Every Christmas, no matter how old they are, you can always rely on certain Christmas specials airing on major TV networks during the season. However, for every “Charlie Brown Christmas”, there are many more obscure specials that barely made impact.
I’m not sure if The Tiny Tree counts, although there are arguments for it. The special was never officially released on video, but unauthorized copies (whether it was taped from a later rerun or transferred from a 16mm print) are available if you seek them out.
The special is told through Squire Badger, who is telling two rabbit children about a little disabled girl befriending forest animals. The titular Tiny Tree is a tree in the middle of the woods that all the critters are friends with. He doesn’t speak throughout, although he has a face. Overtime, the girl becomes friends with the tree and would visit every day.
click to enlarge
Chuck Couch, David H. DePatie, and Friz Freleng, however, all had ties with Bell Telephone prior to this special. Couch produced and directed two films for Bell: Talking of Tomorrow (1960), which was produced at Couch’s own studio, and Mr. Digit and the Battle of Bubbling Brook (1961), a live-action and animation production done at UPA.
Back when DePatie and Freleng were still at Warner Bros., Bell produced a series of specials called “Bell Laboratory Science Series”. The final four specials were produced at Warner Bros and contained animated sequences done at their cartoon division. David H. DePatie, who at the time was running the commercial division, worked as a production executive on these films. Friz Freleng directed the cartoon sequence for The Alphabet Conspiracy, which aired in 1959.
By the 1970s, Chuck Couch was mostly working on assembly-line shows at Hanna-Barbera, but he found time to pitch “Tiny Tree” to Bell Family Theater. They bought the story, and in turn hired DePatie-Freleng to make the special, with Couch himself as the director.
Below: Original animation drawings for the special. One is an animation drawing by Don Williams, while another is a layout drawing by Jan Green. They come from Joseph Velasco, who got these drawings when he visited DFE studio during this special’s production. He gave us permission to use these scans.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
This was an ambitious production for DFE in the mid-1970s. Buddy Ebsen voices the Squire Badger, narrating the story throughout. Additional voice talents include Paul Winchell, Lucille Bliss, Frank Welker, Janet Waldo, and more. The lead character designer is Louis Schmitt, who is known for his work at Tex Avery’s MGM unit, designing and animating on his cartoons. Schmitt spent his later years working as an illustrator for Hallmark Cards, creating greeting cards with cutesy but fun animal critters. With Schmitt’s work history in mind, it’s clear what Couch wanted to invoke when he picked him to design on the special.
Johnny Marks, who already achieved fame for writing the “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” song, was hired to write and compose music. Eight songs were featured altogether, with popular singer Roberta Flack singing two of them: “To Love And Be Loved” and “When Autumn Comes”.
Click to enlarge
Tone-wise very different from what you would expect from a typical DFE production. The storyline is more gentle, and has a general “soft” tone, giving it an earmark for a successful holiday special. However, DFE never owned this special, as this was a “work for hire” production that Bell Telephone commissioned. As a result, AT&T is the rights holder. Supposedly Friz Freleng hardly paid attention to the cartoon when it was in production, even though he was known to give input on almost anything that was being done at the studio.
Click to enlarge
You can watch the special for yourself below. There are two different endings, the version seen in the video, and another one where where the ending was shortened so that we don’t see the girl regaining her ability to walk, instead cutting her to going to the window, presumably on her wheelchair.
Charles Brubaker is a cartoonist originally from Japan. In addition to his work for MAD Magazine and SpongeBob Comics, he also created Ask a Cat for GoComics. You can also follow him on his Tumblr page.
After DFE’s work on the animated sequence in THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST (1967) depicting the ambitious (and nefarious) plans of “The Phone Company” for world domination, I’m astonished that AT&T ever again hired these guys to do anything.
I am surprised that THE TINY TREE has never received a proper home video release.
In some way, I sorta wonder if AT&T simply never saw the potential for further sales for The Tiny Tree or some of their other non-phone-related productions as they saw no further use for them (reason why the 50’s science films fell into the Public Domain and picked up by other companies). These days, they do operate a TV service called “U-Verse” in select markets such as mine. They could easily stick this up as a “VOD” offering (if they have that).
Roberta Flack’s songs for the special were produced and arranged by Leon Pendarvis, who just a few years later in 1980 took a job with Saturday Night Live and has been there ever since (35 seasons). Pen is a cool guy.
I saw this when it first aired, November 1975 after a rerun of the studio’s very first, and one that needs its own entry, “Goldilocks’ with Bing Crosby’s Family and Paul Winchell, with three songs by The Sherman Brothers, first aired in spring 1970. There’s a lot to be told about that one.. Janet Waldo, Lucille Bliss and some others in the cast, like Chuck Couch, were also impressive for DFE (who never used any of those–imagine Chuck Jones using casts that big, he had rather small casts outside of the earlier “Rikki Tikki Tavia”, which was part of his Rudyard Kiplin series.)
Chas.Brubaker—I may have misrememebered December 14,1975 for November, but anyway, NBC explains why the Goldilocks/Crosby.Winchell special could air since it was exclusive to the network (and that was the last time that I saw either of those…)
wonderful character designs, but the background colors are bland and muddy.
One of my forgotten favorites as well. Does anyone know if Roberta Flack’s recording of “To Love And Be Loved” was released commercially on any of her albums? I thought it had potential to be a hit song then. (Better than “You Light Up My Life!”) Dean Elliott’s score is enjoyable as always. Music was always a strong suit with DFE, whether it was Elliott, Doug Goodwin, Walter Greene or others. The “muddy color” referred to above might be due to this being an “unofficial” transfer from an old 16mm print. (AT & T in those days had a very active 16mm free-loan film division serving clubs, schools, and churches.) Another Chuck Couch AT & T film I remember was TASI THE TIME MACHINE, on some new long-distance switching system.
The “muddy color” referred to above might be due to this being an “unofficial” transfer from an old 16mm print. (AT&T in those days had a very active 16mm free-loan film division serving clubs, schools, and churches.)
At least the special had a ‘second life’ here. Hopefully if AT&T has the original elements in storage someplace, they could still put out a decent transfer of the special if they wanted. If not on DVD/BluRay, then perhaps on their fancy U-Verse platform.
https://www.att.com/shop/u-verse.html
This is great. I was just at an estate sale for relatives of Chuck Couch and found a portfolio of his work for sale and a 3/4″ video cassette of “A Tiny Tree.” I have worked with these tapes before and can likely transfer it. Except for some “drop outs” – ferric Oxide particles that are coated on the plastic tape and are read back as image and audio – that have likely fallen off I expect this will be a decent copy. I had never seen it before and while dated and campy light-fare it is genuine in its attempt to entertain the audience it was intended for. Thank for maintaining this site.
Hi Greg, I have been searching for a good copy of this for years! This was a childhood favorite of mine and my family’s old VHS recording went missing at some point. I was very happy to find a copy on DVD in the early days of ebay. It’s an absolutely terrible recording, but I show it to my own kids every year and they love it. If you have a good copy that you would be willing to share I would be unbelievably grateful!
Hi Greg, I would like more information on the estate sale you went to. Chuck Couch is my great Uncle(my grandmothers brother) I would love to connect with relatives somehow . Please email me if you have any I formation..
Thank you
I loved this cartoon and would love a copy
I have been looking for it for years. A good copy would be greatly appreciated
The only place I have ever found it in YouTube. I watch it every year.
A favorite of my kids when they were young, they are now all in their 30’s. Will be playing my VCR copy for the grandkids at Thanksgiving. Thought it was especially touching to introduce a handicapped child as one of the main characters.