Christmas movies and TV episodes (1 Viewer)

[BobO'Link]

A few years ago I sang in a local production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. We had a small college chamber orchestra from Czechoslovakia provide the accompanment (they were doing a US tour playing for local productions and we were chosen). It was quite fun. I'd never heard of, or seen, that production before then.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

WHAT?!? I wasn't even aware that the voice had been replaced. Why replace a legend like Foray? I mean, she would never sound like a real child, but it's a show about a talking snowman. I can't imagine her performance was bad.

There are one or two clips on YouTube with Foray's original voice. It wasn't bad, but the replacement voice sounds more like an actual little girl.

 

[MartinP.]

Amahl And The Night Visitors (1955 broadcast)

Frasier fans know that selected scenes in each program have humorous titles.
I like the Christmas episode of Frasier where he and Niles run off shopping on
Christmas Eve trying to find a gift for Frasier's visiting son. The title for that
segment was:

"A mall and the night visitors."

 

[John*Wells]

Could the proposed 21st Century Fox/ Disney Merger help? Or Hinder? The release of things like the 1973 TV Version of Miracle on 34th street that I Asked about?

 

[Doug Wallen]

Mickey's Christmas Carol

 

[Jack P]

Scrooge (1970). This was the first movie version of the story I saw in its annual airings on NY TV stations (they had an eerie bumper with a haunting musical chime every annual airing), but over the years I tend to watch this more as a tribute to past memories of childhood then because of its overall strengths because it takes too many liberties with the story that render it far inferior to better versions I'm saving for later like the 1951 Alastair Sim version and the 1984 George C. Scott version.

 

[RobertR]

Scrooge (1970). This was the first movie version of the story I saw in its annual airings on NY TV stations (they had an eerie bumper with a haunting musical chime every annual airing), but over the years I tend to watch this more as a tribute to past memories of childhood then because of its overall strengths because it takes too many liberties with the story that render it far inferior to better versions I'm saving for later like the 1951 Alastair Sim version and the 1984 George C. Scott version.

I've read the original Dickens story and seen the other two versions you mentioned. Scrooge is still my favorite version of A Christmas Carol.

 

[Jack P]

Six Million Dollar Man-S4

 

[KPmusmag]

Thirty years ago tonight (12/16/1987) Julie Andrews' wonderful The Sound of Christmas aired on ABC. Watching it tonight.

 

[Jack P]

A Christmas Carol (1951-The superior IMO Alastair Sim version)

Love Boat-S1
Honeymooners "Classic 39" Christmas episode.

 

[Ron1973]

At some point tomorrow, I'll watch "The Week Before Christmas" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.

 

[Jack P]

Loretta Young Show-"Christmas Stopover"
Loretta Young Show-"Three And Two"

 

[Vic Pardo]

Although I didn't watch it, the live musical of "A Christmas Story" that ran last night got me to thinking of an old "Dragnet" episode, “The Big .22 for Christmas” (S2 E7, Dec. 18, 1952), in which a boy gets a .22 rifle for Christmas, with tragic results. It ends with this memorable line from Joe Friday: “You don’t give a kid a gun for Christmas.”

 

[Jack P]

Christmas 1984 tonight.

Perry Como Christmas in England (the first Christmas special I ever recorded)
Christmas In Washington

And also the George C. Scott "Christmas Carol" (Blu-Ray) which first aired in 1984.

 

[MartinP.]

Watched (for the first time ever):
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Season 6, Episode 13
Christmas episode with Steve Lawrence and cameos with Steve Allen.

 

[Jack P]

First I went back to 1985.

Charlie Brown Christmas
Twas The Night Before Christmas (both are my personal CBS recordings with ads from 1985)

Bob Hope Christmas-1985.
Christmas In Washington-1985

And then I downloaded and converted the Julie Andrews 1987 special mentioned above. Boy do I regret not having recorded this at the time. I have actually had the "Sound Of Christmas" CD she did that was released in 1990 in Hallmark stores only but never knew she had previously done a special of the same name, with orchestrations done by Ian Fraser who also orchestrated two of her Christmas CDs (and also did the orchestra on the Christmas In Washington specials). It was a welcome thing to discover and I only regret my mother wasn't alive to watch this as well since she would have loved it.

Tomorrow night I am going to finally dive into the "key" episodes with an evening/late night marathon.

 

[Jack P]

Well eased my way into the "bigger" episodes but still saving the very best for last either tomorrow or next day.

Dick Van Dyke Show-S3
Alfred Hitchcock Presents-S1
Twilight Zone-S2 ("Night Of The Meek")
Twilight Zone-S3 ("Changing Of The Guard")
Wagon Train-S3 ("St. Nicholas Story")
Have Gun Will Travel-S1 (The best piece of episodic TV Gene Roddenberry ever wrote)
Have Gun Will Travel-S6
Daniel Boone-S2

 

[Charles Ellis]

Loretta Young Show-"Christmas Stopover"
Loretta Young Show-"Three And Two"

I remember seeing "Three and Two"- that's the one as Loretta as a nun working at a hospital on Christmas!

 

[Jack P]

Final two Christmas episodes of regular series for me. Anything else will be either movies or specials.

Dr. Kildare-S1 ("Season To Be Jolly"). Simply powerful and poignant and unmakable in today's world alas.

Dragnet-S2. ("The Christmas Story"). Joe Friday's simple, "Are they, father?" line at the end also packs a wallop for me.

 

[Flashgear]

Please forgive this, as it's not Christmas on Film or TV related, but this painting is so evocative and beautifully rendered, I thought you folks would appreciate it...a striking Christmas illustration by Alex Raymond USMC, for 1951, and right in the middle of the Korean War...Merry Christmas!