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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
 Posted - 01/06/2009 : 7:08:02 PM
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Most holiday TV classics seem to hail from a less fragmented era of popular culture when viewers' only alternative each night was to choose from one of three networks: no HBO, no Comedy Central, no Cartoon Network, no DVD, and certainly no world wide web.
Thus when A Charlie Brown Chrismas aired for the first time in 1965, reportedly half the television sets in America that night were switched to CBS. And why wouldn't they be? There was nothing else on. Fondly remembered holiday specials featuring the likes of Rudolph, Frosty, and Mr. Magoo didn't even need to do that well in order to make their impact on the popular zeitgeist. Even a fraction of the typical Peanuts viewership was sufficient for these shows to reach tens of millions of viewers -- and to ensure that each of these programs would be rerun again and again well into the next century.
Today, any new TV Christmas special is unlikely to make the same kind of impact.
First, it's hard to come up with a fresh idea that hasn't been done a million times already. Santa can't make his run so we'll have to cancel Christmas? Check. The misfit snowman/elf/floppy-eared varmint who redeems himself by saving Christmas? Check. Miser threatens winter town? Check and double check. You get the idea.
Second, even if someone came up with a good or at least semi-original idea, it takes more than simple creativity to make a holiday classic, it also requires a spark of -- dare I say it -- magic. Berke Breathed's A Wish For Wings That Work was a droll little holiday ditty from a decade ago, but it was also perhaps a shade too ironic for its own good -- hardly the heart-warming fable that inspires annual gatherings around the TV set at Christmastime. I loved Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (the first-ever Simpsons episode), but does anyone really consider it a holiday classic?
Third, even if a new special met all the "requirements" for a holiday classic, it still would need a receptive audience in order to make an impact, and this gets back to the previous point about today's fragmented culture. Had The Town That Santa Forgot, a charming animated special narrated by Dick Van Dyke, been released back in, say, 1963, it might well be considered at least a semi-classic today -- not up there with Grinch or Peanuts, certainly, but at least as deserving of the same respect often accorded to many of the Rankin-Bass specials. Unfortunately, The Town That Santa Forgot had the grave misfortune to be released in 1993, oh, and what a difference thirty years makes. It's a safe bet most TV viewers today have never even seen it. |
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Nlneff
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2009 : 8:25:17 PM
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Isn't Die Hard a Christmas Classic?
Seriously, you are likely correct.
(Plus Die Hard is virtually ancient history now anyway. I feel old.)
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Edited by - Nlneff on 01/06/2009 8:26:35 PM |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2009 : 8:32:25 PM
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| One thing is that when there were only 3 channels the programmers had the pick of the programming and so the quality of the shows that went on and succeeded was far higher than today (in general. I know all about My Mother The Car). It was a buyers' market. These days with a fragmented market the demand for programming is so great that even absolute junk like The Girls Next Door gets an airing. Its a sellers market. |
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 01/08/2009 : 12:13:43 PM
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I'm just glad we were spared a Cavemen Christmas.
"I am Temujin ... Barbarian ... I fight! I love! I conquer ... like a Barbarian!" |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 01/08/2009 : 2:39:54 PM
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I think we still get movies that end up being classics or semi-classics. But, I believe they don't start out on TV anymore but as movies. Thus I belief Elf has attained something of a classic status. You might also look at A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation.
That being said, there is a lot of junk out there anymore...I'm looking at you ABC Family. Their sequel to A Year With A Santa Claus was pretty bad. But, there were a lot of junk ones out when many of the classics were around. You just don't see them because they are junk.
Beyond the general fragmentation of the viewers, I believe it is more about the fragmentation of the culture. You couldn't create a Christmas special today where you have a character read from the Bible ala A Charlie Brown Christmas. Instead you get exceedingly bland stories for fear of offending someone.
I summon Bigger Fish! |
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TheFoywonder
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 04:13:47 AM
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I think ABC is damned determined to make SHREK THE HALLS a new modern Christmas classic. Remains to be seen whether that will stick. One thing is for sure; they insist on running that god awful Jim Carrey GRINCH movie every Christmas. No way, no how, never ever will I accept that as a modern holiday tradition.
Now Playing in Foyeurism at Foywonder.com: Australia Unseen - The annual top ten, the epic Australia, and the obscurity Enemy Unseen
Plus: B-WARE THE BLOG is alive at http://www.livejournal.com/users/foywonder |
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 06:02:11 AM
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quote:
You couldn't create a Christmas special today where you have a character read from the Bible ala A Charlie Brown Christmas. Instead you get exceedingly bland stories for fear of offending someone.
A Charlie Brown Christmas has always been unique in this regard. Christian imagery has always been rare in mainstream TV Christmas specials, even in the "classics." With the exception of Little Drummer Boy almost all the major network Christmas specials have been secular, focusing either on Santa Claus or on a ethic of civic generosity (ala A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life). In other words, Christmas specials have always been bland.
"I am Temujin ... Barbarian ... I fight! I love! I conquer ... like a Barbarian!" |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 06:55:48 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by TheFoywonder
I think ABC is damned determined to make SHREK THE HALLS a new modern Christmas classic. Remains to be seen whether that will stick. One thing is for sure; they insist on running that god awful Jim Carrey GRINCH movie every Christmas. No way, no how, never ever will I accept that as a modern holiday tradition.
How can anyone stand GRINCH? I've watched parts of it and found it to be completely crass and worthless. ABC/Disney has become almost completely marketing and synergy. Virtually all of their quality product comes from third parties like Pixar.
quote:
A Charlie Brown Christmas has always been unique in this regard. Christian imagery has always been rare in mainstream TV Christmas specials, even in the "classics." With the exception of Little Drummer Boy almost all the major network Christmas specials have been secular, focusing either on Santa Claus or on a ethic of civic generosity (ala A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life). In other words, Christmas specials have always been bland.
To some extent true. But, some like A Christmas Carol take place in a decidedly Christian framework (BTW, the George C. Scott one is the best IMHO with an excellent rebuttal by the George Burns anthology TV series). A "why" needs to underpin the "ought to".
I summon Bigger Fish! |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:09:24 AM
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quote:
Terrahawk wrote: How can anyone stand GRINCH? I've watched parts of it and found it to be completely crass and worthless. ABC/Disney has become almost completely marketing and synergy. Virtually all of their quality product comes from third parties like Pixar.
I completely agree. As I wrote in another thread - Ron Howard should be ashamed of himself for that atrocity.
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://www.henrybrennan.com/
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Edited by - hbrennan on 01/20/2009 08:09:50 AM |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 01/20/2009 : 3:29:54 PM
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| Well, Howard has plenty of films he should be ashamed of. Like virtually everything he's made so far except Willow, The missing and Cinderella man. |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 01/20/2009 : 5:25:14 PM
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He did do "Apollo 13" I believe which does give him some credit.
I summon Bigger Fish! |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 01/20/2009 : 8:36:33 PM
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I'll give him big props for Apollo 13 and actually, some for Beautiful Mind as a work unto itself, divorced from arguments about how it did or did not whitewash the character of its subject. And his first couple comedies, Splash and Night Shift were enjoyable fluff. Beyond that, he's really kind of a hack, IMHO, just a hack with a budget, and that includes the three films Neville mentions.
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I sleep now!! |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2009 : 05:51:42 AM
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The problem with Ron is that he's been involved with TV (and then film) since he was a small child. He's endeared himself to far too many "connected" people in the industry. Hence, he gets away with crap that would keep many other directors from continually inflicting sub-standard nonsense. With few a exceptions, of course. Uwe Boll, for one, comes to mind.
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://www.henrybrennan.com/
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Edited by - hbrennan on 01/28/2009 10:24:35 AM |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2009 : 2:34:17 PM
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| Howard has directed many movies that I've liked: Cinderella Man, Apollo 13, Ransom, Parenthood, Splash, and Night Shift for example. To mention him in the same breath with Uwe Boll is rather unfair. |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2009 : 10:28:40 AM
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My point is that you can get away with a lot of crap if:
a) You know how to play the system (like Uwe Boll) and get funded whenever you want. or
b) You've been around long enough to be connected to the right people who will green light just about anything you want - whether it's a classic or absolute dreck (like Ron Howard).
In Howard's case, an Apollo 13 will buy you a Grinch
With actors, it can be pretty much the same. Take Brando or Burton, for example.
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://www.henrybrennan.com/
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Edited by - hbrennan on 01/28/2009 10:32:26 AM |
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