The First Easter Rabbit is an American animated Easter television special that premiered April 9, 1976, on NBC and later aired on CBS.[1] Created by Rankin/Bass Productions, it tells the story of the Easter Bunny's origin.[2] The special is loosely based on the 1922 children's book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. Burl Ives narrates the special which also features the Irving Berlin song "Easter Parade". It marked Ives's return to a Rankin/Bass special for the first time since the company's 1964 stop motion television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer twelve years prior.
Plot
G.B., a rabbit, tells the story of Stuffy, who began as a stuffed rabbit given as a Christmas present to a little girl named Glinda. Soon afterward, Stuffy encounters Spats, Flops, and Whiskers, a trio of scheming live rabbits who mock Stuffy for not being real. One day, when Glinda becomes sick after contracting scarlet fever, her clothes and old toys, including Stuffy, are thrown away to be burned in order to disinfect the playroom.