History of The Nerd Part I #6: Rankin/Bass Production

Christmas time had come and gone again; a time where we should all put aside all of our grudges and remind ourselves how lame Chanukah is. I mean if Chanukah is a real holiday, then why are no Chanukah holiday specials done in awesome seventies stop-motion? That’s because Rankin/Bass productions never did a special about Chanukah and if Rankin/Bass doesn’t do a special, then your holiday just doesn’t count (sorry “rest of the world”!). For the sake of the little baby Jesus they even did a Halloween special and that’s not even an internationally recognized holiday. For those of you who are too young to remember Rankin/Bass you should go into a Hot Topic or comic book shop and take a good look at those ironic action figures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Those action figures came from holiday specials that were made in the land before time, in the long, long ago, in the 1960’s. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, they were all created by Rankin/Bass; the production company that did more holiday specials than anyone else. In fact if there weren’t a Rankin/Bass (and maybe Jesus) there wouldn’t be a Christmas or at least it would be lamer. (Note: To any body of Jewish faith, I only said the above comments about Chanukah in jest. In no way do I believe Chanukah is not a real holiday in fact I love most things about Judaism. I love the history, I love the food, I love your women, I love your comedians, and I especially love you.)

Arthur Rankin, Jr. was born in to a family of actors that never achieved any real fame. They would get close enough to get an aphrodisiacal whiff of success and then turn around and call it a day. His grandfather was Harry Davenport who played Dr. Mead in Gone With The Wind and his father performed in a large number of films in roles such as “Photographer”, “Reporter”, and “Loco, the Halfwit “. Arthur Ranking, Jr. would break the curse in his family by becoming a graphic designer in 1948 for the fledgling television studio, ABC. He pulled himself up by the bootstraps and worked his way up to Art Director. Eventually he got bored with being creative and just wanted to make a shit load of money so he gradually broke into advertising. Rankin left ABC in 1952 to start his own company. Through the hazy fog of his cigar smoke he noticed a young mail clerk that delivered materials to his studio. This young, supple, bendable, and possibly body-hairless boy would later become his partner, Jules Bass. (I’m sure their partnership wasn’t a gay as I’m implying but it’s nice to think that behind every boardroom there are gay shenanigans going on.) Rankin says, “Our intention was to combine his advertising know-how with my television and artistic know-how.” They formed their union, and know-how, in 1960 by starting Videocraft International.

Videocraft’s first project was an independent series based on the public domain character Pinocchio. This was done using a fairly new idea for television cartoons called stop motion. Of course, stop motion was used for many years in movies as a special effect to bring creatures like King Kong to life, but Rankin/Bass needed to spruce it up for television, so they called it “Animagic”. In 1964 they would produce their major crowning achievement that could finally make Christmas something special to people who lived their lives watching television. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer aired on December 6, 1964 on NBC and was sponsored by General Electric. The Rudolph song by Johnny Marks was expanded to include characters, actual stories and my personal favorite, the Island of Misfit Toys. The Island of Misfit Toys is an island concentration camp where unwanted toys that are born with defects, or maybe Down syndrome, are sent to spend their lives in miserable isolation. All of these wonderful family lessons are the reason that it’s still shown today, making it the longest running Christmas TV special today.

Videocraft would go on to produce many Christmas-themed specials such as Frosty the Snowman and The Little Drummer Boy. By 1971 they dropped the Videocraft name in favor of their byline proving that you don’t need a decent name if you have a gigantic ego. I mean Rankin/Bass sounds like either a reggae funk band or an award winning fish. The team of Rankin and Bass would continue for thirty-five years. They even produced the popular Saturday cartoon, Thundercats in 1985. This was a show that combined the outright ripping off of Star Wars and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.

Well, all good things must come to an end (just like this article), and so did the partnership of Rankin/Bass. Maybe there was an argument about the lack of sex or flirting outside of the relationship (I’m really holding onto this concept, don’t judge me!), but after 1999 Rankin/Bass was dissolved. Jules Bass would go on to write a best selling children’s book, Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon. This was the first children’s book to actively explore the moral issues of vegetarianism and made children who liked hamburgers feel overly guilty about eating them. Arthur Rankin Jr. split his time between doing that and being in New York City, where the company still has its offices, and where he sits hoping for something to magically happen – just like one of their holiday specials.