Trivia / Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

• Acting for Two:
  • Kathleen Barr voices I.M. Slime, Mrs. Spankenheimer, Mrs. Claus, and a police officer.
  • Elmo Shropshire voices Grandpa Spankenheimer and the Narrator (who is an adult Jake).
• Adored by the Network: Definitely, when Cartoon Network had the rights to it, much to the chagrin of many of their viewers. Subverted finally when the broadcast rights to the special lapsed from Cartoon Network over to Freeform in 2017, likely because the network punted most of the Christmas specials it airs around December in favor of more Teen Titans Go! marathons. Freeform in comparison aired the special a modest amount of times during the "25 Days of Christmas" program season, though at the same time, hacked it up by playing it faster and cutting out the Big-Lipped Alligator Moment songs (yes, even the infamous "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa" Disney Acid Sequence), all just to fit in more commercials (in fact, Freeform did this to The Polar Express and every Rankin/Bass special it had the rights to until they were lost to AMC in 2018). However AMC's airing of the special beginning in 2021 retained it's original format and kept the songs that were cut from Free Form's airing.
• Channel Hop: Along with the switch from The WB to its successor The CW, the cable rights to it went from Cartoon Network, to Freeform in 2017, to AMC from 2021 onwards.
• Edited for Syndication: In later years, on AMC and The CW airings, small bits and pieces were edited for time, such as the montage of Jake's Email traveling to the North Pole through utility poles. Unlike Freeform, all of the songs remain fully intact.
• Technology Marches On: As The Island of Misfit Christmas Specials pointed out, a major plot point of the special dates it to a point in time when email and the internet were commonplace, but not ubiquitous.
  "But how can I possibly contact Santa??" Jake explodes. "Oh, wait. I think he has an E-mail address!" Argh, it's been that simple the entire time? Why didn't he think of it earlier? Probably because he wasn't used to having that convenience. At the time this was made, electronic mails were still a new thing. If Winnie the Pooh had E-mail in 1990, his entire special might have never happened.

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