RIP Jules Bass

Jules Bass, of the famous Rankin/Bass productions, has died.  

What kid my age didn't wait with eager anticipation for the avalanche of Christmas specials that came our way in the month of December?  While the best was A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rankin/Bass did yeoman's work cashing in on the American Christmas story and bringing it into every living room possible.

As a kid I looked forward to them.  Mostly because they were my own visual advent calendar marking off the days to Christmas proper.  I remember watching different ones, though I don't think I paid much attention to them.  I did watch Grinch, Charlie Brown (and his Halloween offering The Great Pumpkin).   Those kept my attention. 

The Rankin/Bass were, on the other hand, something I tuned into and then spent part of the time watching or doing other things.  In later years it was easy to see the quality differences.  Some, it turns out, were quite charming and fun to watch, even as an adult.  Others were tough to endure.  It might be Christian bias, but The Little Drummer Boy is a favorite, even with the contrived plot.  After all, it does ultimately center around that baby in a manger.

Which is something, in the end, that the R/B catalogue featured very little.  There were some allusions in Santa Clause is Coming to Town.  The previously mentioned Drummer Boy of course.  But that was about it.  Unless there was some obscure R/B special I'm unaware of, that was about all we got from the Gospel.

Most of the R/B specials, in fact, hammered home that modernist message of messages: Christmas, it turns out, does come from a store.  Or at least Santa's workshop.  Takeaway Santa, you lose the toys.  Lose the toys, and no Christmas this year!  Even Seuss broke from that Wall Street narrative to point out Christmas can at least mean something beyond the packages, boxes and bags.

But not in the R/B catalogue.  Most of the specials were very clear: Christmas is all about getting gifts from Santa. Whether depression or bad weather, whatever keeps Santa from his appointed rounds jeopardizes Christmas itself.  Because there is no other reason for Christmas but gifts from Santa.

I guess it's because it was the 1960s culture and beyond that so many families, including church families, had no problem with the messaging.  In hindsight, it wasn't the best.  Plus, there were often decent enough messages to be found, even if they were often wrapped up in a 60's countercultural packaging.

R/B did other things than Christmas specials.  Chief among those, and my personal favorite, was their 1977 turn with Tolkien's masterful children's book The Hobbit.  I've posted on that more than once.  Always prisoners of the 'television children's time slot', they nonetheless managed to put together a fine, albeit simplified, version of Tolkien's work.  One that inspired me to eventually find and read the book, and in a way that didn't disappoint.  And that's not bad.  In many ways I owe my love for Tolkien to the R/B team, and that's saying something. 

So whatever messaging may have gone amiss, it did lead to many years of childhood memories and a love of Tolkien.  And those memories and that love continued with my sons.  After all, without R/B, we wouldn't have our annual trashfest of Frosty the Snowman, and that would be a loss!   Thanks, then, for all the memories Mr. Bass, and RIP.