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Commentary From the Editors

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Screenwriter Who Saved Christmas -- Again and Again

Dig the filmography of Romeo Muller, the guy who wrote the now-classic holiday TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

From The Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad Show through Strawberry Shortcake in the Big Apple City and on to Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody.

Watta career. And he wrote all the rest of those crazy Rankin-Bass Christmas shows, too, as they tried to recapture the Rudolph lightning: The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970), Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979), etc, etc.

Not to speak ill of the dead (Muller died in 1992), but Muller and certainly Rankin-Bass were badly served by the success of the original Rudolph. Yes, that show is charming and totally lovable. But it's also notable for how scattershot and plain WEIRD it is, especially everything that isn't connected to the original song: krazy trapper Yukon Cornelius and the island of misfit toys and the elf who wants to be a dentist and the Abominable Snowman putting the star atop the tree and the whole nine yards. Somehow the whole nutty mishmash works, party by sheer chance and partly because of the Rudolph-as-underdog story that we all know from the song.

But what Muller and Rankin-Bass took away from that success was, "Eureka! We're in the imagination business! Just make up the wackiest crackpot characters ever and throw them all together in some kind of insane backstory that 'explains' how Christmas or Easter or Hannukah came to be! With a celebrity narrator if possible!"

And that's what the rest of the Rankin-Bass specials are like, near as I can tell. I always found those shows, like Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, unwatchable. (The creepy Fred Astaire simulacrum doesn't help.)

So props to Mr. Muller for finding his niche and making a career of it, yes. And props to him for leveraging his holiday successes into other animation jobs.

But he sure kept going back to that same obsessive Christmas kick right to the end. His last three stories were The Wish That Changed Christmas in 1991, Noel in 1992 ("The story of Noel, a cheerful Christmas ornament with a certain 'happiness' that rubs off on the families he lives with." Narrated by Charlton Heston!), and The Twelve Days of Christmas in 1993 ("Narrated by a partridge, this charming animated tale explains the lengthy and confusing Christmas carol of the same name").

Bah humbug.

Labels: Fred Astaire, Romeo Muller, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 8:46 AM0 comments  

Monday, August 17, 2009

Fred Astaire Was On 'Battlestar Galactica'?

Oddly, yes. He played an "old con man" who "works his way into Starbuck's life" in episode 15 in 1979. Here's the photographic proof, with Astaire and rascally Dirk Benedict.

(This was the old Battlestar Gallactica, obviously, not the new one. Though it would have been awesome to see Astaire dance with Cylon Number Six.)

But how did he like it?

Later asked what his favourite role was, the man who had appeared in so many movies with countless stars answered that his appearance in Battlestar Galactica was his favourite role because his little grandson had been so impressed with it...

He found it a tough show because of special effects that caused three days of overtime, and because of the space language, which he didn't understand.

So says this rather fascinatingly detailed page about Astaire's religion. (He was Episcopalian.) Skip to the very bottom for the Galactica goodies.

(Thanks to Battlestar Wiki for the photographic proof.)

Labels: Battlestar Galactica, Dirk Benedict, Fred Astaire

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 3:31 PM0 comments  

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