Why so few Easter specials?

R

Rhymereverytimer

New member
Why is it that theres a lack of Easter-themed holiday specials? The only ones i can think of are Its the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown, The (ninja) Turtles Awesome Easter, and i think there was a bugs bunny Easter special in the early 80s (at least, there WAS an Easter-themed LT short called "the chocolate chase"). So why is this holiday so ignored when it comes to holiday specials? I know they cant really deal with the religious aspect but that cant be the only reason.
 
No presents, or dressing up and getting candy, or falling in love. Not even a message about the goodness of people. It's just about painting eggs and hiding them. ;)
 
Its because Easter just isn't a very exciting holiday.

-Halloween is cool because of the spookyness and the costumes. :evil:

-Christmas is cool because of the gifts, the "Christmas Spirit", and all the fanfare that surrounds it. :)

-Valentines Day is fun because of all the romance attached to it. :anime:

-And Easter is fun because....you get to eat chocolate and watch little kids hunt for eggs in the yard. And, if you're religious, you get to reflect on how Jesus Christ was resurrected three days after being brutally murdered. I assume it's kinda hard to work those elements into a kid-friendly and entertaining holiday special. :p
 
I think that's pretty much it. The religious part of Easter is probably untouchable for most cartoons, and The Easter Bunny is so limited a concept (as opposed to, say, Santa or Wonderful Life/Christmas Carol adaptations) that there's not much that can be done with it.

Bugs Bunny appeared in "Easter Yeggs" in the 40's, which is excellent for it's cynical take on the Easter Bunny mythos). And South Park's Fantastic Easter Special is just awesome since it takes the religious of Easter and combines it with the Easter Bunny side in the most deranged possible way.
 
Basically this! Though I am surprised to see in Animal Crossing City Folk that there is an Easter like Holiday in the game. But after all the mascot is a rabbit. After all other than me going to church and having relatives over at my house... there is nothing else special about Easter other than painting eggs, eating Peeps, and decorating around the house for it.
 
From an advertiser standpoint (the people TV networks are most interested in), there's little in the way to cash in on Easter, besides sales of Easter-related food and candy for supermarkets. Thus, another reason (besides its low-key nature vs. Christmas) that it doesn't get much attention TV-specials-wise.

A few Easter specials I can think of:

- It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.

- A Daffy Duck Easter special.

- Rankin-Bass made various Easter specials, most particularly:
* Here Comes Peter Cottontail: the story of how Peter (voiced by Casey Kasem) became the chief Easter Bunny, competing to win it over the evil Irontail (voiced by Vincent Price). Noted for its time-travel theme as Peter's forced to travel to various other holidays to try to give away his Easter eggs (painting them orange and black for Halloween, or red-and-white for Christmas, etc.).

* The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town: a semi-sequel of sorts to the famous "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" special, with the mail carrier telling us how the Easter Bunny got started (with a plot similar to the Santa special's).

-B.
 
Easter's just not that big a commercial holiday. There's not much to build a story around aside from the rabbit and the colored eggs. There's the religious aspects of the holiday, but since the majority of holiday specials are intentionally nondenominational, that's right out.

With Christmas, you have Santy Claus, Xmas plays, kids hoping for Xmas snow in a place where is doesn't snow, kids wishing for that one perfect gift, etc.

With Halloween, you have costumes, quests for candy, monsters, haunted houses, curses and other such spooky lore. But beyond painting eggs, there's not much happening Easter-wise, at least nothing that would make for entertaining TV.
 
It's not really that exciting of a holiday. Other holidays have a more fun feeling. Halloween has ghost and monsters, Christmas has Santa Claus and "It's better to give than to receive", Valentine's Day has the love theme. Easter has religous reasons for the most part.
 
Without the religious significance of the holiday, there really isn't all that much to Easter.

With Christmas, you have Santa Claus and presents and snow and the spirit of giving and Christmas wishes.

With Halloween, you have monsters and ghouls and costumes and candy.

With Thanksgiving, you have food and family gatherings and the history of pilgrims.

With Easter, all you have is a rabbit and some painted eggs. There are only so many variations on those things that a team of writers can do with that.
 
.....I get a present on Easter...bet then again my family is a bit odd. Yea Its true though Besides Going to Church, eating Lunch/Dinner with family & Hunting for eggs easter just isn't that big a holiday.:sweat:
 
Enough networks already air non-animated programs ranging from life of Christ films to relevant documentaries every Easter. Animated Easter specials, even religious ones, shouldn't be particularly taboo. If, however, you think about the usual major outlets for animated programming, I doubt you'd find much, if any, religiously themed programming at all, at any time of the year, and as has been suggested, the secular aspect of Easter isn't particularly significant. That explains one half of the situation. Meanwhile, the networks that do carry Easter programming are too busy with what they always air, so they see no need to pay for such specials.

--Romey
 
I have a creeping suspicion that the main reason Easter hasn't been commercialized like Christmas is that it is so close to tax time. O.K. Christmas had been in the process of being commercialized since it came to be in a form we recognize it today back in the Victorian period; so Easter would not be as commercialized as Christmas but it would be up there.

I want some Reese's Cups Eggs.
 
Well, just how many interesting stories can you make about painting eggs and hiding them? XD I don't think anybody would say "I wish EVERY DAY was Easter!" like they would Halloween or Christmas. It's rather boring with little to work with (especially if you take out the religion) and would probably be like making a Groundhog's Day or Fourth of July special (I've never seen one for either). I think it'd probably be easier to throw it in as an afterthought in a regular episode.
 
I think that it is because of the religious factor, and that you can't get very many exciting strories from it.

That's not as bad as them putting up Christmas stuff in August.
 
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