Romeo Muller

It was always starting to feel a lot like Christmas in the festive TV world of writer-producer Romeo Muller. During a more than 20-year collaboration with kidpic producers Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, Muller penned such perennial TV Christmas fare as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (NBC, 1964), "The Little Drummer Boy" (NBC, 1967), "Frosty the Snowman" (CBS, 1969), and "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (ABC, 1970). Some other Muller-scripted Yuletide fare for Rankin-Bass Productions had less permanent impact on kid culture: "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" (ABC, 1977), "Jack Frost" (NBC, 1980), "Pinocchio's Christmas" (ABC, 1980), "The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold" (ABC, 1981) and two less-than-inevitable sequels: "The Little Drummer Boy, Book II" (NBC, 1976) wherein the titular character joins forces with the Three Wise Men to "spread the word," and "Frosty's Winter Wonderland (ABC, 1979) in which the previously carefree snowperson takes a wife.