'Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol,' the granddaddy of animated holiday ...

A 12-year-old future critic was watching the premiere airing and echoed that assessment.

Animated Christmas specials have become as much a part of our holiday traditions as decked halls, nogged egg and jingled bells. The first aired 50 years ago this month.

That was four years before the Grinch first tried to steal Christmas with the help of narrator Boris Karloff. That was three years before a depressed Charlie Brown learned the true meaning of Christmas with the help of little Linus and a tiny needle-shedding tree. That was two years before a stop-motion puppet version of Santa drove through a foggy Christmas Eve with the help of Rudolph and his nose so bright.

The animated special that started it all was aired by NBC at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18, 1962. A musical version of Charles Dickens? beloved 1843 tale about miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, it was called ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol.?

?Few people realize how incredibly influential it was,? said animation director-producer Darrell Van Citters, author of the 2009 book ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special? (Oxberry Press). ?It showed that an animated special could be commercially and critically successful. It unquestionably paved the way for Rudolph, Charlie Brown and the Grinch.?

The reviews were ecstatic in 1962. Many critics admitted to being stunned by the warmth and fidelity of a ?Christmas Carol? featuring the famously nearsighted cartoon character voiced since 1949 by Cleveland native Jim Backus.

?Somebody probably said it couldn?t be done but somebody was wrong,? Daily Variety?s reviewer wrote.

Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol

• What: A 50th anniversary airing of television?s first animated Christmas special. Also released in July as Blu-ray + DVD collector?s edition by Classic Media (christmasclassics.tv).
• When: Saturday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m.
• Where: NBC.

Still, despite the glowing notices, ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? quickly was eclipsed by the enduring popularity of the animated Christmas specials that followed it: ?Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,? ?A Charlie Brown Christmas,? ?How the Grinch Stole Christmas,? ?Frosty the Snowman.? Each of those holiday favorites has been getting an annual network re-airing since its premiere.

The last NBC airing of ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? was in 1967.

?It slipped into syndication and obscurity,? Van Citters said during a telephone interview. ?It has been overlooked, underrated and underappreciated. No songs were ever released from it. There was no soundtrack. It has remained an overlooked gem for decades.?

Thanks to the 50th anniversary, however, some overdue recognition is on the way. Classic Media released a Blu-ray + DVD collector?s edition of ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? in July, featuring a commemorative booklet by Van Citters. And Saturday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m. there will be an airing NBC.

?It?s important for another generation to discover it, because it?s a really effective telling of the story,? Van Citters said. ?It really does deserve to be part of everybody?s Christmas memories.? ?

Reasons why ?it's worthy

It certainly does, for many reasons. First, it remains remarkably faithful to the language and the spirit of the Dickens story about Christmas spirits. Although cuts had to be made for an hour special, this adaptation uses many lines right out of the book.

Second, there is the music. Producer Lee Orgel aimed for the best Broadway had to offer. He first approached Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein (?South Pacific,? ?The Sound of Music?). Rodgers was intrigued and enthusiastic about composing original ?Christmas Carol? songs but too busy to tackle the assignment.

Orgel then approached Frank Loesser (?Guys and Dolls,? ?How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying?). He also was interested. He also was too busy.

Composer Jule Styne and his new lyricist, Bob Merrill, had hit a snag in the troubled development of a new Broadway musical to be called ?Funny Girl.? They accepted the challenge.

Holed up at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Styne and Merrill wrote almost all of the special?s songs at the end of March and in early April of 1962. At one point, Orgel stopped by and heard Styne playing the piano and Merrill singing along. He thought the song was sensational and asked if it was a solo for Magoo?s Scrooge.

Styne and Merrill told him that it wasn?t for ?A Christmas Carol.? It was for ?Funny Girl.? It was ?People (Who Need People),? which would become a huge hit for Barbra Streisand.

Even without ?People,? the Styne-Merrill ?Christmas Carol? songs give this production a richness not found in most animated specials. They include three moving numbers (?Winter Was Warm,? ?Alone in the World? and ?The Lord?s Bright Blessing?) and the hilarious ?We?re Despicable.?

?A lot of people have tried animated versions of ?A Christmas Carol? over the last 50 years, and none of them is as good as this one,? Van Citters said. ?I think it really boils down to the songwriters. The Styne-Merrill songs really enhance the story.? ?

Worries prove ?shortsighted?

A third reason ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? works so well is the clever concept ? a play within a play. The idea is that we?re watching a stage adaptation starring Quincy Magoo as Scrooge. The opening shows Magoo driving to the theater, singing the upbeat ?Back On Broadway.? This was the biggest gamble of all. Would viewers accept the myopic Magoo in a role requiring so much emotional range?

?Let me tell you something,? the Chicago Daily News critic raved, ?as it turned out, Magoo did an excellent job as Scrooge.? ?

A 12-year-old future critic was watching the premiere airing and echoed that assessment.

?I vividly remember seeing the show the night it first aired in 1962, which happened to be my 12th birthday,? said Hollywood historian Leonard Maltin, whose many books include ?Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons.? ?It was probably the first time I?d seen a dramatization of the Dickens story, and I thought it was very effective. All these years later, having digested countless other interpretations, I still have a soft spot in my heart for this hourlong show. And Mr. Magoo was very well cast as Ebenezer Scrooge.?

A fourth reason that can?t be dismissed is the splendid work of Backus, who grew up in Bratenahl. Before ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? aired, he had appeared with James Dean in ?Rebel Without a Cause? and with Humphrey Bogart in the newspaper drama ?Deadline ? U.S.A.? After the special, he was best known for playing millionaire Thurston Howell III on ?Gilligan?s Island.?

Yet the producers wondered if Backus was up to the singing required in ?A Christmas Carol.? Briefly, they considered using Robert Goulet for Scrooge?s singing voice.

?They had just used Goulet in the animated feature film ?Gay Purr-ee,? but thank goodness they stuck with Backus,? Van Citters said. ?Not only would it have been jarring to hear Goulet?s voice coming out of the Magoo Scrooge, Backus does some very touching work, particularly on ?Alone in the World.? ?

On a personal note, I was 6 years old when ?Mr. Magoo?s Christmas Carol? first aired, and it was my introduction to both Dickens and the magical notion of seeing stories brought to life by actors on a stage. Although a TV cartoon, it began a lifelong fascination with Dickens and the theater.

Given everything this special accomplished on so many levels, Mr. Magoo?s best-known catchphrase never seemed more apt: ?Oh, Magoo, you?ve done it again!?

To reach Mark Dawidziak of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, send an email to mdawidziak@plaind.com, or call 216.999.4249.

Source: http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2012/12/mr_magoos_christmas_carol_the.html

metta kashi neil diamond orange crush harden nor easter nor easter