There are new specials (albeit many not-so-great) released each Halloween and Christmas, but what happened to all the great pink and purple, bunny intensive, jelly bean and flower filled Easter fare us Gen X kids looked forward to each year?

I think the last actual Easter-centric movie I even remember was Hop, and that was a theatre release nearly 15 years ago. Other than that, there has been no “made for television” Easter special goodness or classic movies sponsored by Dolly Madison Zingers and other goodies.

I remember the week before Easter seeing all kinds of springy and Easter-y specials, classic movies that always aired on Easter, and even one Biblical classic with a shout out to Passover.

It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown

I remember this one because it first aired on my birthday in 1974, just before Easter. The Peanuts gang covered pretty much all the holidays, from Christmas to Valentine’s Day to Arbor Day, and colorful Easter special made was likely responsible for the onslaught of adorable Snoopy plushies with bunny ears.

The Rankin/Bass Easter Trilogy

Stop motion kings Rankin/Bass gave us three Easter Bunny led specials in the 1970s, including The First Easter Rabbit in 1976, and The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town in 1977. Yet, the one most of us likely remember is 1971’s Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail, narrated by Danny Kaye and based on the novel The Easter Bunny That Overslept. This one was the best by far due to its voice cast alone including Casey Kasem as Peter and the legend himself, Vincent Price as the antagonist January Q. Irontail.

There was also a certain calibre of classic movies that airred almost every Easter, we always looked forward to watching:

There was, of course, the 1947 musical Easter Parade with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire that ends with that beautiful city street scene.

However, this wasn’t the movie I think most of fondly. There were actually two color-filled stories I associate with Easter, even through they weren’t Easter films at all. You could almost always catch these on television on Easter Sunday.

The Wizard of Oz

Even with film after film inspired by the L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz, the original 1939 MGM classic is still the favorite. The cool transition of going from a sepia world to the gorgeous Land of Oz is so beautiful. Remember, this was before CGI, so the transition scene was done on a sepia painted set with a sepia-costume Dorothy opening the door to Technicolor is still an impressive feat:

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory

Like Wizard of Oz, this was an Easter mainstay and a film featuring a transition from a the drab world to a colorful place filled with magical little people and flowers (or flowery candy)..and dark overtones. Also like Wizard of Oz, there have been many reboots and origin stories, but the first from 1971 is still the best and creepiest. Gene Wilder’s “Pure Imagination” is timeless.

You know, none of these films are direct celebrations of the resurrection of Christ, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a very popular Biblically based film that aired each year the week of Easter.

The Ten Commandments

Each week, the four-hour saga of the story of Moses starring Charlton Heston was a fixture in many homes. It reminded both Christians and Jews the significance of the Passover, and the Ten Commandments of God. This is still one of the best movies ever made, and no matter how many high-tech godless CGI effects are out there trying to improve upon it, this one is still a masterpiece.

Us Gen-X kids had plenty to watch during Easter week between the egg hunts and church-y obligations..and each was more colorful than the next.

I call for a return of the Easter week specials.

So let it be written. So let it be done.