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Movies, specials, cartoons, vintage TV shows will keep you watching for yuletide cheer
By Diane Werts
Newsday
Published on Sunday, Dec 07, 2008
Christmas has come a long way from those primitive days of yore.
And I don't mean 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. I mean 20 years back on the tube.
When I wrote my first column saluting a TV Christmas, collating the episodes was no biggie. Call a few networks, scan a couple of cable schedules, don't forget public TV — done.
There was no TNT then, no TV Land, no Hallmark Channel, no Cartoon Network, no ABC Family. The mere two dozen cable channels that did exist were simple, single-minded operations. HBO pretty much showed movies, while TBS ran scratched-up old sitcom prints.
Back then, our entire list of every holiday-themed episode, special, movie and more would fit on one page. In regular-size type. The notion of a hundred-channel cable universe was so far-fetched that by the time Bruce Springsteen sang 57 Channels (and Nothin' On) in 1992, the concept still sounded futuristic.
Fast forward to 2008, and now that hundred-channel fantasy is waaaay back in the rearview mirror. Many viewers can choose from 200 channels, or 300, delivered via cable, satellite or fiber-optics. And though we still like to complain there's ''nothin' on,'' there usually is — some cool nugget nestled in the far reaches of digital-tier channels like Investigation Discovery and Showtime Beyond.
That's certainly true for Christmas TV (and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, and all those other seasonal celebrations). In 2008, you can turn on the tube at practically any December hour of the day or night and find something holiday-themed. Why nobody has yet launched a Christmas Channel is beyond me. (Wait! Don't steal my idea!) The hunger for holiday programs — in both broadcasters hyping ratings and yule nuts savoring the season — seems boundless and growing.
ABC Family doesn't just do that 25 Days of Christmas stunt of nightly holiday shows anymore. The channel's lead-in Countdown to Christmas event started Nov. 16. (Full lineup at http://community.abcfamily.go.com/25-days-christmas.)
Lifetime and Hallmark Channel are going whole hog, too. The event called Fa La La La Lifetime features holiday movies daily at 2 and 9 p.m., and all day on the weekends (info at http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/fa-la-la-la-lifetime). Hallmark Channel has its Home for the Holidays festival of back-to-back yule movies every night at 9, then runs them around the clock Dec. 23-27 (see http://hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/shows/holiday_08.html).
Vintage holiday sitcom and drama episodes used to be rerun randomly, but in recent years, they've been found festively stacked into all-day events — like this year's Merrython on TV Land (tonight, Dec. 21, 24-25) and FX's Happy Holiday Marathon (Saturday).
Even preschoolers get marathon treatment with Nick Jr.'s Frosty Fridays (9 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Friday and Dec. 19), while older kids get a week of Nickelodeon holiday episodes like iCarly and The Naked Brothers Band (Dec. 15-18 at 8 and 8:30 p.m.).
And if that's not enough, you can always try watching Christmas shows over the Web, where old holidays now go to stream 24/7. Among the free online options:
• http://video.aol.com/video-search/query/in2tv:christmas — Sitcoms like Welcome Back, Kotter and Alice, dramas like Eight Is Enough and The FBI, seasonal cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and Christmas Comes to Pac-land, movies like The Gathering, more.
• http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=christmas— Holiday episodes of Party of Five, Lou Grant, Married With Children, more.
• http://community.abcfamily.go.com/watch/25-days-christmas — Movies like Snow and Chasing Christmas, cartoons like The Happy Elf and Eloise, more.
• http://tv4u.com/News.asp — Old-time holidays from Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Red Skelton, Liberace, Annie Oakley and other shows; plus old animation, yule-log burning, more.
• http://www.archive.org/details/movies — Search ''Christmas TV'' to find Ozzie & Harriet, Dragnet, Studio One staging of The Nativity, more early TV treats.
• http://tvparty.com/xmas.html — Reminiscences and clips from rarities like Amos 'n' Andy and Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Happy holiday viewing — wherever you do it!
Animated faves
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Monday and Dec. 16 at 8 p.m., ABC) — The Peanuts gang in 1965's low-key cartoon classic.
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (Wednesday at 8 p.m., ABC Family) — Fred Astaire narrates 1970 stop-motion tale.
The Year Without a Santa Claus (Thursday at 8 p.m., ABC Family) — Mickey Rooney in 1974 stop-motion special.
Frosty the Snowman (Friday at 8 p.m., CBS) — Jimmy Durante voices 1969 cartoon.
Olive the Other Reindeer (Saturday at 6 p.m., Cartoon) — Simpsons creator Matt Groening's 1999 cartoon.
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas — (Dec. 23 at 8:30 p.m., ABC) The classic 1966 cartoon narrated by horror movie king Boris Karloff.
Check listings for voluminous cable encores of these and other favorites.
Holiday movies
It's a Wonderful Life (Saturday at 8 p.m.; Christmas Eve at 8 p.m., NBC) — James Stewart in 1946 holiday tearjerker.
A Very Brady Christmas (Dec. 20 at 9 a.m., ABC Family) — Sitcom bunch reunites in 1988 TV movie.
Elf (Dec. 20 at 8 p.m., CBS) — Will Ferrell plays a man raised as Santa's elf who goes to New York in search of his true identity.
White Christmas (Dec. 23 at 6 and 9 p.m., ABC Family) — Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in 1954 musical.
Nightmare Before Christmas (Dec. 23 at 2:30 a.m., TBS) — Tim Burton's vividly animated comic-horror story about stealing Christmas.
A Christmas Story — Jean Shepherd's 1983 family tale (shot partly in Cleveland) airs on TBS for 24 hours straight starting Christmas Eve at 8 p.m. Marathons|
25 Days of Christmas (Through Dec. 25, ABC Family) — Nightly fest features dozens of animated specials, movies, sitcom episodes. Look for weekend marathons.
Home for the Holidays (all month nightly at 9; Dec. 24-27, 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily, Hallmark). — Back-to-back holiday movies nightly at 9 culminate in four full days of films including Hallmark Hall of Fame dramas like Silver Bells.
Vintage Christmas movies (Friday and Dec. 19 from 8 p.m., Turner Classic Movies) — Family favorites (Little Women Dec. 12 at 10 p.m.) and holiday romances (The Bishop's Wife Dec. 19 at 8 p.m.).
Christmas episodes (Today, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Dec. 21, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Christmas Eve/Day, midnight to 8 p.m.) — Ninth annual Merrython of vintage faves like M*A*S*H, All in the Family, Andy Griffith, Night Court, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Green Acres, Little House on the Prairie.
Christmas movie classics (Dec. 23 from 12:30 p.m., Christmas Eve from 6:15 a.m., TCM) — Four features the first day (including the 1970 musical Scrooge), eight titles the next (1945's Christmas in Connecticut).
New for 2008
Little Spirit: Christmas in New York (Wednesday at 8 p.m., NBC) — New technology enlivens animated musical with Danny DeVito, Lucy Liu, Freddy Rodriguez and Brenda Song.
A Miser Brothers' Christmas (Saturday at 8 p.m., ABC Family) — Mickey Rooney returns in animated Year Without a Santa Claus sequel.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Saturday at 9 p.m., Hallmark) — TV movie with Brooke Burns as a workaholic for whom Henry Winkler plays Christmas Cupid.
Snow 2: Brain Freeze (Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., ABC Family) — TV-movie sequel with Tom Cavanagh reprising his Santa role.
Christmas in Wonderland (Dec. 20 at 8 p.m., ABC Family) — TV movie with Patrick Swayze and Carmen Electra has kids finding crooks' cash.
Our First Christmas (Dec. 20 at 9 p.m., Hallmark) — TV movie about a merged family with John Ratzenberger and Dixie Carter.
Beacon Journal wire services contributed to this report.
Christmas has come a long way from those primitive days of yore.
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