Tonight is the big premier of The Pee-Wee Herman Show on HBO. Pee-Wee's new live stage show first debuted in Los Angeles in early 2010 and continued on Broadway in late 2010. Now this same show is taped and airing on HBO tonight.
I was one of the unlucky fans to have tickets to the first proposed comeback show--for Los Angeles in November 2009. The show was canceled in order for it to be rescheduled in a larger venue--and my opportunity to see it was eliminated. A friend of mine was able to see the show on Broadway last November and gave me the above Playbill from the show. Thanks again to Ande for her generosity. My only hope to catch the show is to now watch it on HBO. Here's hoping someone who gets HBO will invite me over so I can watch it :(
I've written about 1988's Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special before. It's one of my ultimate favorite Christmas TV specials ever. Click here to see that post. If you've seen the special, you already know why it's a favorite. It's an amazing star-studded, tongue-in-cheek tribute to musical variety Christmas TV specials of the past. It's also Pee-Wee at his best. What's today's Word of the Day? How about "comeback."
"Merry Christmas Everybody, Merry Christmas Every One."
Happy St. Patrick's Day! As we celebrate Irish heritage today, we can reflect on the many influences Irish culture has had on Christmas traditions. Not only do we have Bing Crosby's hit song "Christmas in Kilarney" but we also enjoy the 1981 Animagic classic TV special The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold. This stop motion animated special sometimes airs on Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas marathon schedule each year--and clips are often available for viewing on youtube.
This half-hour complex story is derived from Irish folklore and includes characters such as leprechauns, a sailor and a terrible banshee. It also features the recognizable voice talents of Art Carney and Peggy Cass. Of course, you may remember Art Carney as the actor who played the neighbor Ed Norton on The Honeymooners. He also appeared in everyone's favorite Christmas episode of The Twilight Zone--1960's The Night of the Meek. But cult TV fans will remember Carney for his role as the trading post owner in the much maligned The Star Wars Holiday Special. Here, Carney voices the leprechaun narrator Blarney Kilakilarney.If you haven't seen it in a while, here's a TV preview. Enjoy.
Tonight I had planned on attending the TCM Road to Hollywood show in Cleveland, OH. A local theater was screening Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece North By Northwest, hosted by TCM's own Robert Osbourne and featuring the Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint. I know, right? Despite our best efforts and arriving an hour early, we couldn't find parking AND the long line of people out the Cleveland Institute of Art entrance and down the block was too disparaging. The promise of standing in that endless line--in the cold--brought my evening's plans to an abrupt end. (I saw my future: just as I stepped up to the theater entrance, a shade is lowered: SOLD OUT!)
Eva Marie Saint and Marlon Brando in 1954's 'On The Waterfront.' Go and watch the breath-taking scene again where these two talk by the swing set--GO NOW!
Despite my frustration and sadness, I'd still like to share here with you the tremendous contributions Eva Marie Saint and Alfred Hitchcock have made to Christmas programming.
Actress Eva Marie Saint has appeared in five Christmas TV movies:
--2000's Papa's Angels (see page 521 in my encyclopedia Tis the Season TV). This movie also stars Cynthia Nixon and Scott Bakula. It can still been seen each year on television (either Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel--maybe both).
--1988's I'll Be Home for Christmas (see pg. 327). This is my favorite World War II drama that takes place at Christmas. It also stars a very young Courtney Cox.
--1978's A Christmas to Remember (pg. 157). I haven't seen this one so if anyone else has, let me know!
--1964's Carol for Another Christmas (see pg.106). This is the VERY rare TV movie written by Rod Serling. Saint's role is small in this ensemble cast. It is a 1960s political adaptation of the Dickens classic.
--1947's A Christmas Carol. Rumor has it this TV version of the classic Victorian Christmas tale was Saint's TV debut. So little can be verified about this production, I wasn't able to put it in the encyclopedia. If you have seen it, let me know. IMDb says John Carradine also starred in it!
The anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, known for its dark tone and suspenseful stories, produced three amazing Christmas episodes:
--1955's Santa Claus and the Tenth Avenue Kid --1956's Back for Christmas --1958's The Festive Season
All three are located in my encyclopedia Tis the Season TV on pages 13-14. All three are also easily available to watch on DVD. If you've read my book The Christmas TV Companion, you'll know I love the episode Back for Christmas which originated as a story written by John Collier and was later adapted into another TV episode--on Roald Dahl's TV series Tales of the Unexpected. (This episode is also available on DVD for viewing).
I don't just have a voracious appetite for watching television but I also read books about TV.
I recently completed the 2010 release Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Olsen and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim. Every person who has ever watched the 1970s TV drama Little House on the Prairie has been touched by the nasty villainous character Nellie Olsen. Now fans of the TV series and character can find out what it is like to be the actress who brought that bitchy character to life.
Alison Arngrim today, embracing her ability to bitch about AIDs and sexual abuse.
This autobiography is everything you want it to be. It is written in a strong voice that is both clever and culturally literate. She dishes not just about her own personal experiences as a Hollywood child actress but also about those she worked alongside including Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson. Arngrim and Gilbert (the actresses who play Nellie and Laura) were actually best friends on the set! Arngrim also includes details from the most remembered scenes of our favorite episodes from Little House that feature the wicked Nellie Olsen.
My favorite section was Chapter Eleven where Arngrim describes the behind-the-scenes experiences on filming everyone's favorite Nellie moment: when Laura pushes the nasty Nellie, who is seated in a rickety wooden wheelchair, down a hill and into a frog pond. This is the 1976 episode entitled "Bunny." If you will remember, this third season episode's story starts when Nellie falls from her horse Bunny and pretends to be paralyzed. Since the horse used to belong to Laura, the middle Ingalls daughter feels guilty for Nellie's injury and agrees to help the paralyzed child now stranded in a wheelchair. Laura eventually discovers that Nellie isn't actually immobilized but is just using Laura as her own personal slave. The episode climaxes when Laura pushes Nellie in a wheelchair over the edge of the hill in order to prove to everyone in Walnut Grove that the blonde bitch has been faking it the whole time. This is everyone's favorite nasty Nellie moment because it's one of the most satisfying scenes where Nellie gets what she deserves at the hands of Laura.
Nellie pushed down the hill in a wheelchair. Don't feel sorry for Nellie--she deserves worse!
Fans of Little House on the Prairie will remember that this hilarious episode's story picks up from the Christmas storyline in the 1974 episode "Christmas At Plum Creek." Nellie Olsen acquired Laura's pony after Laura traded it to her for a Christmas gift for her mother. "Christmas At Plum Creek" is a heartwarming story about sacrifice with a hint of O.Henry's popular tale "The Gift of Magi." Not only does Laura feel the loss of her cherished pony at Christmastime but she must face, in this later episode, the indignity of Nellie claiming Laura's horse is not just untrained and dangerous but Nellie also heaps guilt on poor Laura for her phony paralysis.
I know I'm not the only one who jeered each time the villain Nellie Olsen came on my TV screen in the 1970s. It's a wonderful read to learn just how the actress that brought this delicious bitch to life feels about being one of TV's most hated characters. Not only has Arngrim grown to embrace the strength of her TV character but she's been able to use this courage to speak out for those suffering from AIDs and those who have been sexually abused. Who could have anticipated that this insufferable TV character would be brought to life by an actress that inspires the best in all of us?
Part 1 of "Christmas At Plum Creek" from Little House on the Prairie
Cicely Tyson is one class act. The actress has brought dignity and strength to many of the characters she's portrayed over the years not limited to the 1977 TV miniseries Roots and the 1972 powerful film, Sounder. Two more TV movies, 1974's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and 1977's Wilma, both had a very powerful effect on me when I watched them when they first aired. Tyson has helped to influence the roles of African-American women in film and television away from predominantly stereotypical background characters to influential history-makers and strong women at the story's center.
1997 TV movie Ms. Scrooge starring Cicely Tyson
This is also true for Tyson's role as the central character in the 1997 made-for-TV movie, Ms. Scrooge. Here, Ebenita Scrooge is a successful banker who loves Christmas because people always over-spend and over-borrow money and she makes a profit from this. In a re-telling of Charles Dickens' classic tale, Scrooge is visited by her former boss Maude Marley (played by Katherine Helmond) who warns her about her greed. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Ebenita visions of her father’s struggle to run his own grocery store, her brother’s death in the war and her choice of a career over love. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows her employee Bob Cratchit’s family and his need for a decent health care plan. The Ghost of Christmas Future shows her that no one benefits after her death when the government claims her estate and her wealth.
This Scrooge story ends a little differently than most because Ebenita goes to church after her Christmas Eve transformation. Perhaps this is a lesson others will prefer over other TV adaptations of the original tale. (Trivia: which other filmed version(s) see Scrooge visit a church?) TV fans may notice that this film is directed by John Korty, the same who directed Tyson in the earlier successful movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman--remember the water fountain scene?
Ms. Scrooge still regularly airs on TV each December (I usually see it on Lifetime) but it is currently available for viewing on Youtube as well (see below for Part 1).
The TV movie Ms. Scrooge is but one of several examples of female Ebenezer Scrooges. Other examples include 1995's Ebbie starring Susan Lucci, 2000's A Diva’s Christmas Carol starring Vanessa Williams and 2003's A Carol Christmas starring Tori Spelling. Note that Vanessa Williams in A Diva's Christmas Carol is also an African-American woman playing the lead role as Dickens' Scrooge character. Interesting, huh?
I feel good about myself--this is my 200th blog post! YAYY!! The above cake is actually a photo from my initial book release party from 2009--I'd kill to have a slice of that NOW!
There are visual changes coming to this blog soon. I'm having the look of the blog updated and expanded to include my second book Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-themed Episodes, Specials and TV Movies. I'll still be writing about Christmas television programs, movies and popular culture in the same way. Just the appearance of the blog will be changed. Thanks for being my readers.
Valentine's Day is the time of year that our thoughts turn once again to love, romance and relationships. However, romance is a very common theme in Christmas stories as well. In fact, Christmas movies so frequently use The Hook-Up as a storyline if it isn't the the primary plot, Romance will most certainly will be the B or C story. I'm speaking of the popular Christmas TV movies that we all watch on the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and ABC Family. But the tradition of romantic Christmas movies isn't new. The classic Hollywood studios also produced romantic Christmas movies many of which we still watch on Turner Classic Movies or on DVD.
Below is a list of my top five favorite classic Hollywood romantic Christmas movies some of which I've written about before. In no particular order:
Holiday Affair (1949)
This romance story stars the hunk Robert Mitchum as Steve Mason and actress Janet Leigh as Connie. Connie works as a comparison shopper who gets Steve, a toy store employee, fired from his job at Christmas time. Her young son Timmy keeps urging his mother to befriend Steve and she indulges him because of her guilt. This film was re-made for television in 1996 starring David James Elliott and Cynthia Gibb however it lacks the charisma of the original film's casting.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
This romantic comedy is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies. I absolutely adore Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a magazine writer about domestic skills (think 1940s Martha Stewart) who is asked to entertain a war hero over the Christmas holiday. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is a woman of words--not an actual domestic goddess--and she has to cover up her lack of cooking and hostessing skills while trying to impress the good-looking war hero. This movie too was re-made for television, starring Dyan Cannon in the Stanwyck role in 1992.
Bachelor Mother (1939)
Another romantic comedy, this sassy story features a wise-cracking Ginger Rogers and actor David Niven. Rogers plays Polly Parrish a department store clerk, who is mistaken for the mother of an orphaned baby. After a series of misunderstandings and assumptions, she is forced into keeping the baby and claiming it as her own. When she catches the eye of the young wealthy owner of the store, played by David Niven, she has a hard time keeping her secret about being a single woman with a baby! Turner Classic Movies also broadcasts the 1956 musical remake of this film entitled Bundle of Joy which stars Debbie Reynold and Eddie Fisher. However, I still prefer the original.
Remember the Night (1940)
Another Barbara Stanwyck vehicle, this film also stars Fred MacMurray. He plays a district attorney with a soft heart who releases a female accused convict (Stanwyck) from jail over the Christmas holiday. He doesn't realize she has nowhere to stay during the holiday. When he finds out she will be homeless, he feels an obligation to look after her until her court date after Christmas. So the tough-talking Bad Girl finds herself accompanying the lawyer to his family home in the Midwest to spend Christmas with a traditional, loving family. This film's story is sweet and tender in all the right places.
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
This film is based on the successful Broadway play written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Click here to see what I've blogged about it before. The romance in this chaotic comedy is between characters played by Bette Davis and Richard Travis. This film is a rare comedic role for Davis, and she really shines. The Man Who Came to Dinner has been re-made for television several times most recently for PBS in 2000.
Tonight is the big premier of The Pee-Wee Herman Show on HBO. Pee-Wee's new live stage show first debuted in Los Angeles in early 2010 and continued on Broadway in late 2010. Now this same show is taped and airing on HBO tonight. 
