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Obscure/Neglected Holiday Cartoon Specials

S

Stanislav

The discussion of the sadly neglected Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (under the December 18 TDITVH) raises the question: what are some really obscure animated holiday specials that died a quick death?

A couple that come to mind are B.C.: The First Thanksgiving (1973) and B.C.: A Special Christmas (1981). These specials (which I don't think were broadcast more than once or twice) are, apart from a few commercials, the only animated renderings of Johnny Hart's well-known cavemen characters. They were produced back when B.C. was still a very popular strip (and before Hart's infamous religious conversion, when the strip was still funny and not constantly trying to work in Christian references or conservative political commentary). The Christmas special even featured Bob and Ray (!) as the voices of Peter and Wiley.

Hart's star faded in the last couple decades before his death, so it's not surprising that these specials haven't been seen in ages, but even back when the strip and the characters were still well-known, they never got much exposure. I wonder why -- I think I may have seen one or the other in the original broadcast, but never since (they are not officially on VHS/DVD AFAIK), so I can't really judge them. (Would be nice to see them turn up on YouTube.) Maybe it was the anachronistic idea of cavemen celebrating Thanksgiving millenia before the Pilgrims or, even more jarring, the notion of them celebrating Christmas (I mean, think about what "B.C." stands for). But anachronism was one of the main comedic elements of the strip to begin with. (Of course, all comic "cavemen" offerings are anachronistic in the sense that they always have humans and dinosaurs co-existing, an historical inaccuracy believed only by anti-evloutionists who insist the universe is only a few thousand years old.) And it's not like we ever batted an eye when The Flintstones celebrated those holidays.

Speaking of which, wasn't there a Flintstones TV-movie/special in which Fred has to substitute for an ill Santa on Christmas Eve? There's another holiday special that faded into obscurity pretty quickly....

Anyway, other long-unseen animated holiday offerings you can think of?
 
Stanislav said:
Speaking of which, wasn't there a Flintstones TV-movie/special in which Fred has to substitute for an ill Santa on Christmas Eve? There's another holiday special that faded into obscurity pretty quickly....
Click to expand...

I think it was a "regular" ep of the 1960-66 ABC series. The Christmas ep first aired in 1964 (during the 5th season). Fred, as the sub Santa, rides his dino-reindeer powered sleigh showering gifts globewide, wishing "MC" in French as he flies over France, Dutch over Holland, and so on... you know, in the vernacular.

ixnay
 
Here in Canada, YTV airs a few Flintstones Christmas specials (I'm not sure how many they run each year) but the one I remember the most is A Flintstones Christmas Carol where the gang do a stone age version of Dickens' classic.

Also, depending on where you live, and if you get it, your PBS station(s) have likely shown in the past, either in regular rotation or held over for holidays, a number of Christmas-related episodes of Are You Being Served?, including one where the staff dressed up as “Father Christmas” (another way of saying “Santa Claus”). The ending in that one is quite funny!
 
There was a Flintstones Christmas special that aired in 1977 that TNT, The Cartoon Network and TBS aired quite a bit a few years ago. I think that it was a regular Christmas special but I'm not quite sure if it's the Christmas Carol special or not.
 
I was well into my adult years when I saw "A Claymation Christmas". It was on one of the pay channels I believe. I have never seen it since. It was a classic that kids could watch at their level and adults could laugh at their level.

There was also a Garfield Christmas that used to run annually but I have not seen or heard about it for a while.
 
Nestor, the Long-Eared Donkey (1977)
 
I remember watching, "The Little Rascals Christmas" or some similar title on December 3, 1979 on either CBS or ABC. It was an animated program with "Spanky", "Alfalfa", etc. from those late 1930's film shorts in cartoon form. It told how "Spanky" and his younger brother (I don't recall his name) were trying to earn money to buy a Christmas present for their mother. To my knowledge, this show only aired once. Interestingly, I remember the date because it was the same night as the Who concert tragedy in downtown Cincinnati where eleven people were killed.
 
"The Year without Santa Claus" from Bass/Rankin which has been relegated to ABC Family, you know, the channel no one watches.. Guess it didn't pull in big #s. But you just can't beat the Heat Miser vs the Snow Miser.
 
Stanislav said:
azumanga said:
Someone has posted a listing of whole lot of obscure specials here:

http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfitsindex.html

Many of these I haven't even heard of.
Click to expand...

Wow -- that dude gets First Prize. I doubt we could come up with anything more obscure (or, in some cases, downright weird) than the stuff he has on that site. :eek:
Click to expand...

CHALLENGE FOR ALL "RETRO" SCHEDULE GEEKS:

On one obscure special's page, he has a scan of an actual program listing for one of the airings of the special. Your challenge: given the channel numbers, the programs, and the year (1983), identify the TV market:

http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/bearscareproof.jpg
 
I saw the Garfield Christmas special the other night on ABC Family. I haven'tr seen that cartoon in a long time.
 
The Garfield Christmas special is part of a DVD that also includes the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials. I recently bought a copy for my daughter.

My wife recently found a Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. To my knowledge this hasn't been on TV in years, unless it turned up on a channel like ABC Family.
 
anotherguy said:
The Garfield Christmas special is part of a DVD that also includes the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials. I recently bought a copy for my daughter.

My wife recently found a Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. To my knowledge this hasn't been on TV in years, unless it turned up on a channel like ABC Family.
Click to expand...

It aired on ABC for a few years and then aired for a while on HBO, before moving to basic cable, first on TNT,
then on Nickelodeon. I think the last it was shown was on Odyssey(now Hallmark Channel) before
Hallmark bought it out from the Henson Company and purged the channel of all kids-type programming
and eventually of all the classic sitcoms such as Happy Days, My Three Sons, ALF, Facts Of Life, Bewitched
and I Dream Of Jeannie.
 
classictvfan said:
anotherguy said:
The Garfield Christmas special is part of a DVD that also includes the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials. I recently bought a copy for my daughter.

My wife recently found a Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. To my knowledge this hasn't been on TV in years, unless it turned up on a channel like ABC Family.
Click to expand...

It aired on ABC for a few years and then aired for a while on HBO, before moving to basic cable, first on TNT,
then on Nickelodeon. I think the last time it was shown was on Odyssey(now Hallmark Channel) before
Hallmark bought it out from the Henson Company and purged the channel of all kids-type programming
and eventually of all the classic sitcoms such as Happy Days, My Three Sons, ALF, Facts Of Life, Bewitched
and I Dream Of Jeannie.
Click to expand...
 
I remember a couple of short animated films that appeared in the late 1980s on a VHS casssette: one of those "public domain" compilations

The cartoons included "Gingernut's Christmas Circus" about a squrill that tries to break into the said circus by stealing somebody's ticket. Both charactures get thorwn out of the circus out into the snow where the victim of the theft gets ready to punch the squrill who stole the ticket when suddenly gopher pops up out of the ground with a huge "Peace on Earth" sign. Both characters shake hands but the squrill finds himself clunked on the head by the sign. A cartoon I find rather violent and inappropriate for the holidays.

Another film "Santy's Little Shanty" an early black and white Looney Tune directed by Friz Freleng in the 1930s during the Bosko era.

I remember "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" in the 1960s which aired almost every year since 1964 on NBC thoughout the late 60s and the 70s. USA Network used to air it in the 80s. Cartoon Network aired it around 2003 (I think).

Disney co-produced the live action made for TV film: "A Mom For Christmas" in 1990 for NBC with Olivia Newton-John who played a department store mannequin that comes to life to become a temporary mother to a young pre-teen girl and her widowed dad. Disney Channel aired it a few more times in the late 90s. For diehard ON-J fans as myself who were fortunate to videotape the TV movie for collecting..more power to you since Disney never released it on home video in the U.S. A great feel good romantic movie with some light hearted comedy. Olivia as always pretty and sweet wearing the same outfit she wore on the album cover of "Warm and Tender" released on Geffen. A few years later she starred with daughter Chloe Lattanzi in another made for TV film: "A Christmas Romance" about an unemployed widow facing foreclosure of her country cabin by a bank employee who gets snowed in during a blizzard. The two have a shaky relationship during his unwelcome stay but in the end become lovers. Chloe played one of the two daugters.
 
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