Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE)

Cafe Society
5065

Wait, it gets worse (or is it better?): there were two separate versions of The Phantom of the Open Hearth, the second one made only two years after the first, in 1978! Both featured the same actors in the role of Mom and Flick, who also played those roles in the 1982 and 1985 films you listed (episodes of American Playhouse on PBS), and all four of them get pretty good ratings on IMDb, between 8.0 and 8.8. That’s higher than A Christmas Story’s 7.9!

Sadly, it seems most of the films before ACS are no longer available, and most of the ones after it are crap. Although the newest one stars and was co-written by Peter Billingsley, Ralphie from ACS, and reunites most of the kid stars in that film, from the trailer it, too, looks pretty bad.

The common element is, of course, Jean Shepherd, whose short stories are the basis for all of the films, and who wrote and narrated most of the ones made before his death in 1999.

Shepherd was a truly remarkable writer, broadcaster, and storyteller, who had a daily radio show on WOR in New York City for more than 20 years. The shows, some of which ran two hours, featured music, poetry, and his stories, anecdotes, and rants. WITH NO SCRIPTS! Imagine talking for one or two hours, five days or nights a week, without a script! Shepherd did it for decades.

A few hundred of his shows have been preserved and are available at various Old Time Radio (OTR) sites, and if you listen long enough, you’ll hear many of the stories that form the basis for the movies in your list.

Here’s a terrific examples (only four minutes) of what Shep called “Hurling Invective.” Remember the scene in Network where Howard Beale tells his viewers to go to the window and shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”? That was Shep’s invention, except with radio, and he was the one doing the shouting. He started doing it in the 1950s.

Click on #15, Hurling Invective. (Discourse wouldn’t let me link straight to the MP3.)

5066

After watching Christmas Story I found one of Jean Shepherd’s short story collections. His story about his expierience as a Mess Hall server was hilarious.

5067

Want your mind blown even more?

Jean Shepherd - “The Phantom of the Open Hearth” - Leg Lamp

I don’t know how, until I found it a few minutes ago, I had never heard of the existence of this scene.

5068

I heard an old song on the radio today and thought of this thread. Did you guys know what “Kyrie Eleison” meant at the time that Mister Mister song came out? I never did but figured it was just gibberish like “Sussudio” or something. It didn’t take me the last 37 years to figure it out, but I just thought I’d ask.

5069

" Lord, have mercy" . I knew it when the song came out because I 'm Roman Catholic

5070

Yes, and I’m not Catholic.

As Tom Lehrer once sang:

Do whatever steps you want if
You have cleared them with the pontiff
Everybody say his own
Kyrie eleison
Doin’ the Vatican Rag.

5071

Get the rest of them. Shepherd was a National Treasure.

It’s sad that his Army/GI Bill stories have never been collected.

5072

Yes, because even though I’m not Catholic I had to study the Ordinary of the RC Mass as part of my degree program.

Note that despite being part of the Latin Rite, “Kyrie eleison” is actually Greek. Another fun fact for you.

5073

Not immediately, but I found out relatively quickly. I think that Casey Kasem, of all people, explained it during an episode of “American Top 40.”

5074

I believe Jean Shepherd also has a cameo in A Christmas Story. When Ralphie gets in line to see Santa at the department store, a man behind him gets his attention (“Little boy. Little boy. Hey, kid!”) and directs him to the real end of the line. I think that’s Shepherd.

5075

Yup, that’s him. And he’s the narrator, of course.

5076

I knew he was the narrator, so I’d heard his voice; and after seeing the movie a few times I saw Shepherd’s name in the credits, but didn’t know what part he played. I don’t how much longer it took me to figure out who he was, but once I recognized the voice I wondered how I’d ever missed it. It was an obvious thing that I realized after the millionth time.

5077

I see. I had seen him on TV in the 1970s and '80s, so I spotted him the first time I saw the film. If you had no idea what he looked like, that was a good catch.

5078

Is A Christmas Story the one about the kid who wants a BB gun? If so, I’ve heard of but obviously not seen it. Never heard of the others. (Now that I have, should I be impressed?)


I had to look up kyrie when I first heard the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack.

5079

Yes, that’s the one.

I’m not sure I’d call it a “series of movies”, though, just a bunch of movies based on the same source material.

5080

They’re all movies about Ralphie Parker and his family so I think it’s fair to call them a series.

I think most people would agree that Doctor No and No Time to Die are part of the same series even if they have no common actors and were made decades apart by different studios.

5081

I remember seeing them as part of PBS’s old American Playhouse. They had so many good plays. Loved that anthology.

Yeah, we learned that in first or second grade. I’m an old, so the mass was still in Latin then.

5082

I didn’t realize that the song “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” is by Peter, Paul and Mary, not by The Mamas and the Papas, for a long time. In the song, they are mocking various rock groups of the time, including The Mamas and the Papas, The Beatles, and Donovan. They had talked before in interviews about they weren’t happy about the fact that rock music had become so much more popular than folk music. Gradually, though, they got used to the fact that their music was now referred to as “folk rock” and was thought of as a combination of folk and rock.

5083

Love it!

5084

I always thought Mrs. Chris Guest’s name was Jamie Leigh Curtis – Leigh as in Janet, her mother. Nope, it’s Lee.