Rankin/Bass’ ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ Makes a Triumphant Return to NBC for 60th Anniversary

On Dec. 6th, 1964, Rankin/Bass Productions’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the longest-running, highest-rated television special of all time, premiered in the late afternoon during the General Electric Fantasy Hour. But how did Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass get their landmark TV special on NBC?

After producer Arthur Rankin Jr. produced the syndicated series The New Adventures of Pinocchio (shot in Animagic like Rudolph) and The Tales of the Wizard of Oz (shot in traditional cel animation), he was looking for a different way of conducting business. He had financed the two series with bank loans and borrowed money from friends, and wasn’t seeing much of a return.

Arthur was always networking in New York, and he met Bill Sahloff, vice president of General Electric. Sahloff was willing to sponsor some Rankin/Bass television specials, and, strangely, before working for GE, he worked for Montgomery Wards, where Rudolph began. Around this time, Arthur made friends with a guy named Larry Roemer (pictured below) and offered him a partnership in his company known as Videocraft International. Roemer had a very good friend who worked at NBC and would be instrumental in getting Rankin/Bass programs on the air.

Courtesy Rick Goldschmidt Archives

The first Rankin/Bass television special

The first television special that Rankin/Bass Productions got on the air was an extension of their Tales of the Wizard of Oz series, called Return to Oz. It premiered in February of 1964, on the General Electric Fantasy hour on NBC, the same night the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time on CBS. It was cel-animated and promoted GE houseware products like irons and coffee pots. It was a modest success.

No one could predict the success of their second General Electric Fantasy Hour premiere on NBC. Arthur convinced his reluctant neighbor Johnny Marks, who wrote the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” to write more songs and convinced his brother-in-law Robert L. May to allow for a television special. May knew Sahloff, who was big on the idea of a TV special, as he saw how popular Rudolph was at Montgomery Wards. Things were falling into place. Arthur rewarded Larry Roemer with a director’s credit for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, for getting the special on NBC, even though he did not do the actual directing of the Animagic, which was done by Tadahito Mochinaga. Roemer also visited the animation studio MOM in Japan during the production, which is something Jules Bass never did.

Rick Goldschmidt and Santa Puppet Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr., Larry Roemer and Tadahito Mochinaga

Toward the end of production on Rudolph, the relationship with Larry Roemer began to sour. Sound engineer Bill Giles explained, “I got an urgent call in Canada to take a train to New York as soon as possible. We had finished all of the recordings for the special, but something apparently was wrong with them. When I got to Arthur’s office, Jules Bass, Larry Roemer and Arthur were there. Larry was yelling and screaming that everything was wrong with the recordings and they needed to be redone. He was making all kinds of demands and was unreasonable. Arthur finally said, ‘Let’s discuss this at lunch,’ and the three of them left. When they returned, it was just Arthur and Jules. Arthur said, ‘Everything is fine with the recordings.’ Then he sent me on my way back to Canada.”

My late friend Antony Peters, who was the designer of the Rudolph TV special, had told me, “I am not sure what happened between Arthur, Jules and Larry, but Larry’s picture was turned around on the wall after that. I ran into Larry years later and he was very nice, but didn’t reveal the story.”

In these early days of the company, Arthur and Jules were looking for the key components at Rankin/Bass. Jules actually found one for Rudolph, and that was hiring Maury Laws as the musical supervisor. Prior to this, they were using a trio named Forrell, Thomas and Pollack for the music.

Rudolph was a smash hit on NBC! This was followed with another NBC General Electric Fantasy Hour special in 1966 called The Ballad of Smokey the Bear starring James Cagney, with music again by Johnny Marks. This was a moderate success and coincided with the Smokey Balloon debut in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.

NBC continued to work with Rankin/Bass and aired Cricket on the Hearth during The Danny Thomas Show, The Mouse on the Mayflower and The Little Drummer Boy. All great entertainment with a great deal of success.

Why did Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer leave NBC in 1972?

Romeo Muller, Jr. with two Animagic figures Arthur gave him. One of the many reindeer and a tree elf from the feature film "Marco"in which he also appeared.

Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives

Rankin/Bass Productions began to court the other two networks in 1969. Their Frosty the Snowman premiered on CBS in 1969 and their Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town landed on ABC in 1970. Since the General Electric company was financing all of the Rankin/Bass specials, under their Tomorrow Entertainment division, they had the final say on what network the specials would air. After Frosty was a big hit, CBS wanted more specials and Rudolph fit right in. NBC wasn’t really rebroadcasting their television specials and ultimately lost all of them. The first network animated television special, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, sponsored by Timex, premiered on NBC Dec. 18, 1962. Ironically, the General Electric company owned NBC for some time, later on.

Today, Universal owns the broadcast rights to the early Rankin/Bass TV specials, and they own NBC. Rudolph will return to NBC in a 75-minute time slot on Dec. 6, to celebrate the 60th anniversary, at 8pm ET. While it is my hope that they will air rare and behind-the-scenes stuff (I have access to the original 1964 end credits in color, plus the Rankin/Bass GE commercials), I am expecting to see modern-day celebrities (probably from NBC shows) explain why they like Rudolph during breaks. NBC does this with It’s a Wonderful Life.

Frosty The Sanowman Courtesy Rick Goldschmidt

Frosty the Snowman will premiere on NBC Dec. 5 at 8:30pm ET. I am sad to see it leave CBS, as it held the record for the most consecutive years on the same network. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town will hold that record now on ABC.

The edit of the Rudolph special that CBS was showing since 1998 was horrendous. During the song “We’re a Couple of Misfits,” they were showing chopped segments from the song “Fame and Fortune,” and it unfortunately looked like it was edited by a third grader. The audio also had sound warbles throughout, so I am hoping this all gets corrected with the NBC airing. One thing is for sure: Rudolph will go down in history!