Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (special U.S.)

The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was a seasonal standard long before it was used in this TV special. The song was first written in 1939, while the character Rudolph was used as a marketing campaign for Montgomery Ward's department store. The popularity of the song eventually skyrocketed in 1947, thanks to Gene Autry's variation of the song.

Although Sam the Snowman's face does resemble Burl Ives, who provided the voice for the character. In reality, he was actually designed to resemble the writer of the special, Romeo Muller.

Yukon Cornelius' pack of sled dogs consist of a cocker spaniel, a poodle, a Saint Bernard, a collie, and a dachshund.

It was for many years, been believed that Comet was voiced by Don Adams. In actuality, Comet was voiced by Paul Kligman who was doing a Don Adams impersonation.

When this TV special was first released, in 1964, the technology of using an articulated metal armature inside the stop motion puppet figures was considered by many to be so amazing that TV Guide devoted four pages to the story on the technology. They however failed to mention that the so-called "new" technology had been pioneered 31 years prior, most prominently it was used for the King Kong stop motion puppet for the 1933 King Kong movie.

Sam the Snowman's songs and narration was originally meant for Yukon Cornelius. Cornelius’ actor Larry D. Mann even recorded all of the songs prior to filming. However, Burl Ives was brought in as being the voice of Sam the Snowman at the last minute to narrate the special as it was believed that having a big named celebrity would help sell it to the networks. The Larry D. Mann recordings of the songs and narration still exist, however they are in the hands of a private collector.

Janis Orenstein was the youngest member of the cast for this TV special, as she was only fifteen years old when she voiced Clarice. According to recording engineer Bill Giles, Janis managed to nail the song "There's Always Tomorrow" in only one take, and while multiple takes were recorded afterward, the first take ended up being the one used in the final TV special.

According to Ken Muller, his brother, Romeo Muller actually intended Hermey to be named "Herbie," after a childhood friend. While Rudolph's sweetheart was named "Clarice" in honor of the bride-to-be of another close friend.

Hermey is the only elf to not have pointed ears. He's also the only male elf with a full set of hair on top of his head as well as having eyes that dilate.

The Santa stop motion puppet is about 8" tall. The young Rudolph is only 4" tall, while his nose really can light up. The puppets were made from wood, wire, and fabric, and were quite fragile to work with. The Japanese studio that handled the stop motion animation made several copies of each puppet, as they knew the puppets wouldn’t last long under the constant handling of stop-motion posing.

In 1979, the "We Are Santa's Elves" musical number was cut entirely from this special for reasons unknown, but it was eventually restored sometime during the 1980s.

Originally there was going to be a scene depicting Rudolph being delivered to Donner and his wife by a stork. This idea ended up being scrapped when General Electric was busy bringing in Burl Ives as the narrator, and the scene ended up never being filmed. In the final version of the TV special, it now appears as though Rudolph was born naturally.

This TV special has aired every year on TV since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas special in the United States.

The original 1964 airing of this TV special did not feature the "Rankin/Bass Present" credit at the beginning due to it being part of the General Electric Fantasy Hour. This credit was later added around 1968 to acknowledge the growing success and name change of the Rankin/Bass company. The original airings only featured the snowflake animation which survives on a 1988 public domain VHS tape of the TV special.

Dolly is one of the handful of misfit toys in the TV special who has no stated reason for being categorized as a misfit. Although Arthur Rankin Jr. has since confirmed it was due to her having psychological issues from being abandoned by her former owner.

With the exception of Charlie-In-The-Box and Dolly, none of the other Misfit Toys have a proper given first name.