Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass's stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called Animagic.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an American animated television series created, produced, and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972 and aired until 1985. The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, focused on Fat Albert, and his friends.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 stop motion Christmas animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd. and currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution. It first aired December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the 1949 Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks's brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS. The network unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version of the program in 2005, re-scanned frame-by-frame from the original 35 mm film elements.
Jack Angel was an American voice actor and radio personality. He provided voice-overs for animation and video games. Angel had voiced characters in shows by Hasbro and Hanna-Barbera such as Super Friends, The Transformers and G.I. Joe and was involved in numerous productions by Disney and Pixar. Before becoming involved with voiceover work, Angel was initially a disc jockey for radio stations, namely KMPC and KFI. The day of his death, October 18, a piece of lost 1980s paraphernalia that contained his voice as the lead role, being the U.S. dub of TUGS, was discovered.
Billie Mae Richards was a Canadian actress who also appeared onstage and on television. She was the voice of Rankin/Bass' version of the Christmas character Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1964 to 1979, and of the Kid in the radio series Jake and the Kid.
Julius Caesar Bass was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft International, later named Rankin/Bass Productions, with his friend, Arthur Rankin Jr. He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated with Edward Thomas and James Polack at their music firm and as a songwriting team primarily with Maury Laws at Rankin/Bass.
Arthur Gardner Rankin, Jr. was an American director, producer and screenwriter, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion and traditional animation features such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and the 1977 cartoon special of The Hobbit. He is credited on over 1,000 television programs.
The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians is a 1970 American animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. After the Christmas special Frosty the Snowman (1969), it was Rankin/Bass' second hand-drawn animated work to be outsourced to Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production in Tokyo, Japan. The show aired on ABC on April 7, 1970 before the airing of that year's Oscars. It was a tribute to early vaudeville, and featured animated reworkings of various famous comedians' acts.
Mad Monster Party? is a 1967 stop-motion animated musical comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions for Embassy Pictures. The film stars the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. It tells the story of a mad scientist who achieves the secret of total destruction as he summons all the monsters to his island home to show it off while planning to retire as the head of the "Worldwide Organization of Monsters".
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey is a 1977 Japanese-American Christmas stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. It premiered on ABC on December 3, 1977. The story is based on the 1975 song of the same name, written by Gene Autry, Don Pfrimmer and Dave Burgess.
The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow is a 1975 Japanese-American Christmas stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions which originally premiered on NBC on December 19, 1975. It is narrated by Angela Lansbury and co-stars Cyril Ritchard.
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie — retitled The New Saturday Superstar Movie for its second season — is a series of one-hour animated made-for-television films, broadcast on the ABC television network on Saturday mornings from September 9, 1972 to November 17, 1973.
Jack Frost is a 1979 Christmas, Winter, and Groundhog Day stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. It was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr., written by Romeo Muller, narrated by Buddy Hackett, and starring the voices of Robert Morse, Debra Clinger, and Paul Frees. The special premiered on NBC on December 13, 1979, and tells the tale of Jack Frost and his adventures as a human. It airs annually on AMC as part of its Best Christmas Ever programming block.
Maury Laws was an American television and film composer from Burlington, North Carolina.
Pinocchio's Christmas is a 1980 Christmas stop motion television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions that is a holiday adaptation of the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The special was originally aired on ABC on December 3, 1980. It aired annually during the Christmas season on Freeform and as of 2018 airs on AMC.
Mad Mad Mad Monsters is a 1972 traditional animated Halloween-themed comedy short film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions in the United States and animated overseas by Mushi Production in Japan. The special aired on September 23, 1972 as an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. It is "related" to the 1967 stop motion animated film Mad Monster Party?
The Smokey Bear Show is an American-Japanese animated television series that aired on ABC's Saturday morning schedule, produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The show features Smokey Bear, the icon of the United States Forest Service, who was well known for his 1947 slogan, "Remember... only YOU can prevent forest fires". It aired for one season of 17 episodes starting on September 6, 1969, and then aired in reruns for the 1970–1971 season. When the show was lacking in competition with Bugs Bunny and other renowned cartoons at the time, it was cancelled. The show is largely lost, as only 4 of the 17 episodes have been recovered as of October 15, 2023.
The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show is a 1970 American animated television series that aired on ABC's Saturday morning schedule. The show features two characters created by British children's writer Kenneth Grahame: the Reluctant Dragon from the 1898 short story of the same name, and Mr. Toad from the 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. The show was created by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York City, who produced 17 episodes. The show was a flop and canceled midway through its first season, airing from September 12 until December 26, 1970. A year later, ABC aired reruns of the show on Sunday mornings on September 12, 1971. The show is partially lost, as only 8 of the 17 episodes have been recovered as of February 17, 2024.
Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes is an animated television special broadcast on ABC on Monday night, February 21, 1972. The special was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, a former division of Tomorrow Entertainment, using their "Animagic" stop-motion puppetry technique in Japan, along with some live-action footage shot in Denmark.
