TV Guidance Counselor
TV Guidance Counselor Christmas Special
[LAUGHTER] Wait. You have a TV? No. I just like to read the TV guide. Read the TV guide. Don't need a TV. I wish you a merry, merry Christmas. I wish you a merry, merry war. I wish you a merry Christmas. I like to wish you a merry Christmas. I like to wish you a merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody, and welcome to the TV guidance counselor, Christmas Special. I realize there are other holidays. I'm sorry it's a holiday special. It's whatever. Just to get it out of the way, I am a devout, devout atheist. I know I believe in any religion. I'm not spiritual. It's not organized religion, although I have another problem with that as well. But I have just no belief in any sort of higher power whatsoever. However, that being said, I love Christmas. Absolutely love it. It's sort of a cultural holiday to me, I think. It's very 20th century American in many ways, even though it's sort of a mixture of many different pagan, Celtic, Germanic, and Coca-Colaic, different religions and traditions and all that sort of stuff. But I love this time of year. I always have, and I don't really know why. I think it's sort of the last gasp of fun things before here in New England. We are thrown into a cold, dark winter. And it's also just a nice time of year where people are generally nice to each other. Although growing up, we would often go to my grandparents' house, my maternal grandparents' house, which, as I mentioned in the Thanksgiving edition, was sort of an island of misfit toys, an apt metaphor. And we would have all kinds of odd people there. And one of my uncles used to fight a gentleman named Rocky, pretty much every Christmas Eve. And this wasn't like a for fun exhibition match. This was like we had a bunch of beers. I'm going to go kill that guy, put down this shovel. He's already dead kind of fight. And it was really a great way to kick off Christmas Eve for everyone involved. Now, as you can imagine, Christmas is, or traditionally has been at least, if a TV show is going to have a holiday episode, it's usually a Christmas episode. You see it less often now, mostly because people don't watch television in the same way that they used to. And I think that the production companies don't want to make an episode that is not evergreen. Again, no pun intended. They want to make episodes that could air in July and June. It could be in November. And it's not going to seem out of place. So they're less apt to make Christmas episodes. And I think they also want to sell these things to foreign markets. And so a Christmas episode is not going to sell quite as well. The other thing is that with reruns and repeats generally, you started to see a decline in the Christmas episode. And especially the Christmas special, which was kind of hit its peak in the '70s and late '80s. And actually, the first Christmas special-- and again, if you listen to the show, you know that I don't really do any research at all, this is off the top of my head. I don't have a computer with me. I'm not looking these things up. So I may be wrong, but feel free to email me at kennonikenread.com if you want to correct me here. But I believe the very first special to air more than once was the Mr. Magoo Christmas special. And that really set the precedent for Christmas specials. And it was a remake, essentially, of Charles Dickens and Christmas Carol, which gets remade often. And it aired two years in a row. And that was sort of the first repeating Christmas special, which now is really just what has to happen. I mean, Rudolph airs every year. Charlie Brown airs every year. But it was, I believe, in the late early '60s or mid '60s that Mr. Magoo's Christmas special, which a lot of people forget about. Now, it's actually a pretty good Christmas special. Prior to that, you would actually get either remaking the special every year, instead of rearing it, or just producing new ones every year. So there's an interesting phenomenon when I get to my list in a moment, where Bewitched had a Christmas special almost every year. And two of them are actually the same script. They remade the same Christmas episode about three years later with a different cast, because people weren't watching these things on repeats. Now, I have my master Christmas list. It's about 30 pages of Christmas episodes, Christmas specials that I personally compiled. I am sort of proud of it, but also embarrassed. But if you want to copy, feel free to email me at tvguidenscounselor@gmail.com, or can at icanread.com. Also, there's a couple of great books. There's the Christmas TV companion that I highly recommend that you get, or Christmas on TV. They're both very, very fun books written by a great author. She's got a great blog. I have contributed to that as well. I wrote a story about the "Tick Christmas" episode, which is very good. I'll put links to her site and all that stuff up on tvgottonscounselor.com. Also, in the past, when I've done these special editions, I've released them the day of. This is coming out Friday, so you have some time if you want to watch Christmas episodes all weekend and into Christmas. Now, most of these are probably available on YouTube. I haven't quite looked yet, but anything that I mentioned that is on YouTube, I will put them into a playlist that you can just use, if you like, if you want to watch these specials. And I'll also put links up on tvguidenscounselor.com for you to watch these. Now, before I get into the list here, there's sort of categories of Christmas special. I've found that, especially in the 80s, this came out, Christmas was the one time people cared about the homeless for 10 minutes. And it's probably because the weather was colder, at least for the majority of the United States, but also because we kind of just got homeless in the 70s and 80s. It was sort of a new problem. They weren't a lovable hobo's before that. And some of it was social. It was the cutting of social programs, the economic issue, but some of it was just, that was one of the sort of issues of the week that they would deal with. And if you're going to help somebody, why not help the homeless? Now, the homeless episodes sort of fall into two categories. Well, three really, there's the redemption homeless episode where an unwilling, uncooperative homeless begrudgingly comes over your house and then their heart grows three sizes that day. There is the homeless steals your presence episode where either the homeless has a change of heart and gives them back or you realize with your family that Christmas isn't about presents and the homeless can take them and they need them more than you do. These are both very grinchy and sort of lessons in these two episodes. Then you have the, this might be Santa Claus episode where sometimes a homeless, sometimes not, who says their Santa Claus arrives and then sometimes they turn out to be the real Santa Claus and sometimes they don't and it doesn't matter because everybody learned a wonderful Christmas lesson that day. So you have the homeless at your honor. You also have remakes of a Christmas carol and you have the, it's a wonderful life story, which could be said is almost a remake of a Christmas carol. It's the sort of very similar in structure and so many Christmas episodes fall into those general categories. Those are sort of the main plot lines that tend to get reused in Christmas specials and Christmas episodes. So let me dive into my list now. As always, this list is in no way an order of good to bad and I don't expect these to be the most obscure Christmas things you've ever seen. These are ones that I enjoy watching every year and I want to recommend them. They might be things you've seen in the past and may not have thought of watching again in quite a while. They might be things you never heard of, I don't know, but they're just my suggestions and the things that I watch every year and enjoy every year. Now I will say first and foremost, for some strange reason, I always associate classic Saturday Night Live with Christmas. So like 85 to 90, 91, actually it's not for some reason. I know the exact reason and it's because Comedy Central used to run things called Marythons. Saturday Night Live, Marythons. It would be sort of the Saturday before Christmas and they would run a 24-hour marathon of December episodes of SNL and they tended to be from that era. So I really enjoy those. I always like things like the Hanukkah Harry sketches, a classic, any of the Saturday Night Live Christmas specials. Always fun to watch. I always watch one of them every year. I know they've sort of updated them since the late 90s, early 2000s. I'm not familiar with any of those sketches. I know there's probably ones that everybody loves now. I don't know what they are, but I highly recommend mid-80s, early 90s, SNL to kick off your Christmas season. The next episode is the Adams Family Christmas Adam style. This comes up very often on the show. Whenever the Adams Family comes up, it's very weird. It's sort of, if you're a fan of things like the Nightmare Before Christmas, I think that the Adams Family Christmas no surprise would appeal to you, but it's got a very sweet message. It's also very funny. It's very well written, very, very funny episode. I highly recommend it. Next on my list is Aquatine Hunger Force. They actually have several, several Christmas episodes. They're only 10 minutes long, so you really have no excuse for not putting one of these into a Christmas marathon, but my favorite is called the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future. I won't tell you anything else about it, other than that title, which kind of tells you everything. It is fantastic. It is from the first season of the show. It is episode 17, highly recommended. Next on the list, again, no surprise, two Barney Miller episodes. There's a Christmas story from season three, episode 10, and then there is, as appropriate to what we mentioned before, homeless from season eight, episode seven. Both of these excellent episodes, again, for some reason, and I don't know if this is just a northeast thing or due to my age group, but I always associate sort of New York City and urban city things with Christmas. Don't know why? Could be Home Alone 2, Lost in New York? Could be Scrooge. Don't know why, but Barney Miller really captures what New York was like in my mind at that time, and that's very Christmassy, it's very fun. I also wanna mention Batman Brave and the Bold, which was the third Batman animated series after Batman the Animated Series, which did have a great Christmas episode called Christmas with the Joker that I recommend, but this one is better. Batman Brave and the Bold doesn't get a lot of love. This was a 2000 series. It was sort of aimed more at children, but at its best, stands up right next to Batman the Animated Series, and in many ways often feels like lost episodes of Batman the Animated Series. This one is from the first season, it's episode five, and it's called Invasion of the Secret Santa's, and it is an episode with Red Tornado, a robot, learning the true meaning of Christmas. It's very fun, it's got some genuinely touching, sad moments, highly recommended. On the Animated Show's tip, I wanna go with Bob's Burgers as well. They've done a Christmas episode pretty much every season, and I believe they're on season five. Always funny, always great. Bob's Burgers can't go wrong with that. The Bob Newhart Show was one of those shows that had a Christmas episode every single season. All six seasons had a Christmas episode. They are all worth watching. I highly recommend those as well. Then we get to The Silliness, something I always enjoy, The Brady's, a very Brady Christmas. This was a made-for-TV movie that served as a pilot for the dramatic hour-long series The Brady's, which was a follow-up to The Brady Bunch in the early '90s. It was almost like The Brady's trying to do 30-something. It was a massive failure. However, a very Brady Christmas is pretty entertaining and very odd to see these characters in a very different tone and setting. I highly recommend that. Again, not amazing, but very entertaining. Then we come to maybe the most wonderfully awful Christmas special of all time. This is loved by no one, except for me maybe, and I've spent the last, probably eight Christmases just telling everyone I know to watch this and watching it and showing it to people. It's called Candy Claws, was also known as Santa's Family. This is a mid-80s animated half-hour Christmas special. Very bizarre, very, very dark, but not in a good way. It feels like a 90-minute cartoon that had 60 minutes arbitrarily cut out of it. It makes very little sense. It kind of expects you to just know all these characters, even though you don't. None of us do. I did a lot of research to try and figure out what maniacs made this special. And it was a co-production between the US and Australia, apparently. It was the only animated special they did. It aired in some markets and syndication. It aired on a lot of Fox networks in the late '80s, so it may not have even aired in your area. It has some very awful infectious songs. It has a villain character named Oh No. It essentially teaches you that if people don't love you, you'll die. I mean, it's completely awful and crazy and badly animated. I hunted down an actual doll that they made for Candy Claws that they tried to sell. I have the book adaptation of Candy Claws. I may be the only person on Earth who owns these things, but it is wonderfully awful. I highly, highly recommend you watch Candy Claws, and definitely it's a party thing. You gotta watch it with people. You're gonna watch it once, you're gonna stop it, and you're gonna start it again and watch it all over again and see all kinds of things you missed the first time. Candy Claws, AKA Sena's family. If anyone has seen this, please email me. If you saw this when you were a kid on TV, please email me. I would love to know what you think of this thing. It is completely mental. Then we have maybe the sweetest Christmas episode, and by far my wife's favorite. This is Car 54, where are you? Christmas at the 53rd, it's from the first season, and this episode is another sort of sub-genre of Christmas episodes that I didn't mention that I'll call the, let's put on a show. And sometimes they'll have these, like, the facts of life had one called Christmas in the big house where they had to put on a Christmas play for some people in prison, which also was an episode of Laverne and Shirley, which is also very good, but this Car 54 one kind of has no pretense as to why they're putting on the show. It's just in the precinct, everybody has a skit. I hate to call it a skit. Everybody has a segment. Let's say that, I don't know why I said skit. What happened to me? Everybody has a segment. And the interesting thing is that because Car 54's cast was made up of a lot of old vaudeville and burlesque performers and club comedians, they kind of do their old acts. So you have a magician, you have singing, and it's very sweet and entertaining and funny and also gives you a rare film performance of what some of those older forms of entertainment were like. So you're getting, in some cases, probably the only film performance of some of these acts. And it's very sweet and very nice and entertaining and just sort of a warm blanket. And it's unlike many of the episodes of Car 54. It's very atypical, which is a great show anyway, but it definitely is not like the other episodes. And I highly, highly recommend that. Also wanna recommend pretty much all the community episodes if you're looking for something more recent. Eric Charles Nielsen, our guest last week in the episode where we talk about Christmas, very often, we talk about the community episodes. So if you're looking for an episode where I have a guest on, we talk about Christmas, the Eric Charles Nielsen one is one to check out. Also the Andy Kindler one we talk about Christmas. And next week's Wednesday's episode, next week with Nikki Luparelli, we talk about Christmas. But Eric is on community as Garrett and the Christmas episodes of community. Always, always entertaining. A show that I always love, I think I recommend it every single holiday is Designing Women. And Designing Women has three different Christmas episodes. They are all very worthy, but my favorite is from season six. It is episode 11. It is called Julia and Mary Jo get stuck under a bed. And that's exactly what happens on Christmas. It is very funny, kind of risque for the time, actually, and well worth your time. Dinosaurs, a show that's also come up very frequently on this show, Jim Henson Show. They have an episode called Refrigerator Day. From season two, it's episode 12. It is very critical of Christmas. What a subversive show. You will be shocked at what they got away with on this show. It is very entertaining, also sweet, but a real good message show about commercialism and kind of the usual complaints about Christmas. But, you know, again, I cannot believe they got away with what they got away with on that show. Then, of course, Dolly Parton. What is Christmas without Dolly Parton? My absolute favorite Christmas special, aside from Candy Claws for its bisonest, is from 1990, it's Dolly Parton's Christmas at Home special, which I actually mentioned on this week's episode of Ask Me Another. I was a contestant on NPR's Ask Me Another with over here, Eisenberg, that came out yesterday. So you can hear me talk about this episode on that as well if you're a listener of that show. But my absolute favorite, 1990, Dolly Parton special, Christmas at Home, it is amazing. I can't even explain how amazing it is. It's everything you want about Christmas and Dolly Parton outfits. There's old people, there's cookies, there's Dolly dressed as Rudolph, there's a recreation of the cabin she grew up in, there's a tour of Dolly Wood, it's just amazing. That is definitely the number one Dolly thing that I would recommend watching. She also made a made for TV movie in 1986 called The Smoky Mountain Christmas that is a dramatic role, she's not playing Dolly Parton. It's entertaining, but it is nowhere near as good as The Smoky Mountain Christmas. Then her 1988 show, Dolly, The Variety Show on ABC, which I love, had a Christmas episode, it was episode seven. That is a fine companion piece to Christmas at Home, also very, very good. You'll have, I'll be home with bells on stuck in your head for years. And then she did a Christmas special with Kenny Rogers that was sort of a visual version of the album that they did. Also entertaining, but I would put it number three out of four with Smoky Mountain Christmas being the last one to watch. So Christmas at Home and Dolly, episode seven, can't go wrong with those. Dr. Katz, excellent Christmas episode as well, former guest of this show, Dr. Jonathan Katz. They have a Christmas episode that I highly recommend. It is called Office Management. It is from season two, episode four, very, very entertaining. Drew Carey's show is another show that did great holiday episodes and their Christmas episodes are no exception. Highly recommend those. Ick the Cat two great Christmas episodes, back to back from season two. There was, it's a wonderful nine lives. Obviously a take off one, it's a wonderful life. And it's a very merry Ick's miss, which is also very good, good cartoon, highly recommended. Weirdly one thing I enjoy watching at Christmas is ER, which is a real bummer of a show generally and is a very sad show, especially at Christmas, but they did many, many, many Christmas episodes. Starting in season one with episode 10, the gift in season two, "America Happens Here", season three, "Homeless for the Holidays", again, "The Homeless", they have one pretty much every season and they're very well done, but they will make you cry if you enjoy that, ER. I don't know why I watched them. I definitely feel bad after, but I usually watch those every year. So I recommend them, but at your own risk. Then we get to the facts of life. The complete series box set recently released by Shout Factory, which everyone should own. Growing up, I loved the facts of life. I still do my favorite seasons of the final three seasons, especially when they had over our heads. I think I've spent most of my adult life trying to recreate that store in my home, but I highly, highly recommend all their Christmas episodes. They had ones pretty much every season starting with season five, a Christmas show. Season six, "Christmas in the Big House", which I mentioned earlier, actually has a guest appearance by Joy and roulette former guest of the show here. They play Christmas, they do Christmas play basically for a bunch of prisoners, but my favorite Christmas episode for "Fax of Life" is episode 10 from season nine. It's a wonderful Christmas with Beverly Ann. It's a remake of "Wonderful Life" from the final season of "Fax of Life". It's very, very good. The episode, the season before that Christmas baby where Blair's mother has a baby is a little bit modeling for my tastes, but season nine can't go wrong there. Family ties had three great Christmas episodes. You can't go wrong. And then we get to a show that is not love nearly enough, the famous Teddy Z starring John Cryer and "Fax of Life" alum, Alex Rocco. This particular episode, only had one season the famous Teddy Z. This is season's greetings from Al Floss. It is episode 11. John Cryer is barely in it. It is very Alex Rocco heavy. It is a Christmas Carol retail, but it is very, very funny. It is smart. It is such a great Christmas episode. It might be my favorite retelling of a Christmas Carol on television. It actually has a lot in common with Scrooge. It's very similar to Scrooge, but predates Scrooge. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just saying, if you like Scrooge, you should definitely check it out. Full house, of course, had Christmas episodes every year. Again, if that's your thing, don't forget they had them. Not my favorites, but they could be pretty entertaining in a junk food kind of way. Give me a break. Had Christmas episodes pretty much every season. They're all very, very different. I recommend a Kachinski Christmas. I'm sorry, I'm very bad with the Polish names. From season three, episode 10, if you're just watching one, give me a break episode. The Golden Girls have two excellent, excellent Christmas episodes. My favorite being from season two was the Nightmare Before Christmas. Has a very sweet ending and a diner. It has sort of a science fiction element where it does snow in Florida. There is a hostage situation. It's very, very good. I would then recommend one of my favorites, Growing Pains. Growing Pains had three different Christmas episodes, the best of which was from season two entitled The Kid, in which a homeless runaway teen, who identifies herself only as Nancy Reagan, comes into the Seaver's household and she steals everything. It is, it is a good one. It's a good one. It'll tug at your heartstrings, absolutely. Head of the class, another great show. There's one from the final season. The least loved season, actually, when Billy Connolly took over the show called Vicky's Torn Genes with a G, which is about adopted abandoned children. It's very good. I always watch it every year and I very much enjoy it. I would also recommend It's Gary Shandling Show, which is It's Gary Shandling's Christmas Show. Can't go wrong with Gary Shandling. It's very knowing. It's very wink-wink. It's very, very fun. Then of course, Just the Ten of Us. As everyone knows, Ken Reed's favorite, Just the Ten of Us. They had an episode called A Christmas Story. From season two, it is episode eight. It is a very, very, very good episode. It has everything you want in Just the Ten of Us episode, or everything I want at least. Back to the DC cartoons, Justice League Unlimited had an episode called Comfort and Joy from season two. And it is very good. You get to see a snowball fight between Hot Girl and Green Lantern. You get to see Clark Kent at home with the Kens having a very nice Christmas with Martian Manhunter. Very sweet episode, very good. Actually, I don't think as good as the Brave and the Bold episode, and it kind of has similar themes, but very good, very good, and very watchable. Then of course, Kate and Allie. My favorite Kate and Allie Christmas episode is The Nightmare Before Christmas. From season five, episode 12, Just Watch It. I won't even tell you what it's about, Just Watch It. Life With Bonnie, which was Bonnie Hunt's 2000 series, had some excellent, excellent Christmas episodes. Season two had one called It's A Wonderful Job, which was in It's A Wonderful Life Play, which has Dick Van Patton in it. It's okay, but the better one is Christmas time in the city from season one, episode 12, very sweet, really about sort of finding your family, how your friends are your family, and a really nice episode. Also very funny, highly recommend that. Then we go to the UK for knowing me, knowing you with Alan Partridge, which was Steve Coogan's first series as Alan Partridge, and they had a Christmas episode that is essential, called Knowing Me, Knowing You'll, that sort of bridges the two series of Knowing Me, Knowing You is Fake Talk Show with the more realistic I'm Alan Partridge. It's very funny, it's dark, it's great. If you wanna watch something highly entertaining and awful, I recommend MacGyver, The Madonna. From season five, episode 11, the actual Madonna is involved. It's a living statue, it is pretty insane. It may be the most insane episode of MacGyver, which is saying a lot. Then I would say, Mary Tyler Moore, not a Christmas story from season five, episode 14, excellent episode, one of my favorite episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Highly recommend you Millennium. Midnight of the Century from season two, episode 10, this is a dark show, it was a spin-off of the X-Files. They did some fun Christmas stuff weirdly. There were some comedy episodes, especially in season two. If you're looking for something a little different, well worth watching. The Monkeys did a Christmas show in season two, episode 15, Who Doesn't Love the Monkeys, excellent show. Moonlighting, 'Twas the episode before Christmas. It's from season two, episode 10, very, very good. And they also did a take on It's a Wonderful Life, called It's a Wonderful Job. In season three, episode eight, also very much worth watching. Mr. Belvedere, Brocktoon himself, a Christmas story. Season four, episode eight, highly recommended to you. And then we get to my teenage self, who would recommend to you only one thing. And that is my so-called life, so-called angels. This is from the one and only season. It's one of the final episodes, episode 15. It has a guest starring role from Julianne Hatfield, who I was in love with as a child. Not a child, that was a teenager, in addition to Claire Danes. She plays a homeless teen who just might be a ghost. But it's a very, very good episode. And again, I've said this before in the show, but my so-called life sort of captured to me what it felt like the most for me to be that age. So it took place in 1994, it was about a 14 year old, that was 14, the Pittsburgh suburb, was very much like the Boston suburb I lived in. So that she'll really connect with me maybe more than it connects with you. But I would recommend it, it's a very, very good show. Mystery Science Theater has a bunch of great Christmas episodes that do Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and of course, the Mexican Santa Claus. But the thing that I would recommend is Rift Tracks, which generally I don't like nearly as much as Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Cinematic Titanic, but Rift Tracks does an episode of their show for the movie Santa Claus and the ice cream bunny. I cannot recommend the insanity of Santa Claus versus the ice cream bunny more to you than I possibly am right now. It is very entertaining. And Rift Tracks also has a great DVD of Christmas short subjects that they do as well. So those two are great back-to-back double feature. Then of course, New Heart, they had a couple of Christmas episodes, but my favorite is from season one. It's called No Room at the End, it's episode nine. My wife and I still quote this one to this day. It's very, very fun episode, it plays very well with a lot of Christmas cliches, very smart. Then of course, Peewee's Playhouse, Peewee's Christmas Special. Again, on the newly released complete series Blu-ray box set, you can watch this show in all its glory. It is amazing. It's so very '80s, but also sort of timeless. It manages to capture all the silliness of the '70s variety show Christmas specials, while having a reverence for them and also sort of parodying them. It is fantastic. It should be in your rotation every year. If you're feeling bad, just watch it no matter what time of year it is, Peewee's Playhouse, Christmas Special, always, always, always entertaining. If you're still listening, thank you. I don't know how entertaining these episodes are where it's just me and I don't have a guest, but I appreciate you listening. I don't know how helpful these are and if you watch any of these things that I recommend, but if you do, let me know. I'd love to hear what you think of them and we could talk about it. So we're almost done with this list, but there are, as I said, there are so many Christmas episodes that it's difficult to really narrow them down. I'm cutting out so many that I watch, but these are really just the highlights or things that I really want you to check out. I would also say the real Ghostbusters, some really cool Christmas episodes. One of them's called Xmas Marks the Spots from the first season, Very Entertaining. Roseanne, another Christmas show, another (coughs) Roseanne, another show that did a Christmas episode pretty much every season, all very, very worthy. Then a show you may not have heard of. This is a UK show called The Royal Family, L.E., and it is an amazing show. It is unlike anything I've ever seen. It is essentially a very blue collar, northern family, and for people that don't know or American, the north of England is kind of looked at as we look at the south here in the United States. Very blue collar, working class family, and every episode is literally them just sitting around the television, watching television for 30 minutes, and is amazing, amazing. And it's such a well-written show and well-acted, and the fact that they're able to pull off such a great show with that concept is unbelievable. And they have Christmas episodes from pretty much every season, and then after the show ended, continue to do a Christmas special every year. They are all worth watching. They're better if you've seen the other episodes, but each season is a series, as they call them in the UK, is only six episodes. So it's something you could marathon, and it's great. Royal Family is one of my all-time favorites, highly recommended. Then we have RuPaul's Christmas special. This is from 1997, it was on VH1. It actually stars another guest of the show, Laura Keitlinger. Really fun show, kind of a throwback to the '70s variety shows. If you're just looking for something different, very much recommended, and you will enjoy that. The Silver Spoon's episode, best Christmas ever episode 13 from the first season. We talked about on the Michael Ian Black episode. It is wonderfully, wonderfully awful. I highly recommend that as just an exam. That's another party episode. You need to watch that with some people. Then we have SCTV, who did actually three Christmas specials. SCTV Network 90, which was the NBC 90-minute sort of SNL format SCTV, had two called the SCTV Staff Christmas Party from the first season. And Christmas 1982, from the second season, Shout Factory, again, they don't pay me to recommend their releases, but they just put out great stuff. They, again, put out a one DVD set of just those two episodes. You can buy an SCTV Christmas. I don't know how many times I said highly recommended. It's kind of ridiculous that I keep saying it. Just everything I'm mentioning is highly recommended, but SCTV, again, very, very, very funny. Anything is worth watching, but their Christmas things are very good. And the weirder season of SCTV, SCTV channel, which was on Cinemax, had an episode called, "It's a Wonderful Film," that, again, was sort of a parody of "It's a Wonderful Life." Very, very strange. You will enjoy it. It's darker and a little less. It's more advanced, let's say, for SCTV fans, but is worth watching, for sure. Again, you can always watch the He-Man She-Ra Christmas special, which is terrible. But entertaining. There is a Spencer for Hire episode. I would be remiss without recommending that. It is from season two. Maybe the weakest season of Spencer for Hire episode 10, called "Hopes and Fears." But if you're crazy for Spencer for Hire like I am, which you're not, you could watch that. Square pegs, underrated show for fans of Freaks and Geeks, the Wonder Years, any of those kinds of shows. It is very, very good. You can pick up the entire series very cheaply. This was a two-part episode called "The Child's Christmas in Weamaway." It is about divorced parents. It is about Christmas. It is very, very good. It's episodes 11 and 12. Please watch them. Those of you who like horror mixed with your Christmas, which there are for very many people, Supernatural had a great, great Christmas episode called "The Very Supernatural Christmas" from season three, episode eight. And also a little preview of episodes to come, Jim Beaver, who plays Bobby on Supernatural, is a guest on an upcoming episode of this show. So keep an eye out for that. But that's a fun one. Also, "Tales from the Crypt" had a remake of the "Tales from the Crypt" movie, which also has a Christmas thing of "All Through the House," which is about a psychotic killer Santa, but they did a very good one of those. "Tales from the Dark Side" has a very bad Christmas episode called "Seasons of Disbelief," but it is very entertaining. You can enjoy those if you want a little bit of horror with your Christmas. And again, you also have "The Twilight Zone," "Night of the Meek," which is not horrific, but is very, very good. But you should watch that anyway. Christmas, New Year's, and Fourth of July are just perfect opportunities to marathon "The Twilight Zone." There are a lot of weird shows that had Christmas episode, like even "V" the series had one, which I would not recommend watching, but it's kind of such an odd thing. It's sort of entertaining. If you're looking for something totally different, you could watch that. I would also recommend WKRP in Cincinnati. Also came out in a complete series box set recently from "Shout Factory." They had two Christmas episodes. There is "Jennifer's Home for Christmas" from season two, and "Bahaumbug" from season three, both very worthy of your time. "Wings" is another show that had Christmas episode almost every year, as did "Cheers." All of those are very worthy as well. The "Wonder Years" also complete series came out this year. We really were spoiled for a complete series DVD box sets of classic television this year. So just take a moment and appreciate that, God damn it. But this is "The Wonder Years" Christmas from season two, episode three. One of my favorites. They also had one in season four, a very cuddly Christmas in which Kevin realizes his gym teacher is actually moonlighting as a mall Santa. That's a very good episode. Season five had Christmas party. Season six had let nothing you dismay. All very, very good. And finally, from the TV episode part of this, the "X" vials actually had two Christmas episodes. Season five had one called "Christmas Carol." And season six had how the ghosts stole Christmas, both worth watching, very strange. And Ruski 911, which comes up on the show often, believe it or not, it had a ton of Christmas themed segments. They never did a full blown Christmas episode, but I put together a little playlist on YouTube of all of the Christmas things that happened on that show, a kitty, it's an ornament, a tree falls on somebody. There's some fun Christmas mishaps that happen on that. Now finally, I know that it is not television per se, but I always enjoy watching movies. I don't talk about them that much on this show, but there are many, many Christmas movies you can watch, and there are many great Christmas movies, and I know that a Christmas story is getting some backlash now, because I think that for millennials and kids younger than me, a Christmas story sort of become what it's a wonderful life was for my generation where we just hated it. It was so ubiquitous, it was miserable, and I've grown to enjoy it as an adult, but I think Christmas stories sort of become that. But it's a good movie, it's a great movie, and it's perfect for that 24-hour marathon because it's so episodic, and you can just check in and out of that movie and enjoy it at any time, and believe it or not, I actually saw that movie in the theater when it came out with my grandmother, who was deaf and is dead, she died this year, but it was very, very, I did not enjoy going to the movies with her, she would belt and fart often and not hear the people groaning or swearing at her because she was deaf, but I did see that movie in 1983, I forget exactly when it came out in the theater and loved it and it didn't really become this cult hit where everybody knew it and you saw merchandise for it until the last 10 years or so. So I always enjoyed watching that every year from the year I saw it in the theater and actually bought a previously viewed VHS tape of it from a local video store the next year and I would watch it every year, so it really is a fun movie and if you don't like it, I don't know what's wrong with you. But there are a lot of non-traditional Christmas movies that I wanted to recommend. If you're sick of the same old, same old and you wanna watch movies set at Christmas that you may not be aware of, there's of course Lethal Weapon, Great Christmas Movie, Die Hard Christmas Movie, Trading Places Christmas Movie, maybe my favorite of the Christmas movies, Gremlins. Fantastic Christmas Movie, it's very winter. I highly recommend you check out Gremlins and also Night of the Comet, another Christmas Movie. Many people forget is a Christmas Movie as is Ghostbusters II Christmas Movie. So there's a lot of these non-traditional Christmas movies that you could watch that again, movies set at Christmas but not necessarily Christmas Movies. While you were sleeping, there's another one. There are many, many, many of these better off dead. That is the one I watch every year on Christmas. There are some fantastic Christmas scenes and fast times at Ridgemont High. A good chunk of that movie takes place at Christmas and a lot of people seem to forget that. So better off dead, fast times at Ridgemont High. There's a good Christmas double feature for you, sort of non-traditional, but if you want something non-denominational, you can watch those again. Thank you guys so much for listening. I won't get too into the thank yous and get too modeling here, that's I will save for the New Year's Eve episode next week. So I will make recommendations for New Year's Eve next week but also probably spend a half an hour at the beginning choking back tears thanking you for the last year and just sort of reflecting on just how my life has been the last year, which is interesting to say the least and good though. I think good, yeah, it's been good. We'll talk about that next week, but in all sincerity, happy holidays to you guys, whatever you celebrate. Again, I don't believe in any of that stuff, but I do enjoy the humanity of Christmas and how we generally try to be better people, at least for a little bit of time, before we're all trapped in winter shining-like situations for the next few months. And I don't like getting gifts. I love giving them though. I don't like forced gift giving at certain times. I'm a big person for, hey, I saw this and I thought of you and I thought you would like it, but I find getting gifts very embarrassing. But I honestly would rather give them receive it. It is great to be able to give to other people. And so just try and be a good person, at least for this week, and enjoy your time. If you don't like your family, you don't have to be around them. You can sit inside and watch other people's families and movies and television. Just sit and relax and reflect, and enjoy this time of year. Have some horribly rich food, some gingerbread, all of the fine treats that we get at Christmas. And we will see you again next week for an all new episode of TV guidance counselor. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)