I was going to put this on the MPSIMS Board, but, since I need serious replies, it’s posted here. The TV station I work for is doing a poll for the 5 best and 5 worst Christmas movies ever. I invite the TM to partake:
First here are a couple thought starters:
A Christmas Story; A Christmas Carol (Pick a version from Alistar Sim to the Muppets); JIngle All The Way; Miracle on 34th Street; Scrooged; Christmas Vacation, White Christmas…(Need I go on?)
Secondly: If there is a “Christmas episode” of a TV show you loved/hated, feel free to add it to your list. (Short critiques also welcome)
Thirdly: Names of contributors will not be used in any way.
And finally: If it’s past 5pm Eastern on Thursday, December 16th, don’t bother. The voting will be closed. The TM is just one slice of society partaking in the census. Thanking you in advance:
The Drollman
With God as my witness, I thought turkey’s could fly.
[list][li]It’s a Wonderful Life[/li][li]A Christmas Story[/li][li]The Santa Clause[/li][li]How the Grinch Stole Christmas[/li]Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
As an atheist who hasn’t celebrated Christmas for 32 years, my favourite Christmas shows are:
The night-time test pattern
Snow on empty channels
The TV with the power off
However, before you call me all kinds of names (“heartless”, “spoil-sport”, “Scrooge”, “doody-head” etc.), I should mention that I was brought up (here in Canada) to listen to the “Queen’s Message” every year, and even though I haven’t lived at home since 1974, I try not to miss it.
It’s not that she has anything earth-shattering to say, but somehow I find her yearly message comforting. And no, I’m not a monarchist. I just admire her quiet dignity.
Are you educated, erudite and maybe a bit eccentric?
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Good:
-Miracle on 34th Street (original)
-Santa Claus is Coming to Town
-The Year Without a Santa Claus
-first part of Santa Claus: the Movie
-the parts of “A Christmas Story” that I have seen (I always end up missing the beginning or the end, or big chunks of the middle)
-The Christmas episode of Family Ties is the only “A Christmas Carol” ripoff I can stand, so if they have to show one of those, use that one.
-Also, the Touched By An Angel Christmas episode, but that’s entirely due to the guest star so it doesn’t really count…
Bad:
-It’s A Wonderful Life
-last part of Santa Claus: the Movie
-the new Frosty the Snowman with (I think) John Goodman as Frosty’s voice
-Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July
Very bad:
-I second the Christmas Carol/Wonderful Life ripoff Christmas episodes of TV shows.
-Also, any Christmas episode of a TV show in which an adult (generally cynical bah-humbug type) mysteriously gets the toy that he/she wanted so badly that he/she stopped believing in Santa Claus when it wasn’t received.
The worst hasn’t been mentioned yet. I can’t recall the exact title, but it came out in the '60s. It was something like, “Santa Claus Saves The Martians.” I think MST3000 did an episode on it.
“A Very Bundy Christmas” (Married With Children) and The Simpsons Christmas where they got their dog, Santa’s Litttle Helper are my two favorites. Also anything with the Muppets.
I hate “Frosty the Snowman” and anything connected with it. I hate the remade version of “Christmas in Connecticut” with Dyan Cannon.
The Mr. Magoo version of “The Christmas Carol” (Tiny Tim chimes in with “with razzleberry dressing” every now and then).
For those under 30, who have no clue what I’m talking about, Jim Backus (Thirstan Howell III on Gilligan’s Island) did the voice in a cartoon series called Mr. Magoo. The Mr. Magoo character then plays Ebeneezer in a particularly light-hearted not-too-scary for kids adaptation of this classic. Get thee to a video store, Amazon, or B&N, and see this!
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Oops, sorry VegForLife, you got there first.
I got it wrong too actual title Santa Claus conquers the Martians (1964) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0058548
starring Pia Zadora!!
The Mother of all Christmas Specials: Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. (NB: The title is a play on the original radio script of It’s a Wonderful Life entitled, Merry Christmas, George Bailey. The South Park version is Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson.)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (A Tim Burton movie.)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
This year’s televised Nutcracker Suite
Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer
As for the bad, well, anything which secularizes the religious aspect of the holiday, such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town – which purports to explain the origin of Santa with no mention of Saint Nicholas!!
And that’s all I could think of, so, I did a search of upcoming Christmas shows to jog my memory a bit further. I was surprised over how many I’ve never seen. I was even more surprised to see how awful they sounded. Here’s the worst of the bunch:
From the files of ripping off Dickens, or, It ain’t great literature unless it’s performed by Bamm-Bamm:
And ripping off Capra, or, After seeing these, you’d wish you’d never been born:
And let’s not forget to rip of Groundhog Day
And what is Christmas without conspicuous consumption and excess? or, Are you sure this is about the lowly birth of a child in swaddling clothes
And then there’s the very special specials where our hero meets Santa, or, It ain’t Christmas unless I save it!
We’ve gotta have a Christmas show…
And the shows that seem to just complicate the myths, or, Ummm… what’s your point?
Then there’s the Christmas special for the statement of the obvious, or, A-duh
But fear not, I bring you tidings of great joy: There may be a couple of specials worth watching:
Simple Gifts (a collection of animated shorts by various artists. Came from the Pittsburgh PBS station, ran just a few years around 1980-82, then disappeared. Its last showing was one of the first things I ever taped on VCR, and I’m glad I did.)
A Charlie Brown Christmas
WKRP Christmas Episode
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Burl Ives)
And I know I’m over my limit, but there was one really good animated version of A Christmas Carol from the early '70s, very dark and impressionistic, had the hearse riding up the staircase and everything.
WORST:
It’s A Wonderful Life
any and all remakes of Miracle on 34th Street
an animated version of A Christmas Carol from the early '70s starring Walter Matthau as Scrooge – was it called “The Stingiest Man In Town”?
an animated version of the Nutcracker from the Soviet Union, circa mid-'70s, which rewrote the story as a class sturggle, with the noble peasants and workers overthrowing the oppressive upper classes.
any and all Rakin-Bass cartoons
And, again, over my limit, but I have a special loathing for MGM’s bastardized “Christmas Carol” (b/w, 1930s)
The best TV Christmas show is “Married With Children”, with Sam Kinison as the angel, who shows Al how much better off his family would be without him, and so Al decides to live just to spite the rest of them. It is the best parody of “It’s a Wonderful Life” (herinafter “IAWL”) I’ve ever seen. The Bundy version first aired back when IAWL’s copyright had lapsed and so was IAWL was in the public domain and was being broadcast by every station 3-4 time a day.
