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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Christmas TV Party 2015: Ronda Roxbury

Christmas TV Party 2015: Ronda Roxbury

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?
It's a Wonderful Life




2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie? 
Holiday song is Bing Crosby's White Christmas hands down, it's a classic. I loved Alf's Christmas as a teenager, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer as a child and It's a Wonderful Life as an adult...its my all time favorite movie.




3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol? 
Hmmm I read the book in school so most of what I have seen has been different. I can't say that I have a favorite.

4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated? 
Well at the top of my head I couldn't think of any one that stood out. I just did what everyone else does when you don't know something, you Google it. So I googled the worst Christmas movies...I got 20 to pick from.
1. Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, 1987
2. Elves, 1989
3. Santa Claus, 1959
4. Last Ounce of Courage, 2012
5. Jingle All the Way 2, 2014
6. Santa With Muscles, 1996
7. Santa Claws, 1996
8. A Christmas Story 2, 2012
9. Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, 2000
10. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, 1964
11. Deck the Halls, 2006
12. Surviving Christmas, 2004
13. Christmas Evil, 1980
14. The Nutcracker in 3D, 2009
15. Black Christmas, 2006
16. I’ll Be Home For Christmas, 1998
17. Santa’s Slay, 2005
18. Christmas Caper, 2007
19. Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, 2014
20. Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, 1979

Out of those 20 I can honestly say I have only seen Jingle All The Way, Jack Frost 2, and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July...yep they were bad. I didn't even know Grumpy Cat had a Christmas special, it must have been really grumpy! 



5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest?
I think Hallmark Channel and ABC Family have that figured out...I just think they should add children shows such as Rudolph during the hours children would "normally" be awake and the family movies during the later part of the day.

10 comments:

  1. "Elves" gets a bad rap. It's easily the best holiday feature involving Nazis summoning demon elves in an attempt to create a new super-race to conquer the world only to be ultimately thwarted by Grizzly Adams ever made.

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    1. Best. Response. Ever.

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    2. You might also enjoy this not-so-glowing review of Alf's Christmas special. Warning: It is not hearts and flowers and ribbons and lollipops, and there is definitely bad language, but it's pretty funny about this relatively bleak, once you take two steps back and look at it, KIDS show.

      http://io9.com/the-alf-christmas-special-may-be-the-root-of-all-holid-1487179998

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    3. You are correct, I enjoyed the heck out of that! I remember watching the special when it first aired and being offended by how blatantly it tried to tweak every heartstring with every gimmick in the book. Then when the old guy was on the bridge I remember feeling whatever the 1987 teenager's equivalent of 'WTF' must have been. I've hated that special ever since. I've watched it again, and my outright hatred of it has mellowed to a continual eye-roll, but this article does a wonderful job of pointing out all the really messed up subtext going on in that special. Thankfully ALF had a different Christmas episode, far less likely to make you depressed. Not that I have anything against anyone who enjoyed it, just for me it was so over-the-top corny and manipulative – and bleak – that it was offensive. But, to each their own! Room for all kinds of Christmas specials as we're clearly getting to see...

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  2. Shout out to Alf's Special Christmas...what a great show that was! Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever was one of my families favorite new movies last year. Very funny and ambitious for a Lifetime movie!

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  3. When they used to play 'It's a Wonderful Life' back in the day on any station, royalty free, we would make it a challenge to find it as many times as we could during the Holiday Season. But, that wasn't hard, because everyone had rights to play it freely... and they certainly did! Whenever we caught it, we were so excited to watch it, from whatever point in the movie it just so happened to be! I miss those days, but I cherish watching it now annually on Christmas Eve.

    Also, I too, love White Christmas... it always puts me in the festive spirit!!!

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  4. If you think about it "Its a wonderful life" is an adaptation of Christmas Carol. They both have a person who just wants more from life and has to be shown past, present & future to realize just how blessed they are.

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  5. I'm still laughing about Jeff's response to "Elves." Thanks to Ronda for creating the opportunity for this hilarity!

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