It still makes me sad that we don’t have Christmas Specials like they had back in the old days. Some may be wondering, they still have Christmas specials! Well, yeah they do but the one’s they had when I was growing up were really special and unique. It’s kind of hard to explain how if you weren’t fortunate enough to be around all those years ago. But the specials we got in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s weren’t the same as the stuff we get today. Some of these things were fading away when I was a kid, and I still miss them.
Here are some examples of things those specials did that you just don’t see today :
Talking About Jesus
I mean, why in the world would you want to bring religion into a Christmas special? Before everyone became so worried about being PC, these specials would in fact discuss what the holiday actually means. Going all the way back to Linus’s speech (to be fair even then the network didn’t like that). But yeah specials back in the day didn’t shy away from talking about WHY we celebrate the holiday and, heaven forbid, saying Merry Christmas at the end instead of Happy Holidays!! John Denver and The Muppets is a great example of this, with John Denver reciting passages from the bible.
A Plot
It seems like today all we get for live action Christmas Specials are Christmas concerts where the star sings a few songs, and that’s it. And yeah there is a sketch or two in there, but it’s really just a concert. And we get maybe one a year! They totally lack heart. Compare these to the Bing Crosby specials where his whole family was together and we get to spend real time with them (and the guests). Or the Dolly Parton specials about her visiting her home town. Heck, even the Pee-Wee Herman Special tries to have a moral. It’s why I loved the Kelly Clarkson special a few years back because while it was a concert the special tries to blend a plot and moral into it. Christmas specials work a lot better when we can spend a little time with our stars and we get more than just listening to them sing for an hour. Some had no music, just heart. Like the Alf Christmas Special which is pretty sad involving a suicidal person and a terminally sick girl, and there’s no way you’d see a special like that today.
NOT Based on a recent movie
Animated specials aren’t much better these days. There’s a reason we still love the Rankin/Bass stuff, because we don’t get original specials like these anymore. What did we get this year, a special based on the Trolls movie? Yipee. Yes we always had specials based on properties but there is a big difference between a Peanuts special and a quick cash in by Dreamworks giving a Christmas special based around a recently released movie. I was looking at a list of Christmas specials which were not based on Pixar or Dreanworks movie and only one came from the last several years. That’s ok we can just keep watching the old re-runs over and over. How long has it been since we had a new, original Christmas classic?
Celebrity Hosted Variety Shows
I mentioned the idea of having a plot, or moral, but the specials that were fading even when I was a kid were the classic variety specials. The one’s I saw, and miss. were the old Bob Hope Christmas shows. How about the Perry Como specials where he’d spend Christmas in exotic lands? I already mentioned Bing Crosby but we also had Andy Williams, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Dean Martin, Kathie Lee Gifford, The Carpenters… What was it about these that made them unique? I’m actually not old enough to really remember this, but I’ve seen clips. Back in the day Christmas specials would have the cast just sort of, sitting around in a living room and singing to various songs. They were mini variety shows with sketches and music. And in between the stars would chat, they didn’t p;ay characters they were themselves and we felt like were spending Christmas with old friends. It was corny and silly…and man I wish they still did these days. A lot of these are on YouTube, check some of them out.
Including Kids For No Reason
Yeah the 80’s and 90’s were a simpler time. When the fact that kids had been taken out of their homes and spending time with complete strangers was..quirky! I think the most infamous example is “Alpha’s Magical Christmas” where a bunch of kids are transported to Power Rangers command center to keep Alpha company. With no warning or anything, never mind the fact that it makes no sense. How about that awful TMNT one with the same problem, why are all these kids in the sewers with the turtles? In the 80’s we had “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa” which involved Andy Williams traveling with kids, alone. To be fair the special shows the kids asking for permission to go from their sitcom parents. In the 90’s was a Kenny Rogers special focused on five children selected to sing in Rogers Christmas concert. Sounds innocent, until we see scenes of Rogers alone with the kids buying them gifts and singing them to sleep. Funny how what was quaint back then is creepy today. A lot of those old variety specials I talked about would often throw random kids in, I guess it makes sense since Christmas is supposed to all about kids. But for obvious reasons we don’t see that to much today. Even the Kelly Clarkson one I mentioned established who the kids were and why/how they were there.
Don’t get me wrong, not all of these old specials were wonderful. Some were silly and others were plain boring. But they speak to a different time, a time that I miss more every year.
No comments:
Post a Comment