Trivia / Rudolph's Shiny New Year

• Acting for Two:
  • Red Skelton voices Father Time and Baby Bear.
  • Paul Frees voices Santa Claus, 1776, General Ticker, Eon the Terrible and Humpty Dumpty.
  • Frank Gorshin voices Sir 1023 and Quarter Past Five.
  • Don Messick voices Papa Bear, Rumpelstiltskin, Prince Charming and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • Iris Rainer voices Mama Bear and Nanny Nine O'Clock.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: The special features actor Red Skelton as Father Time and comedian Morey Amsterdam as One Million BC.
• The Other Darrin: Due to the special being recorded in Los Angeles instead of Toronto, Paul Frees voices Santa instead of Stan Francis.
• Prop Recycling: The Santa puppet is reused from The Year Without a Santa Claus. On a side note, it would later be reused again in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.
• Role Reprise:
  • Billie Richards reprised her role as Rudolph from the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special.
  • Paul Frees reprises his role as Santa Claus after his last appearance months earlier in The First Easter Rabbit, as well as in Frosty the Snowman eight years earlier.
• Sequel Gap: Rudolph's Shiny New Year was released 12 years after Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The special was produced in 1975 according to the copyright notice, but didn't air until the following year.
• Wolverine Publicity: One ABC Family ad highlighted the fairy tale characters, notably Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin, appearing in the special, despite mostly making small cameos in the 1023 sketch. Ironically, Disney cut out most of the references when they later aired the special.

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