The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas is a 1973 Christmas Special that aired on NBC produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. It featured the voices of Tom Smothers, Barbara Feldon, Arte Johnson, Michael Bell, Bob Holt and narration by Casey Kasem.
The protagonist Ted E. Bear (Smothers) lives with others bears in Bear City, working at the Organic Honey Works. But he is distracted from his job, curious about rumors about something called "Christmas". No other bears believe in Christmas, mainly because they sleep through the holiday. In spite of getting berated by his boss C. Emory Bear (Holt) and secretary Patti Bear (Feldon), Ted vows to find Christmas, what it is and what it means. As his friends and bear society go off to hibernate, Ted says goodbye and leaves to find Christmas.
His travels take him to a human city. After encounters with traffic, a Christmas parade and a department store, Ted meets Santa Claus on a street corner who tries to explain Christmas and eventually guides the bear to an apartment building where he'll find what Christmas is.
Currently, the special is available to view on various streaming services such as Tubi and was reviewed on The Island of Misfit Christmas Specials. A Halloween Special would follow in 1983 titled The Great Bear Scare.
Tropes in this special
- Beary Friendly: Ted E. Bear and the whole population of Bear City.
- Deep Sleep: All the bears do this. From December until spring, their whole society shuts down so they can hibernate.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Just about every other bear besides Ted doesn't believe in Christmas at all.
- George Jetson Job Security: C. Emory Bear fires Ted from his job after his belief in Christmas interferes with the Organic Honey Works and brings bad publicity when Ted speaks to the press about the holiday too.
- Is It Something You Eat?: At his local airport, Ted asks the ticket agent for a ticket to Christmas. He is laughed out of the airport as Ted doesn't understand Christmas isn't a location.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Bears and humans exist in the same world but unlike other examples of this trope, they live separately in their own societies with no evidence that they regularly interact with each other.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: The male bears like Ted are shown wearing jackets, vets, hats, ties, etc but no pants. Females like Patti Bear are completely dressed.
- Santa Ambiguity: Ted meets Santa Claus on a street corner who tries to explain Christmas. He also shows up in the family's apartment after Ted arrives there. It is left ambiguous whether he is the real Santa or just someone in a costume.
- Santa Clausmas: A Christmas parade, toys in a department store and Santa Claus are present in the special but there's no mention of the religious aspects.
- Sassy Secretary: Patti Bear. In addition to snidely remarking on Ted's astrological sign, she berates him a number of times about his belief in Christmas and how he should forget about it.
- Sexy Secretary: Downplayed with Patti. While she is cute and there is a Ship Tease with Ted, she doesn't have the same proportions of more anthropomorphic characters like Rebecca Cunningham.
- Ship Tease: Between Ted and Patti. Before leaving to find Christmas, he tells a departing Patti that he wishes things could be different, implying they had feelings for each other.
- Shout-Out:
- During the montage of sleeping bears during the beginning, we see three bears sleeping in beds and a nearby table with three bowls of porridge.
- The marching band in the Christmas parade is playing Good King Wenceslas.
- A bear scientist named Professor Werner Von Bear (Arte Johnson) is a pun on the real life Wernher Von Braun
.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the people in the city take notice of an anthropomorphic bear in clothing walking around.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas ends with Ted adopted by a little human girl and her family. In The Great Bear Scare, Ted is back with his own kind; it is never explained when he got back or what became of the humans he lived with previously.
