Changes: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Rankin/Bass)

Revision as of 23:17, 28 November 2012

Rudolph the Red–Nosed Reindeer is a long-running Christmas television special produced in stop-motion animation by Rankin/Bass, and the company's first Christmas special. It originally aired on NBC on December 6, 1964, and is now the world's longest-running and highest-rated television special of all time. It is based on the song of the same name by Johnny Marks, which in turn was based on the 1939 poem of the same title, written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, who was an advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward. Marks also wrote the music and lyrics for the songs in this special, and the background soundtrack includes two more songs he made famous: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree".

Synopsis

SPOILER: Plot details or story follow.

Sam the Snowman narrates the story of Rudolph, a reindeer who is born with a glowing red nose. His father, Santa's lead reindeer Donner, feels ashamed and uses a special cover to hide Rudolph's nose so he and his wife can send him to take-off practice a year later without him being ridiculed by the other yearlings. Meanwhile, an elf named Hermey has his own problem - he wishes to be a dentist instead of making toys. The elf foreman scolds him and tries to get him to obey, but he refuses to change his interests.

Rudolph meets Clarice — Rudoph with Clarice.

A year later, Rudolph is a yearling reindeer who is sent to take-off practice to learn how to fly, with Comet as his coach. Donner still tries to hide the nature of Rudolph's nose with the cover. This causes his voice to sound as if he had a permanent cold. Despite this, two deer befriend him. One is a little buck named Fireball and the other is a beautiful doe named Clarice. During some horseplay, Fireball inadvertently pops the cover off of Rudolph's nose. After seeing his glowing nose, the other reindeer, including Fireball, start ridiculing him, and Comet bans him from the reindeer games as a result. Clarice is the only one who still likes him and tries to comfort him. However, their musings are interrupted by her father, who forbids her from being around Rudolph. Feeling outcast, he runs away into the forest.

File:Rudolph meets Hermey.jpg

Rudolph meets Hermey.

While in the woods, Rudolph meets up with Hermey. The two bond after they discover they each have something that makes them unique. After deciding to be "independent" together, they set out to seek "Fame and Fortune." After the song ends, The Abominable Snowmonster of the North, a carnivorous monster who hates Christmas and feeds on reindeer, chases them. They manage to escape him.

Rudolph and friends meet King Moonracer — Rudolph, Hermey, and Yukon Cornelius meet King Moonracer.

Later, they meet a prospector named Yukon Cornelius who is obsessed with finding silver and gold. The trio manages to flee to the Island of Misfit Toys, ruled by a winged lion named King Moonracer. Because they are misfits but not toys, he allows them to spend one night on his island. Rudolph leaves on his own, having realized that his nose is a danger to his friends.

A few months later, Rudolph grows into a handsome young buck. He decides to return home despite being ridiculed. When he arrives back in his cave, he finds out that his parents are not there. He learns from Santa that they left to go looking for him, and Clarice went with them. He searches the North Pole and finds them being held captive by the Abominable Snowmonster. He attempts to rescue them before Hermey and Yukon Cornelius find him and they try to help. They manage to knock out the Abominable while Hermey removes the monster's teeth, but Yukon knocks himself, his sled team, and the Abominable over a cliff when he stands up to him.

Bumble puts star on tree — The now-reformed Abominable Snowmonster puts the star on the tree.

The others return home, where they tell what happened. Rudolph and Hermey stop being ridiculed, and the lead elf finally allows Hermey to open a dentist's office the week after Christmas. Yukon and the others, who survived, make a grand entrance with the Abominable, now reformed by Yukon. Everyone decides to keep him around because he can put a silver star on top of Christmas trees without a stepladder. However, a strong blizzard is too much for Santa's team to handle, so he decides to cancel the Christmas Eve flight. But Rudolph's nose inspires him, and he asks him to lead his sleigh, which he agrees to. He leads the sleigh to the Island of Misfit Toys and takes them along the flight, where they are dropped off to their respective homes. With Rudolph leading the sleigh, it turns out to be a merry Christmas after all.

Songs

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album was released in 1964 on Decca Records. The album was available in mono (DL 4815) and stereo (DL 74815), and featured all of the songs from the special. Because General Electric was the sponsor from 1964 through 1966, this album was issued as a premium gift with a purchase of any GE item. The album was later reissued in 1973 on MCA 15003; it remains in print on CD to this day.

Production notes

The original network airings of the special were sponsored by General Electric; three special GE commercials featuring the elves from the special were produced and aired alongside the show.
The original pre-production work for the special did not include the character of Sam the Snowman. The songs sung by Sam, such as "Silver & Gold", were originally intended for Yukon Cornelius. Larry D. Mann had even recorded all of the songs as Yukon Cornelius prior to filming. However, Ives was brought on at the last minute to give the special "full power!" that would help sell the special to the networks and so the character of Sam the narrating snowman was added to the special. Although Sam the Snowman resembles Ives, he was actually designed to look like the writer of the special, Romeo Muller. Due to the last minute addition of Sam the Snowman, several scripted scenes were abandoned and never filmed. Once such scene included Rudolph being delivered to Donner and his wife by a stork.
On the title card, the copyright year in Roman numerals was mismarked as MCLXIV (1164) instead of the correct MCMLXIV.
The original 1964 airing did not include the closing scene where Santa saves the misfit toys. Many complained that Santa was not shown fulfilling his promise to include them in his annual delivery. As a reaction, a new scene was produced with Santa making his first stop at the island to pick up the toys. The scene was added to the special for the 1965, and subsequent, broadcasts. However due to time constraints, some existing material had to be trimmed to make room for the addition of these new scenes. Throughout the special, Yukon Cornelius is seen throwing his pick axe into the ground, taking it out and licking it. He is checking neither for gold nor silver; Yukon was actually searching for an elusive peppermint mine. In a scene right at the end of the special, deleted to make room for the misfits' new scene, Cornelius pulled his pick from the ground, licked it and said, "Peppermint! What I've been searching for all my life! I've struck in rich! I've got me a peppermint mine! Wahoo!" The scene was later restored and put back in the special as part of the 1998 restoration and subsequent home video releases. However, this scene is now left out of televised airings, and is also missing from the 2004 DVD release. Also, when the special was rebroadcast in 1965 the song "We're A Couple of Misfits" was replaced with a newly-produced musical sequence entitled "Fame and Fortune." The original scene was restored in 1998, bringing back "We're a Couple of Misfits" to its original place. "Fame and Fortune" was included as a bonus feature on Sony Wonder's 2002 DVD release of the special, but has not appeared on any subsequent releases.
In 1976 a sequel to the special was produced, entitled Rudolph's Shiny New Year and a second sequel was made in 1979 entitled Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. In 2001, a fourth film in the series was released titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys; this film, starring the same characters from the original, was produced entirely with computer animation as opposed to stop-motion animation.

Broadcast history and availability

The special was broadcast on NBC from its premiere in 1964 until 1971. CBS acquired the rights to air this special the following year.

Rankin-Bass sold many of the pre-1973 specials and series (including The Little Drummer Boy and Santa Claus is Comin' To Town) to Broadway Video, headed by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live fame. The collection was then sold several years later to Golden Books Family Entertainment, and later spun off into Classic Media, part of the Entertainment Rights group in the United Kingdom until 2009, when the company was bought by Classic Media's successor, Boomerang Media. In July 2012, Dreamworks Animation SKG purchased Classic Media, and currently holds those rights under the DreamWorks Classics banner.

References in other media

In A Pinky and the Brain Christmas, Pinky mentions to Brain that he wants to be a dentist instead of an elf.
In the newspaper comic strip FoxTrot, Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, Sam, and the special's version of Santa Claus made cameos in a storyline that ran from December 16-21, 1996, in which Paige dreams of visiting the Land of Animated Christmas TV Specials.
- A later FoxTrot strip, published on December 5, 2002, has Peter watching a new Christmas special featuring the Rudolph characters that was apparently written by Jason, titled Rudolph's Lord of the Rings Christmas.

Cast

Voice actor	Character
Burl Ives	Sam the Snowman
Billie Mae Richards	Rudolph
Paul Soles	Hermey
Larry Mann	Yukon Cornelius
Stan Francis	Santa Claus King Moonracer
Paul Kligman	Donner Comet the Coach
Janet Orenstein	Clarice
Alfie Scopp	Charlie-in-the-Box Other elves
Carl Banas	Elf Foreman Spotted Elephant Other toys
Corinne Conley	Dolly Others
Peg Dixon	Mrs. Claus Mrs. Donner Others
Bernard Cowan	Clarice's father

External links

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on CBS.com
Holiday Central on CBS.com
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the Internet Movie Database
Rudolph! at tvparty.com
A Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fan site
The special's TV Tropes page

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Rankin/Bass

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer • Cricket on the Hearth • The Little Drummer Boy • Frosty the Snowman • Santa Claus is Comin' to Town • "A Christmas Tree" • 'Twas the Night Before Christmas • The Year Without a Santa Claus • The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow • Frosty's Winter Wonderland • Rudolph's Shiny New Year • The Little Drummer Boy, Book II • Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey • The Stingiest Man in Town • Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July • Jack Frost • Pinocchio's Christmas • The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold • The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus • Santa, Baby!

@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 == External links ==
 * [http://www.cbs.com/specials/rudolph/ ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''] on CBS.com
+* [http://www.cbs.com/shows/holiday_central/ Holiday Central] on CBS.com
 * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058536/ ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''] at the Internet Movie Database
 * [http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html ''Rudolph!''] at tvparty.com