Christmas on TV

[mrsl]

The time has arrived for Christmas movies to appear on the 8:00 movie at night on 3 different channels. Sometimes it's hard to decide which to watch. These movies, Big blockbusters from the theaters, small flops, made for TV, or TV mini-series, or even 2 part Christmas stories from favorite weekly series, to me, they're all good and fun to see. To me they are becoming my new Christmas carols. No matter if I've seen them before, it's been at least a year, so they're fun, and every year new ones are made. We don't have the great Andy Williams, or Bing Crosbys to do annual Holiday shows any longer, so these have taken their place.

I actually look forward to seeing Rudolph and Frostie, and the story of Santa Claus, the little drummer boy, etc. I watched A Smokey Mountain Christmas on Saturday with Dolly Parton, and Holiday Inn at 2:30 a.m. later that night. I look forward to them just like I used to look forward to Christmas carols. I have just switched my country CD's for my Christmas CD's in my car, so for the next month it'll be Bing, Elvis, and Andy with a few others thrown in the mix.

Anne

[movieman1957]

My wife several weeks ago found the Christmas music channel on the cable. It plays constantly. We also have a couple of radio stations that, even before Thanksgiving, started playing Christmas music.

Speaking of Christmas movies/specials one that enjoy when I can is James Garner and Julie Andrews in "One Special Night." I really like the way they work together. Not a great film but certainly enjoyable.

[cinemalover]

I have always been a huge sucker for Rudolph. I watched it faithfully every year growing up (you know, back in the old days when you had to arrange your schedule around when it was broadcast instead of just popping in a tape or DVD whenever you want). You even had to clear it with your parents ahead of time because there was only one TV in the house and the whole family had to agree on what was being watched.

But the unique animation and look of Rudolph, the wonderful voice characterizations, everything about the story was perfect. At least for me. The only other Christmas special that came close to it in my heart was the Grinch with the fantastic Boris Karloff's voice.

[movieman1957]

If we want to talk Christmas TV in that sense of programming give "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It's funny, warm and I think goes to the heart of Christmas (that is at least as far as one could on TV.) Listening to Linus tell the Christmas story is wonderful and it is beautifully done.

[MikeBSG]

I love "Rudolph," "Frosty," "How the Grinch..." and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

As for more recent specials, the Garfield the cat cartoon is very nice. We taped it several years ago and the whole family watches it.

I would like to see "A Wish for Wings That Work" a Bloom County Christmas special featuring Opus the penguin. I saw it once in 1991 and haven't seen it since, but it was very funny.

Speaking of "lost" Christmas specials, there is one in which the Muppets save Santa Claus, who was played by Art Carney. I guess it is tied up in legal limbo or something.

It has been ages since I've seen "Little Drummer Boy." Last year, I was listening to NPR, and people were talking about their least favorite Christmas songs. I expected "Two front teeth" or "Mommy Kissing Santa" or "Grandma Got Run over..." to be blasted. No, to my surprise, people unloaded their hate (and it really was hate) on "Little Drummer Boy." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

[moira finnie]

It has been ages since I've seen "Little Drummer Boy." Last year, I was listening to NPR, and people were talking about their least favorite Christmas songs. I expected "Two front teeth" or "Mommy Kissing Santa" or "Grandma Got Run over..." to be blasted. No, to my surprise, people unloaded their hate (and it really was hate) on "Little Drummer Boy." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I could believe it! There's something relentless about the beat of the tune of "The Little Drummer Boy", and the solemnity with which it is sung is grating, on top of which every public place from the mall to the liquor store has it playing during the holidays nonstop. The only thing worse is when "O, Holy Night" is sung off-key or "over-sung" by someone like Celine Dion. I'm a 'Bah, Humbug' sort when it comes to overkill with that or any Holiday song, though I do love Christmas music around the actual time of the feast.

I tried to watch the movie White Christmas(1951) on the Family Channel the other night, and got that old creepy feeling that this movie invariably gives me--but then, Danny Kaye is difficult for me at any time. Loved Mary Wickes every blessed time she showed up on screen. Wish I could rewrite the movie from her POV.

I just noticed that Prancer with Sam Elliot as the grieving father of a little girl who shelters a reindeer is being shown on the Family Channel tonight at 9. Does anyone like this dark little Christmas movie?

Mike, your mention of a Muppet show with Art Carney reminded me of that great old Twilight Zone episode with Art as a drunken Santa who finds himself in possession of a magic sack on Christmas Eve. Shot on videotape in one set, it's a tour de force for Carney and quite touching without tugging on the heartstrings too much.


Speaking of "lost" Christmas specials, has anyone ever seen Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas? It was a Jim Henson production on Canadian tv in the '70s and I just love it. Fortunately it is on dvd. Emmet is a poor otter who would like to find something to give his Mama on the holiday. It's "cute" in the best sense of the word, and, as you can see, the puppets are wonderfully detailed and highly expressive on a shoestring budget.

[movieman1957]

Mike:

"A Wish For Wings That Work" is now on DVD. ($12.99 Amazon) I had taped the 1992 broadcast and still have it. However, in my haste to get Sniffles the Mouse on a tape of Christmas shows I clipped off the last 30 seconds or so.

I still love reading my Bloom County books. Remember penguin lust?

I even have the second Peanuts special from the same year.

[MikeBSG]

I think my favorite version of "A Christmas Carol" is the one TNT did starring Patrick Stewart several years ago.

What I love about it is the actor who plays Mr. Topper, a middle-aged roue at nephew Fred's Christmas party. He is in the Dickens original, but he is usually dropped from most films. Anyway, he spends nearly all his screen time trying to look down the cleavage of one of the party guests, and he is just hilarious.

As for "Little Drummer Boy," that song just runs off my back. I don't especially like it, but it doesn't make me grind my teeth either. I was just so surprised when all these people started ranting against it.

Another Christmas film I like, but I might be the only one who does is "Scrooged." I thought it was a fun updating of "Christmas Carol."

And, since today is Joe Dante's birthday, I suppose I should mention that both "Gremlins" and "Gremlins II" are Christmas movies of a sort. "Gremlins" is fun, even if the movie doesn't know how much of a horror film it wants to be. "Gremlins II" is all-out comedy and spoofs much of what is flawed in the original film.

[melwalton]

Hi, John.
I'm with you 100 % about Mr. Magoo's 'Christmas Carol', It was wonderful! Beautifully done. ... mel

[jdb1]

I liked Patrick Stewart's Scrooge, too. I think it was a very Dickensian portrayal, and made me feel the flintiness and isolation of the character more than many of the other portrayals had.

Stewart used to come to Broadway every year for a few years to do a reading of A Christmas Carol, playing all the parts. Unfortunately, I never got to see it, but a friend of mine did, and said that Stewart was truly wonderful.

I generally avoid most of the Christmas broadcasts, aside from the inevitable A Christmas Story, which seems to run continually on every channel from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day these days. I like it more because I loved Jean Shepherd than because I love the movie (well, I do like the movie), and I miss the sound of Shep's voice on the air.

I'm afraid I have to part company with those of you who like the Peanuts Christmas thing. I simply can't stand Peanuts (except for Snoopy) - those shows, and the comic strips, on any subject, leave me stone cold. I don't find them funny and I don't find them cute. Everything about them seems calculated, overly "precious," and phonily, heavy-handedly, forcedly winsome. The animations all seem to me to be direct steals from the cartoons of the Hubleys (remember? Marky Maypo?), but not nearly as entertaining. Feh. And that goshawful piano - the same three or four notes over and over and over . . . . .

I'll take Mr. Magoo any day.

[MikeBSG]

"A Christmas Story" is the only movie I've ever gotten physically close to. They filmed the department store and parade scenes in downtown Cleveland in December 1982. The decorations you see in the movie were those up in Higbee's (a big department store) that year.

They filmed some of the neighborhood scenes in a house in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland. Apparently, fans of the movie go to the house. The guy who owns it now has made it something of a museum, it seems to the anger of some of the neighbors.

I never saw any of the movie being filmed. I was too tired to go and see them film the parade. It was pretty cold that night. But I remember the old-style decorations they hung on the buildings.