Rankin on Bass

Farewell from Rankin on Bass

Live from the Island of Misfit Toys we record our last episode of Rankin on Bass where Mike, Chris, and Richard recount the bizarre trip they've been on for the last three years going from animagic to animated to live action fare that ranged from the sublime to the bizarre. Thank you to everyone who took this trip with us.

Episode 38: Pinocchio's Christmas and The New Adventures of Pinocchio

We conclude our discussion of Rankin & Bass works properly with a double dose of animagic for the holidays - Pinocchio's Christmas in which the little wooden boy learns the magic of the season and some of R&B's earliest work, the New Adventures of Pinocchio.

Episode 36: The Stingiest Man in Town and The First Christmas

Richard Hatem, Chris Stachiw, and Mike White are back in Christmas-town and looking at two more holiday specials from Rankin & Bass; The Stingiest Man in Town -- a re-telling of A Christmas Carol starring the voice of Walter Matthau -- and The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow which features Angela Lansbury and a poor blind shepherd.

Episode 37: Santa, Baby! and The Comic Strip

It's Santa, Baby an animated special from 2001 starring Gregory Hines as a frustrated songwriter and Patti Labelle as the patridge from the pear tree(!). We also discuss "Comic Strip" - a two hour block of cartoons featuring The Mini-Monsters, Street Frogs, Karate Kat and TigerSharks. This would be the last animated TV series produced by Rankin & Bass.You can watch Santa, Baby via Amazon: https://amzn.to/3R7I2MW

Episode 35: The Coneheads (1983)

It's time to consume mass quantities of Coneheads with this 1983 pilot produced by Rankin & Bass for a Coneheads half-hour animated television show. Richard Hatem, Mike White, and Chris Stachiw discuss the strange choices made when trying to bring the Coneheads into America's living room on a weekly basis.