Pass the plum pudding: Christmas on the tube

[thatcrazycajun]

As we seamlessly segue out of one turkey-based holiday season into another: Over onfilkertom's page, a discussion of the various Rankin/Bass animated Christmas specials so dear to so many of our never-quite-grown-up hearts (my fave is, always and ever, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) led me to thinking about some of my other favorite TV takes on the Yuletide season. (An excellent fan page on the R/B oeuvre, by the author of the most comprehensive books on the subject, lives here.)

I have to choose twice, based on cartoon and live-action genres. In the former, the all-time champ for my money is A Charlie Brown Christmas, 41 years young this December 9th. (ABC, having taken over the Peanuts TV franchise from its longtime home at CBS, will re-air it tomorrow night.) Back in 1965, the Eye Network's suits recoiled in horror at the show's lack of a canned laugh track, its blatantly religious message and its equally blatant assault on the very commercialism that paid their hefty salaries. They feared that Coca-Cola, the show's chief sponsor, would pull their ads from CBS altogether, that viewers would tune out in droves, that some affiliate stations might even refuse to carry the thing. The overnight ratings and the deluge of thank-you letters to CBS and Coke proved them all most happily wrong; so did the Emmy and Peabody Awards it received months later. And the show still holds together even today, from Vince Guaraldi's then-unheard-of-for-kidvid jazz score to the dead-on voicework by real kids, right up to that powerful, quiet moment when the gang's resident philosopher, Linus, socks the real meaning of Christmas home to his pals (and all of us) with a few lines from the Gospel of St. Luke.

For live-action, I just gotta go with the lavish 1984 Hallmark Hall of Fame/BBC co-production of A Christmas Carol, replete with star turns by both American and British actors topped by the late George C. Scott in the lead as Charles Dickens' most famous character, Ebenezer Scrooge. (Watch for Doctor Who's Mark "Turlough" Strickson as young Scrooge in the Christmas Past sequence and Edward "The Equalizer" Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas Present—not to mention SF-genre stalwart David Warner as the long-suffering Bob Cratchit, along with Susannah York, Angela Pleasance, Michael "Alfred" Gough (also a Who vet) and Roger Rees.) But a close second has to be Richard "Superman" Donner's modern-dress take on the same story, Scrooged, with another all-star cast headed up by Bill Murray as the Scrooge-surrogate, New York TV exec Frank Cross, and including Carol Kane, Bobcat Goldthwait, the late John Houseman, David Johansen (AKA Buster Poindexter), Karen Allen, Robert Mitchum and Mary Lou Retton. Frank's speech toward the end about why he's no longer a schmuck about Christmas is worth the viewing time all by itself.

So...what are your favorite reasons to dish up the eggnog and curl up in front of the tube the next few weeks? Tell me about 'em.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Love love love the Animated Grinch. And, while I adore the G.C. Scott Carol, my favorite is the musical Scrooge. Such performances, such songs. There is, in fact, a terrifying moment at the very end of that, while everyone is happy and dancing in the street and all that good stuff, and Albert Finney as Scrooge has gone down the lonely alleyway back to his flat, when I am always convinced that, having made his peace and restitution with humanity, he's gonna keel over and die on the spot. Thankfully, he never does.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you about the cartoon GRINCH; that cinematic abortion of a live-action big-screen remake they did a few years ago, Jim Carrey or no Jim Carrey, is a prime example of a remake that didn't need to be done because the makers of the original got it absolutely right the first time. And I keep meaning to sit down and watch SCROOGE sometime real soon. Maybe this season...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I came out of the live-action Grinch sobbing like a child, and not in a good way. Both Anne and Leslie had to hold me down, I was so angry and disgusted and heartsick. I ended up writing a vicious review on my web site (because I did movie reviews at TSO back then), and it managed to expiate almost all of the vitriol in one swell foop. Ohhh, the disdain I have for that movie, and I'm glad it's only disdain now because for a while there it was gut-burning hatred.

There Are Only Two Christmas Movies for Me

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

1)"A Christmas Story"
2)"Gremlins" (nothing thrills me and says "Christmas" like Frances Lee McCain stalking up the stairs to the dulcet tones of "Do You Hear What I Hear?")

[filkferengi]

Like you, my spouse claims "Rudolph."

I'm kind of a connoisseur of the various versions of "A Christmas Carol." Although the allround best is probably Alastair Sims, each one has its own strengths. "Scrooge" [literally] rocks, & George C. Scott [!], not to mention Patrick Stewart [!]. I even enjoy the Cicely Tyson, Susan Lucci, and Henry Winkler versions. Of course, each one has its weaknesses, too, from the Tiny Tim who isn't, to the one with the filed, pointy teeth looking like he's the leader of the Cannibal Kids. Still, wit, wordplay, and redemption--now, *that*'s a Christmas story!

[Of course, the Grail of all Christmas stories is the 1/2 hour cartoon of "The Tiny Tree", if only because I haven't been able to find it *any*where for at least 15 years.]