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NEWS FROM THE MAGIC EASTER EGG!
Now that we are entering the month of March....wanted to give you an update on some of the Easter things going on in the world of RANKIN/BASS! We started a Don Duga section in the SPOTLIGHT section and have many more things to add to it. I spoke with Don over the weekend and we are planning to sell some original MAD MONSTER PARTY paperweights that Don designed. Each piece of art will be an original and feature many of the many MAD MONSTER PARTY characters that Don storyboarded in the film. For Easter, we are offering a 8 1/2 x 11 color laser of the original poster art by Paul Coker of HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL signed by RANKIN/BASS Musical Conductor Maury Laws! This print (suitable for frameing) is in a limited edition of 50 and for SALE right now for the price of $15 + $3.20 for Priority Mail shipping! Perfect unique RANKIN/BASS item for the holiday! WARNER BROTHERS HOME VIDEO re-issued THE EASTER BUNNY IS COMIN' TO TOWN in a beautiful clam shell edition VHS...if they had on DVD! The video features a gorgous print of the special and will surely delight the entire family. GOLDEN BOOKS FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT has issued a variety of Children's books based on the RANKIN/BASS classic HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL. The line of books includes a coloring book, Two story books, a Paint book (with a small picture from the Special on the cover ) and a deluxe boxed activity set. Unfortunately, the FOX FAMILY CHANNEL has a blurb on each cover claiming the special as their own and the artwork is only fair at best BUT my kids liked the books and yours will too! STUFFINS also issued a small bean bag (6") version of PETER, which is exactly like the 14" doll that came out at CVS DRUGSTORES last Easter. TARGET has a variation of the PETER doll that plays music and moves and they have a small bean bag as well BUT he lacks the RANKIN/BASS likeness. He is also clothed in a blue or purple outfit? I doubt the ENESCO figurine line will be issued this Easter. I have received no official word on the line and have heard of no reported sightings. For St. Patrick's Day, I recommend a viewing of THE LEPRECHAUN'S CHRISTMAS GOLD on WARNER BROS. HOME VIDEO. I recently spoke to our good friend Art Carney and his grandchildren recently enjoyed another viewing. Beautiful packaging on the VHS if you can find it...check with the WHOLE TOON CATALOG at 1-800-331-6197 or e-mail at sales@facets.org. Look for my article entitled THE RANKIN/BASS - MAD MAGAZINE CONNECTION (art by Jack Davis and Paul Coker, Jr.) in the next issue of ANIMATION BLAST magazine. I am also wri ting a PROFILE on our friend David Sheldon for the same issue. SCARY MONSTERS magazine will feature a cover story I wrote on MAD MONSTER PARTY VS. MAD, MAD, MAD MONSTERS in their Halloween, 2000 issue! Check TVPARTY.com for many other articles I have recently written including an upcoming article on GARFIELD GOOSE & FRIENDS. We recently discovered THE NBC Network 12-06-1964 print of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER w/ commercials and hope to bring you exclusive info and photos from this RARE find! I want to wish everyone a HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! Look for a SPRING Change to the site very soon. Rick
Rick to appear on NY radio and NET
It's an ANIMAGIC radio special as GREASY KID STUFF welcomes RANKIN/BASS Historian Rick Goldschmidt to share some stories and never-before-aired demos and recordings from everyone's favorite holiday specials! Tune in for this very special event, December 4th, 10am (Eastern) to Noon on GREASY KID STUFF! GREASY KID STUFF with Belinda and Hova airs Saturdays 10am (Eastern) to Noon in New York on Fabulous Freeform WFMU, 91.1 FM, 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley and broadcasting Worldwide on the internet at www.wfmu.org (w/ REAL AUDIO) .
ATTENTION Illinois Cable viewers!
The Enchanted World On CLTV NEWS!
Rick Goldschmidt will have a guest spot on the Sunday afternoon (11-21) edition of CLTV NEWS begining LIVE at 1:00pm-1:30pm Central time. The show will be re-broadcast several times during the afternoon and the segment may re-appear during Thanksgiving week! CLTV NEWS is on the CLTV/CHICAGO TRIBUNE cable station and is available on most Illinois cable packages 24 hours a day. Rick will also be re-appearing on WGN MORNING NEWS with Larry Potash sometime in December! Check your local listings.
FRANK FRAZETTA: Legacy
There is a GREAT new book out on the masterful artwork of Frank
Frazetta called LEGACY edited by Arnie and Cathy Fenner. It is a
wonderful sequel to last years ICON and we highly recommend it! Just
in time for Christmas! It includes two pages on MAD MONSTER PARTY
with a never-before-published color piece Frazetta did for a proposed
MAD MONSTER PARTY 1-sheet in 1967!!! It is beautifully printed full
page! To order the book call BUD PLANT COMIC ART at 1-800-242-6642
or go to www.budplant.com. BUD
PLANT sells all types of books devoted to art and artists, including
Frazetta, Moebius, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and comic book art of the
past! And, all books can be purchased online! BUD PLANT also sells
THE ENCHANTED WORLD OF RANKIN/BASS with a special FREE postcard signed
by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and myself. (Currently this is the only place
where one can obtain an authentic signature by Arthur Rankin, Jr.!!)
RUDOLPH REVELATIONS
We have obtained THE original RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER TV Special First draft screenplay by Romeo Muller (written and typed 10-28-63)! We will be sharing a few pages of the script and talking about many deleted scenes and characters that we have recently learned about. For instance, GUS THE STORK who delivers letters to Sam and delivered RUDOLPH to Donner and his Mrs.! There is a few page gun scene with Yukon! HERMEY is definitely spelled HERMEY! The Chief Elf's name is FOREMAN in the script! The 'Peppermint Scene' is in the original draft BUT the return to the Island Of Misfit Toy Island didn't happen until 1965! The Coach at the Reindeer games is named SKIPPER (not Comet as the CVS doll says)! Most importantly, SAM THE SNOWMAN is in the original draft BUT not in Burl Ives form yet. He is described by Romeo as a "roly, poly, Runyonesque, little fellow. Indeed, he might be the Nicely-Nicely Johnson of Snowmen. But his name happens to be Sam." This explains Sam's attire and the character design drawing in the TV GUIDE/G.E. ad by Tony Peters with a smooth round face. Indeed, we will be sharing some very interesting facts about the great ROMEO MULLER'S first draft of the script. Incidentally, there is no mention of the girl misfit doll. Charlie and Moonracer were the only misfits mentioned in this draft so far.
MORE RUDOLPH REVELATIONS!
REVISED SCRIPTS OBTAINED!
News to report after reviewing Romeo Muller's RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER TV Special Script Revised 11-11-63 and 03-07-64. HERMEY is still clearly spelled HERMEY! There was a name change for the Reindeer coach after these revisions. His name was changed from SKIPPER to COMET. The YUKON gun scene in the original draft was completely dropped and YUKON never uses his gun in the revised script or in the special. The Elf FOREMAN is still Elf FOREMAN (his official name). This version of the script is pretty much the special as we know it, but it does not include a trip back to the ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS to pick up the toys. I am sure that this scene was added, as Jules Bass recalls, in the 1965 broadcast. This revised script was typed and written by Romeo, just like the 10-28-63 version. I have also obtained a TRANSCRIPT with the MISFIT ending. This was in the VIDEOCRAFT archives and must be the origination of the misspelling of certain character names. It wrongly identifies HERMEY as HERBIE throughout and it even misspells KING MONNRACER as KING MOONRAISER. Apparently, this TRANSCRIPT is responsible for all the mis-information and must have been assumed correct. It is clearly not typed or written by Romeo. We'll discuss all of the scripts in more detail in the future and share pages too! None of Romeo's scripts give any background on the Misfit Girl doll and nothing was cut from the special detailing her problem. Go to page 5 in my book for Arthur Rankin's explanation. I guess this is one of those unexplained things like when the elf drops the Bird who swims without an umbrella and when the Elf FOREMAN'S voice is clearly a different actor as he conducts "WE ARE SANTA'S ELVES!"
ROMEO MULLER'S SCRAPBOOK
We will also be sharing many wonderful reviews and newspaper clippings that were saved over the years by Romeo! THANK YOU for lending us this Gene! VARIETY reviews abound! We will also be profiling ROMEO MULLER very soon! One of the major reasons to the RANKIN/BASS success story! Check my TVPARTY article for some background in the meantime.
M&M/MARS CANDY 1999 Promotion!
Last year, MARS CANDY had some wonderful RANKIN/BASS displays and bags on their Christmas candy packaging! This year they are continueing their R/B promotion with a special RUDOLPH bean bag doll offer! See display for RUDOLPH'S BRIGHT IDEAS coupon! You can buy one bag of candy w/ a GOLDEN BOOKS RANKIN/BASS video and send $1 to get the doll or you can buy 3 bags of candy and send $1. The doll is 5" and looks similar to last year's CVS doll! We hope to fill your Thanksgiving plate! Keep in mind, our Special Collector's CD raffle ends on December 2nd! We will pick two lucky winners from purchase entries from our merchandise page! We will have an article on the CD up very soon! Rick
RANKIN/BASS ARTICLE TO APPEAR IN TV GUIDE!
Writer Frank Decaro pens two page article for an upcoming Holiday Issue of TV Guide (to be issued late November). The article will contain interviews with Arthur Rankin, Jules Bass, Tim Burton and Rick Goldschmidt!!
RUDOLPH WEB PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
Take a peek as it takes shape now!
Take a look at an article I have written about the RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER TV Special on TVPARTY.com. It may answer a few of your RUDOLPH questions and you can look at it in it's rough stages under www.tvparty.com /xmasrudolph.html. It will have some NEW graphics there soon and we also want to add some info about Romeo Muller BUT you can take a look at the article and watch it take shape as we move towards the holidays!
EBAY SHOPPERS BEWARE!
MAD MONSTER PARTY
MAD MONSTER PARTY NEWS! The film was finally shown on television
again! On October 25th, MAD MONSTER PARTY aired twice on AMERICAN
MOVIE CLASSICS as part of their Halloween celebration. It was
wonderful to see that the film print they used for broadcast was best
we have seen!
Speaking of MAD MONSTER PARTY let's jump to the DELUXO video release.
Snap up your copy of the video early since the video is now in short
supply! It won't be around forever! In addition to the video, BLACK
BEAR PRESS has issued MAD MONSTER PARTY comic
book #1, which is on shelves right now. It includes two pages
from THE MISFITS' (the band) website and this is the first of four
issues. The MAD MONSTER PARTY DVD has been delayed. It was to be
released by Halloween by DELUXO/RYKODISC, but RYKODISC has recently
gone through a buy out. Dave Whitting and I scanned and photographed
my entire collection for the supplementary material to be added with
the "making of" special "MAD MONSTER PARTY: Unearthing A Classic."
DELUXO assures us that the DVD will be out, most likely in early 2000
. Hang in there!
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
Let's talk about video and DVD releases! RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED
REINDEER is finally being issued on DVD on September 24th!
Unfortunately, it will not include the 1965 addition "Fame and
Fortune" sequence. I am told that GOLDEN BOOKS/SONY WONDER may
do something with that material in the future. There was talk of
a collector's edition/clamshell special video release, but the soonest
that would happen is in the year 2000. The RUDOLPH DVD will
apparently include some sort of interactive children's game. Hope
the packaging is a photo cover and not the poorly drawn art we have
seen on previous video releases!!!
THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS
September 28th will see the re-release of
THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS on
video again from WARNER BROTHERS HOME VIDEO! It will be released in
a beautifully re-designed clamshell package with a photo cover that
includes the Heat Miser/Snow Miser! This is perhaps the BEST photo
cover to be issued for a RANKIN/BASS Christmas Classic. The quality
of the original video release was excellent, so I am sure they could
not have improved that. THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS is being
marketed with a clamshell re-issue of HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
w/HORTON HEARS A WHO (which will also be out on DVD). You will see
print ads and commercials this holiday season for these releases!
THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS reappeared on the networks (CBS and THE
FAMILY CHANNEL) and there are figurine lines planned on this highly
rated special.
WILLIE MCBEAN AND HIS MAGIC MACHINE
On our home page we mention the remastering of WILLIE McBEAN & HIS
MAGIC MACHINE. Yes! It is true! WILLIE McBEAN is finally getting
the care that it richly deserves. Previous video releases were from
a very dark, poor print. Most of the video issues were recorded in
the EP mode as well. The remastered print which is currently being
worked on at GOLDEN BOOKS FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT is a richly enhanced
35mm print! It looks gorgeous! There is a problem with the audio
track being slightly out-of-sync, but they are doing their best to
correct that as best as it can be corrected. Plans are to release it
on home video and to an international television market. Seeing it
in this condition, is like seeing it for the very first time. The
color is unbelievable! We'll keep you posted!
RUDOLPH AND THE ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS
OK, now it is time to talk about THE ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS! After
the amazing response to last year's STUFFINS/CVS promotion at CVS
PHARMACY, they are rolling out so much stuff this year that they had
to put their ENESCO/CVS ornament line out now!!!! Yes, the ENESCO/CVS
ornaments are on the shelves now and people are buying them by the
case. Why? These are perhaps the most faithful renditions of the
characters to date. If you ask us, the plush line had its faults
from last year. For instance, Santa had round boots and a squared
off beard...didn't really look like the R/B Santa that we have all
come to know. In defense of STUFFINS, it is very difficult to capture
a character like that in plush. Take a look at some of the
HANNA-BARBERA characters at the WARNER BROTHERS STUDIO STORE and you'll
know what I mean.
CVS/ENESCO RUDOLPH ORNAMENTS AND FIGURINES
The CVS/ENESCO ornament line does not
miss a detail! They are extremely accurate and well worth the price
at $5.99 a piece (12 in all). ENESCO has also
issued eleven different figurines which are popping up at card
and gift shops (such as HALLMARK) right now. In my personal opinion,
it doesn't get any better than this. Not only are the characters
dead on, but the textures and the character groupings are perfect!
I suggest you pick up the snow scene ceramic base that goes with the
set! It is available to the general public BUT retailers may only
have one or two with their order. The base has a mirror pond and
three pine trees with snow on them. It really makes for a nice
RANKIN/BASS scene. ENESCO has plans on expanding their RUDOLPH line
for next year and perhaps doing a few other RANKIN/BASS lines.
CVS/PLAYING MANTIS RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
KEYCHAINS!
CVS/STUFFINS PLUSH BEAN BAGS
The CVS/STUFFINS plush "Island Of Misfit Toys" line for Christmas, 1999
will include some of our all-time favorites! They will kick off the
promotion with two unannounced "Surprise" characters the weekend after
Thanksgiving. The NEW line includes a mixture of characters from
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and FROSTY THE SNOWMAN. The characters
include
1. Santa 2. The Misfit Plane
3. The Cowboy Who Rides An Ostrich
4. Hermey with The Misfit Elephant and Dentist Book
5. The Chief Elf
6. Yukon Cornelius with his official snow shoes and pick
7. The Misfit Jelly Pistol
8. Sam the Snowman
9. Tall Elf with Glasses
10. "Coach" Comet wearing his baseball hat and whistle
11. Adult Rudolph-The-Red-Nosed Reindeer
12. Frosty the Snowman with his broom,scarf,hat and pipe
13. Traffic Cop with stop sign
14. Professor Hinkle
15. Karen. We would like to THANK William McCullars for supplying
us with the up-to-date info on these products. We'll pass along
anything else we learn about this promotion as CVS rolls it out. Will
there be large dolls this year too? Only Santa knows for sure!
THE LATEST RANKIN/BASS PROJECTS
THE KING AND I is now out on video packaged in abeautiful clamshell
box with a Tusker whistle attached. We hear that it was the hottest
selling children's video release during the month of July! Also, ask
for the book HERB, THE VEGETARIAN DRAGON by Jules Bass and Debbie
Harter (A BAREFOOT BOOK). It is Jules' first children's book and
there is a sequel planned for this Christmas. A nice collectible to
add to your RANKIN/BASS collection!
Well, that is some of the NEWS that we wanted to pass along....whew!
Hope this answers some of your e-mail questions and we will keep you
up-to-date as we learn about NEW R/B releases!
Let's talk about what I have been finding under MAD MONSTER PARTY on
EBAY. Just want to let MAD MONSTER PARTY fans know that there are some
pirated, illegal copies of original MMP movie stills floating around.
The way you can tell an original from a fake is....the fakes have
the words MAD MONSTER PARTY printed at the bottom and nothing else.
The original stills have copyright info and Film information at the
bottom. I have also seen reprints printed with the original text at
the bottom BUT the reprints lack the detail of originals. They are
much more contrasty. Original MMP stills are much more difficult to
find BUT are worth the wait. We also wanted to mention that we've
also seen reprints of the Mad Monster Party original one-sheet posters
on ebay.....DON'T FALL FOR IT! These are currently being offered for
FREE from Deluxo/Black Bear! Information on ordering your free poster
is included in the latest batch of Mad Monster Party VHS videos from
Deluxo/Black Bear!! Don't get taken! ....Just another tip from your
friends at rankinbass.com!
