With all the memories that are brought back by the holiday season, none are more special to me than those involving the Color specials at holiday time.



Bob Hope
Andy Williams
Perry Como
Amahl and the night visitor
The parades
Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol
Rudolph, which premiered on CBS in 1964 with the GE commercials with the Rudolph elves

Can you guys think of any of the other early Christmas specials?

And they'll sing, and they'll sing, and they'll sing, sing, sing,
And the more that he thought of this who Christmas sing,
the more he thought, I must stop this whole thing.
For 53 years I've put up withn it now,
I must stop Christmas from Coming, BUT HOW??

And aslo, "a Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965)

I rarely got to watch them-they came on Sunday nights, & Sunday I had 1) Sunday School, 2)"Big" church, in the morning, 3)Choir practice, about 4.30 PM, God help you if you weren't home, cleaned up w/coat & tie ready to go by about 4.15, 4)Snack supper in church dining hall, 5) Sunday Night Church. You got home about the time all the good shows, Disney, Xmas specials, etc, were going off. But I know the words to ALL the old Christmas Carols & hymns...It was kinda fun when you were a kid, but got tedious when I was about 14 on...-Sandy G.

Remember watching a Perry Como xmas special in his much later years, never really heard him before but he sang Ava Maria and it was like, wow, this guy's GOOD! Miss those old REAL Christmas specials with the 'biggies' hosting them. Although I saw one with Harry Conniff I think last year where he performed on a center stage that was a very nice Holiday show.

I went to buy some of the old shows on DVD this year. They have additions from Hip Hop and R&B singers. The additions really turned me off and I did not buy them. They are classics and I did not like folks MODERNIZING a classic. They are wonderful singers but I like the real deal!

Thanks to thrift stores I have a bunch of old Christmas music. I play then nonstop till Christmas hits. I like the now oldies like Bing, Kate Smith, Jim Neighbors AND Andy Williams. Bob Hope Christmas Specials was also a favorite.

I liked the Smothers Brothers Christmas specials.

All the classic cartoons were the bomb though. They were an event in my house. We would get ready by popping corn and serving hot cider. If you preferred Hot Chocolate we had that too.

polaraman

P.S. Being in southern Georgia it does not snow. BUMMER!

never got to see the holidays in color until 1971 when dad bought a brand new quasar color tv. wow opened -up a whole new world.rudolfs nose really was red!

New stuff doesn't come close to the genuine sentiment the originals exuded. I agree with Polaraman on that new stuff except for his compliments to the new singers which I see as copycats without genuine heart and soul.
I love the Smothers Brothers! I never saw the Christmas specials that I know of. Maybe my mom had me there when I was too young to remember. I hope to buy them someday soon.
The holidays are a big reason I had hoped to have a restored old color set to watch. I am still working on getting two old ones but the hurricane mess set me back a bit.
I want to buy all those beautiful classic specials, color and B/W! Last year I saw a Tennesee Ernie Ford special when his 2 year old was going nuts at certain parts of a song and Tennesee was as cool as the coolest dad could be. A recent special on that I saw part of had the older brother remembering that moment.
.I always like to see that original Rudolf special. I have always liked that part where the beautiful girl sings: "There's always tomorrow, for dreams to come true..." I have often wondered if that influenced me to take forever to accomplish important things. Now I am starting to wonder if that song is as true as it sounds.

We used to have Xmas specials like those described in the above posts in Australia in the 60's - 80's when I was growing up. :)

Now due to political correctness & not trying to offend other cultures in our multi cultural society with our christian ways, the whole thing has been watered down to make everyone happy & Xmas was the biggest casualty of all this political correctness crap. :cry:

Oh for the good old days :sigh:

In the mold of Rudolph, there were the Rankin/Bass specials, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and one with Heat Miser and Cold Miser(?). Can't remember the name of that one. My wife still enjoys those, and gets a little teary when Clarice sings "There's Always Tomorrow" in Rudolph.

If you're looking for something cool to watch on your old color sets, we found a DVD of a 1957 special called "Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank." Though it aired on ABC in black and white, Frank Sinatra, who produced it, spent the extra money to film it in color. Though it's not the same as vintage color videotape, it is still a great time capsule of a show, and perfect holiday programming to watch on a set of similar vintage. And it's Bing and Frank--how could you go wrong?

And they'll sing, and they'll sing, and they'll sing, sing, sing,
And the more that he thought of this who Christmas sing,
the more he thought, I must stop this whole thing.
First saw that show in color in 1968; guess I missed it for two years. :sigh:

There were the holiday programs for a series. "Sing Along with Mitch" comes to mind.

Now due to political correctness & not trying to offend other cultures in our multi cultural society with our christian ways, the whole thing has been watered down to make everyone happy & Xmas was the biggest casualty of all this political correctness crap.
:Believe me, we're going through the same thing here.

One bright spot: Last year Macy's banned the word 'Christmas' from its stores. This year the word is they've recanted after all the fuss it created, and we will see it again in stores. Bet they didn't demand "Miracle on 34th Street" be purged of their name.

Here is a link to the Rankin/Bass web page.



http://rankinbass.com/


polaraman

Remember the booming bass, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch..." <grin>-Sandy G.

And may I just wish each and every one of you a happy early-winter, post-Halloween celebratory period and possible worship of the religion of your choosing including none. But of course if this offends you in any way I hereby retract my wish since a wish in itself is sort of spiritual and mystical in nature the likes of which you may not believe in without hurting your feelings... Aw screw it - Merry Christmas!!! : /

Man you guys were spoiled! :D
I didn't really get a Color TV till 1979 when I bought a new 19" GE (with a modular chassis)

Charlie Brown, Grinch, Frosty etc... were all B&W to me as a child. :sigh:

Ah, yes, decorating the living room while watching all the usual Christmas shows on the KE chassis GE color console. Frosty & Rudolph are true classics "will go down in history". Thinking about it, most of what I used to watch was a cartoon of some sort or another. Maybe thats why I remember that GE having a decent picture-almost any old color tv can look decent showing a cartoon.

This year, I SWEAR I'm going to watch Rudolph on my Zenith roundie!

Last year, some caps sh*t the bed right before Christmas. Year before was the year I got it, just after the Christmas season.

That said, I need to go out and buy the DVD of Rudolph, preferably the one without the "extra feature" of Destiny's Child or someone like that.

Anyone know if there's an edition with the GE commercials intact? That would be the ultimate!

veg

In the mold of Rudolph, there were the Rankin/Bass specials, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and one with Heat Miser and Cold Miser(?). Can't remember the name of that one.The Year Without a Santa Claus. A film version has been rumoured for years: http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf=prev&id=1808406660&intl=us


Remember the booming bass, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch..." <grin>-Sandy G.That was Thurl Ravenscroft who sang that song, but was not credited. He was best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger, and passed away this past year. I believe June Foray also did the voice of Cindy Lou Who without credit.

I've got a recording of Sixpence None the Richer covering that song that I love -- Foe

I'd thought that was ol' Thurl-he had a VERY distinctive voice. Didn't he do the singing in that Andy Griffith episode where they use a dead microphone to fool barney? You know-the song was "Welcome Sweet Springtime" or something like that...-Sandy G.

Broadcast once on CBS in the winter of ’78, can we ignore the eclectic “Star Wars Holiday Special”: Jefferson Starship, Harvey Korman (whip stir, whip stir), Carrie Fisher, Art Carney, Harrison Ford. My kids watched an OTA VHS tape I made for years after.

Somewhere I have a color tape (vhs) of an early 60's Sing Along with Mitch Christmas special; great program and outstanding color from those TK-41's. This was recorded off air Channel 8 in Tampa back 20 years or so ago.

Rudolph, which premiered on CBS in 1964 with the GE commercials with the Rudolph elves It was a presentation of General Electric Theater on NBC. Rudolph didn't land at Television City until the 1972 season.