Welcome one and all to a Ho-Ho-Holiday special edition of TV or Not TV!
This week here at TV or Not TV we’re kicking off what I hope becomes an annual tradition. This week we will be looking specifically at all of the Holiday TV offerings that are avaialble to you, the loyal television viewer.
I’m sure each and every one of you reading this may have a certain TV special or movie that resides in your mind as the one that you identify with the holiday season. Maybe it is something you look forward to when it comes on the tube, maybe it is the movie you put on in order to get into the holiday spirit, maybe it is something you like to put on while you are making your Thanksgiving feast or decorating your tree. Whatever the TV special or movie is I’m sure, if you are like me, it is the one thing that you set time aside for to take your annual viewing in.
For me these memories currently span close to four decades and each new gem for me has a place on my holiday shelf as I enjoy them all. Some of the movies you may not even think of as holiday films (the original Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are great examples) but during this time of year I love them all. I don’t need ABC Family’s 25 Days of to get me through the season because of how much is out there.
One of the movies that I always enjoy this time of year is the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life. If you look at this film, as a whole, it is as much of a holiday film as the aforementioned Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are but because the films climax occurs on the eve of Christmas it has been widely adopted as one of the holiday staples. A copyright misunderstanding during the 1980’s also lead to the movie being played on numerous channels and numerous days during the holiday season, so much so that you could sometimes find it on more than one channel at the exact same time.
Whether you think of It’s a Wonderful Life as a holiday classic or a great american film doesn’t matter. The film represents a lot of things that we can all appreciate. The movie tells us a story of a simple man, George Bailey. George has big dreams at the beginning of the film, dreams of travel before college to become an architect or engineer and designing big buildings or bridges, all themes that can be connected to a man making his mark on the world. During the course of the film, however, George has to set these dreams aside in order to keep the family business running and ensuring his little brother has a good life. He doesn’t pursue his dreams, he lives his life and he makes sacrifices for the greater good while constantly facing off against Henry Potter, the stingy town tyrant who is determined to own the entire town. After his Uncle Billy makes an absent minded mistake that can ruin the family business, George reflects that his life is a failure and is about to give it all up before his guardian angel Clarence intercedes. He gives George a glimpse at what the world would be like without him, giving him true perspective on all that he truly has (a new spin on the A Christmas Carol theme). In the end everyone in George’s life steps up to help him, just as he has helped them his entire life.
I haven’t watched It’s a Wonderful Life this year, even though I have the DVD. Oddly enough just writing about it has the same effect on me as I hold back choking on emotional tears thinking of Sam Wainwright‘s telegram to George (I wasn’t kidding when I said I have a deep emotional connection to the film). It never ceases to amaze me how a work of fiction can be soemthing that reminds us that just by being here we have an effect on the world around us, to show us that even just by doing our everyday jobs we still make a difference, and of course the reminder of how important friends and family are. All of these messages are nice to have in the face of the troubled times around us. This, if nothing else, shows why this movie is timeless.
The good news is that even if It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t your cup of holiday tea I have plenty more for you take in during this week. Unfortunately I didn’t find any instances of Christmas Vacation or Scrooged this week, which are two of my holiday must haves. Those two exceptions aside, here’s what I have found to offer.
MONDAY
ABC – 8:00 PM: Once again ABC rolls out another one of the holiday classics with A Charlie Brown Christmas. Be sure to spot the commercial where they try to get you to buy the digitally re-mastered DVD of what you are watching for free.
DISNEY – 8:00 PM: Tim Allen has to find a wife in The Santa Clause 2. Their clever use of the Mrs. Clause still makes me chuckle, but Tim Allen in the fat makeup without the beard is just plain creepy.
ABC FAMILY – 8:00 PM: Bad accents, bad acting and our introduction to Jake Lloyd are just a few of the horrors that make up Jingle All the Way. One redeaming quality is the late and great Phil Hartman‘s presence.
CARTOON NETWORK – 8:00 PM: Just in time to get the song stuck in your head for a week is the cartoon special built around Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer. If that doesn’t make you leary enough, there’s a character named I.M. Slime. Behold the creativity at work here!
TUESDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: House tries to bring the holidays home with this episode titled Joy to the World. The critical case of the week is a girl that collapses during her high school Christmas program.
FOOD – 8:00 PM: Enjoy two hours of food fun starting with Paula’s Cookie Swap (I thought this was like a key party with cookies, turns out I was wrong) followed by Dear Food Network: Holiday Family Traditions.
WEDNESDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: Just when you thought your life wasn’t complete because you haven’t seen a CGI version of Danny Devito your cries were heard with the new animated special Little Spirit: Christmas in New York. I will say this, the combination of CGI rendered in the style of a traditional painting creates a very interesting aesthetic (even though everyone has a wrapped in plastic kind of sheen on them).
ABC FAMILY – 8:00 PM: It’s Rankin/Bass night with Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town followed by the confusing Rudolph’s Shiny Year and Jack Frost.
USA – 9:00 PM: If you didn’t catch the Monk holiday episode Mr. Monk and the Miracle you can watch this before the 10 PM showing of Elf.
THURSDAY
NBC – 8:00 – 10:00 PM: That’s right Comedy Done Right-ers, all of your comedies tonight have a holiday motif.
HALLMARK – 9:00 PM: Even though it’s been on once a week since Thanksgiving, you can still catch a father/daughter trying to save their Christmas theme park from a land developer in Moonlight and Mistletoe.
ABC Family – 9:00 PM: Some classics don’t need an update and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys is a great example of that. It’s interesting to see the Rankin/Bass characters rendered in CGI, but the novelty wears off quick. Your kids, however, are gonna love it.
FRIDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: Greatest Holiday Moments is back with their hour long Songs of the Season Countdown.
CBS – 8:00 PM: Faster than you can say Happy Birthday that lovable talking snowman is back for two hours with Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns. Stick around for both of those and you can even take in a Finnish Flying Squirel trying to teach Niko the reindeer how to fly in The Flight Before Christmas.
AMC – 11:00 PM: Nothing says holiday fun more than hundreds of green menacing Gremlins tearing up your town on Christmas Eve.
SATURDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: If you made it through the entire beginning of this column and it made you want to see It’s a Wonderful Life than you are in luck because it’s on tonight. I’ll be the guy that’s sobbing around 10:54 PM when they read that telegram. Sentimental HOGWASH!
FOOD – 8:00 PM: It’s another holiday food block tonight with A Neely Family Holiday, Unwrapped: Holiday Treats, and The Secret Life of…: Christmas.
TLC – 8:00 PM: If you want to be envious of other people’s holiday yard decorations (or feel good that yours are better than these) you can watch Crazy Christmas Lights.
ABC – 9:00 PM: Ben Affleck tries to get to the root of his issues with commitment and the holidays while battling whits with Tony Soprano in Surviving Christmas.
SUNDAY
BRAVO – 9:30 AM: Snuggle up with your morning cup of coffee to watch Mel Gibson try to make a drug bust in a Christmas Tree Lot in Lethal Weapon. My favorite moment is when Gary Busey answers Scrooge on the television in the question of what day it is with, “It’s FU@#ING CHRISTMAS!” before destroying the TV in a hail of machine gun fire. Ahh, the holidays.
MTV – 8:00 PM: If the CGI Danny Devito wasn’t enough for you than you can take in an animated version of Adam Sandler in Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights.
HGTV – 8:00 PM: Relive magical moments like when as kids you watched the holiday display at Higbee’s with Holiday Windows 2008.
FOX – 9:30 PM: It took a holiday edition to finally get me to mention American Dad, so that must say something. Stan, in pursuit of the perfect tree, meets an untimely end in the woods and fights the forces of good and evil in limbo.
– Will Wilkins is a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
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December 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
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December 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
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