You know Rudolph and Frosty, & Year Without Santa, Heat and Snow Miser & Baby New Year. But do you recall… The worst Rankin/Bass show of all?
Chances are you don’t. Unless of course you are a total old-school stop-motion animation junkie, a huge Rankin/Bass fanboy, or just have an amazing memory. That’s because the majority of the shows on this list, haven’t been broadcast in any form in years. Before we get to those, let’s have a little holiday show history lesson.
Who Were Rankin and Bass
According to The Enchanted World Of Rankin/Bass, a website dedicated to preserving the history of all things produced by the duo, The company was founded in New York City by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass on September 14, 1960, as Videocraft International, Ltd. The majority of the duo’s work, including all of their “Animagic” stop-motion productions (which they were well known for), were created in Tokyo, Japan. One of the mainstays of the business was holiday-themed animated specials for airing on American television.
In 1964, the company produced a special for NBC and sponsor GE. It was a stop motion animated adaptation of Robert L. May’s 1939 story “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and the 1949 song it inspired, written by May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks. With the American actor Burl Ives in the role of Sam the snowman, the narrator, Canadian actress Billy Mae Richards as the voice of the main title character, Rudolph, and an original orchestral score composed by Marks himself, Rudolph became one of the most popular, and longest-running Christmas specials in television history.
It also spawned dozens of Rankin/Bass Christmas-themed specials in throughout the 60s and 70s. Some were stop-motion animation like Rudolph. Memorable shows you can still catch today streaming and on cable, like Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Year Without A Santa Claus, Little Drummer Boy, and Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. Other classics like Frosty The Snowman and Twas The Night Before Christmas were done in traditional animation but were just as popular for generations of kids.
Check Out These Horrible Christmas Songs!
Alas, not all Rankin/Bass productions were classics. In fact, looking back now, some seem like downright cheap money grabs! Anyway, here are 7 of their more forgettable shows, with links, in case you plow through all your favorite Christmas shows too quickly.
