

The Year Without a Santa Claus
Masada is a 1981 American historical drama television miniseries aired on ABC under the tentpole ABC Novel for Television. The screenplay by Joel Oliansky is based on Ernest Gann's 1971 novel The Antagonists. A dramatization of the historical siege of the Masada citadel in Roman Palestine by legions of the Roman Empire in AD 73. A siege that ended when the Roman armies entered the fortress, only to discover the mass suicide by the Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.
Cast

Shirley Booth
Mrs. Claus (voice)

Peter O'Toole
General Cornelius Flavius Silva

Mickey Rooney
Santa Claus (voice)

Peter Strauss
Eleazar ben Yair

Dick Shawn
Snow Miser (voice)

Barbara Carrera
Sheva

Alan Feinstein
Aaron

George S. Irving
Heat Miser (voice)

Bob McFadden
Jingle Bells (voice)

Giulia Pagano
Miriam

Anthony Quayle
Rubrius Gallus
Rhoda Mann
Mother Nature (voice)