There have been a ton of tv shows that have done their own version of It’s a Wonderful Life, ranging from Married With Children to The OC. I have a question, though: in these episodes, do you think the characters are supposed to be aware of the existence of the classic film?
For fun, maybe we could list episodes where people think the characters are/are not aware of that George Bailey went through the same thing.
Just reading the title the first thing that came to mind was the MWC episode, which is one of the greatest Christmas specials of all time if not number one.
To answer the OP I don’t think Al was aware of the original.
WKRP in Cincinatti. There was no implication that the Big Guy thought he was living the movie.
Night Court did a riff on it years back, though I don’t think it was a Christmas episode (they were simply showing what would have happened had Harry not been born).
SNL has done a couple over the years. My favorite was the “lost ending”: shown in black and white, the skit was a supposed rejected alternate ending, wherein Uncle Billy remembered that he gave the money in the paper to Mr. Potter, and George Bailey and the rest went to Potter’s office and beat the crap out of him. Dana Carvey played George, Jon Lovitz played Potter, and Phil Hartman played Uncle Billy.
Johnny Bravo had an episode where Johnny wished he was never born and when the angel showed him what everything would be like it turns out the world was a much better place and his family/friends were way happier without him.
That skit was incredible! One of SNL’s best.
A week before that aired, my brother & I were watching IAWL & he asked me if I thought Uncle Billy ever did remember what happened to the money. That next Saturday, we saw it!
Not a TV show, but Don Rosa did a very good Donald Duck comic called “The Duck Who Never Was”, which was pretty much It´s a Wonderful Life with ducks.
Beavis and Butthead had one where an angel tried to get Butthead to realize that the world would have been better if he had never been born. Stewart ended up being really bossy and Beavis was his best friend. They were both volunteering at a homeless shelter on Christmas Eve.
So, can anyone think of an example where the character in question is aware of It’s a Wonderful Life? I’m beginning to think the default is that they are not.
The best part of it is how after Lovitz as Potter falls behind the desk, the cast drags him out to continue beating on him and it’s obviously a doll.
FWIW, Michael J. Fox hosted a special on movies with a time-travel or alternate history theme (maybe it was just the BttF movies, but they referred to others). I’m sure they referenced IaWL because I remember the shot of George slipping and sliding in the snow in the graveyard when he sees his brother’s gravestone.
Not in any of the ones I’ve seen, sorry.