How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special) animation divisions of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, where Jones was under contract at the time. CBS, coming off the surprise success of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" a year before, allotted Jones and MGM a $315,000 budget, more than four times what Bill Melendez was offered to produce "A Charlie Brown Christmas". The original broadcast was sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks whose sponsor plugs within the original airing were later edited out for subsequent broadcasts. The entirety of the book's text, with some slight embellishment, was adapted into the special; to pad the special to a full 30-minute time slot,
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special) during the Christmas season until 1988. It was then aired on various other networks multiple times a season. In the 1990s and 2000s, it was primarily seen on Turner-owned properties (TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network), and later ABC from 2006 to 2014 and ABC Family. On August 13, 2015, NBC announced that the special would move to that network, which would air it twice during the Christmas season under a three-year licensing deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. The special was released in the midst of a wave of animated holiday specials, joining a number of other 1960s productions