In all the years The Simpsons have been on TV, you’d think by now there would have been ‘A Christmas Carol’ special. Maybe the producers wnt to avoid that cliche? Maybe it’s not in the public domain, like I seem to think it is, and they don’t want to spend the money? Either way, i think they could have done a good job, if it was done in The Simpsons peak of seasons 4-9. If it did exist, here are my cast choices:
Scrooge: Mr. Burns (Duh)
Marley: Smithers
Bob Cratchet: Homer
Tiny Tim: Bart
Ghost of Christmas Past: This is usually a chick, right? If so, then Maude (hey, she’s already dead!..although she wouldn’t be at the time of when I think it should have been made.)
Ghost of Christmas Present: Is this the large one? If so, then Barney. Possibly Comic Book Guy.
Ghost of Christmas Future: Moe. Maybe sideshow Mel, just for humor’s sake.
I really don’t know the other characters. Isn’t there a nephew who is of some importance? He has a party? In that case, make the present ghost CBG, nad this is Barney, since he’s quite the partier.
It’s been done kinda to death, hasn’t it? Besides, it’s not like they hesitate to parody individual scenes:
Burns [watching Bart smashing windows]: Heh heh, look, Smithers – a creature of pure malevolence. He’s the perfect one to suckle at my proverbial teat. [opens window] You there, boy! What day is this?
Boy: [cockney accent] Today? Sir, why, it’s Christmas Day!
Burns: I was talking to him. You! What day is this?
Bart: Huh?
Burns: I’ll tell you what day this is: today is the day you become my heir! [Bart throws a rock which hits Smithers in the head] Ooh, I like him a lot.
Comic Book Guy has to be the fence that the bedchamber thieves bring Mr. Scrooge’s personal belongings to.
“Hmmm. I see you pilfered the old man’s back issues of The Economist. Yhey are only in moderately acceptable condition, and I’ll have to sell them to people who wish to actually read them. They have no value as collectibles. Sixpence for the lot.”
Sounds like a pretty decent idea… SNPP doesn’t have any info about the Christmas episode this year if there is one. Next season’s is going to be a three-parter, so unless they just do one Christmas Carol-takeoff segment, I guess they won’t do it then either.
It is in the public domain, and the point of public domain is that it’s free. It wouldn’t cost them anything.
Speaking of Matt Groening and An Xmas Carol, I’ve always been partial to Tinny Tim - the robot that was inexplicably built with a cruth instead of a right arm, and only half of a right leg :D.
Now that I think about it, they sort of did it five years ago: the ending of “Grift of the Magi” (the 1999 episode featuring Gary Coleman and the Furby-esque Funzo toy). The narrator tells us that Mr. Burns had been visited by three spirits the night before, and agreed to fund Springfield elementary with some pocket change. I think he may have been dressed similar to the way Scrooge was at the end of A Christmas Carol when he appears as the Simpsons’ home. When thanked, he says “Humbug.” Moe (who’s had an It’s a Wonderful Life-esque experience) brings a goose to the family’s house instead of committing suicide, and they’re all going to have a nice holiday dinner together, including Gary Coleman, who ends the episode by saying, “Whatchu talkin’ 'bout, everyone.”
An episode-long spoof of the book would be fun too, but I don’t know if they’d cover that ground twice.
Marge: Hmmm. Should the Simpsons get a horse?
Comic Book Guy: Excuse me, I believe this family already had a horse, and the expense forced Homer to work at the Kwik-E-Mart, with hilarious consequences.
Homer: [pause] Anybody care what this guy thinks?
Crowd: No!
In the Christmas episode where Homer buys an Astrolabe, he falls asleep on the couch watching a Mr Macgrew version of The Christmas Carol, and dreams the ghost of Christmas future tells him he’s unloved by all (or, as Homer first sees it “Unloved by Al? AAAAGH!”). The next day he tells the family of the dream and how he’s now going to change his ways, and they point out that “That old story’s been done to death”. Bart even flicks through the channels to show an Erkel version and a Star Trek version - Scottie: “He’s showing me my future, Cap’n. God, I’m so FAT!”
I’m guessing from that they feel the story’s been rehashed too many times already.
