Wherefore art thou, Rudolph?
Dec. 10th, 2003 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSo last night I set the TiVo to record Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, because this is the first Christmas I've had the TiVo, and now I can record all these Christmas programs I miss more than I want to lately. The first thing you should know is that I am a big fat sap for Christmas, which I also refer to as the Winter Shopping Festival when feeling secular. I do not mind the WSF, as so many seem to, I revel in it. I should probably be a popslash fan, because frankly, I am all about the sparkly. Lights, shiny objects, silver and gold and copper metallic wrapping paper... it's all of the wonderful, to me. Shiny. Very, very shiny.
And I love so many of the programs from kidhood -- although I'm very selective. The originals are always best, and the sequels are usually lacking. All good Christmas themed movies must be watched, regardless of when they're on. I used to watch It's a Wonderful Life at least four or five times back when it was on every channel, every night for two months. My TV favorites are the heart-wrenching and buckets-crying Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (which leaves me a blubbering wreck); A Charlie Brown Christmas (still the gold standard of cartoon storytelling); How the Grinch Stole Christmas; one program I never see scheduled anymore -- the opera of Amahl and the Night Visitors; and of course, Rudolph.
I love the dorky songs in Rudolph, and even though the stop-motion animation creeped me out as a kid, it doesn't bother me anymore. I love the message that it's okay to be different, and that friendship is everything. It hits all my buttons, from low, crying points to high, happy ones. As a kid, I identified way too much with Rudolph being rejected by his parents for being different, and even more so to the painful scene where he's shunned from playing with others because of his nose. Fuckers. I hated those reindeer-game playing bigots.
One of my favorite scenes in Rudolph, though, was apparently switched out sometime in the past few years. The part where Rudolph and Hermey first meet, and then sing the song Fame and Fortune, was, I guess, originally animated for another song, called We're a Couple of Misfits. I hadn't even known this, and was sitting there going "what the hell?" at one of my favorite songs going missing in favor of one that I thought was far dorkier. But I did a search immediately after, and it sounds like the misfits song was actually part of the first broadcast in 1964, then was changed to Fame and Fortune on subsequent rebroadcast. Then the original was rediscovered in a vault or something, and put back in -- much to my disappointment. I mean, I grew up on Fame and Fortune! Nearly 30 years! I was crushed. Crushed, I tell you.
And it renders one of my favorite spoofs completely silly now. A few years ago, Madd TV did a hilarious take-off, with strikingly accurate animation and voice work, of the Martin Scorsese version, called Raging Rudolph. Fame and Fortune became the song "We'll Get Even," featuring lyrics like "We'll make calls, we'll break balls, till we get our cut someday." And Hermey wields a big, sharp knife. Without F&F being in the "restored" version of Rudolph, that song is barely funny anymore to people who haven't seen the version I grew up with. (The next year, Madd TV spoofed Rudolph as "The Reinfather," and featured some pretty hysterical parodies, including one of the elves getting his head popped in a vise, and the character of Yukon Corneleone; the next year after they did "A Pack of Gifts Now," where Rudolph is sent to the North Pole to take out the insane Santa Claus, to the tune of fake Doors songs, and it ends with the sublime "The horror. The ho-ho-horror.")
Now I'm wondering if it's worth buying the DVD. I'm pretty sure it was produced after this change back to the original song was done, so I doubt I'll be able to get anything with F&F in it, but maybe they'd have it as an extra or something. At least I have my ancient off-air taped copy, so I can maintain my illusion of childhood nostalgia. Though I'm afraid to watch the airing of Nestor, now, that I grabbed last weekend, because, damn. What if they changed that, too? Arg.
And I love so many of the programs from kidhood -- although I'm very selective. The originals are always best, and the sequels are usually lacking. All good Christmas themed movies must be watched, regardless of when they're on. I used to watch It's a Wonderful Life at least four or five times back when it was on every channel, every night for two months. My TV favorites are the heart-wrenching and buckets-crying Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (which leaves me a blubbering wreck); A Charlie Brown Christmas (still the gold standard of cartoon storytelling); How the Grinch Stole Christmas; one program I never see scheduled anymore -- the opera of Amahl and the Night Visitors; and of course, Rudolph.
I love the dorky songs in Rudolph, and even though the stop-motion animation creeped me out as a kid, it doesn't bother me anymore. I love the message that it's okay to be different, and that friendship is everything. It hits all my buttons, from low, crying points to high, happy ones. As a kid, I identified way too much with Rudolph being rejected by his parents for being different, and even more so to the painful scene where he's shunned from playing with others because of his nose. Fuckers. I hated those reindeer-game playing bigots.
One of my favorite scenes in Rudolph, though, was apparently switched out sometime in the past few years. The part where Rudolph and Hermey first meet, and then sing the song Fame and Fortune, was, I guess, originally animated for another song, called We're a Couple of Misfits. I hadn't even known this, and was sitting there going "what the hell?" at one of my favorite songs going missing in favor of one that I thought was far dorkier. But I did a search immediately after, and it sounds like the misfits song was actually part of the first broadcast in 1964, then was changed to Fame and Fortune on subsequent rebroadcast. Then the original was rediscovered in a vault or something, and put back in -- much to my disappointment. I mean, I grew up on Fame and Fortune! Nearly 30 years! I was crushed. Crushed, I tell you.
And it renders one of my favorite spoofs completely silly now. A few years ago, Madd TV did a hilarious take-off, with strikingly accurate animation and voice work, of the Martin Scorsese version, called Raging Rudolph. Fame and Fortune became the song "We'll Get Even," featuring lyrics like "We'll make calls, we'll break balls, till we get our cut someday." And Hermey wields a big, sharp knife. Without F&F being in the "restored" version of Rudolph, that song is barely funny anymore to people who haven't seen the version I grew up with. (The next year, Madd TV spoofed Rudolph as "The Reinfather," and featured some pretty hysterical parodies, including one of the elves getting his head popped in a vise, and the character of Yukon Corneleone; the next year after they did "A Pack of Gifts Now," where Rudolph is sent to the North Pole to take out the insane Santa Claus, to the tune of fake Doors songs, and it ends with the sublime "The horror. The ho-ho-horror.")
Now I'm wondering if it's worth buying the DVD. I'm pretty sure it was produced after this change back to the original song was done, so I doubt I'll be able to get anything with F&F in it, but maybe they'd have it as an extra or something. At least I have my ancient off-air taped copy, so I can maintain my illusion of childhood nostalgia. Though I'm afraid to watch the airing of Nestor, now, that I grabbed last weekend, because, damn. What if they changed that, too? Arg.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 11:14 am (UTC)Gwyn, I was watching the special last night, like I do EVERY year, anticipating it, and I was sitting there during "We're a Couple of Misfits" scratching my head and going, "Wait...was this song ALWAYS in it?"
I should've known right off the bat that "Fame and Fortune" was missing! Aargh! Especially since that song is FAR catchier.
I suppose I should just be thankful that they're still *showing* this special, though. God only knows when they'll decide to stop airing it altogether because it just doesn't "sell" anymore.
Personally, I will ALWAYS grin at Yukon throwing his pickaxe in the air and licking it. "Nothin'." I will ALWAYS maintain that Bumbles bounce. And I will ALWAYS try my hardest to sing along with Clarice to "There's Always Tomorrow".
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 11:38 am (UTC)This is where I found the info on the replacement of the original song:
http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html
I gotta say, I totally disagree with him about how it's better. Fame and Fortune was catchy! And not a simple reprise of the earlier Why Am I Such a Misfit. Generations of adults are being scarred by this erasure of a large part of their childhoods, man!
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 12:29 pm (UTC)I skimmed through the article and I have to say, I disagree with him on a LOT of points and I don't like his tone. He almost seems a little snide about the changes that were made. Like his preferences are somehow more stylistically elitist. Snort. Whatever.
This special is a wonderful part of my childhood. I get a silly grin on my face whenever I think of it. I even have a beanie Yukon on my desk at home and a very faded but much loved t-shirt with Hermey on the front that says "I want to be a dentist!" on the back.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 02:47 pm (UTC)I'm informed that some group campaigned against this show for years because the heat guy was really the devil, and the devil didn't belong in a Christmas show. Methinks the more logical (and supported) argument might have been that the obvious pagan imagery did not belong in a Christmas show, but hey, who am I to question such things?
Waaay catchy tune, though! And okay, I admit -- the sickly reindeer is also pretty cute.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 04:14 pm (UTC)Sickly reindeer are probably on a par with Charlie in the Boxes and spotted elephants. Just can't be resisted.
You could think it's cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!
Date: 2003-12-10 09:05 pm (UTC)Re: You could think it's cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!
Date: 2003-12-11 09:37 am (UTC)And thanks for telling me about the DVD -- I think I'll definitely have to get it, now, just so I can at least have the nostalgic glimpse of F&F -- and in case I show Raging Rudolph to someone who's never seen the version with F&F.
Re: but wait, there's more!
Date: 2003-12-11 06:57 pm (UTC)