There are Christmas specials and there are Christmas episodes. This is about the latter. I have selected my ten favorite Christmas episodes from sitcom past. I limit this to sitcoms because…well, I like sitcoms. (This stuff isn’t complicated.)
Happy Days: Guess Who’s Coming To Christmas
In my “Happy Days Epics” series I have noted that I prefer the “filmed in front of a live audience, Fonz-centric and catchphrase laden” iteration of the series as opposed to the more cinematic, nostalgic first two seasons. But this episode is absolutely an all-time classic. Fonz is about to spend the holiday alone when Richie figures out a way to get The Fonz to spend Christmas at the Cunninghams. This is very early in the series so Mr. and Mrs. C (more so Mr. C) are more than a bit weary at having this motorcycle-driving guest. My favorite part of the episode is when Mr. C reveals to Fonzie that it was Richie, not him who realized that Fonzie’s travel plans were bogus.
This episode, like the first two seasons, featured The Cunningham That Time Forgot. Chuck brings his laundry home, and then gets the crap beat out of him by a mechnical Santa.
“Happy Days” did a few Christmas episodes over the years..but none of them matched the warmth and humor of “Guess Who’s Coming To Christmas”.
The Lucy Show: Together For Christmas
This first-season episode of Lucille Ball’s second TV series portrays a rarely seen Christmas conundrum. Lucy (in this series a widow) and her friend Viv (divorce) plan for their first Christmas together. But each of them have very different Christmas traditions. Lucy is a live tree turkey and Viv is a tin tree goose.
Lucy and Viv have other disagreements about when the presents get opened, how the tree is trimmed, what to stuff the bird, and so forth. Eventually, things get out of hand, as only they can with Lucy and Viv involved.
It’s an interesting and very funny look at the way we build traditions in our celebration of Christmas, and how strange and just plain wrong other peoples’ traditions are.
For the record, we’re a turkey/artificial tree/sausage stuffing/open one present Christmas Eve family.
The Dick Van Dyke Show: “The Alan Brady Show” Presents
Well, with the star of the show having just turned 100 I simply can’t exclude this one. Is it my favorite “DVD” show? Not by a mile. But any “Dick Van Dyke Show” is swell, and there are some fun moments in this one. Such as this loving tribute to Alan Brady:
And that old favorite, “We All Are Fine Musicians”, a routine used on two different episodes of the series.
Among the other routines are a song and dance with Rob and Laura; a comedy routine with Buddy and Sally; and a…uh…decent rendering of “The Little Drummer Boy” by Ritchie Petrie.
“The Dick Van Dyke Show” went to the song and dance well quite a bit. But when you have a singer like Rose Marie, a dancer like Mary Tyler Moore, a cello player like Morey Amsterdam and an all-around entertainer like Dick Van Dyke…well, heck, why not use that talent? I spent an insane amount of last weekend watching a “Dick Van Dyke Show” 100th birthday marathon. It’s a show I simply will never tire of.
The Honeymooners: Twas The Night Before Christmas
“The Honeymooners” started out as a short sketch on a variety show so old that the network it was on doesn’t exist anymore.
Gleason hit the big time on CBS in 1952 with a bigger, fancier variety show. The Honeymooners were back, with Audrey Meadows as a recast Alice Kramden. Some of those “Jackie Gleason Show” Honeymooners sketches ran 45 minutes or more. In 1955, Gleason decided to make “The Honeymooners” its own weekly series. After 39 episodes Gleason told CBS and his sponsor that they would soon run out of ideas…so he went back to the variety show for one more year. Then in 1963 he moved the show to Miami Beach, where it lasted (sometimes with Honeymooners, sometimes not) until 1970.
Why do I tell you this? Because in the days before VCRs, DVRs or other type devices, television producers found nothing wrong with reusing scripts. This was especially the case with the 1950’s variety show sketches which were seen only once and never repeated. (Well, until Gleason trotted out the “Lost Episodes”, but that’s another story for another day.)
The punch line of this episode is that both Ralph and Ed Norton buy their wives an orange juice squeezer shaped like Napoleon. And that same joke is used in at least five times from 1950 to 1978.
This episode is just perfect. There’s comedy, there’s pathos…and the ending is…breathtaking. Ralph’s comments about Christmas are about as good as a thing like this gets. And after the episode, we get a surprise bow from Gleason, Carney, Meadows and Randolph. The Fab 4 of situation comedy.
Saved By The Bell: Home For Christmas Parts 1 & 2
Don’t be a hater.
My sister got me into this show when she was the right age to watch it. I don’t think I have ever been the right age to watch it. But for whatever reason this is a must-watch for me.
Zack, you see, bumps into a girl named Laura at the mall and they become friends. It turns out that she is homeless, as is her father. Zack and the gang get her a job at Mr. Moody’s Store For Men. (Get it? Moody? Cause he’s a grouch.) But when Moody hears that Laura is homeless he fires her.
The B-stories include A.C. Slater’s ineptitude with gift wrapping and LIsa’s volunteerism at the hospital. Oh, and Screech is just Screeching to beat the band.
When Laura learns she is fired she runs away but Zack, his Mom and the Bayside gang track her and her father down. The Morris family (well, Mom anyway…Zack never seems to have both parents in one episode) welcome Laura and her dad. It’s a happy, promising ending.
So why do I love this so much? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the nostalgia of Christmas shopping at the mall….maybe the Bayside mall performance of “A Christmas Carol” (with Slater as Tiny Tim) reminds me of our Main Street Players production of the yuletide classic. Beats me.
The Andy Griffith Show: Christmas Story
Andy and Barney are just about to sneak away from the courthouse when crotchety old store owner Ben Weaver drags in the Muggins family for making what the Baldwin Sisters called “The Recipe”. Andy puts the family in jail, but also decides to move his Christmas party to cells one and two. Barney, a spirited albeit anemic Santa Claus, is joined by Aunt Bee and Andy’s one-season ladyfriend Ellie, the town druggist.
Grumpy old Ben keeps triyng to get in trouble, and the gang let him go time and again, as a token of yuletide charity. Eventually Andy figures out that Ben is just a lonely old man. He is welcomed to the party and even brings toys for the Muggins kids.
The Simpsons: Marge Be Not Proud
The very first episode of “The Simpsons” was a Christmas story. But I think this one is better.
Bart, in major desire of a new video game, attempts to do a little five finger discount. The burly security guy at Try-And-Save catches Bart in the act, and warns him never to set foot in the store again.
And, because this is a sitcom, the very next day Marge and Homer bring the kids to Try-And-Save for Christmas photos. Woe to any kid who has ever been caught in a situation where he may be exposed for his evils. I’ve been there. You get the red cheeks, sick stomach…my particular response is hot ears. Hot ears if I’m in trouble, hot ears if I’m mad, and yes hot ears if I’m embarassed. The episode depicts this scenario beautifully.
Also incredibly well told is the way Bart feels seperation from Marge. In the beginning of the show Bart is irritated by Marge’s good night routine. But he is saddened when, after the shoplifting incident, she gives him a terse “Goodnight Bart.”
The lovely ending of the episode shows that Bart has had a photo of himself made so it can be placed next to the photo of his family. Boy, The Simpsons was just amazing in the 90’s.
By the way, if anyone’s asking I want Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge.
Bewitched: A Vision Of Sugar Plums
It figures that Samantha Stevens would be friendly with Santa Claus. After all, over 8 seasons of “Bewitched” she met Willie Mays, Benjamin Franklin, Boyce and Hart, Henry The 8th, George Washington and…well, it’s a long list.
In this classic season one episode Sam and Darrin host a young orphan boy (Billy Mumy) for Christmas. But the lad does not believe in Santa Claus, so Sam has to do some nose-twitching (SFXl TINKLE-TINKLE-TEE) to set the kid straight.
This YouTube video is a colorized version of what was originally a black and white episode. Ironically, they remade this episode word for word in color a season or two later.
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show: It’s Garry Shandling’s Christmas Show
How on earth can you not like a Christmas episode that begins with four-part harmony, and one of the vocalists is Tom Petty?! I’d love to show that to you but tragically it just isn’t out there. Fortunately I have the whole series on DVD.
I am an unabashed Garry Shandling fan. Both of his series are classics in different ways. “The Larry Sanders Show” was a groundbreaking series that spawned a litany of single-camera “walk-and-talk” shows and showed HBO how worthwhile original programming could be. “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” took the 1st person “talk to the audience” conceit initiated by George Burns and multiplied it about a jillion times.
In this episode Garry’s Mom gifts him with a watch owned by his late father. But later on after the Christmas party Garry realizes the watch has been stolen. Well, not so, it turns out. Garry’s Mom could not bear to be without it. It’s a warm story with lots of typical goofyness. Shandling grew frustrated with the show’s frequent sketch-comedy vibe. You can see in some episodes, including this one, the effort to tell more substantial stories.
SCTV: Christmas Episodes
Okay, okay, SCTV isn’t a sitcom. It’s a sketch show. But it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to!
“SCTV” is a brilliant satire on television that really only works for you if you lived through the 70s and 80s. They spoof every genre, every personality, every local TV fumble, and on and on. Here are three of my favorite SCTV Christmas sketches. Honestly, they’re all great.
Let me tell you, for the last two weeks I have been barking out Christmas and New Years greetings in a fierce gallop toward my Christmas vacation.. Every time I do these things I am reminded of this hilarious commercial.
And there they are! Christmas episodes! Ho ho ho!