40th anniversary of "How the Grinch stole Christmas" on ABC tonight

The Grinch first aired on TV in 1966. I probably watched the first
time but I don't specifically
remember it. Following the success of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
the year before this was
pretty much a sure thing to be a TV success since the book had come out
in 1957 and was
well known.

For TV they had to lengthen the scene of the Grinch coming down the
mountain on the sled
from what it was in the book because the show needed a little more time
to fill it out.

et472...

It was here on the CBC here in Canada last night (and Canadians should
be careful since they ran Rudolph right after even though something
else had been announced), and somehow I was thinking about the books
this time around. They are so interesting, with the rhythm of the words
and the odd drawings. The special captures that well, but what suddenly
hit me was the songs are unlike the words of the book. So surely the
songs are filler, to some extent. (But, not in a bad way, since they
are memorable songs.)

It looks like ABC is making it an hour long fling, so there must be
a "making of" or some retrospective in the second half hour.

Am I misrembering, or has the Grinch aired on the WB in recent years?
They'd run a handfull of Christmas cartoons, definitely "Grandma Got
Run Over by Reindeer" and a "Scooby Doo" Christmas mystery, and I thought
the Grinch. I tended to forget about them, since here they'd run at
10pm because the "local" Fox outlet aired the WB shows at that time. I
remembered to look this week, but I see no specials listed there, so perhaps
"The CW" has decided not to air anything.

stonej...

I think "Grinch" has bounced around a few networks in recent years. I
believe it was on
TBS or TNT and then maybe WB. Can't remember for sure.

Russell Watson...

IIRC, the "Making of..." bit they tacked onto the end was old stuff
from back when the show was first restored and put back to it its
original length after having having had about 6 minutes lopped out of
it down through the years as more commercials were added.