''The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas'' is an

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

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 ...

TV special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

. It premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

on December 17, 1973, in the United States. It was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, executive producer Norman Sedawie, and starred the voices of

Tommy Smothers Thomas Bolyn Smothers III (born February 2, 1937) is an American comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. Early life Smothers was born in 1937 at ...

Arte Johnson Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American comic actor who was best known for his work as a regular on television's ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''. Biography Early life Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in ...

and

Barbara Feldon Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Anne Hall; March 12, 1933) is an American actress primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 in the 1965–1970 sitcom ''Get Smart''. Early life Feldon was born Barbara ...

, with narration by

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably '' American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice Nor ...

.Nina David, ed., ''TV Season 1974-75'', Oryx Press, 1976. The story focuses on Theodore Edward Bear (Ted E. Bear for short) who is curious about Christmas and decides to go searching for it while the other bears hibernate for the winter. In the early 1980s, a plush Ted E. Bear was sold in stores. A Halloween sequel, ''The Great Bear Scare'', was released in October 1983. It later aired on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

until the late 1990s. Rights to the special are now owned by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

. It is currently available through the Lionsgate channel on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and on

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

. It was formerly available on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Cast

Robert Holt Robert Wilfred Holt (9 June 1913 – 1 May 1985) was an Australian politician, a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly and, later, of the Parliament of Australia. Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Holt was educated in Melbourne at Scotch C ...

as Santa Claus and Mayor C. Emory Bear *

Kelly Lange Kelly Lange (born Dorothy Scafard; December 14, 1937) is an American journalist, most notable for being the first woman to be a nightly news anchor in Los Angeles. Lange, a Shakespeare major in college, is a longtime news anchor in Los Angeles, a v ...

as Weather Bear * Michael Bell as Honey Bear *

as the narrator * Caryn Paperny as Girl *

as Professor Werner von Bear *

Tom Smothers Thomas Bolyn Smothers III (born February 2, 1937) is an American comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. Early life Smothers was born in 1937 at ...

as Ted E. Bear *

as Patti Bear

References

External links

* 1970s animated television specials 1970s American television specials NBC television specials 1973 television specials Television specials by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises American Christmas television specials Animated Christmas television specials {{Christmas-tv-film-stub

Cast

See also

References

External links