My contribution to Christmas

It is with no small amount of satisfaction that I write this.

I say this because, as a child, there was no greater joy than watching Christmas specials.

It was always an event. I would sit down in front of the television and wait for that "Special" teaser to swirl around the screen as the bumper music played, and shortly thereafter, the opening credits of whatever Christmas special I was waiting for would begin,...signifying thirty minutes, (or in some cases a whole HOUR), of yuletide bliss and enraptured joy.

Whether it was the soulful soothing jazz of Vince Gauraldi, (which enamors me to this very day), in the Charlie Brown Christmas, the balladeering warble of Burl Ives in Rankin/Bass's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, or the thundering rumbling bass of the mighty Thurl Ravenscroft as he admonished, "You're a mean one,....Mister Grinch", (not to mention snow mizer and heat mizer), it was nothing but magic from Thanksgiving weekend until December 25th.

So being a part of something that maintains and adds to the tradition I hold so dear to my own heart is a great Christmas gift in itself,...quite possibly the greatest one I've ever been given.

So check your local times and listings with your local ABC affiliates on November 28th because my Christmas special will be on TV!

After a loooooong and sometimes weary road, and what seemed like an endless gauntlet of opinionated higher ups, my buddy Gary and I, (along with a staff un-matched in talent), were fortunate enough to complete the project Shrek the Halls for Dreamworks and ABC/Disney.

Gary Trousdale, (director of Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback of Notre Dame fame), directed this half hour special and I was head of story on this aka a sort of second in command.

Gary and I also wrote it and got "screenplay by" credit.

The special is about Shrek trying to craft a perfect first Christmas for his new family without letting them know he's never done it before. Everything goes smoothly until, in typical holiday fashion, Donkey shows up with the rest of the "family" to wreak havoc with Shrek's Christmas vision.

ABC has acquired the rights to air it for the next fifteen years and so, up there my work will sit, along with the other Christmas holiday greats like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph and Frosty.

And while I may not feel worthy to sit among these classic giants, I certainly am honored to.

To think that some little kid may sit down this November 28th in that great anticipatory haze as he waits for a Christmas special that I helped craft fills me with almost as much warmth as watching those specials myself.

So Merry Christmas to all,...and to all, (as Shrek would say), a GROSS night!