Why, after 40 years, do The Grinch, Charlie Brown and Rudolph stay at the top of our annual Christmas lists? Did Christmas end in 1966?
They all premiered during my "Wonder Years," when I was seven, eight, nine. Back then, you believed in Santa Claus, just like you believed the Leafs were going to win the Stanley Cup again.
Are these holiday shows that won't go away just more evidence of Boomers imposing their cherished kiddie culture on future generations? Perhaps, except today's children seem just as enchanted by Rudy, Chuck and Grinch as I ever was. Christmas might not come from a store, as The Grinch discovers, but it seems to belong to a simpler, hand-crafted age. With all the advances in computer-generated animation, you'd think a Merry Shrek-mas would have run Rudolph and his clunky stop-motion pals out of town by now, or that The Simpsons would have supplanted Snoopy each December. Instead, eggnog and Yule log still equal analogue. There's nothing Ho-Ho-Hi-def about Christmas on TV.
Not that there haven't been a few worthy holiday specials made this century. Olive The Other Reindeer, a 1999 computer-animated gem produced by Matt Groening and featuring the vocal talents of Drew Barrymore and Dan Castellaneta, is available on DVD. The Santa Claus Brothers (2001), from Nelvana and featuring the voices of Malcolm In The Middle's Bryan Cranston, Caroline Rhea and Joe Flaherty, is a fun little 'toon too.
Neither had the staying power of Rudy, Chuck and Grinch. Is it because the fractured TV universe just doesn't allow for that one shining shared holiday TV experience any more? Is YouTube the next Yule hearth?
Or, maybe, a classic is just a classic. That is certainly the case with Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which airs tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC (it repeats next Monday at 7:30 on CBC and Dec. 24 at 7 p.m. on TBS).
The special ran for 30 years on CBS. Tonight's ABC offering is a special 40th anniversary edition, offering a look at the original cut (today's added commercial clutter has trimmed recent broadcasts) plus some bonus goodies.
Why is this a classic? Like most of Chuck Jones' Warner Bros. gems, The Grinch has a timeless quality. There are no cars or clothes to date it like The Monkees or That Girl, two other 1966 premieres. Whoville, like Oz, never needs a makeover.
The animated special is also extremely well-crafted. Besides Jones and the great Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), it features a unique convergence of talent, including master cell animators left without a palette when the big studio cartoon houses packed it in just a few years earlier.
Jones, a superb character animator who could time a gag to a 24th of a second, was backed by the heart of his Warners' bench, including design wiz Maurice Noble. Giving The Grinch a voice for the ages was Boris Karloff, who died just a few years later. His crisp and creepy narration is unforgettable; his voice both scares and soothes. Thurl Ravenscroft's booming rendition of You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch, is, as he used to say as the voice of Tony The Tiger, "GRRRRREAT!" So is the music, composed by Albert Haugue, who later played a music teacher in both the film and series versions of Fame.
They all make this special special. One final thought: maybe The Grinch endures because it is so prophetic. We've all turned into Grinches, hating Christmas and all its tinsel trappings. Seeing this show helps bring us back to our childhoods, when even mean people could get into the spirit. We all need to be reminded that Christmas doesn't come from a store and that a heart can grow three sizes in one day. That's why we keep watching Rudy, Chuck and Grinch -- to believe.
