do you recall... the most famous reindeer-themed christmas special of all?

okay, so, this is really weird:

I watched the old Rudolph TV special with my girlfriend yesterday. you know the story: Rudolph with his nose so bright and Hermie with his passion for dentistry, Yukon Cornelius, the Abominable Snow Monster of the North, the Island of Misfit Toys, &c &c; Rudolph guides Santa's sleigh, Hermie pulls the monster's sore tooth, everyone lives happily ever after, the end.

except... that's not what happens.

well, okay, most of it does... but not the tooth thing.

every single person I've talked to says the exact same thing: "oh yeah, the monster's not really evil, he's just in a bad mood because he has a toothache! and then Hermie pulls out the tooth and he becomes nice and he puts the star on the top of the tree!" which is exactly what I thought. but no.

instead, they set a trap for the monster, Yukon Cornelius laughs sadistically as he knocks him unconscious by dropping a boulder on his head, and Hermie then pulls all of his teeth. every last one. quoth Cornelius, "aw, he's just a big softy without his choppers!" it is, quite frankly, horrifying.

is there an edited version out there somewhere that I, and all my friends and family members, saw when we were young? have we invented this story to suppress the trauma we experienced as a result of the original? am I going crazy? what gives?

red nose commie. and gay.

fascist non-embedding fascists

I remember it the correct way now that you remind me that's what happened. yeah it is a bit weird. perhaps our childhood brains rewrote it to make it acceptable.

snowy, I know for sure they've aired edited versions on network TV (which I believe averaged only 7 mins of ads per hour in 1965).

Kidthink: If the Snow Monster doesn't seem to mind being smashed on the head by a boulder and having every tooth in his head removed, and actually seems happier afterwards, it must be OK with him. Then it's OK with me, too.

I rewatched Frosty the Snowman (also Rankin-Bass) and the damn thing makes no sense. I think this is half of why I liked it. It was so WEIRD that there was a poinsettia greenhouse in the middle of the woods. Or why the girl decided to get on a refrigerated boxcar in the first place (especially since she seems to lack pants). Which, as a kid, was interesting because it made no sense. I figured it was one more thing I didn't know a lot about & would therefore make sense when I was older. In retrospect it actually makes even less sense.

It IS fun as hell, though, to imitate narrator Jimmy Durante. "Poinshettiash – the exshotic Crishmash flowah."

^^^

Just rented Billy Rose's Jumbo for this very reason

"what elephant??"

Also bought the Rudolph/Frosty/Drummer Boy boxed set a couple years back.

I've never watched Drummer Boy all the way through, but it came with a musical cd for listening pleasurables!!