THE BALLAD OF SMOKEY THE BEAR TV Special by Rick Goldschmidt THE BALLAD OF SMOKEY THE BEAR Premiered on THANKSGIVING DAY (11-24-1966)! It was the third RANKIN/BASS Special on THE GENERAL ELECTRIC FULL COLOR FANTASY HOUR. At the time that I assembled my book, I only had an edited print of the Special that VIACOM had syndicated. Since this time, I was able to obtain a full network print and it was a welcomed addition to my archives. Unlike RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (Written by Romeo Muller), this special was written by a newcomer to animated entertainment named Joseph Schrank. "Joe worked on many of the classic feature films at MGM," says Arthur Rankin. "This was very unfamiliar ground to him and we had to walk him through it a little bit." I believe that this is the only animated/children's project Schrank wrote. Johhny Marks, Composer of the songs from the RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER TV Special, took on this project as well. He did write some great tunes for this. One that I didn't discover until I found the Network Print, "Don't Wait" (Sung by Mrs. Beaver to Mr. Beaver) is especially good and sounds like it could be in the RUDOLPH special (similar in tempo and structure to WE'RE A COUPLE OF MISFITS). Many of the songs are unfortuantely forgettable though. It must have been a difficult task to write all NEW songs for this special, Just two years after RUDOLPH. The Theme song is very well done, "The Ballad Of Smokey The Bear," and the musical score by Maury Laws is Excellent. "We didn't release that soundtrack as an LP," Says Maury Laws. "I believe the theme song came out on a couple of singles, but I didn't do them." We did include "The Ballad Of Smokey The Bear" (Theme) on our limited-Collector's CD by the Richard Wolfe Children's Choir and they were very faithful to the Special's arrangement. James Cagney does an Excellent job with the narration as Big Bear. What I personnaly like about the special is the wonderful Character designs (Uncredited) and the elaborate sets. This special has the early look and feel that RUDOLPH and WILLIE McBEAN have and personally this is my favorite RANKIN/BASS period. The color is gorgeous and the escaped Gorilla at the end of the special has a nice "Bumble" feel to him. The way the show is presented seems to be aimed at a very young audience (This is my Son's favorite special). Perhaps RANKIN/BASS were ahead of their time with this one...LITTLE BEAR & FRANKLIN THE TURTLE are awfully popular now. It was directed by former NBC Executive Larry Roemer (who also Directed RUDOLPH) and quite well I might add. I think this was the turning point for RANKIN/BASS. After this special aired with moderate success, attention was directed at holiday programming primarily for Prime Time Network Specials. SMOKEY THE BEAR was big in 1966! He marched in the MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE earlier that day and TV GUIDE Advertised a children's record that week on LEO RECORDS which featured the voice of Jack Weaver (Official voice of SMOKEY) who later voiced the grown up Smokey in RANKIN/BASS' SMOKEY THE BEAR SHOW (Saturday morning series). THE BALLAD OF SMOKEY THE BEAR has been out of circulation for a very long while now and it is owned by GOLDEN BOOKS FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT. It certainly is deserving of a home video release and is a GREAT Special to air on a station like FOX FAMILY. Good, Clean, Holsum entertainment for the entire family!

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