For trivia related to the 2000 film, see here.
The book:
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: It's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, NOT The Grinch That Stole Christmas. The 2000 movie actually uses this as a Mythology Gag.The Grinch: I did it! I'm the Grinch that stole Christmas! And I'm sorry.
The animated special:
- Acting for Two: Boris Karloff did the narration and the Grinch's voice.
- Adored by the Network: TBS loves airing this special on the week of Thanksgiving. From the mid-90's up until 2009, it would be aired in a block with other Dr. Seuss specials such as The Cat in the Hat and Daisy-Head Mayzie, and sometimes The Wizard of Oz.
- Channel Hop:
- Originally run on CBS for over 30 years, ABC got the special during the Turn of the Millennium and would often run it in double-features with the 2000 film. In 2015 the rights went to NBC, making it possibly the first Christmas special to have been on all of the original Big Three networks at some point or other. It has also aired on both The WB and The CW, and on cable it has aired on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, WGN America, TNT, and TBS.
- Distribution-wise, the special originally belonged to MGM Television, but was a part of the library Ted Turner purchased along with MGM in 1986 (having only kept MGM itself for 74 days, but kept the library afterwards). As a result, it fell under Turner's in-house distribution firm until 1996, when the Turner-Time Warner merger occurred and Turner Entertainment was absorbed into Warner Bros., who have since held the rights; since 1986, TBS, TNT and later Cartoon Network have broadcast the special on cable.
- Edited for Syndication:
- For many years US network broadcasts deleted one of the "You're a Mean One" verses ("You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch...") as well as a genuinely disturbing moment in which the Grinch does his Slasher Smile while leering at several young Whos in their bed. Later ABC broadcasts, and 2015 and 2017-onward NBC airings, cut the special down to the bare minimum to make room for more ads, keeping the important story parts, deleting many of the visual gags, as well as a shot of the Grinch cracking his whip while Max pulls the sleigh up Mt. Crumpet. Averted with broadcasts on the Turner networks such as TBS and Cartoon Network, which show the special uncut, probably due to being cable networks that can make revenue off cable subscriptions in addition to ads (plus owning the special helps); in return, though, TBS speeds up the special slightly to squeeze more commercials in. NBC also restored The Grinch to its original runtime in 2016, in honor of its 50th anniversary, but then started editing it in 2019 (cutting some verses from "You're a Mean One") to make room for showing How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming uncut.
- The original 1966 broadcast of the special was sponsored by The Foundation for Full Service Banks and contained sponsor plugs at the beginning and end of the special. However, just like the Coca Cola plugs from A Charlie Brown Christmas, they were removed after the first airing (due to the special’s message contradicting the sponsors services) and are notoriously difficult to find nowadays. They can only be found on certain unofficial DVD releases or the Internet Archive
.
- Self-Adaptation: Dr. Seuss himself wrote the lyrics for the songs.
- Uncredited Role: Allegedly for no better reason than the people doing the credits simply forgot to add his name, Thurl Ravenscroft never received screen credit for singing "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Dr. Seuss himself caught this after the special aired and personally wrote to every major news publication he could asking them to mention Ravenscroft to make up for the mistake.
- What Could Have Been:
- According to Chuck Jones' daughter Linda, the original idea was to have Boris Karloff narrate, voice the Grinch, and perform the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", that is until Karloff informed Jones he couldn't actually sing, thus paving the way for Thurl Ravenscroft. Stage productions, and the live-action film would keep the idea of the Grinch's actor singing it though.
- More a case of "What Could Have Not Been": Seuss originally had his mind set on avoiding Hollywood like the plague after his own troubled history with it (the Executive Meddling on The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T, only getting $50 for the rights to Horton Hatches the Egg for the Looney Tunes adaptation). Had his friend Chuck Jones not continued to twist his arm, the cartoon would likely never have been made.
The stage musical:
- Promoted Fanboy: Patrick Page (Broadway's first Grinch) was offered the role but had to be approved by the estate of Dr. Seuss, so a rep was flown in to watch Page during a performance and make the final decision. Page had cherished the character since childhood, and was so determined to get the part that he went out into Times Square to search for the rep before he left the city; he was able to find him eventually, and used the opportunity to give him one final pitch. He was given the role soon after.Patrick Page: I said to him, "[...] I know that you can find somebody who can sell more tickets than me, I know that you can find somebody that will allow you to raise more money from your investors, but I promise you, if you trust me with this role, you will never find anybody who will protect and cherish this material like I will."
