Elvis Presley first recorded "Blue Christmas" in 1957 on a Christmas album. RCA released it as a single seven years later, and it's become a Christmas staple since.
It took another 63 years before this animated video was produced.
From Famous Studios' Screen Songs series:
If you didn't believe that animals could skate, "Snow Foolin'" addresses this issue. Jack Mercer & Mae Questel took a break from the Popeye series to contribute to this one. Mae is heard as a mother hen who queues up "Jingle Bells". Oh, by the way, the complete song plays here, so if you didn't know the rest of the lyrics.......
With the success of Beavis & Butt-Head, MTV expanded its animation roster with the adventurous Oddities, which was supposed to be an anthology series with two series sharing the half hour space.
Unfortunately, Sam Kieth, creator of Image Comics' The Maxx, didn't play ball, and his segment was delayed several months due to the process of adapting the printed page to animation.
That meant that The Head, an original concept by animator Eric Fogel, would have the half-hour all alone to start the series, with two chapters per week. Viewers liked what they saw, and Head was given a 2nd season, in which he was joined by others with bizarre infirmities for what amounted to a Super Friends parody. The series was repurposed on Saturday mornings during its two season run. After Head ended, Fogel topped himself with the claymation Celebrity Deathmatch.
Let's take a look at the opener.
The Jackson 5 released their 1st Christmas album in 1970, reissued on CD in 1986. In 2021, some enterprising folks produced a music video that mixed puppets with flash animation.
Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S. made their television debut in October 1994, as unforeseen delays pushed back the series launch by two weeks. Something tells me network meddling with the Nelvana-produced series might've had something to do with it.
Anyway, in the opener, we learn the origin of team member Warblade.
CBS' scheduling department aired the holiday episode of The Weird Al Show as the pentultimate episode instead of the series finale, as it was intended.
So what happened? Perhaps as a subtle sign that this series was one season and done, the finale has Weird Al Yankovic getting robbed. Yeah, it's a plot device that's been used on a few primetime shows over the years (i.e. Sanford & Son). Anyway, Dick Van Patten (ex-Eight is Enough) who'd appeared in a few of Yankovic's videos, such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Bedrock Anthem", guest stars, along with Gilbert Gottfried (ex-Problem Child, Aladdin), Martha Quinn, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage, then with WCW, who has a "match" with Harvey, Al's pet hamster. As silly as it sounds!
As a child, I'd seen a smattering of The Ed Sullivan Show, but I can't say for sure if my folks actually were interested in it on a regular basis.
In 1963, the Italian puppet, Topo Gigio, made his American debut, and would make regular appearances on the show until it was cancelled in 1971. Since then, Topo has starred in a Japanese anime which ran for 2 seasons (1988-90), and also appeared in some movies in his native Italy.
From 1969, Topo shows Ed his Christmas list.
