''Christmas in Tattertown'' is a 1988 animated television

Christmas special Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in in literature and Christmas music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptation ...

created and directed by

Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American animator and filmmaker. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatric ...

. The special was an unsold

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

for a series, ''Tattertown'', about a place where everything discarded in the world came alive. "Christmas in Tattertown" aired on the

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

network

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

Synopsis

A young girl named Debbie, her doll named Miss Muffet and a stuffed dog are sucked into the realm of Tattertown, where discarded items come to life. While the stuffed dog maintains his loyalty to Debbie, Miss Muffet, who has long felt oppressed by the wear and tear of being a child's plaything, quickly runs off and transforms herself into Muffet the Merciless, set on conquering Tattertown by recruiting Sidney the Spider, an arachnid who attempted to conquer Tattertown before (she first meets him when he's in the middle of kidnapping a cute little raggedy doll in a nearby toy shop, but Muffet thwarts his attempt). Sidney takes Muffet to the "Deadster Zone", located outside of Tattertown and inhabited by the unsavory rejected items (such as war toys and TV sets), where Muffet recruits these inhabitants as goons into her army. Completely oblivious to Muffet's intentions, Debbie decides to introduce the concept of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

to Tattertown, where it is apparently a foreign notion despite some of the items in Tattertown being an old Christmas wreath and an evergreen tree. Tattertown's residents are consistently unable to grasp the concept of Christmas, and in desperation, Debbie plays the original recording of

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

's " White Christmas" as Muffet attempts an air raid on Tattertown. The raid fails when Muffet's henchmen are distracted by the song, and Muffet lands in

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

. While the residents did consider "White Christmas" to be a beautiful song, it is never resolved whether anyone ever grasped the

true meaning of Christmas The true meaning of Christmas is a phrase that began to appear in the mid-19th century when a shift toward a more secular culture resulted in a national backlash. Christians began to see the secularization of the celebration day of the birth of Ch ...

History

Bakshi originated the idea for ''Tattertown'' in high school, where it was originally a comic strip called ''Junk Town''. The strip made light of the human condition by showing the value of things we throw away. Bakshi worked with Nickelodeon to bring his strip to life as a regular television series, which would have served as Nickelodeon's first original animated series. In 1988, they commissioned him to create a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

for the series. It aired on December 21, 1988 during the network's

Nick at Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET/Pac ...

block of programming. Originally the series was to be picked up in 1989 for 39 episodes, but after a controversy involving an episode from Bakshi's other series '' Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures'', the project was abandoned. Nickelodeon renamed the pilot ''Christmas in Tattertown'' and aired it annually as a special until 1992. Bakshi has retained rights to the pilot and in an interview on his official website conducted on August 2, 2007, he confirmed a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

release, however, no such release has happened. In 1995, the special aired in syndication under the title ''A Tattertown Christmas'' alongside the ''

Rocko's Modern Life ''Rocko's Modern Life'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the surreal life of an anthropomorphic Australian immigrant wallaby named Rocko and his friends: the eccentric steer ...

'' Christmas special "Rocko's Modern Christmas!".

Cast

Charlie Adler Charles Michael Adler (born October 2, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director. He is known for his roles as Buster Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Ed and Bev Bighead on ''Rocko's Modern Life'' and Ickis on ''Aaahh!!! Real Monst ...

- Sidney the Spider / Additional Voices *

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

- Miles the Saxophone / Additional Voices *

Jennifer Darling Jennifer Darling (born Joan Darling; June 19, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American voice, film and television actress. Her best-known role on screen was as Peggy Callahan in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and its spin-off ''The Bion ...

- Muffet *

Sherry Lynn Sherry Lynn is an American voice actress who has played roles in anime, animated television series and video games. She portrayed Sasami Jurai in the ''Tenchi Muyo!'' franchise. In January 2010, in terms of total film gross, she was the Highest ...

- Debbie *Adrian Arnold - Harvey *

Arthur Burghardt Arthur Burghardt (born August 29, 1947) is an American retired actor, best known for portraying Jack Scott on the soap opera ''One Life to Live''. In animation, he's known for lending his deep bass voice as Devastator in '' The Transformers'', D ...

- Additional Voices *

Patrick Pinney Patrick Cullen Pinney (born June 30, 1952) is an American television, film and voice actor. Early life, family and education Pinney was born in San Francisco County, California. His mother's maiden name is his middle name. He attended college a ...

- Additional Voices *

Will Ryan William Frank Ryan (May 21, 1949 – November 19, 2021) was an American voice actor, musician and singer. He provided the voice of Petrie in the 1988 animated film ''The Land Before Time''. He was also known for his voice work as Eugene Meltsner ...

- Additional Voices (uncredited)

Music Dept

* Gary Anderson - Original Music

References

External links