When I was a youngster (many, many years ago), they used to show a full-length cartoon of “A Christmas Carol” starring the nearsighted Mr. Magoo. It pretty much disappeared from the airways (probably because it was in black and white, IIRC) and I haven’t seen it in a long time, but for me and probably many kids in the 50’s and 60’s it was our introduction to Dicken’s classic.
There was the promising animated The Pogo Special Birthday Special, collaboration between Walt Kelly (one of the greatest comic strip artist who ever lived) and Chuck Jones (one of the greatest cartoon directors who ever lived), with voice by June Foray (one of the greatest voiceover artists who ever lived). Jones and Kelly also voiced some of the characters.
Alas, the special was slow-paced and bland. Kelly hated what Jones had done with the art, and the clash between Kelly’s verbal pyrotechnics and Jones’s visual style was never resolved, so you get sort of an Alphonse and Gaston act as each deferred to the other. The result watered down both their strengths.
I think it was more 1987. I remember the boiled rocks.
1977’sA Doonesbury Special. It was done about the time Trudeau updated his characters from college students to young adults. I only saw it once on TV, but it’s on YouTube.
A vague memory of the ET wise men haunted me for years until I had the opportunity to look it up when the internet got big.
Hold on to your truss, old man, I just looked it up: 1973! :eek::eek:
Yeah. I have vivid memories of this “thing”.
Watch it now in color. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_8FhEXitrU
The book is for children; the video is definitely not. It airs on Comedy Central every year at Christmastime, last I heard.
Wow! :eek:
Though I’m pretty sure I saw it Thanksgiving weekend 1986 or '87, when I was visiting Milwaukee. I don’t remember any other occasion.
In 30 posts nobody’s mentioned the Star Wars Holiday Special? 
A Christmas Classic, one of the top three animated Christmas specials.
Not animated, except for Boba Fett. 
I see that the one I came in to name – the Doonesbury Special has already been named (I missed it when it was broadcast, but caught it later by borrowing a 16 mm sound film version, in those pre-VCR and pre-YouTube days).
There are the various versions of A Christmas Carol – it was years before I finally saw the Chuck Jones-Produced and Richard Williams-(Who Framed Roger Rabbit)-directed TV special. They tried to recreate the original book ilustrations 9as the Robert Zemeckis/Jim Carrey version did, to some extent). And they had Alastair Sim (who had played Scrooge in the 1951 movie) do the voice of Scrooge.
Of course, I love the UPA/Mister Magoo version. I now have it on DVD, but I haven’t seen it on TV in ages.
For that matter, I haven’t even seen the Rankin/Bass version With Walter Matthau voicing Scrooge) on TV in ages.
My first exposure to Tolkien were the Rankin/Bass versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King. Not really lost (available on DVD), but they haven’t been aired for years, and with the Jackson versions on TNT seemingly weekly I’m sure they never will.
Just what I came in to talk about. I remember watching it when it aired in 1969 and being underwhelmed. I was a young fan of both Jones and Kelly, but the special didn’t do it for me. I barely remember one scene from it.
I remember Animalympics was always shown around major sporting events, usually on HBO. I recall many times as a kid being excited to watch it, but then bored by it and not finishing it.
I remember it ended with the two marathon runners (one a male goat, the other a female…cheetah? lioness?) crossing the finish line tape at the same time, in love and holding hands (paws/hooves). Weird.
An hour-long special I remember which had some extended animation sequences was Gene Kelly’s Jack and the Beanstalk. Given that it first aired in 1967 (before I was born), they must have rerun it a few times over the years but it’s largely unknown now. Here’s a clip.
I remember a Disney Valentine’s Day special that we had taped and I would watch over and over. A bit of googling looks like it was from 1986 because I definitely remember “Don’t Go Breakin My Heart” by Elton John & Kiki Dee being part of it. I would been 5 years old then.
I loved that as a kid. Seems ripe for a reboot.