The holidays ramped up my television obsession. When is "Rudolph" going to be on? What about Charlie Brown? Will this be the year without "The Year Without a Santa Claus?!"
It all started on Thanksgiving Day with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This was generally followed by an afternoon of odd assorted animated specials. Sometimes they were those "Famous Classic Tales" like "The Mysterious Island" and "Gulliver's Travels", sometimes the similarly-themed "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" with Magoo playing the main character of classic literature, and sometimes it was those oddball Lutheran Television cartoons like "Christmas Is..." featuring "Benji" and his dog "Waldo". This flex-disc mail giveaway promoted its appearance on local St. Louis television station KSD, channel 5 at noon on Christmas Day.
This letter accompanied the flexi-disc
Despite its poor (in my child's eye) animation, the voice cast boasted some of the greats including Hans Conreid (Disney's Captain Hook), Don Messick (Boo Boo Bear, Dr. Benton Quest, Scooby Doo) and June Foray (pretty much every child and female voice in cartoons you've ever heard including Cindy Lou Who, Warner Bros. Granny and Witch Hazel, Rocket J. Squirrel, and Jokey Smurf).
I don't think "Christmas Is..." has aired for a number of years, but is still available to watch on Youtube.
1st I did not know Benji was made by a church group, interesting. Also growing up if we missed a christmas special because mom and dad just had to go out to dinner that night you had to wait a whole year to try and catch it again. I will add this special to my YouTube watch list thanks.
ReplyDeleteOne year I was going to miss Rudolph because of my 5th Grade Christmas concert. I talked my mom into letting me skip it so I could watch.
DeleteDidn't you have a VCR at that time?...
DeleteScorpio 68, nope. We didn't get a VCR until I was a Sophmore in High School. It made for a very challenging childhood for a TV junkie like me.
DeleteAnd when did you get a color TV?
DeleteColor TV we were a little better on, at least from my perspective. I remember having color TV from my earliest viewing which would have been the early '70's.
DeleteI loved this show and so wish I still had my "Christmas Is" album. I listened to it all year long when I was a kid. It was such a treat to get anything in the mail back then.
ReplyDeleteWas it this flex-disc or was there a regular vinyl album made for this special?
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