's components to new places -- i.e. who can name anything that Mr. Karloff did in his decades of acting in Hollywood that is more well remembered and more ubiquitous that his portrayal of the voice of the Grinch?

And so there you have it. I managed to catch all three of these this year on TV, and cozy on the couch staring into my little TV's glow, it truly Christmas again!