the easter beagle is comin' to town

It's winding up Easter week - take a look a Maggie's Farm for some -as always- great commentary and immigration and other news items, but also for some interesting comments on some of the different religious significance of Easter week.

Even though it was a very slow media release week and we had no media roundup - that doesn't mean we don't have a Top Shelf Pick of the Week. Au Contraire, mon frere.
Top Shelf Pick of the Week
The Imaginary World/Tick Tock Toys
Dan Goodsell provides a wonderful trip down nostalgia lane. We chronicle and comment on many things here at The Shelf, but pop culture is always a recurring topic. I discovered Mr. Goodsell's site a couple of years ago and was fascinated by what I saw. What he has done for several years is to document the material culture of the late 20th Century. Pictures of old cereal boxes, candy, other food products, theme parks, Halloween makeup kits, etc. are all there. Including this 70s Paas Easter coloring kit. (Some Easter images are located at his site here.) The image at the left belongs to Dan and his site and it is just one of many wonderful images you can view. He maintains not only the pictures - a sort of virtual museum of kid's popculture from the 50s thru the 70s - but he also has artwork and a one panel comic strip as well as a great blog. In fact, if you played Mad Libs as a kid, the blog has some great Mad Lib images up- check it out. Be careful - if you go, you could spend hours just checking everything out. Heck, if you were a kid in the 80s, you might even remember some of this stuff- some of it was still around. He also has a book, co-authored with Steven Roden, titled Krazy Kids Food that looks fantastic. It's available thru Amazon. Hopefully I will be able to get one soon and post a full review here at The Shelf. Thanks, Dan for all the work and the visual preservation of our material culture. If you were a kid during the 50s, 60s, or 70s- go take a look, and tell Mr. Toast we sent ya.

In the meantime - we know what you Shelfers have been asking for- and we intend to deliver. It's time for a look at Animated Easter Specials.

Easter Animation
Growing up as a little kid in the 1970s meant seeing Primetime animated specials in their heyday. Old pros like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and some others had been around for a while - but even more were being produced in the 70s. So you had not only the standards, but new classics coming out almost every year. The bulk of the Easter animated specials were made during the 70s and into the early 80s.

While some contend that primetime specials fizzled out by the early 80s, the production of new specials and the promotion and airing of specials continued to be strong well into the late 80s. The mid 80s saw new specials from Garfield, some new Peanuts specials, Fat Albert, Looney Tunes, and some Disney specials (also using old cartoon footage with new bridging animation or live action). For example, Garfield's Halloween Special premiered in the 1985-86 season - and the year before Disney produced a primetime special celebrating Donald Duck's 50th Birthday. The end of the era truly came in the late 80s through the early 90s when less and less primetime slots were allocated during the holidays for animated specials. New specials were rare- networks preferring to re-air specials for which they already owned the rights to air. New specials appeared occasionally, but usually in the form of a special using either a daytime or syndicated series (such as Tiny Tunes or a "special" holiday episode of The Simpsons).

Here is a short list (minus straight-to-video titles) of Primetime animated Easter specials produced during the 70s and early 80s. There were also the occasional "special episode" of a syndicated cartoon series- but those are for another list. Here are the shows you might have seen (and seen again) on some night during the week of Easter Sunday. What follows are brief highlights of a few of the specials that are real classics:

1971: Here Comes Peter Cottontail (Rankin/Bass)

1974: It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (Lee Mendelson-Bill Melendez Productions/ Charles Schulz Creative Associates/ United Features)

1976: The First Easter Bunny (Rankin/Bass)

1977 :The Easter Bunny Is Comin' To Town (Rankin/Bass) and Bugs Bunny's Easter Special (name was changed to Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies when it appeared on VHS - Warner Brothers/ De Patie-Freeling)

1980 Daffy Duck Easter Special (WB/De-Patie-Freeling)

1982 The Smurf's Springtime Special (Hanna Barbara) and Fat Albert's Easter Special (Filmation)

1983 The Easter Chipmunk (Ruby-Spears' Alvin & The Chipmunks) and Family Circus Easter (Artisan)

Some other specials that were made for syndication and appeared on cable in Primetime: Yogi, the Easter Bear, 1994 and (believe it or not) Baby Looney Tunes' Eggs-Traordinary Adventure 2002

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Rankin Bass pretty much ran through the gate with Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Based on a book, the special tells the story of Peter's efforts to win the right to be the Chief Easter Bunny. Told through RB's stop-motion "ani-magic", Here Comes Peter Cottontail features wonderful voice work and a classic story. Danny Kaye stars as the narrator Sassafrasrass and Peter's allies, Colonel Bunny and Antoine. Casey Kasem is our hero, Peter and Vincent Price plays his rival, Irontail. Rankin Bass vets Paul Frees and Joan Gardiner are also featured. Peter races through the holicalendarnder trying to give away more Easter eggs than the nasty Irontail so that he can earn the right to be Chief Easter Bunny. This one is a little different in that it doesn't concentrate on Easter the Holiday - Peter actually cycles through everything from Halloween to the Fourth of July. Danny Kaye is great and you stop thinking - "hey, that Rabbit sounds like Casey Kasem" about 10 minutes into it and just focus on the story. Excellent special which should be on your Shelf, and it has just been reissued on DVD this year. You most likely find it being pushed with a new animated feature movie Peter Cottontail- The Movie, which is being touted as a sequel of sorts. It appears to be CGI, but I can't give any other details, because I haven't seen it. You are on your own - but let us know in the comments section if you have seen it and tell us what you think. Here Comes Peter Cottontail is very recommended.

It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown

Last week we took a brief trip to 1975. Let's go back for a brief moment shall we? The television season of 1974-75 saw the debut of several great primetime animated specials, three of them in particular were animated and produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelsen and premiered on CBS. They were: Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown . I love 'em all- and I wish I could find Virginia on DVD. Needless to say It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is a classic- and I'm sure you are not surprised that we would have that opinion. What really sets it apart for me is that it is a trip reverse kind of Great Pumpkin. All of the gang are worried about getting things ready for Easter, but Linus reminds them that they don't need to worry- the Easter Beagle will take care of that. You would think that having just been dealt a devastating blow by the whole Great Pumpkin fiasco that Linus would've been ostracized by the rest of the crew. But no- they tolerate him and his "quirks" as a lovable group of friends should. Were they not worried that Linus would wig out on them some day and invent some elaborate scenerio in which he invites them all to a deserted mansion at the top of a spooky hill for a reunion, in which he secretly plans to cut off all communication, block all exits and roads and then kill them off one by one for laughing at him and his "quirks" while they were kids? Did they? I don't think so- but then, this was the 70s, peace, love and whatever makes you happy man. Darn you, hippies! Guess what though- Linus turns out to be right! Sweet revenge! Speaking of Hippies, Peppermint Patty and Marcie have a great role in this special (the first to include them by the way). Patty attempts to teach her "friend" Marcie how to dye eggs - and Marcie does everything to those eggs but hardboil them. It was the first time I heard belly laughs out of my kids when they were watching a Peanuts special scene that didn't involve Snoopy. Do yourself a favor - go get the DVD. It also has a bonus special, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (Charlie Brown was not stupid- why did he need constant reminding of when the holidays were coming?). It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is highly recommended.

Bugs Bunny's Easter Special

Bugs Bunny's Easter Special. Believe it or not, this was the first Looney Tunes "Holiday" themed special. This pretty much set the standard for most of them, and was one of the better produced as it was primarily done by Friz Freeling and his studio. The special had Granny trying to find a replacement for an ailing Easter Bunny. Various Looney Tunes characters are recruited as Granny goes through the Warner's Studio either encountering characters working or screening their work. This is a device that bridges the footage from old cartoon shorts with new animated sequences. Fairly standard Holiday Looney Tunes fare, but when you are a kid and you love Looney Tunes anyway, you don't need much encouragement to love it. By the way, at the end it is revealed that Daffy was the Easter Bunny in disguise all along. That Daffy! It is doubtful that this show will ever see DVD, which is a shame because it would be nice to have the bridging sequences. If you can find it, Bugs Bunny's Easter Special is recommended.


The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town

Along with It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown, this is my favorite. This Rankin- Bass classic follows in a similar vein to their popular Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. In fact, Fred Astaire reprises his role as The Mailman from that film to, yet again, answer kids questions about our Holiday favorites. He tells us the story of Sonny, the first Easter Bunny and how many of the Easter traditions we love today were invented. Everything from Jelly Beans to dyed eggs, Easter suits and Easter parades are explained. The story follows Sonny as he is found and raised in a town comprised of just kids, called (of course) Kidsville. Sonny tries to trade off some of the eggs (laid by singing hens with southern accents no less) in a nearby kingdom, but meets a problem in the form of a egg pinching bear named Gadzooks. With the help of a hobo named Hallelujah Jones, Sonny and kids come up with clever ways to get past Gadzooks. Do I need to stop and alert you to the fact that the only adult present in Kidsville is a hobo? I think not- I will let the obvious jokes percolate on your own brain. (Hey, you gotta help a little!) Once Sonny makes it to the the nearest town called Town (the writers were very busy that year) that had no children except one, the King named Bruce. G'Day Bruce! One problem- while Bruce likes Sonny and wants him to bring all his Easter goodies, the real iron fist behind Bruce is his Aunt Lily Longtooth, who makes Bruce do everything she says and wants things just so. I think you can figure out where everything leads. We've got Easter eggs and Jelly beans after all! The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town is out on DVD andrecommendedcommened.

Well - that's it Shelfers- stay tuned- a post on Classic Easter treats is on the way!

Some Easter Beagle! He gave me my own egg!

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