I was not around on the evening of December 18, 1966, when families across America gathered around their glowing televisions and got introduced to what would become one of the greatest holiday classics of all time.We flash forward 59 years, and we've seen many different iterations of The Grinch, but the original is still the best.Today, I want to flashback to the very first broadcast of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on CBS and talk about how it became a permanent fixture that redefined what a "Christmas special" could be.Let's dive in. - YouTubewww.youtube.comThe "Unfilmable" Project I can't imagine what CBS was thinking when they read the classic Grinch story from Dr. Seuss and thought, "Let's get this on TV!"The actual audiobook for the story is like 10 minutes long, so you'd need to at least double the story for a TV show, and also...it occurred in a magical land with a giant green beast...so it pretty much had to be animated.So, before 1966, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was notoriously protective of his work. Just getting the rights to his stuff was going to be incredibly hard. He had already resisted a ton of offers to bring the Grinch to the screen. His big fear was that Hollywood would dilute the book's message or ruin its unique aesthetic.Enter Chuck Jones, the legendary animator behind Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote. He was pals with Geisel and convinced him there was a way to make this work.Jones promised that...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday