Favorite Christmas Episodes (1 Viewer)

[ThatDonGuy]

/t/295423/favorite-christmas-episodes/30#post_3874126
I plan on starting earlier than I did last year. I let the time fly by last year and didn't see some of my annual favorites.
Additions to the

menu for this year:
EIGHT IS ENOUGH (2 parter)

I don't remember ever seeing this in two parts - the only time I saw it was back in the days when networks still aired movies regularly, and ABC aired it in a two-hour movie block one year.

Here are some of my favorites (in fact, I usually have a Christmas Eve DVD marathon):

The Dick Van Dyke Show - "The Alan Brady Show Presents" (you don't know what true hell is until you watch this episode on TV the one time each year it airs, and invariably the last song is cut for time. Okay, it's in another episode as well - the one where they are on vacation and have to perform when Rob accidentally injures the hotel's headliner - but it's just not the same.)

A number of Nicktoon Christmas episodes:
Ren & Stimpy - "Son of Stimpy" (but not the John Kricfalusi-less "A Scooter for Yaksmas")
Rocko's Modern Life - "Rocko's Modern Christmas (Can't Squeeze Cheer from a Cheese Log)" (in fact, the episode gave me the idea to take down my Christmas tree on 12/26 every year)
Hey Arnold - "Arnold's Christmas"
CatDog - "A Very CatDog Christmas"
The Wild Thornberrys - "Have Yourself a Thornberry Little Christmas"
My Life as a Teenage Robot - "A Robot for All Seasons"
Invader Zim - "The Most Horrible Christmas Ever"
As Told by Ginger - "An 'Even Steven' Holiday Special"
All Grown Up - "The Finster who Stole Christmas" (they should have found a way to have Angelica in it...and it is notable for being one of very few Nickelodeon shows to use the word "God"; in fact, in the same episode, Chuckie refers to God as "the burning-bush guy")

Most of the Fox "Animation Domination" Christmas episodes (although not the ones that are just "generic winter" episodes with "Merry Christmas!" tacked onto the end, like "Skinner's Sense of Snow" (the one where Principal Skinner and the kids are snowbound inside the school, and I don't have any King of the Hill episodes)

(Some other things I watch/listen to every year (all times Pacific):
7 AM - the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Chapel, Cambridge University (the only problem is, for the past few years, they have gone so long that they interrupt it in the middle of the last hymn)
1 PM - "The Pope is too frail to do a Midnight Mass, so it starts at 10 PM local time" from St. Peter's Basilica
sometime that evening - one of two versions of The Nutcracker; either a BBC version recorded in 2000, or a recent PBS one set in San Francisco during the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915)

 

[Jeff Willis]

Dick Van Dyke Show S3 - "The Alan Brady Show Presents"
Hadn't seen this one in a couple of years. Always a good one.
Moonlighting S2 - "Twas the Episode Before Christmas"
Never seen this one until yesterday as I'd not gotten to it in the dvd set. This one's very good, with a great closing carol and scene.

 

[Jack P]

The incredibly short running time of that Moonlighting episode is not the result of editing. They really did run that short! (a testament to the crazy production of the show in general).
Tonight I had a marathon of the Christmas episodes from the first four seasons of "The Bob Newhart Show", which had to be one of the first shows to do a different one every season. The S4 one has a hilarious moment when Bob is in the hospital getting his tonsils out and is listening to the radio where a saccharine announcer is gushing about spending Christmas with the family and enjoying the Christmas dinner, which is getting Bob on-edge to hear this from his position, and then in one of the finest traditions of how great comedy writing is giving you the unexpected at a great moment, the announcer then in his soothing tones goes, "And now, for the next minute, sit back and relax to the sounds of a Conelrad alert" with its enusing loud hum. Puts me on the floor every time!

 

[Gary OS]

Between yesterday and today I watched:

Ozzie & Harriet - "Piano for the Fraternity", "Boy's Christmas Money", "Day After Christmas", "The Miracle" and "Lost Christmas Gift".
Six Million Dollar Man - "Bionic Christmas Carol"
Colgate Comedy Hour w/Abbott & Costello - Christmas episode
Twilight Zone - "Night of the Meek" (not as impressed with this one as I had previously remembered)
Crossroads - "Our First Christmas Tree"
Daniel Boone - "The Christmas Story"
Stagecoast West - "Three Wise Men"
Little House on the Prairie - "Christmas at Plum Creek"


Gary "back to more viewing" O.

 

[Jack P]

Monday night I watched my personal recording of a wonderful but obscure 1980 TV movie "A Christmas Without Snow" with Michael Learned and John Houseman. It's a nice story of the members of a San Francisco church choir and their lives in a month leading up to Christmas as the demanding choir director Houseman (in another variation of his Professor Kingsfield role) whips them into a performance of Handel's "Messiah".
Tonight:
Night Gallery S2-"The Messiah Of Mott Street". I would call this the perfect Interfaith Christmas episode ever written.
Dragnet S2-"The Christmas Story". Harry Morgan's death today at age 96 meant that tonight had to be the night for watching this treasure of the season. RIP, Harry and Godspeed.
Adam-12 S1-"Log 122." Nothing profound, just a nice perfuctory tale of Reed and Malloy's duty on December 24, with a subplot of providing donated toys to a needy family.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Last night

CBS "Holiday Treats" DVD:
1) I Love Lucy: The I.L.L. Christmas Story
2) Honeymooners: Twas the Night Before Christmas
3) Andy Griffith Show: A Christmas Story
4) Brady Bunch: The Voice of Christms
Family S2 - "On the First Day of Christmas"
Flintstones S5 - "Christmas Flintstone"
Lone Ranger S5 - "Christmas Story"
"I wonder what Wilma has under the tree this year?"

 

[Charles Ellis]

As JackP noticed, it's gonna be tough watching that Dragnet episode with Mr. Morgan's passing. Speaking of which, it's a shame that his first TV success December Bride (and its spinoff Pete & Gladys which he did with Cara Williams) have yet to see a DVD release! People in my age group (I'm 46) and younger know him best from M*A*S*H and Dragnet, but there are many who first saw him as Pete Porter, and neither show has been seen on TV for years!
Back to Dragnet: the first version of the Christmas story with the 'lost baby Jesus' was filmed on color for posterity by Jack Webb, but apparently only a B/W print is available in PD DVD sets. Does the color version still exist- if so, does Universal have it in its vaults?

 

[Mark Collins]

Knots Landing Fans Help!!! I am crazy or I thought Knots had a Christmas Episode in Season 2 maybe even 3. I do not own the show but did watch it up until the 1986-87 season began. Family Fans that like me have are own recordings of the series had the treat of 3 more Christmas Episodes.
I watched I Love Lucy but still have the Lucy Show season 1 and season 4 to watch. I am saving Voyage to the last. I like it that much. Love Fred and the Tree Jeff!!!

 

[Jeff Willis]

Knots Landing Fans Help!!! I am crazy or I thought Knots had a Christmas Episode in Season 2 maybe even 3. I do not own the show but did watch it up until the 1986-87 season began. Family Fans that like me have are own recordings of the series had the treat of 3 more Christmas Episodes.
I watched I Love Lucy but still have the Lucy Show season 1 and season 4 to watch. I am saving Voyage to the last. I like it that much. Love Fred and the Tree Jeff!!!

Mark,
I think KL has 5 Christmas-theme episodes:
Season 3, episode #6, "One of a Kind" originally aired Dec 17, 1981
Season 8, episode #14, "Gifts" originally aired Dec 11, 1986
Season 9, episode #12, "Weak Moment", originally aired Dec 17, 1987
Season 12, episode #12, "A Merry Little Christmas" originally aired Dec 20, 1990
Season 13, episode #11, "Holiday On Ice", originally aired Dec 19, 1991
Thanks (emotes), that's one of Gary's favorite animated shows, also near the top of my animated list. "yabba dabba doo!"
I watched the Christmas episode last night and I recalled that one from my 1st viewing of it long ago.

from "Bedrock"

 

[WaveCrest]

Originally Posted by Jeff Willis ../../../../../../t/295423/favorite-christmas-episodes/60#post_3877737
Mark,
I think KL has 5 Christmas-theme episodes:
Season 3, episode #6, "One of a Kind" originally aired Dec 17, 1981
Season 8, episode #14, "Gifts" originally aired Dec 11, 1986
Season 9, episode #12, "Weak Moment", originally aired Dec 17, 1987
Season 12, episode #12, "A Merry Little Christmas" originally aired Dec 20, 1990
Season 13, episode #11, "Holiday On Ice", originally aired Dec 19, 1991

Thanks for posting this list Jeff. Could only remember three Christmas episodes Knots did ("Gifts", "A Merry Little Christmas" and "Holiday on Ice"). Out of those three, the Season 12 episode is my favourite festive Knots episode (when I first saw this episode I knew it was a great episode, but the end montage with Michele Lee singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas over it, topped off a classic episode (the bit which stuck in my mind from that montage was the end scene, with Mack seeing Jason outside his house.

"Holiday on Ice" was a terrible episode, from what was one of my favourite seasons of Knots. "Gifts" was from I think the Lotus Point era of the show. Pretty good episode.

Can't remember Season 3's "One of a Kind". That season was a bit grim. Think I dropped out of the show until towards the end of the season. Season 9's "Weak Moment" doesn't ring a bell either.

 

[KPmusmag]

Watched one last night that I had totally forgotten about - Season 2 Episode 11 of STARSKY & HUTCH called "Little Girl Lost" The girl is a young Kristy McNichol, and the boys strive to provide a Christmas for her after her father is murdered. A touching story, it was originally broadcast on Christmas Day, 1976.

 

[Charles H]

GOING MY WAY has an episode called "Keep an Eye on Santa Claus" Guest Starring James Dunn, Cloris Leachman, and Frank MacHugh, who played a Priest in the original movie. PS: it's a terrific series.

 

[Professor Echo]

Last year's Christmas episode of DR. WHO immediately jumped into my Top 5 Christmas episodes of all time. It was stunning.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Made some progress on my list this weekend.
BEVERLY HILLBILLIES S1: "Home for Christmas / There's No Place Like Home"
BEVERLY HILLBILLIES S2: "Christmas at the Clampetts"
MOONLIGHTING S2: "Twas the Episode Before Christmas" This one was the best of the 2 from this series, imo. The closing scene was a nice idea.
MOONLIGHTING S3: "It's a Wonderful Job"
OZZIE AND HARRIET S5: "The Busy Christmas" The closing scene in this one was perfect with Rick N performing the classic "The Christmas Song" holiday tune.
OZZIE AND HARRIET S1: "Late Christmas Gift" I liked this ending as well. Good script idea.
PETTICOAT JUNCTION S1: "Cannonball Christmas" It's been a long time since watching any episodes of this series. I had forgotten that the original "Billie Joe" wasn't performed by Meredith MacRae. I didn't remember Jeannine Riley in that role for S1-3.

 

[Gary OS]

Great stuff, folks! I continue to enjoy reading other posters' picks for viewing. Glen, I did watch the Doctor Who episode today and enjoyed it quite a bit. Very well down for a sci-fi Christmas show. Jeff, as always you are picking some great shows and many are my favorites as well.


Gary "only 12 days left for me to watch episodes - must start prioritizing now!" O.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Great stuff, folks!  I continue to enjoy reading other posters' picks for viewing.  Glen, I did watch the Doctor Who episode today and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Very well down for a sci-fi Christmas show.  Jeff, as always you are picking some great shows and many are my favorites as well.
Gary "only 12 days left for me to watch episodes - must start prioritizing now!" O.

No surprise as you got me plugged into this Christmas episode scene

I'd have made more headway into my list but something keeps distracting me on the TV in the evenings

Time to get some wrapping done this week

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Willis /t/295423/favorite-christmas-episodes/90#post_3878892
No surprise as you got me plugged into this Christmas episode scene

I'd have made more headway into my list but something keeps distracting me on the TV in the evenings

Time to get some wrapping done this week

Thanks, Jeff. More fantastic emotes to make the season brighter!

I watched the Odd Couple and Lucy Show (S1) Christmas episodes tonight. Hopefully more later.


Gary "gotta start working on some Lassie Christmas episodes since there's about 8 of them" O.

 

[smithb]

Began my first ever Christmas TV episode night tonight.
For the first night I made it an Elinor Donahue tribute with:
- FKB, S1
- FKB, S3
- FKB, S5
- Andy Griffith, S1
I think going forward I wil skip FKB, season 1 since season 5 does a look back at the first season episode, and the cuts made to the season 5 episode to fit in the extra material weren't as important to me as the cuts made in season 1 to shorten it for syndication.
Now i have to look at the list to figure out the theme for tomorrow.

 

[DaveHof]

Tonight I watched "The Girl in the Emporium," a holiday episode of "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet." Toward the end, there's a moment when Rick is introduced to a pretty salesgirl played by Lori Saunders, still billed under her actual name of Linda Marie Hines. When he sees her, he turns to Wally and utters the old 'Amos & Andy' catchphrase "Holy Mackeral!" It's so unexpected coming from him, and it cracks me up every single time.

 

[smithb]

Tonight I went for three episodes of MASH and one of Night Court (S5).