Frosty the Snowman History and Origins
Channel: ComicgeddonTV
Date: 2020-12-10

Frosty the Snowman History and Origins
Frosty’s Winter Wonderland,  Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, Frosty Returns, The Legend of Frosty the Snowman
Frosty the Snowman began as a song recorded by Gene Autry in 1950. Hot of the hit, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer from the previous year, Autry searched for a new seasonal hit. In came Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson. It was originally released on the B-side of Autry’s record, “When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter” later the same year through Columbia Records.  It became an international hit and a permanent part of many families Christmas Celebrations. 
Though it’s generally considered a Christmas song, the original lyrics actually make no mention of the holiday. 
In 1969, production studio Rankin/Bass released the animated TV special on CBS television. 
The cast for the Christmas Special includes Jackie Vernon as Frosty, Jimmy Durante as the narrator, June Foray as Karen, Suzanne Davidson as Karen in the later airings, Greg Thomas as Karen’s friends, Billy De Wolfe as Professor Hinkle, and Paul Frees as the traffic cop, ticket man, and Santa Claus. 
The special’s story follows a group of school children who build a snowman called Frosty and place a magic hat on his head. This makes the snowman come to life with enchanted power. But after noticing the high temperature, and fearing that he will melt, Frost, along with a young girl named Karen and a rabbit named Hocus Pocus, must go to the North Pole to be safe from melting. 
TV Guide ranked the special number 9 on its 10 best holiday specials list. 
In 1989 and 1993, Family Home Entertainment released the special on VHS as part of the Christmas Classics Series and paired it with The Little Drummer Boy on laser disc in 1992. It came to DVD in 2002, 2004, and 2007 followed by a blu-ray release by Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment in 2010. 

Sequels to the Christmas Special include Frosty’s Winter Wonderland from 1976 with Jackie Vernon reprising the role of Frosty and Andy Griffith serving as narrator as well as Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July from 1979, Frosty Returns in 1992 which featured John Goodman as the voice of Frosty and Jonathan Winters as the narrator, and finally The Legend of Frosty the Snowman from 2005 which was a straight to video release by Classic Media, where Bill Fagerbakke was cast to voice Frosty and Burt Reynolds features as the narrator. 
The film holds only loose continuity with the Rankin/Bass special from 1969. In it, Professor Hinkle is reformed and has a grandson by the name of Tommy who’s the cartoon’s protagonist. 
Now you may be wondering, why Rankin/Bass didn’t do the most recent follow up. You see, the production company closed production on March 4, 1987. The pre-1974 Rankin/Bass library was purchased by Universal Pictures via Dreamworks Animation and Warner Brothers purchased the rights to all media produced by Rankin/Bass after 1974. 
In Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, Frosty is given a wife named Crystal who was voiced by Shelley Winters. And in Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, it’s revealed Frosty and Crystal are parents. 
In 1998, the story of Frosty inspired the Michael Keaton film Jack Frost, which tells the story of a neglectful dad who dies but comes back to life as a snowman in his son’s front yard.  
This of course should not be confused with the slasher film of the same name which came out a year earlier. In this 1997 cult classic, a truck carrying serial killer Jack Frost to his execution crashes into a genetics truck which causes the genetic material to cover Jack which mutates his body, fusing it together with the snow on the ground. Jack is presumed dead and his body melts away. However, he returns as a killer snowman and takes revenge on the sheriff who finally caught him



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