Classic Television - Special

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Original channel

ABC

Release date

December 14, 1970

Starring

Fred Astaire

Mickey Rooney

Keenan Wynn

Joan Gardner

Paul Frees

Robie Lester

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television special, made by Rankin-Bass. The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S.D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus. The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the hit Christmas song of the same name, which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934, and the story of Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town was created using stop motion animation called "Animagic" in which all the characters are made out of wood and plastic and animated via stop-motion photography. The special was originally telecast by ABC and continues to air every year on sibling channel ABC Family, though both channels have at times edited the special to make room for commercials (ABC by cutting two key songs as well as only two other songs in half and ABC Family cutting several scenes that might be traumatizing to the younger viewers including the scene where the Burgermeister Meisterburger torches the seized toys in front of the children of Sombertown)