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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer airs Monday on WLTX

See the annual classic starring Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon, and their journey of discovery.
Credit: CBS/Rankin Bass

COLUMBIA, S.C. — You'll want to make sure you're near a TV Monday night, as CBS/WLTX will air the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The broadcast takes from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Narrated by Burl Ives, who is also heard as the voice of Sam the Snowman, this favorite is a music story based on the popular song of the same name by Johnny Marks. It recounts the tale of a shy reindeer whose Christmas spirit is dampened because his shiny nose has made him the laughing stock of all of Christmasville. 

He leaves town, determined to find his own destiny. Along the way, he meets Hermey, and elf who wants to be a dentist, and prospector Yukon Cornelius. And well...you know the rest. 

The special was first created in 1964. Fun fact: in the original broadcast, Santa and Rudolph didn't actually go back to the Island of Misfit Toys at the end. But viewers wrote in asking what happened to those toys, and a scene was added the next year and in all future broadcasts of Rudolph rescuing his friends and delivering them to boys and girls. (To make room for the new footage, a scene showing Yukon Cornelius discovering a peppermint mine was edited out). 

It is the longest-continuously running Christmas special, pre-dating A Charlie Brown Christmas by one year and How the Grinch Stole Christmas by two years. 

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