If you celebrate the 50th anniversary of The First Easter Rabbit this spring, prepare for an “earworm.” The song “There’s That Rabbit” (written by Jules Bass and Maury Laws) will play in your head on repeat. It opens the special from Rankin/Bass, the Studio synonymous with beloved TV Christmas specials.
Following in the footsteps of favorites like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, The First Easter Rabbit, directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, shares many familiar plot elements. Just as those specials tell the story of how a holiday legend came to be, so too does this one, highlighting the Easter Rabbit. The special features an appropriately themed song, a narrator, and even an appearance by Santa Claus, making it instantly recognizable as a Rankin/Bass production.
Instead of their usual stop-motion “Animagic,” Rankin/Bass uses traditional 2D animation here.
Though telling an Easter story, the special opens at Christmas. The narrator, G.B., a well-dressed rabbit, introduces Stuffy, a stuffed rabbit gifted to a young girl named Glinda. When Glinda contracts Scarlet Fever, her family must destroy her toys to stop the disease’s spread.
Happiness returns as Calliope, a sprite, saves Stuffy, bringing him to life and assigning him a mission: to become the First Easter Rabbit. Stuffy travels to Easter Valley—a North Pole section warmed by the magical Golden Easter Lily—where he meets Santa Claus, who assists him.
Actor Robert Morse
Zero, the evil ice wizard, and his sidekick Bruce, a snowball, aim to stop Easter. Zero wants to create a blizzard in Easter Valley and steal the Golden Easter Lily. With his friends and Santa, Stuffy sets out to save Easter.
The main character of Stuffy is voiced by Tony Award-winning Broadway musical veteran Robert Morse. “Robert appeared in three Rankin/Bass TV specials,” said Rick Goldschmidt, official Rankin/Bass historian/biographer and author of such books as The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass. “Jack Frost is probably his best-known appearance. He was ecstatic to get my 15th-anniversary edition of The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass, so much so that he called me on Christmas morning. He said the memories of working with Arthur and Jules were great. I think he understood the magic in the specials; that extra something that really can’t be described.”
Don Messick voices Whiskers and Bruce; Stan Freberg plays Flops; Joan Gardner is Calliope; and Paul Frees gives voice to Zero, Spats, and Santa Claus.
The cover of the rare sheet music.
The animation showcases Paul Coker, Jr.’s distinctive design, familiar from the Studio’s other specials like Frosty the Snowman (1969). Coker, a Mad magazine and Hallmark contributor, gave the special a style reminiscent of vintage greeting cards.
In addition to “There’s That Rabbit,” the special also includes “Easter Parade,” the familiar holiday standard by Irving Berlin, which features in the finale and is complemented nicely by springtime color.
The First Easter Rabbit aired on NBC on April 9, 1976. It was written by Julian P. Gardner (a pseudonym for Jules Bass) and based loosely on the popular book, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. With their take on the story, Rankin/Bass continues the tradition established by their other holiday specials. Here, they not only provide an “origin story” for another iconic holiday figure, but with “There’s That Rabbit,” they offer an earworm of a song that may linger with you through Mother’s Day.
For more about the music in this special – check Greg Ehrbar’s post about that by Clicking Here! Another Rankin/Bass Easter special celebrates a milestone this year and will be featured next week.
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
Interesting to note how Rankin/Bass’ early ventures into crafting Easter stories relied upon Christmas (and other holidays) upon which to build the momentum of the plot. There does not seem to be as rich a vein of Easter Bunny lore as there is for St. Nicholas/Santa Claus, and so by involving Santa as an active participant in this story, it adds a sense of familiarity–and in the case of R/B of continuity–as a foundation. Each of R/B’s Easter specials, in fact, provides a different version of how the Easter Bunny came to be. There is also the challenge of commemorating a holiday that is based on death and resurrection in terms that are not overwhelming or too theological for children to understand. Since Christmas celebrates birth, it is easier to build stories around it in ways that children can appreciate. R/B had a very fine line to tread, and so it is understandable that there are few if any religious undertones. But regardless of what isn’t there, it’s what is there that counts, and this special serves in subtle ways to honor the Easter holiday as well as to celebrate the coming of spring.
There is also a human romance between the little girl’s mother and the doctor which makes a nice counterpoint to the Irving Berlin classic “Easter Parade.” It’s always a pleasure to hear the melodious tones of Joan Gardner’s voice, and Don Messick provides warmth as well as authority in his vocal portrayal of the doctor.
Burl Ives was one of the few “celebrity voices” in cartoons at the time that I actually recognized from his appearances in live action television specials. And Robert Morse had recently appeared in “The Boatniks,” as well as his unforgettable turn in “How to Succeed in Business.” While I wouldn’t rank “The First Easter Rabbit” among the top R/B specials, it was still a remarkable effort and is well worth repeated viewings, especially at Easter.
“The First Easter Rabbit” premiered on the Friday before Palm Sunday (Easter came late in 1976). I had music lessons on Fridays, so by the time I got home my family were probably in the midst of watching something else on another network, most likely “Donny and Marie”. Thus I languished in ignorance of this special until your informative and well-written article brought it to my attention. Oh well, as they say, better late than never.
Even though I had never seen it before, watching it just now as a grey-haired senior gave me a strong feeling of nostalgia. As you noted, all of the familiar Rankin/Bass elements are in place: the hero who overcomes an early setback, the bad guys who have a change of heart, the seasoned celebrity narrator, the charming Paul Coker designs, the cheerful Maury Laws musical score, and above all the heartwarming message about the joy of giving. It also reminded me of the Famous Studios Noveltoon “Suddenly It’s Spring” (1944), in which a beloved toy (Raggedy Ann) helps a little girl pull through a life-threatening illness; it even has a white-bearded villain named “Zero” who’s responsible for the freezing weather! But at least in the Noveltoon, the doctor doesn’t tell Nancy’s mother to burn all of the girl’s toys.
Did I miss it, or do they ever explain what “G.B.” stands for? Glinda’s Bunny? God Bless? Guest-star Burl?
Since rabbits are serious agricultural pests in Australia, there has been a movement in recent decades to replace the Easter Bunny with a native counterpart, namely the Easter Bilby. The bilby is a long-eared, rabbit-sized, desert-dwelling marsupial of the bandicoot family, now endangered because of predation by introduced carnivores such as foxes and cats. There are Easter Bilby greeting cards, Easter Bilby chocolates, and Easter Bilby children’s books, but as far as I know there has never been an Easter Bilby animated TV special. (The bilby in the Bluey episode “Bob Bilby” is actually a hand puppet, and the story has nothing to do with Easter.)
I hope the “4K AI upscale” was the only copy easy to find at short notice.
Incidentally, METV Toons will air this special on Sunday as part of a special Easter block.