Wednesday, November 24, 2010

thanksgiving childhood memories...

Our final entry for our Thanksgiving playlist should come as no surprise- The Thanksgiving animated specials. These days they only really play A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but back in the day specials like A Garfield Thanksgiving, Bugs Bunny's Thanks-for-giving Special, The Mouse and the Mayflower and others received regular rotations. Every once in a while an oddball special like B.C.'s The First Thanksgiving or The Thanksgiving that Almost Wasn't would air on the weekend before Thanksgiving day itself. Occasionally you can catch an airing of one or two of these specials on Cartoon Network, and the Garfield special has hit DVD, but most of them seem to relegated to old VHS copies and the memories of childhood days gone by. Sad, isn't it?
Some clips exist here and there-and they serve to remind one that they weren't always great, but nonetheless they contributed to the spirit of the season and are a part of our holiday childhood memories. Here are a couple of clips, and then a full special itself for our Thanksgiving rotation- a trip back to years gone by...

First up: The Mouse and the Mayflower- it's sad that this special isn't on DVD considering the huge library of Rankin/Bass specials that exist out there on DVD. Tennessee Ernie Ford sings and narrates this tale about a mouse named Willum who is there to witness the Pilgrim's voyage across the sea and first year in a new world.




Here's an odd that's only available on Youtube: B.C.'s The First Thanksgiving. The characters from the long running comic strip B.C. pursue a turkey to try add some actual flavor to their regular Rock Soup, resulting in the "First" Thanksgiving. It's a little strange and has a slow pace, but different and has some funny moments. You can watch it on YouTube in three parts, and for the sake of space we won't embed it, but rather link to it here. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Sometimes Disney and of course, Looney Tunes, compiled clips of their holiday-themed shorts and threw them together for a Primetime special. The Bugs Bunny Thanks-for-Giving special is a perfect example of this, but many times only edited portions of the shorts were shown. I like actually finding many of the Looney Tunes, Disney, and MGM studios shorts and watch them in the entirety instead of watching the special. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Jerky Turkey:




Holiday for Drumsticks:




Finally, Pilgrim Popeye




And of course, my personal favorite, which you probably have on DVD and/or have seen on TV already - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Hulu has the entire special posted, and case you haven't seen it- check it out there.

That's all for today's installment, folks- on behalf of everyone here at The Shelf we wish to you and your family a very safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Oh, I know it's a penny here and a penny there, but look at me. I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

I haven't even finished eating all of my Halloween candy!

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