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The doll was not originally in the script of this special and was added later. According to Arthur Rankin, one of the producers of this special, her problem was more "psychological than physical."
In this TV special's original broadcast, the ending was much different. Right after Santa takes to the air from the North Pole, (before the sequence of the Island of Misfit Toys, which was not in the original, but added after many viewer complaints that Santa did not fulfill his promise) Donner, Mrs. Donner, and Clarice watch from down below and Donner says, "That's my buck." Then Yukon enters still showing his dogs how to "mush" properly and then throws his pick in the air, licks it and then says, "Peppermint! What I've been searching for! I've found me a peppermint mine....yahoooo!" This also explains why there are fewer than eight reindeer on the sleigh.
The original 1964 NBC telecast featured a duet reprise of a song performed earlier in the film called "We're A Couple Of Misfits", but when it was re-edited a year later it was replaced by a new song, "Fame And Fortune", a song that was seen in all subsequent telecasts through 1997. When CBS aired a restored version of the film in 1998, the "Misfits" reprise was added back in place of "Fame and Fortune", which by the way can be found on the DVD edition as a deleted scene. The "Peppermint Scene" was also a casualty of the 1965 re-edit and replaced by a new sequence where Santa rescues the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys--that was created and filmed by Rankin/Bass after people complained Santa didn't keep his promise to return to the Island. The 1998 CBS telecast has the Misfit Island finale in story context, while the DVD contains both "Peppermint Scene" and "Misfit Island" finales. Incidentally, the "Peppermint Scene" has still not aired on CBS; in fact, it has not been seen on network television since its 1964 debut on NBC.
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