Holiday TV Specials (Re-Blog from 11-29-2007)

Remember when I used to be one of the TV bloggers for the Times Union (Albany, NY)?

You do? Thanks.

You don't? Read these when you get some time.

To celebrate the inevitable arrival of Christmas as well as my return to this blogging platform from another trendier yet crappier platform, here's a professional copy and paste of my Holiday Specials blog from November 29, 2007 which is actually a copy and paste from my personal blog back in 2006. In other words, I couldn't come up with something new to blog about. But tomorrow! Just wait until tomorrow...

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A big part of the holiday season has always involved me, a TV, and some holiday specials. This year wasn’t any different, as I tried to catch at least a few moments of the classics. Here’s a list of what I was able to see:

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas – Probably my favorite of them all. I remember watching it with my Pop when I was a wee lad. When it ended I started to cry, because it was over and I wouldn’t see it again until next Christmas (this was the early 1970’s – no dvds, vcrs, dvrs, ipods etc.) So if anyone claimed to have seen Rudolph “like a hundred times” before 1980 or so, you could call them a liar, because that would have been impossible. Unless they were named Rankin or Bass – then I could see that as being plausible. Anyway, I asked my dad to see if they would play it again, so he opened the window (28th floor of a 33 story apt. building) and yelled out, “Hey! Play Charlie Brown again!” or something like that. And I was so happy, because I thought that they may be able to hear him and they might just air it over again. Or maybe I was just happy that Pop was making the effort to have them play it again. Now this happened when I was around 4 years old, so this next part may not be accurate, but I think I remember someone yelling, “Shut the **** up!” after Pop yelled out the window. OK – I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen, but it makes for a better story. OK, so I watched this again this past year. It’s just as good as it was back in the day.

2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Watched it. Kind of got distracted a few times. Rudolph’s voice is pretty annoying. Burl Ives really looked like a snowman. Wendi and I saw a woman at Target a few nights later that looked like the Bumble.

3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – I saw the first 10 minutes, and then we decided to watch an episode of House. This one was okay, but it was kind of like Rudolph’s slow cousin. I dunno… Some the the songs are pretty good. Mickey Rooney’s voice is almost as annoying as Rudolph’s. Have you ever seen an old Mickey Rooney movie? What a punk. There was one where he was a high school football star heading to Notre Dame. I had to turn that off. An embarrassment to all decent football players out there. The leading lady in this show – Miss Jessica – is pretty hot for a puppet.

4. Year Without a Santa Claus – This is a sad, sad piece of work that over the years has ridden the coattails of the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song. Christmas stories should be silly, not stupid. Not sure if I’ve ever even seen the end of this one. Once the song was over – click! I didn’t make an effort to find this one this year.

5. Christmas Vacation – This is one I bought for my VCR 10 years ago and watched it way too many times. I saw about 20 mixed mintues of it this year. I really like the squirrel scene. There’s a guy who lives down the street from us with a Winnebago in his driveway. I’m waiting for the day when he’s outside with a can of beer in one hand and a hose in the other, draining the ‘Bago’s septic, announcing that the, “S**tter’s full.” I’ll let you know if that ever happens.

6. It’s a Wonderful Life – Wendi and I recorded this and watched it the other night. She’s only seen a few minutes here and there. I really like this movie. George Baily is a really good guy. Then his idiot uncle loses $8000. In today’s money that’s probably over $200-grand (based on the part of the movie where they claim one could buy a decent house in Bedford Falls for $5000). George should have beaten the crap out of Uncle Billy. Saturday Night Live has a great skit where they show “the lost ending” to It’s a Wonderful Life. Uncle Billy remembers that he accidently gave the envelope with the $8000 to Potter, so they all head over there and kick Potter’s ass. See if you can find that on nbc.com or youtube.com. Classic.

7. A Christmas Story – Watched this, plus a bunch of minutes here and there this year. I went to see this when it first came to the theater with my uncle and aunt. They laughed their asses off. I kind of laughed, but didn’t get most of the humor. I can definitely appreciate it now. Great scene: when Ralphie is beating the piss out of Scott Farkus, listen closely to the kids watching the fight. Toward the end they start yelling, “Kill him! Kill him!” Kids… they say the darndest things!

8. Miracle on 34th Street – I saw a bit of this one this year, but I was saving it to watch with Wendi, who hasn’t seen it. Since we did It’s a Wonderful Life this year, we’ll do that one next year. Did you know that it’s based on a true story? It’s not. I made that up.

9. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol – They sliced the crap out of this one, so it fits neatly into a one-hour time slot, including commercials. I recommend seeing it if you haven’t – it’s really entertaining. Very good songs. The highlight is the Razzleberry Dressing tune.

10. Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey – Never heard of this? I’m not surprised. My sister and I loved this when we were kids, and I was psyched to see a few minutes of it this year. It’s about a donkey with long ears who carries Mary into town so she can have the baby Jesus. Done in the same puppet fashion as Rudolph and those others, but it’s got a really dirty and grainy quality to it. Like they filmed it and then thought it was crap and kicked it through the street, but then they decided to keep it and tried to wipe it off.

The only other one I remember watching this year was the Christmas episode of Hey Arnold! – a Nickelodeon cartoon. Arnold finds out that a Vietnamese guy who lives in his grandfather’s boarding house had to give away his daughter during the war, so Arnold attempts to find her as a holiday gift to this fella. In the end it looks like he fails, but of course father and daughter are reunited and all is happy and bright and I get all teary-eyed. Catch that one if you can.

Oh, and then there are all of the South Park Christmas episodes as well. Required viewing. Definitely. And seriously, how can you go wrong with Christmas poo?