Christmas TV Party 2015: Susan

Christmas TV Party 2015: Susan, Christmas movie super fan

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?

That’s probably a tie between Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story. Both are watched multiple times per season in our household, and quoted endlessly throughout the year. It’s not really Christmas until Cousin Eddie pulls up to Clark’s in the tenement on wheels and that darn “icicle” breaks Ralphie's glasses.

Who can forget Cousin Eddie?

Honestly, I just adore Christmas programming in general. Everything from classic movies like Christmas in Connecticut or a The Bishop’s Wife, to modern releases like The Polar Express and Love, Actually, to just about every TV Christmas movie Lifetime, Hallmark, UP, et. al. produce. Animated specials, Christmas-themed episodes of our favorite shows. We love, and watch, them all!

2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?

This is a tough one, because there are so many. For a single song, I’d have to say that the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song from The Year Without a Santa Claus is one that’s impossible not to sing along with, but there are so many specials I remember from my own childhood that I’ve got great joy from sharing with my own children. It’s just not Christmas without watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, A Chipmunk Christmas and Frosty the Snowman. I remember watching those with my own parents, and hope my kids will someday be watching them with their own little ones, too. There are so many great ones, old and new, and we have so many on DVD and record others as they air on our DVR, that we actually try to watch an animated special as a family every single night from Thanksgiving through Christmas, with the Grinch always being our final hurrah on Christmas morning.

3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

It’s a tie between the kid friendly, yet classic take of the Muppet’s Christmas Carol and Bill Murray’s irreverent, but ultimately good-hearted portrayal, in Scrooged. As an off beat pick, I have a weird affinity for Tom Everett Scott’s TV-movie, Karoll’s Christmas, which I find myself watching almost every year.

4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated?

I think it’s hugely disappointing that they attempted to make a sequel of A Christmas Story; the unimaginatively titled A Christmas Story 2. I admit I haven’t seen it, but the universally dismal reviews it’s received pretty much confirmed what I already guessed.

As a “bonus” answer to a question you didn’t ask, I think there are a lot of very UNDERRATED Christmas movies and specials that deserve to be classics, but aren’t. Our family loves The Happy Elf starring Harry Connick Jr.; Olive the Other Reindeer, starring Drew Barrymore; Robbie the Reindeer, starring Hugh Grant and all of Disney’s Prep and Landing adventures. I think every one deserves to be far better known. I’d also add the British movie Nativity!, which we discovered last year, which is not only funny and touching, but features some amazing original music, and the also-UK-themed Arthur Christmas. Both are delightful family films many have never seen.

5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest?

Really, just more. More original Christmas programming. Airing more classic Christmas specials, movies and episodes. Not all will be gems, but everyone has their favorites, and it is so nice to have that variety. It also obviously works. Look at ABC’s “Great Christmas Light Fight” the last two years, which is low-cost programming that got very good ratings for December. Hallmark Channel, UP and ABC Family all get their best ratings of the year with their dedicated Christmas programming, so the demand is definitely out there.

Christmas TV Party 2015: Bryan Curtiss

Christmas TV Party 2015: Bryan Curtiss from DJBC Adventures

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other? 
Wow. This is a toughie. I would have to say Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie? 
This is not an easy answer to choose from. Very hard. But I think that The Stingiest Man in Town (yes, the Rankin/Bass one) has to stand out, because that was one special I watched over and over again almost every year.

from 1978's animated The Stingiest Man in Town.

3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol? 
Another tough one. I like the 1978 Rankin/Bass animated special The Stingiest Man in Town, more than most. Not to say that other versions of A Christmas Carol aren't that great, I also recommend A Muppet Christmas Carol (with Michael Caine as Scrooge, and the Muppets as various characters) and the 1970 musical version, Scrooge with Sir Albert Finney in the title role.

Finney as Scrooge and Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley in 1970's Scrooge.

 
4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated? 
(Kirk Cameron's) Saving Christmas

5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest? 
An updated Americanized version of A Christmas Carol, set in the present.

Christmas TV Party 2015: Daniel Budnik

Christmas TV Party: Daniel Budnik at Some Polish American Guy Reviews Things and co-author of book Bleeding Skull.

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?

I spent some time thinking this one over. To my surprise, I think it’s Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. And, that is completely accidental. I first watched it around 1986. I taped a copy (on Beta) off of a 4AM showing and watched it several times that Christmas season. Since then, I have watched it at least once a year.  But…  in 1991, Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired an episode where they watched it. So, I watch that every year and the movie without MST involved. That’s a lot of viewings. But…  in 2008, Cinematic Titanic released a DVD where they riffed on it. I watch that every year. So, for the past seven years, I’ve watched it at least three times a year. And, since I got the movie on Blu-Ray a few years ago, I watch it even more. As I said, Purely Accidental. Apparently Droppo visits my living room more often than Rudolph. 

2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?

I thought I’d try all three:

As a kid, I generally zoned out when songs started up on Christmas specials. But, one song-filled special  I did enjoy very much was A Claymation Christmas Celebration from 1987. Very funny, rather weird and each segment had something a little different.

Variety performance? That would be John Candy as Divine singing “Santa, Bring My Baby Back To Me” in the SCTV Staff Christmas Party episode.

Holiday song in a movie? “We Need a little Christmas” from Mame. During the hottest times of the year, I find myself whistling this song a lot. In fact, I’m whistling it now. If I’m in a melancholy mood and don’t want to be lifted out of it, the song in my heart is “Christmastime in Hoboville” from The Last of the American Hoboes.

Plus, as far as musical Christmas stuff goes… there is a wonderful 1964 LP called A Merry Monster Christmas by Len Maxwell. It’s a series of sketches and songs with monsters celebrating Christmas. And it is fantastic! The songs are good and the sketches are pretty darn funny. I recommend finding it and giving it a listen. 

The California Raisins sing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" in 1987's A Claymation Christmas Celebration.

3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol? 
I’m going to go with the Doctor Who episode A Christmas Carol. A crotchety old man who owns the sky on a distant planet won’t open up said sky to allow an out-of-control spacecraft to make a safe landing on Christmas Eve. The Doctor must re-shape the old guy’s past to make him a better man. Our Favorite Time Lord gets some help from the “Ghost” of Christmas Present and the Surprise of Christmas Future. It’s a wonderful episode that does a bit of everything I love about Steven Moffat’s era on the show. Matt Smith is as fantastic as ever. There isn’t much Amy & Rory but when they do show up it’s wonderful. Plus, there are flying sharks.

2010 Doctor Who Christmas episode, "A Christmas Carol."

4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated? 
Elf. I like Will Farrell but only if I see his name or Adam McKay’s name in the writer/ director credits. If their names aren’t there, I frankly don’t trust it. (Although, I’m normally a Jon Favreau fan.) I wasn’t that interested in seeing Elf but my wife wanted to. So, we rented it one chilly December night. (I haven’t watched it since that night so I’m going off of 10-year-old memories here.) We watched it and laughed quite a bit in the beginning. Then, Buddy the Elf has less and less to do. And the generally uninteresting secondary characters began to take more of the center stage. Then, everyone began learning lessons, which I wasn’t so thrilled with. My wife fell asleep but I was determined to stick it out.  I made it to the end but it’s not something I’m proud of. I wish the whole thing had been set at the North Pole.

5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest? 
I’d love to see a month of holiday shows from a December past re-created in the TV schedule of a modern December. For example, the Christmas TV schedules of December 1982 reappear, as originally aired, in December 2015. Go back to the TV Guides and schedule evenings accordingly. So, maybe 2 or 3 nights a week, from 8 PM-9 PM, they would show Christmas specials on the same days as the corresponding year from the past.  For example, Rudolph on one night (maybe on, say, a Sunday)…  then they would show Charlie Brown’s Christmas and Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales on Tuesday or Wednesday. And so on and so forth, down the line. Mix in Christmas commercials from the year being mirrored. (Maybe even some local ones if possible.) There you have it. There wouldn’t be specials every night so the network wouldn’t have to devote all their time to this but it would mean that on the nights when they aired it would become more of an event, exactly the way they used to be.

Christmas TV Party 2015: Johnny Holmes

Christmas TV Party 2015: Johnny Holmes at 'Radio Once More' and 'The Holmsey Blog'

 

     1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?

 Well I Love Christmas TV programs, specials, and movies so much, and I've seen many of them numerous times.  However, I will choose the original (1947) Miracle on 34th Street with Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, and Natalie Wood.  I never tire of this classic film, it's like a warm visit from an old friend.  I usually kick off the Holiday Season by watching this around Thanksgiving, and I'll watch it at least one or two times more before Christmas.  A wonderful, heart-warming film that appeals to the 'little kid' that is in each and every one of us!!!!!        

       

2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?

Christmas and music go so well together!!!!  Many of the great classic Christmas specials feature wonderful music.  I have a special love of many of the wonderful Rankin-Bass specials.  These timeless specials are filled with wonderful, entertaining, and uplifting music and (although there are so many great musical numbers in these Rankin-Bass specials) I have to give the nod to Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.  This Christmas special features one of my very favorite musical numbers, "Put One Foot in Front of the Other", a delightful, fun, and upbeat musical number sung by Kris Kringle (Mickey Rooney) and Winter Warlock (Keenan Wynn).  This specific song is wonderful, and it can be enjoyed all year long.  The message in this number is powerful that it is never too late to change or improve ourselves and it (like any journey) begins with putting one foot in front of the other!!!  Many times during the year I find myself walking across the floor singing this memorable song!!!       

3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

My favorite version of  'A Christmas Carol' is the popular 1951 theatrical adaptation featuring Alastair Sim.  Sim's performance is so full of energy, and fun...especially when he "awakens" Christmas Day and his joyful, childlike demeanor fills the screen that is so touching and usually brings tears to my eyes.  I also have to mention another version that I was not aware of until Joanna Wilson mentioned it during her Christmas presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in 2013.  That is the wonderful television adaptation from 1964, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and written by the talented Rod Serling entitled A Carol for Another Christmas.  This is a very touching and very well acted special driving home the concept that we all need each other to survive.  Not only as individuals, but as a group of countries, we need to come together and put aside our differences and work together to solve our problems and strive to be a better world, a better race.....The Human Race.  Serling's script is so meaningful and still to this day hits that point that we still have much progress to make, and if we join together, we can achieve it together!!!!!!!    

4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated?  
As much as I love the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street, I am quite disappointed in the 1994 version of this film.  Although I am a big fan of John Hughes' work, I felt this version had too many changes, and didn't give me the same magical feeling as the original 1947 version (although this seems to be the case with most re-makes).  I did, however, enjoy the Made for TV version from 1973 starring Sebastian Cabot.  It was a showcase of 1970's TV stars and features a filmed record of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade that I loved and cherished as a youngster growing up in the 1970's.     

5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest? 
In this modern era of creating more splashy and spectacular programming, this type of programming philosophy (in my opinion) has made television quite overwhelming.  I believe that sometimes simpler, is better.  The simple, old-fashioned, family Christmas gives me the greatest satisfaction.  Perhaps this approach can be carried over to television.  The Andy Williams Show is a great example of this.  During a time when many TV shows were bringing on big name celebrities for their Christmas shows, Andy Williams brought on his family.  I particularly enjoy the Christmas episodes of this series featuring the Williams Brothers along with their parents.  Very simple....and very traditional and touching.  A very Happy and Merry Christmas in July to you all!!!!  Woo-Hoo!!!!! 

Christmas TV Party 2015: Stephen J. Lind, Ph.D.

Christmas TV Party: Stephen J. Lind, Ph.D., author of the book A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?

A Charlie Brown Christmas, by a Schulzian mile.  It is easily my favorite TV-anything to watch, and I do so frequently.  It was also one of the most fun chapters to write in my upcoming book about Peanuts - "A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz" ---- Available now for pre-order! ;)

 
2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?
Where Are You Christmas is at least one of my favorite holiday songs in a movie.  I'll admit that I didn't warm up to the Grinch's live-action debut as much as I wanted to, but that song, particularly Faith Hill's version from the soundtrack, is just so moving, and memorable, and meaningful.  It's the type of song that gets stuck in your head, and it's one of the few that I rather enjoy when it does.




 
3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

My first instinct is to say The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I quite thoroughly enjoy Mickey's Christmas Carol as well.  Of course Disney has a deep and archetypal bench, but the cast of characters fits so authentically well into the story that you almost wouldn't know that it was an adaptation.

   

4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated?

Holster your Red Ryders... but A Christmas Story.  I never really connected with the characters, the vibe, or the tempo.

5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest?

The season has inherent religious roots.  And most viewers are okay with that.  Not everyone shares the view that exploring Christ's birth is important, but a LOT of viewers do. Statistically, a crazy lot. Yet a surprisingly small statistical number of holiday programs have meaningful (let alone creative, or fun, or original, or thought-provoking) and sustained religious content.  It's not that execs don't know about viewers' spiritual interests... some just seem to forget more often than not.

Christmas TV Party 2015: Page

Christmas TV Party 2015: Page 

1) What Christmas program/movie have you seen more times than any other?

A Charlie Brown Christmas – I don’t think there has been a year that I’ve missed it.

 
2) What is your favorite musical Christmas TV special, variety performance, or holiday song in a movie?

Favorite Christmas special – Any of the Andy Williams ones.  The sets are beautiful.  The colors are vibrant.  His voice is glorious.  I especially love the segment in one where he sings with his brothers and then they have the Osmond brothers come out to sing with them.

Holiday song in a movie – “White Christmas” at the end of White Christmas, the movie.  I also love the song the Whos in Whoville sing at the end of the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas – “Welcome Christmas.”  And when Charlie Brown and the gang sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” at the end, I always cry.

Variety Performance – The King Cousins did a jazzy version of “’Twas The Night Before Christmas” that I love.

from the hip, bossa nova arrangement of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas/Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by the King Cousins in the 1967 King Family Christmas special.

3) What's your favorite TV or movie adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

I’ll go with Ebbie starring Susan Lucci, because the very idea is so campy and goofy.

Actress Susan Lucci stars in 1995 TV movie Ebbie.

 
4) What do you think is the worst Christmas program/movie--or your least favorite, the most disappointing or most overrated?

The Happy Elf that Harry Connick, Jr. created for NBC a few years back was atrocious.  I also don’t like when they do remakes of classics like Christmas in Connecticut.  Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson starred in that.
 
5) If you were asked to give advice to a TV network executive in charge of holiday programming, what would you suggest?

They need to remember that nostalgia is the key.  Christmas is connected to what we loved when we were growing up.  New movies are great, but show some of the older made-for-TV Christmas movies.  Show the variety specials.  Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, The King Family, Donny and Marie and Sonny and Cher (their Christmas episode after they divorced is kind of bizarre, by the way).  They all had Christmas specials.

Christmas all day, all the time in the month of December – and give me retro and nostalgia.

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.