Tony Randall

Happy Birthday Tony Randall! He may no longer be with us but I still like to celebrate the life of a great actor and human who's work has touched me. He has appeared in several Christmas programs.

One appearance of note is the Hallmark Hall of Fame musical production of The Littlest Angel from 1969 as Democritus. He offers advice to the young angel Michael, played by Johnnie Whitaker, though the little one is not ready for his wisdom.

My favorite is Randall in The Odd Couple's 1970 episode "Scrooge Gets an Oscar." Felix is directing a theatrical play of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for charity and wants to cast his roommate Oscar for the role of Scrooge, but Oscar is unhappy this Christmas and uncooperative. Oscar falls asleep in front of the TV but his ulcer is acting up and he experiences a nightmare where he’s escorted by Marley’s ghost showing him visions of Christmases past, present and future.

There is, I believe, a Christmas episode on The Tony Randall Show entitled "Case: O Come All Ye Wasterals" from 1976. However, I haven't seen it and as far as I can determine, it is still largely unavailable.

Randall also appears as the fireside host on the PBS special A Christmas Celebration: Send 'Round the Song from 1992. He appears in segments talking about the history of the Christmas music between performances by Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and others.

And, Randall voiced the character of Mr. Grimm in the 1997 animated Christmas special How the Toys Saved Christmas. Mr. Grimm is the greedy store owner that wants people to buy the toys although the toys want to deliver themselves to children for Christmas.

These may be some of his more minor roles within his lengthy career but I'm grateful for the Christmas memories nonetheless.

The Avengers

I'm not the only one who lives with Christmas in February--John Steed does in the 1969 episode "Take-Over" on the cult classic TV series The Avengers. In this episode, Steed explains that years before when he and a friend were prisoners in China together, they had made a calendar to mark their time. However, due to a miscalculation, they had been celebrating Christmas in February! Because of this error, they reunite each February at his friend's country estate to celebrate. The main plot of the episode begins when Steed arrives at his friend's estate only to discover strangers are occupying the home unaware that Steed is expected for his annual holiday. Nothing ruins a Christmas reunion like party crashers with another scheme for world domination!

The Hard Nut

Flipping through the New York Times today I saw that the Mark Morris Dance Group is premiering a new show this week. My exposure to Mark Morris' choreography began with his 1991 production of The Hard Nut, a highly stylized interpretation of the traditional ballet of The Nutcracker.

If you love The Nutcracker, you'll appreciate this unique version's modern update from the 19th century ballet to the more contemporary 1960s and '70s. It also includes a story from the original E.T.A. Hoffmann narrative that the traditional ballet left out.

If you aren't into The Nutcracker, then there are still several things here worth experiencing. One of them is that illustrator/comics artist Charles Burns created the production design. I believe The Hard Nut originally aired on PBS but is now available on DVD.

DVR Alert: Phyllis

DVR Alert: the holiday episode of the 1970s series Phyllis airs this Thursday, Feb. 18th at 10am (EST) and again at 5pm on ALN (American Life Network).

Of course, Phyllis is just one of the three successful spin-off series from the iconic The Mary Tyler Moore Show. (There's Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant.) This Phyllis episode entitled "The Christmas Party," isn't yet available on DVD so this is a rare opportunity to see the holiday episode.

Happy Valentine's Day from Buffy and Me

Happy Valentine's Day!! All my love to my friends and readers

The Big Lebowski update

If you are one of those people, you will know that tickets went on sale this morning for LebowskiFest 2010 in Los Angeles. LebowskiFest is the place for fans of the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski to gather together, bowl a few games, drink White Russians, and quote your favorite lines--all while wearing a movie-inspired ridiculous costume.

Of course, I consider myself one of those people. We call ourselves 'Achievers,' however I'm not planning on making it to the LA event. But if you've seen my book, you well know that I included in the appendix an example Make Your Own Marathon of Christmas-themed programs that include the actors from The Big Lebowski. In honor of the upcoming LebowskiFest, it's time for an update to that MYOM.



The 2009 holiday season brought about a direct-to-video release for the Christmas special from the TV series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. (If you've seen it, you already know why it didn't air on TV--there's a language issue and nudity. But I'll bet an edited version will eventually surface for broadcast.) It includes actor David Huddleston as Eugene Hamilton, Frank Reynold's former business partner that is coerced into playing the Jacob Marley role in Dee and Dennis' attempt to 'Christmas Carol' Frank into being a better person. I don't want to say too much here--it needs to be seen to be believed. But fans of The Big Lebowski will recognize actor Huddleston as the wheelchair-bound Lebowski in the cult film.

Dios Mio! In-N-Out Burger drive-thru workers
with Liam at LebowskiFest, Louisville KY 2008

A Valentine Carol

This weekend will be Valentine's Day which reminds me of the 2007 Lifetime Network, made-for-TV movie, A Valentine Carol which stars Emma Caulfield. Caulfield made a name for herself playing one of Brandon's girlfriends on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 and as Anya on another little TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In this movie, she plays Ally Simms, a successful romance talk radio host who is marrying her fiancé on Valentine’s Day. But Ally can also be insensitive and unsympathetic to other people’s feelings and needs for love. The ghost of her former radio host partner, Jackie Marley, warns Ally about the lack of love in her life and urges her to change her life. The ghost takes her to visit several past Valentine’s Day romances and Ally sees how she’s responded to the men in her life. In the Valentine’s Day present, Ally re-connects with her former boyfriends and begins to see what her fiancé Matt is really like--beyond his meeting the standards of her checklist requirements. And, in Valentine’s Day futures, she sees the consequences of her superficial advice and the cynicism played out in her own life. Ally must change her attitude this Valentine’s Day if she wants her marriage to be meaningful and to last.

This is an interesting Valentine’s Day-themed adaptation of the Charles Dicken’s novel A Christmas Carol. Ally serves as a Scrooge-at-love standin for the familiar Ebenezer character while her assistant, Gillian, is the Bob Cratchit character. One change is that there aren’t three separate ghosts for the journey through time--only Marley. Yet this is still a provocative re-interpretation.

The movie regularly airs each Christmas yet I can't find it on the schedule to air this Valentine's Day on Lifetime, or on any of it's ancilliary networks, such as Lifetime Movie Network. One would think that if a network invested in making a holiday-themed movie that they would bother to broadcast it around the holiday. But I'm not the first person to question the programming execs of TV networks. Nor the last.


TRIVIA: Perhaps the character name Ally Simms is a reference to Alastair Sim, the actor well-known for playing the arguably definitive Scrooge in the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol.