Favorite Christmas Episodes

Hope Walmart will have season 17. I will hold off a little on Mangus from season one, until I hopefully can get season 17., then I can play Mangus and P.S. Murry Christmas together.

 

Are there any new classic tv Christmas specials being released this season? I love watching those and there are still many unreleased.

 

I also have a Donny & Marie, another Carol Burnet, innumerable kids Christmas specials, and the Johnny Cash Christmas specials. Personally, I’d most want more of the many species Perry Como did.

 

Watching the seventh and last season of Adam-12 and watched the episode: Christmas.

Ray, I'd love to have more of Perry Como's Christmas specials! YouTube has a number of Christmas specials including a couple from The Carpenters and The Osmonds.

 

There are also a couple of good Johnny Cash Christmas specials on YouTube.

 

My favorite Christmas specials are these animated ones...
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (NBC)
The Flintstones - "Christmas Flintstone" (1964) (ABC)
Frosty the Snowman (1969) (CBS)
A Christmas Story (1972) (syndication)
Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976) (ABC)
A Flintstone Christmas (1977) (NBC)
Casper's First Christmas (1979) (NBC)
Yogi's First Christmas (1980) (syndication)
Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper (1982) (CBS)
The Smurfs Christmas Special (1982) (NBC)
Christmas Comes to Pac-Land (1982) (ABC)
The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries - "The Nutcracker Scoob" (Parts I and II) (1984) (ABC)
A Flintstone Family Christmas (1993) (ABC)

~Ben

 

I actually have original broadcast tapings of the 1984 and 1986 Como specials (the latter was his last ever network TV special). The vintage ones I love most though are the "Christmas In Washington" specials from 1982 to 1992.

 

Good find, but apparently very expensive these days

 

The above is included in this packaging in Time Life's "Best of" collection, along with a bonus disc. It hasn't been made available at retail. The 1993 retro special "Rowan & Martin's Past Christmas Present" was available through PBS pledge drives at one time (all three retro specials together) and an online site since retired.

 

Is this from 1993 then? Is the Christmas CONTENT GOOD?

 

^^^

The content in that picture above is the three Christmas episodes Laugh-In aired:
Season 2-Episode 12
Season 5-Episode 12
Season 6-Episode 13

The 1993 retro special titled "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Past Christmas Present" aired in an hour slot and was comprised of material from mostly the Season 2 episode, some of Season 5 and nothing from Season 6. It also had some commentary from Laugh-In alumni and a couple outtakes leading in and out of commercials.

It's hard to judge a Laugh-In episode for content to someone else because people are so different and Laugh-In could veer wildly from one thing to another. Also, their Christmas themed episodes didn't adhere strictly to holiday content. One of their most interesting takes on the holiday was in an October episode in Season 2 when the cast, all dressed in Santa Claus garb, sang about the merchandising of Christmas starting sooner than ever in the song, "We're Coming to Get You Earlier This Year." Over fifty years later it's worse and the song seems so quaint!

 

Thanks for the explanation, Martin, as I couldn't see any pic above and so didn't know what you we referring to previously. I might pick this up at some point, as I don't have the Laugh-In complete series set and this might be a good a way of checking this series out (only having seen some clips here and there).

 

^^^

Be advised that this isn't available at retail. It was only available as part of Time Life's "Best of" Laugh-In release. I've seen it on eBay by itself, though I didn't notice what the prices were.

 

My Christmas TV screenings have begun with the first holiday episode of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW from the first season airing only two days before Christmas in 1972.

I didn't remember it at all, so it was fun to see, but it actually was just OK. The story involved Bob's group therapy patients suffering from holiday depression and his inviting them over to his house for a Christmas Eve "party" in an attempt to cheer them up and himself and Emily too because they were also feeling kind of lonely and down. The idea of it was good, that the Christmas spirit ultimately wins them over and they at least all had each other, but what really bothered me is that only three of his regular group therapy cast were in the show. The rest were unknowns that we never see again. Granted, it was still early in the first season, but they had already aired episodes with the regulars, including Jack Riley, John Fiedler and Noam Pitlik, none of whom were in this particular episode. I would have loved to hear Jack Riley's notorious curmudgeon "Mr. Carlin" trying to sing O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM which they do in the show.

So mixed feelings about that one, but onwards and upwards with more Christmas episodes to follow. Looking forward to following this thread now that the holiday season is upon us!

 

Good stuff, guys! Shall be starting my holiday-themed viewing next weekend - though sadly, without my copy of that Deadline set, as that won't arrive here in Osaka until early January, when my folks send a yearly care package from the U.S., loaded with misc. goodies, including a bunch of DVDs and Blu-Rays that I've ordered over the past several months. Nonetheless, I've got some good stuff lined up for first-time viewings, as well as the usual repeat favorites.

 

Anybody know the Christmas episode “P.S. Murry Christmas” from the season 17 of Gunsmoke?​