My childhood revolved around the television set. What was on tonight? What was on this coming weekend? Who's on Fantasy Island this week? What's on now?!
The holidays ramped up my television obsession. When is "Rudolph" going to be on? What about Charlie Brown? Will this be the year without "The Year Without a Santa Claus?!"
It all started on Thanksgiving Day with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This was generally followed by an afternoon of odd assorted animated specials. Sometimes they were those "Famous Classic Tales" like "The Mysterious Island" and "Gulliver's Travels", sometimes the similarly-themed "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" with Magoo playing the main character of classic literature, and sometimes it was those oddball Lutheran Television cartoons like "Christmas Is..." featuring "Benji" and his dog "Waldo". This flex-disc mail giveaway promoted its appearance on local St. Louis television station KSD, channel 5 at noon on Christmas Day.
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Despite its poor (in my child's eye) animation, the voice cast boasted some of the greats including Hans Conreid (Disney's Captain Hook), Don Messick (Boo Boo Bear, Dr. Benton Quest, Scooby Doo) and June Foray (pretty much every child and female voice in cartoons you've ever heard including Cindy Lou Who, Warner Bros. Granny and Witch Hazel, Rocket J. Squirrel, and Jokey Smurf).
I don't think "Christmas Is..." has aired for a number of years, but is still available to watch on Youtube.
The holidays ramped up my television obsession. When is "Rudolph" going to be on? What about Charlie Brown? Will this be the year without "The Year Without a Santa Claus?!"
It all started on Thanksgiving Day with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This was generally followed by an afternoon of odd assorted animated specials. Sometimes they were those "Famous Classic Tales" like "The Mysterious Island" and "Gulliver's Travels", sometimes the similarly-themed "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" with Magoo playing the main character of classic literature, and sometimes it was those oddball Lutheran Television cartoons like "Christmas Is..." featuring "Benji" and his dog "Waldo". This flex-disc mail giveaway promoted its appearance on local St. Louis television station KSD, channel 5 at noon on Christmas Day.
This letter accompanied the flexi-disc
Despite its poor (in my child's eye) animation, the voice cast boasted some of the greats including Hans Conreid (Disney's Captain Hook), Don Messick (Boo Boo Bear, Dr. Benton Quest, Scooby Doo) and June Foray (pretty much every child and female voice in cartoons you've ever heard including Cindy Lou Who, Warner Bros. Granny and Witch Hazel, Rocket J. Squirrel, and Jokey Smurf).
I don't think "Christmas Is..." has aired for a number of years, but is still available to watch on Youtube.