The Christmas TV Companion: a Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials and Outrageous Oddities

By Joanna Wilson

Christmas on TV is wilder, weirder, and more wondrous than you think! The Christmas TV Companion is a funny, engaging look beyond the same Christmas specials that air every year to the cult TV rarities, over-the-top made-for-TV holiday specials, and bizarre, spacey shows that truly expand the notion of Christmas spirit. Loaded with pop culture references, this book is sure to please pop aficionados and TV junkies of all stripes. Its remarkable breadth of content covers the far-out gems of yesterday, as well as the irreverent and cutting edge Christmas material of today, from Arthur C. Clarke to South Park, and from Ed Sullivan to Squidbillies. This guide also contains practical examples for enhancing your own Christmas TV viewing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanna Wilson
• Release date: Jun 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9780984269969

Joanna Wilson

Joanna Wilson draws upon her academic background in film history and philosophy to create insightful commentary on pop culture of all kinds. She is the author of two books, Tis the Season TV: the Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials, and Made-for-TV Movies (2010) and The Christmas TV Companion: a Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials, and Outrageous Oddities (2009). A lively and engaging speaker, she has appeared in two television specials as a commentator on Christmas entertainments. In 2010, she appeared in The Real Story of Christmas (2010), and the TV Guide Network's 25 Most Hilarious Holiday TV Moments (2010). As an expert on Christmas TV movies, Wilson was invited to moderate the cast reunion for a screening of the 1971 TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) in December 2011. The cast reunion for the 40th Anniversary of The Homecoming included members of the much-beloved TV series The Waltons. Wilson writes a regularly updated blog about both popular and rare Christmas entertainments. She publishes a daily Twitter post of Christmas programming airing on TV. She is at work on her third book, which highlights Christmas music as seen in television episodes, specials, and movies, due to release for the holidays in 2012.

Book preview

The Christmas TV Companion:

a Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials, & Outrageous Oddities

By Joanna Wilson

The Christmas TV Companion copyright © 2010 by Joanna Wilson

A SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information: 1701 Press, 2219 4th St. Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA 44221

Proudly published by 1701 Press, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

www.1701press.com

Printed and Bound in the United States of America

First Printing 2010

ISBN 978-0-9842699-4-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-0-9842699-6-9 (ebook 2012)

Design by Dominic Caruso

http://domcaruso.com

Praise for The Christmas TV Companion by Joanna Wilson

"I thought I’d seen just about every Christmas-themed television show out there. I was wrong. Joanna Wilson’s Christmas TV Companion has sent me searching for all kinds of obscure oddments of which I had never heard and now can’t wait to watch. In an engagingly amusing way, this book points out how versatile television has been in embracing, celebrating, satirizing, and abusing this single holiday."

—Robert Thompson

Director, Bleier Center of Television & Popular Culture,

Syracuse University

"The Christmas TV Companion is witty, breezy and fresh; it’s written in an intimate style that is instantly likeable. I can’t recommend this book highly enough but be warned—it will put you in the Christmas spirit!"

—Billy Ingram,

TV Party.com

"Fans of my animated shorts will love this book! With The Christmas TV Companion as your guide, you’re bound to have the most demented Yuletide Season ever!"

—Corky Quakenbush,

Animator of The Reinfather, Raging Rudolph

and A Pack of Gifts Now

"A fun and fast read, The Christmas TV Companion is a good recap of Christmas television over the years. It’s clear the author boasts a real passion for the topic, and has researched it thoroughly. "

—John Kenneth Muir,

author of Horror Films of the 1970s

and The Rock & Roll Film Encyclopedia

"Joanna’s my kind of gal, drooling over offbeat holiday happenings on everything from Hogfather to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with side trips past lunacy like the Solid Gold dancers."

—Diane Werts,

author of Christmas on Television

and blogger for TV Worth Watching.com

Incredibly thorough, impeccably researched … Joanna Wilson is the Ken Burns of Christmas TV specials.

—Sir John Hargrave,

author of Mischief Maker’s Manual

"Like William Burroughs says in Junky’s Christmas, I ain’t got nobody, so what’s Christmas to me,—unless I have my copy of The Christmas TV Companion!"

—Nick Donkin,

director, Junky’s Christmas

There’s a little bit of everything here (including TV movies!) and Joanna’s book serves a real purpose. I was surprised to see that yuletide TV hasn’t been covered yet, or at least not in this kind of detail.

—Amanda By Night,

blogger for Made for TV Mayhem

"From my appearance as a child actor on Dragnet to A Very Brady Christmas to my more recent musical performance on The Wiggles, this book contains an amazing wealth of Christmas TV splendor."

—Barry Williams, Actor, Author and Performer

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Get Ready for the Weirdest Christmas Ever

Macabre: Have Yourself an Eerie Little Christmas

Hidden Gems

Make Your Own Macabre Marathon

Kids Christmas

Make Your Own Marathon: Not Too Cool For Yule

Sci-Fi: Christmas Stars and Men from Mars

Hidden Gems

Kids Christmas

Make Your Own Sci-Fi Marathon

Make Your Own Marathon: Second Chance Christmas Specials

Variety: From Our Christmas TV Family to Yours

Kids’ Christmas

Hidden Gems

Make Your Own Variety Marathon

Make Your Own Marathon: The 12 Days of Cult Christmas TV—Part 1

Animation: Nutty as a Fruitcake: Outrageous Animation

Hidden Gems

Kids’ Christmas

Make Your Own Animation Marathon

Make Your Own Marathon: The 12 Days of Cult Christmas TV—Part 2

Dark: It Was a Dark and Stormy Christmas

Hidden Gems

Kids’ Christmas

Make Your Own Dark Marathon

Appendix: How to Make Your Own Make Your Own Marathon

I am greatly indebted to the people who supported and encouraged me throughout this project. The following individuals have contributed their time to the preparation of this book and my appreciation cannot be overstated: Steve Wolcott, Stephanie Burley, Kendra Minadeo, Jill Grimm, Michael D. Toth (luxuriamusic.com/djprofiles/tothar) and Kiki Howell (www.kikihowell.com).

Thanks to everyone at 1701 Press. And, of course, my deepest appreciation goes to my loving and patient partner who graciously lets me control the DVD player with the television volume on full blast with Christmas episodes throughout the whole year.

Christmas on tv is out there. I mean, way out there. A show about hillbilly squids that kidnap Santa Claus? It’s been done. What about a show starring both David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing a Christmas duet? Yeah, it happened. How about an alternate version of Santa as a gift-bearing hog—or a kids’ show that imagines the devastating results of a vampire Santa? They’ve been produced too. Post-apocalyptic Christmas, Christmas on the moon, Christmas on Mars. Like I said, television’s Christmases are out there—crazy, profane, innovative, cheesy and classic. I’ve seen it and I’m here to share it all with you.

Why write a book about cult Christmas TV classics? Initially, it seemed like a narrow focus for a book, but I quickly found more surprises than I was expecting. Television itself continues to splinter into more new networks that are attempting to reach ever-narrowing demographics and niche markets. We as viewers have changed, demanding more and more attention-grabbing programming to suit our tastes. So too, this book may appeal to an audience of television specialists: active television viewers. I’m not talking about casual viewers who are just interested in the newest programs, but those who have developed a taste for what they like and have strong opinions about it. These viewers take unrepentant joy in watching television, often watching things over and over, paying attention to the details of character, dialogue and theme. Just as these viewers are devoted to watching TV more intensively, they will be interested in watching Christmas programming that goes beyond the ordinary.

Christmas material has its own cult-like status. Most holiday programming airs only once a year, so it has a built-in value because of its rarity. The shows are also filled with heightened emotions, from nostalgia and sentimentality to optimism and innocence. We tend to bond to these emotional programs as children, no matter how sappy or poor in quality. We still love to watch them well into our adult lives and defend them as worthy of attention and respectability. While we may acknowledge that the silly sitcoms of our youth don’t stand up to our adult tastes, our loyalty to Christmas television memories from our youth remains strong. Popular culture is a common language that connects and bonds us, despite the diversity of our own family holiday traditions.

In writing this book, I’m looking to appeal to those other TV addicts—you know who you are—who want to read about Christmas material they’ve perhaps never seen before, or reconnect with something they haven’t seen since childhood. I’ve also included commentary on rare tidbits from the past that deserve a second look. This book may also appeal to others, who already spend time watching their favorite Christmas installments, and may be looking to expand their current repertoire.

A loyal TV junky from my earliest years, I was one of those kids whose favorite babysitter was 1970s television. Imagine my excitement when I was cast in my second grade holiday pageant as Peppermint Patty in A Charlie Brown Christmas. I still have the script that two teachers from my elementary school transcribed from the animated TV special and adapted into a stage production. Although I had only two lines, the experience personally connected me to the TV special—never mind that the character of Peppermint Patty doesn’t even make an appearance in the original animated classic. Perhaps because of this small detail, I’ve had a life-long obsession with paying attention to the details while watching TV and film. In college, I earned a degree in film and an advanced degree in philosophy, combining my love of motion pictures with analysis and evaluation. Then, in the late 1990s, I happened to receive Rick Goldschmidt’s book The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass as a gift. After reading it, I set myself the goal of re-watching all the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, a project which quickly expanded into watching all the Rankin/Bass animated works. And, as I combed through my local video rental stores and library shelves, I began to find other, more obscure holiday animated programs and forgotten Christmas specials.

My hobby of watching TV Christmas specials soon became a much larger project: an encyclopedia of all things Christmas on television, including every special, holiday-themed episode and made-for-TV movie. I’m almost embarrassed to admit how long I’ve been watching and collecting the information which became Tis the Season TV: the Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials, and Made-for-TV Movies (1701 Press 2010). And I fear I’ve become that strange lady—instead of that thorough and diligent researcher—who is frequently spotted at the library checking out an armload of Christmas-themed videos even in July. But I can’t set aside my obsession: despite several thousand entries, I’m still fascinated and frequently surprised by the diversity of the creativity that goes into the holiday material that is produced each year. There’s a wide spectrum of Christmas material and it spans the best and the worst of television—from high art productions of the classical ballet The Nutcracker, to the most cheaply produced, derivative children’s special.

It is from the larger project of my more comprehensive Christmas encyclopedia Tis the Season TV that I have derived this book. As I have researched the history of television, combing through books, DVD sets and the Internet for Christmas titles, I love finding the rare, overlooked or forgotten installments. For my own personal tastes, I prefer the unexpected, weird, bizarre and off-center stories produced for the mass medium’s audiences.

In our culture, Christmas has a very particular mythos. For example, a fairly rigid set of expectations governs what Santa can and cannot do. The rules extend to what he looks like, how he behaves, how he speaks, and so on. Christmas narratives often follow an equally rigid set of constraints. There is always a search for the true meaning of Christmas and miracles are common. The traditional themes that go into Christmas have become tightly interwoven with the holiday’s sacredness, and people get uncomfortable or even angry when they are tampered with. The vast majority of Christmas material on television conforms to the conventional rules governing Christmas stories—which is not to say that these programs are uninteresting or of poor quality. Yet I’m continually surprised when the mass medium of TV offers me something new within these constraints. It’s also fascinating when the rules are reinterpreted or downright ignored. This book is filled with the atypical instances of when these rules are challenged or transgressed. For example, after watching what feels like my millionth adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I’ll numbly watch another only to come alive again when the King of Macabre, Vincent Price appears as the story’s narrator. Or, after seeing countless jolly, red-suited, rotund, elderly Santas, I’ll get thrown a curve ball like the Japanese anime, My Santa, in which the Gift-Bringer is portrayed as a buxom, teenage girl.

What’s In This Book

I’ve tried to limit my discussion

Reviews for The Christmas TV Companion

[bigrider7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun and informative, Joanna Wilson's The Christmas TV Companion, is a brief, breezy survey of the holiday television favorites that often have become an integral part of our general holiday experience.In Wilson's book, she does an excellent job of sub-dividing the various kinds of holiday programming (i.e. Animated, Holiday Specials, Horror, Sci-Fi, etc.) into groups, where if one desired, you could pursue any particular holiday film or TV sub-genre interest, using the book as a guide.Wilson's conversational, light-hearted style, makes for an easy read. However, the book seems heavily-slanted towards the modern era. In reading the book, I found that Wilson may have been better served doing even more research about holiday television and movies that were not broadcast in the past 15 years.The brevity of the book makes it enjoyable, but also provides some limitations, too. In many cases, an entire book could have been devoted to subjects like holiday specials or holiday television episodes, yet Wilson's book provides just a quick scan overview.The Christmas TV Companion is also light on commentary and criticism, which for the discerning cult television afficionado, may be disappointing. Wilson provides a number of fun suggestions by which one might choose to view these films, yet provides little or no context or comparative evaluation by which to forge a starting point. That being said, taken on face value, this is an enjoyable read which could provide even the scroogiest of film and TV fans with plenty of fodder to pursue for holiday viewing. Especially, if they are stodgy enough to have grown tired of the traditional holiday favorites many of us know and love.