Donald Duck's 50th Birthday

I remember seeing this 50th birthday special on TV when I was five years old! In retrospect, it was a rather surreal experience, with all these famous people wishing Donald Duck a happy birthday. I vaguely remember Donald stepping off an airplane onto the tarmac as part of the celebration.

I even had it on tape - recorded by my dad on Beta from TV, with commercials included! I think it ran again on CBS once or twice after that, too. I loved to watch it.

I didn't realize it was nominated for Emmys in the outstanding animated category. That seems a little strange, since it was probably almost as much live-action as animated. I guess this would have predated "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" among attempts to show animated characters and live action on the same frame. For example, I believe there were several occasions where Dick van Dyke was 'talking' to Donald Duck.