For all the "A Charlie Brown Christmas"es and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"s on TV, there are just as many Christmas specials that are barely remembered. What’s your personal favorite that few people have seen?
Mine has to be the 1991 Opus & Bill special “A Wish For Wings That Work.” It aired only once despite being hilarious. It’s survived in my family thanks to a cousin who happened to tape it and a VHS release that I happened to find on Amazon.
Rumor has it Berkeley Breathed hated it, which is why it only aired once and isn’t in print now. It’s great, though, featuring uncredited cameos by Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman (it was produced by Amblin Entertainment.)
“J.T.” (of which I own a copy)
“The Littlest Angel,” with Johnny Whitaker.
And one that I’ve never seen, but would like to: A Carol for Another Christmas, Dickens’ tale as retooled by Rod Serling. I believe the Museum of TV and Radio (or whatever it’s called) in NYC and LA have copies of it, and I’ve always said that the next time I’m in one of those two cities, I’d like to arrange a viewing of it.
Oh, and another forgotten favorite: An Ed Sullivan/Muppets special “The Great Santa Claus Switch,” with Art Carney.
Not sure that it qualifies as “obscure”, but since to my great consternation it’s not available on DVD, I submit the Muppet special The Christmas Toy. It’s one of my favorites, and I would love to buy it for my nieces, but they don’t have a VHS.
My absolute favorite Christmas special of all time is “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” which was shown on PBS every Christmas for a very long time - but apparently very few people but me were watching it.
I got a VHS copy of it a few years ago and I still watch it every Christmas. There are some awesome songs, hilarious bits (Cookie Monster trying to write to Santa is the best) and touching moments (Bert & Ernie exchange gifts a la “Gift of the Magi”).
I’m not sure how obscure it is exactly but no one I know remembers watching it (came out in 1978).
Also, I have a stash of torrented Christmas cartoons like “Fat Albert’s Christmas” and “Cabbage Patch Kids Christmas” and some others. My brother and I watched them last year and decided that all kids Christmas cartoon specials are seriously depressing - Christmas gets cancelled, kids get lost, Santa gets sick. Ugh.
It seems to have had a resurgence of interest recently, but for the longest time, my favorite was the terribly sad Jack Frost, which was impossible to find and never, ever repeated.
A long time ago I saw a movie at the theaters called All I Want For Christmas. It probably shows up on cable during the holidays, but I’ve never seen it since it was first released. Anyways, it was a cute and heartfelt (though probably misguided) story about kids trying to get their parents (who are separated) back together, by coming up with some improbable plan that I can’t fully remember now.
But the most interesting thing about it is the cast, which includes Lauren Bacall as the grandmother and Leslie Nielson as Santa Claus. Jamey Sheridan is Dad, and Harley Jane Kozak (whom I had the hots for in Parenthood, Arachnophobia, and Necessary Roughness) is Mom. Then kids are played by then-unknowns Ethan Embry and Thora Birch. Kevin Nealon and Andrea Martin are featured in supporting roles.
So your mileage may vary wildly on this one, but it could be worth a watch.
If you’re talking about the Jack Frost that’s narrated by Buddy Hacket (as a groundhog) and features a wonderfully daft villain with a iron ventriliquist’s dummy, I just saw that on ABC Family yesterday morning while I was channel surfing. Maybe they’ll repeat it again later this month.
Incidentally, that wasn’t really a Christmas special since the events mainly center around Groundhog Day.
Yeah, I saw (and DVR’d) it on the ABC Family Schedule, too, plus I remember seeing it rerun in the past couple of Christmases, though before that, it hadn’t been since I was a kid. Haven’t actually watched it yet, but that’s what that week off is for.
IIRC, there was a Star Wars Christmas Special (not to be confused with the Star Wars Holiday Special) that was never aired, about a pair of Rebel soldiers stuck on Hoth after the Rebels evacuated Echo Base, and their attempts to protect a Wampa cub from the Imperials. This is where the name “Darth Tyranus” (Count Dooku’s not-often-used Sith name) comes from, with the same guy playing a Sith lord in both Episode II-III and the Christmas Special, with the name being recycled.
On that note, the Star Wars Holiday Special probably counts as reasonably obscure.
I had the book too, but it’s not as good as the special. It’s missing all the humor.
That Sesame Street special had an LP with some of the same material, and is another holiday tradition (I managed to find it in a non-vinyl format last month, so I have it on CD now.)
Woah, my family loved this one! We’ve had it on tape since it first aired—complete with all the Kraft commercials. I even watched the spinoff series in the early 90s, while it lasted.
(If it’s of any help, I hear a number of older VHS releases record onto DVD just fine—not that I know anything about that, myself)
Heh. Another family favorite, since I was a kid. My mom says that when my sister and me sang christmas songs as kids, they always sounded like the Motown versions, thanks to this special.
As for myself—anyone else ever catch The Forgotten Toys, a couple of years back? It’s kind of like The Christmas Toy—if it had been written by Dostoyevsky. Good, though. Touching. I like.
