Jules Bass died Tuesday at age 87. He was half of Rankin Bass, the company that created the holiday classic TV special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in 1964. Show AILSA CHANG, HOST: One of the creators of a terrifying television monster has died. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER") LARRY MANN: (As Abominable Snow Monster, roaring). CHANG: It may be a Christmas movie, but the Abominable Snowman in "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" has given children chills for more than 50 years. That 1964 TV classic was produced by production company Rankin/Bass, and Jules Bass died Tuesday. NPR's Neda Ulaby has our remembrance. NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Rankin/Bass stop motion movies are part of American childhoods, and they are uncanny in a good way. They have the strange, unsettling qualities of a dream. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER") BURL IVES: (As Sam the Snowman) If I live to be 100, I'll never be able to forget that big snowstorm a couple of years ago. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST) RICK GOLDSCHMIDT: The animation style is called Animagic. ULABY: That's Rick Goldschmidt, a Rankin/Bass historian, talking to NPR in 2004. It took more than a year, he said, to painstakingly animate a movie that lasted just under an hour. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST) GOLDSCHMIDT: They're dolls with wire joints. And they're very intricate. They cost about $5,000 to make back in 1964. ULABY: Prior to 1964, Jules Bass worked in advertising in New York - very much the era of "Mad Men." He teamed up with Arthur Rankin Jr. to make commercials. Rankin, who died in 2014, remembered his collaboration in an interview on The Television Archives (ph). (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) ARTHUR RANKIN JR: He was a creator and a writer. And he was also a lyricist. ULABY: Just like a character in "Rudolph." (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER") CARL BANAS: (As Head Elf) Now let's try out the new elf song I wrote. And remember, it's for Santa. And a one and a two and a three. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) Ho-ho-ho, ho-ho-ho... ULABY: No one expected "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" to be such a success. It still airs frequently over the holiday season, and it's helped inspired movies such as "Toy Story." Rankin said after "Rudolph" first aired, he and Jules Bass became the go-to guys for stop motion. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) RANKIN: We had no problem filling our production schedules, our personal lives and our company's ability to produce. We couldn't produce all the stuff they wanted to buy from us. ULABY: The stuff would include other Christmas specials, monster specials and kids' cartoon shows that would help define a generation. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THUNDERCATS") LARRY KENNEY: (As Lion-O) ThunderCats, ho. ULABY: From "ThunderCats" to the animated movies "The Last Unicorn" and "The Hobbit," the latter with another scary monster. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HOBBIT") THEODORE ISIDORE GOTTLIEB: (As Gollum) My precious. It is my precious. ULABY: Jules Bass retired to France, where he wrote vegetarian cookbooks for kids. He died at an assisted living center in Rye, N.Y. He was 87 years old. Neda Ulaby, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER") IVES: (Singing) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw it... Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Stop Motion animated Christmas Special based upon the classic storybook by Robert L. May, made by Rankin/Bass Productions and first broadcast on NBC (under the General Electric Fantasy Hour umbrella) in 1964. Sam the Snowman (Burl Ives) narrates the story of Rudolph, son of Santa Claus's flying reindeer Donner. To the shock and dismay of his parents, Rudolph is born with a red nose, which lights up when he gets excited. Santa, who's somewhat of a Jerkass throughout, tells Donner that Rudolph will never get to be part of the team pulling his sleigh with such an abnormality. Donner tries to cover up his son's nose with a false one, which works for a little while, but it eventually falls off and exposes poor Rudolph's secret, leaving him to be mocked and ostracized by the other reindeer... save for Clarice, a pretty doe who likes him just as he is. Advertisement: A second plot thread follows Hermey, one of Santa's elves. Unlike all the other elves, who are content to hammer out toys for all the good little children of the world, Hermey has dreams of being a dentist. His rage-prone supervisor won't tolerate this talk of dentistry, however, and Hermey quits. He meets Rudolph, and the two "misfits" decide to run away together. In their travels they have adventures that include meeting a prospector named Yukon Cornelius, who is searching the wilds of the frozen north for silver and gold; finding an Island of Misfit Toys, where broken and unwanted toys go; and having to flee from the scary giant Abominable Snow Monster. Directly followed (with diminishing returns) by Rudolph's Shiny New Year in 1976 and the crossover movie Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July in 1979, while the characters re-appeared in the 2001 direct-to-video CGI film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (also made by GoodTimes, who previously made the unrelated 1998 Rudolph feature film.) Burl Ives returned as narrator for Rankin-Bass' 1976 special The First Easter Rabbit, albeit not as Sam The Snowman. Advertisement: The special was also used as inspiration for the North Pole aesthetic in the 2003 film Elf, particularly the elf attire and use of stop-motion characters. As of 2021, it's the longest running Christmas Special and has been annually airing on television for over 50 years. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and its sequels provide examples of:
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