Christmas TV Party 2015: Joseph Moore at Christmas Wishes Book
1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?
1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?
That
would be a tie between the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol and
Charlie Brown's Christmas. I remember seeing the premier of the latter
when I was 5 years old, my mother reminded me all day and it really
built up the excitement. I was not disappointed.
2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?
Too
many favorites to choose, so I will go with what I feel is the most
underrated: the song "One More Sleep Till Christmas" from the movie The
Muppet Christmas Carol. This Paul Williams tune really should have
become a standard by now.
3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol?
I
am a connoisseur of all versions of A Christmas Carol, and the best
movie version (IMHO) is still the 1951 version. The most underrated
movie version is the 1935 Seymour Hicks adaptation, which reveals more
of the story's 'ghost story' origins. The TV Movie retelling that I love
best is Karrol's Christmas, which I think was originally an A&E
production, but now sometimes pops up on the Hallmark Channel. The
various Radio Play versions should all be checked out wherever they can
be located.
 |
| cast from 2004 TV movie Karroll's Christmas. |
4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated?
I
absolutely HATE Bad Santa. I'm not generally against films, books, or
TV programs that make fun of the Holiday Season, but that movie was
just mean-spirited to such a degree that it contained zero redeeming
value.
5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest?
Please,
please, PLEASE! stop using up all of the Christmas-oriented programming
by the second week of December. Try placing those movies, specials, and
other related programs during the 7 days before December 25th. Load
Christmas Eve up with as much Holiday-themed fare as possible, a la the
fictional network in Scrooged in the hope and belief that families
will want to be together sitting around the TV, trimming the tree and
wrapping gifts and enjoying watching good, so-called "old fashioned"
entertainment, whether it be movies like White Christmas, reruns of
old sitcom Christmas episodes, old variety shows, or better yet new
variety shows inspired by the old ones.
Just played the "One More Sleep Till Christmas" clip and now I may need to rewatch the whole movie now... Great choice.
ReplyDeleteI've bought several Christmas carols (in July!) to add to my collection from reading these, including this one, which I didn't have a strong memory of, even though I've seen Muppet Christmas Carol multiple times.
ReplyDeleteI also thought I was the only one who liked Karoll's Christmas. :)
As for the last two weeks ... That is such a busy time for most families, which is why most of the holiday premieres occur well before the final holiday wind-up. Even as a Christmas movie lover, I find we don’t watch nearly as many the last 10 days before Christmas as we do the month leading up to that. There’s just too much going on!
But most stations do replay all that programming right up until Christmas day. And I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t load up on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, even the major networks. For instance, Hallmark traditionally re-airs all of its new movies for the season in a Christmas Day marathon. TBS does A Christmas Story. NBC always plays It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. ABC did back-to-back airings of the Grinch animated and feature film on Christmas day; and always does the Disney parade in the morning, which we often watch while waiting for relatives to arrive. TCM goes to 24-hour classic Christmas films … And on and on. It’s hard to turn on the TV the 24th or 25th and NOT find Christmas programming. Which I think is awesome.
One More Sleep Til Christmas is great. Would love for networks to program Christmas-themed shows and movies and specials ALL through December.
ReplyDeleteA second "Karroll's Christmas" mention in this marathon? I thought for sure that I was the only one that was charmed by that TV movie!? Good to know I'm not alone. Thanks for participating, Joseph.
ReplyDelete"One More Sleep Til Christmas" is, indeed, brilliant! I am surprised more people haven't picked up on it! :-)
ReplyDelete