How the ‘Grinch’ Got on Television

Chuck Jones, the veteran animator and director whose Warner Bros. unit spawned Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote and his adversary, the Roadrunner, first met Theodor Geisel when the two were making sometimes mildly obscene Army training films during World War II.

Twenty years later, Jones recalled Wednesday, it was he who suggested that Giesel bring “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to television, now a classic that will run for the 26th consecutive year this holiday season.

He also remembered how tenuous Geisel was about earning a living, how he never trusted agents and how “he once said if he could earn $5,000 a year from his books he’d be happy.”

Jones, who now lives in Orange County, said he took the “Grinch” storyboards to 24 prospective sponsors before a group of bankers agreed to put it on the air.

“It cost $350,000 and paid for itself in its first year.”

Jones, who also did storyboards for Geisel for “Horton Hears a Who!” and “The Cat in the Hat,” also remembered how “Green Eggs and Ham” came to be a book.

“(Publisher) Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using fewer than 50 words. There are 49. Count ‘em.”