20 facts you might not know about How the Grinch Stole Christmas

There’s a good chance you know that Dr. Seuss is the author of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” However, did you know that Seuss also got the screenplay credit on the special? Let’s dive into how the story came into being. The Grinch first appeared in a poem in “Redbook” in 1955 called “The Hoobub and the Grinch.” In 1957, he decided to take the Grinch and put him in the center of his own book, which was based on Dr. Seuss feeling fairly Grinch-y himself about Christmas at the time.

The co-director and co-producer of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is none other than Chuck Jones. Jones is one of the legends of animation, having played a huge role in animating and directing “Looney Tunes” cartoons. Our conception of Bugs Bunny and others is pretty much owed to Jones’ work.

Jones and Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) first worked together during World War II. Then, they collaborated on the “Private Snafu” series of training cartoons. They were lighthearted ways to try and teach and inform new soldiers.

When Jones first came to Dr. Seuss with the idea of turning “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” into a television special, the author was tentative. In 1953, he had written the screenplay for the movie “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.” He hated that experience so much he never wrote another film. Eventually, Geisel signed on and was a producer on the special.

Geisel wrote all the lyrics to the songs in the musical adaptation of his book, but neither he nor Jones was capable of providing the music. That’s where Albert Hague stepped in. A German immigrant who fled Nazi Germany as a kid, Hague worked on Broadway in addition to having a small acting career. He plays the psychiatrist in “Space Jam,” weirdly enough.

The narrator and the Grinch are both the same voice, and that voice is provided by none other than Boris Karloff. Karloff is, to this day, the most-famous portrayer of Frankenstein’s Monster (aka Frankenstein if you aren’t feeling pedantic). This has made him a true legend of the silver screen. Oh, and he played the Mummy as well.

Cindy-Lou Who is voiced by June Foray, who was also the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and about a million other characters. Jones once quipped “June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc was the male June Foray.” Max, the dog, was voiced by Dal McKennon, a voiceover artist with a career that spanned 50 years. Among his characters were Gumby and Pokey. Meanwhile, Thurl Ravenscroft provides that bass voice in “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” He was also the original voice of Tony the Tiger.

Karloff, as a big star, got credited for his work in this special. He was the only one, though. At the time, Foray, McKennon, and Ravenscroft were all uncredited for their performances.

CBS was happy to sign off on bankrolling and airing “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” They had just struck it big in 1965 with “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Wanting to make such it would land, Jones and Geisel were given a budget of $315,000. This was more than four times what Bill Melendez had gotten to direct “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Jones didn’t want to have any of the usual Christmas stuff in the special. That stems from the book, which eschewed not just the religious but also the Christmas trappings like Santa. The director got the idea to rely on what he called “Seussian Latin,” which is all the made-up language in the story. Jones surmised that real Latin was as indecipherable to many viewers as their fictional language.

These days, people watch things that are streaming,  making advertisements something we see less and less. Even when we watch commercial TV, we are seeing different ads during breaks. Back in the day, though, TV shows would be sponsored by a single advertiser. When “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” first aired on December 18, 1966, it was sponsored by the Foundation for Full-Service Banks. This was edited out of every broadcast after the first one, though.

In the book, the Grinch is white. However, color television was still fresh and exciting in 1966, so they wanted a color special. As such, it’s the TV special where the Grinch was first colored green, which has become canonical for the character.

Even though the special was only 25 minutes without commercials, Dr. Seuss’ book wasn’t exactly a robust tome. As such, much like a car chase in an episode of “The Rockford Files,” action scenes were used to stretch out the story. In particular, the Grinch and Max’s descent from up on Mt. Crumpit down to Whoville was used to pad out the story.

For a long time, you could count on CBS trotting out “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” for the holidays. They aired it around Christmas every single year through 1987. After that, it became airing on different channels, such as TNT, TBS, The WB, and ABC. Currently, NBC owns the rights to air it.

Currently, the television special has a perfect 100-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On top of that, “TV Guide” ranked it as the best holiday special of all time.

Odd things will win Grammys here and there. After all, the Grammys have categories like “Best Children’s Album.” The winner in 1968? That would be “Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” a recording of the special. The win was specifically given to Karloff.

In 1977, the Grinch swapped holidays. He pops up in the ABC special “Halloween is Grinch Night,” a prequel about the Grinch haunting the Whos on Halloween. Notably, it won an Emmy. Then, in 1982 we got a colliding of worlds when we got “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat.” This too won an Emmy.

In 2000, Ron Howard directed a live-action version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with Jim Carrey in the lead role. It’s…a lot to wrap your head around. One glimpse of Carrey in his Grinch makeup may leave you shaken for hours. Then, in 2018, “The Grinch” returned to the animation realm. This time, Benedict Cumberbatch voiced the Grinch.

“The Grinch” doesn’t have a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes (it actually has a 59-percent rating), but it does have one thing going for it. It made $511.8 million worldwide at the box office. This made it the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time. Yes, really.

In a world where streaming and YouTube and a bunch of stuff we admittedly don’t understand helps fuel the “Billboard” charts, old songs can pop up, especially holiday ones. This has benefitted Ravenscroft and his song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” In 2020, it showed up on the “Billboard Hot 100” charts all the way up at number 32.