Romeo Muller(1928-1992)

Born in New York City during the Depression, it's not surprising that the work of Romeo Muller was always aimed at lifting people up in a lively, joyful spirit. It was always starting to feel a lot like Christmas in the festive TV world of the writer-producer Mr. Muller. In 1964, he ran into and befriended the associates Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass. After that point, for more than 20 years as a collaborator with the kidpic producers, Muller penned such persistent TV Christmas fare as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Frosty the Snowman (1969), and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970). Thanks to Muller's teleplays, five other Rankin-Bass productions did not neglect other legal holidays. Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971), _Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1975) (TV)_, and The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town (1977) left the Christmas spirit rest a little. Two feature films owe writing credits to Muller: the lavish live action musical, Marco (1973), and Pinocchio's Christmas (1980), a puppet production. Muller also wrote for several Saturday morning cartoon series, as well as many other children's TV specials. He even once attempted to tackle adaptations of _Hobbit, The (1978) (TV)_, though his writing was critized by fans of the book for being too simplified. Of course, Muller's own fans argue that his writing style was in fact, always simple, and that was what made his movies full of such clear emotional brevity. Noel (1992), which aired on NBC during the 1992 Christmas season, was Muller's final Christmas calling card. It was narrated by Charlton Heston and aired just a few weeks before Muller's death which occured, interestingly enough, during the holiday season between Christmas and New Year's.