Favorite (or least favorite) Christmas Episodes

[dmargalotti]

For me, one of my favorites is probably an episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Night of the Meek" with Art Carney. What's yours?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734666/

 

[Paige Turner]

So many great ones... Ozzie & Harriet, Donna Reed, Bewitched, but my all-time favorites are the three Dennis The Menace Christmas episodes.

 

[therealjm12]

Back in the early days of Happy Days (before it got just stupid -jumping the shark) The Christmas episode of Fonzie not having a family to go to, was classy and funny.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Though not my "favorites", the most curious Christmas episodes occurred on THE FLINTSTONES.
Didn't anyone at Hanna-Barbera know what "B.C." stood for?

 

[Stanislav]

For me, one of the most powerful Xmas episodes was "The Draft Dodger" in the 7th season of All in the Family. Archie's buddy Pinky (who lost his son in Vietnam) extending a hand of compassion and understanding to Mike's draft dodger friend really throws him for a loop, and seems to be a major blow to Archie's carefully constructed and preciously defended worldview. Great performances all around, especially from Eugene Roche as Pinky.

It's fascinating to note the audience reaction when Archie blows his stack upon learning of Mike's friend's status. There are a few initial, tentative titters, but then everything gets deadly silent, for this was not the typical "funny" Bunker rant -- he was incensed in every sense of the word. This was not played for laughs at all.

 

[Braves2005]

The Andy Griffith Show from the first season where department store owner Mr. Weaver tries himself to get in jail so he could join in on the fun.

The forementioned Happy Days episode with Fonzie. (The part where Howard, Richie and Chuck try to fix the mechanical Santa Claus and it starts hitting at them is hilarious)

Hazel from the first season where Hazel goes to work at the department store to get Mrs. Baxter a gift and gets a shoplifter in the act.

The Beverly Hillbillies episode where they work at the department store to buy Mrs. Drysdale a gift where Jethro is Santa, Elly is Santa's helper, Jed works at the lingerie counter and gives away everything, Granny works at the lingerie counter first where Mrs. Drysdale sees her and she puts some gowns in her purse and is arrested for shoplifting.

All In The Family where Archie doesn't get his Christmas bonus due to the fact that he made a mistake at work sending an item to the wrong place and it came off his bonus and everybody is enjoying Christmas except for Archie and Henry Jefferson is Santa.

The Jeffersons when Lionel and Jenny get married at Christmas with George and Tom both playing Santa arguing about the wedding.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

How about "Green Acres" where Oliver is upset with everyone in Hooterville over their use of fake trees and fake popcorn, leading to one of his classic "American farmer" speeches?

 

[bpatrick]

Though not my "favorites", the most curious Christmas episodes occurred on THE FLINTSTONES.
Didn't anyone at Hanna-Barbera know what "B.C." stood for?

Historically speaking there should not have been a "Flintstones" Christmas episode,
but Bill and Joe just felt there ought to be one, since everyone else was doing one,
so they sacrificed historical reality.

My favorite is "The Odd Couple" one where Oscar is Scrooge, a/k/a Ebenezer Madison,
in a dream sequence based on Dickens' "Christmas Carol."

 

[azumanga]

Though not my "favorites", the most curious Christmas episodes occurred on THE FLINTSTONES.
Didn't anyone at Hanna-Barbera know what "B.C." stood for?

Considering that everyone that appeared on "The Flintstones" had their name stone-aged, maybe they were celebrating the birth of Jesus Crystallite?

 

[Stanislav]

Though not my "favorites", the most curious Christmas episodes occurred on THE FLINTSTONES.
Didn't anyone at Hanna-Barbera know what "B.C." stood for?

Don't forget, there were also a couple of animated specials based on Johnny Hart's "B.C." that celebrated Xmas and Thanksgiving, both of which holidays also showed up annually in his strip (even long before Hart "saw the light" and started slipping Christian messages into the strip). But really, "B.C." abounded with anachronisms (that was the whole point of much of the humor), and the same could well be said for The Flintstones.

 

[Tim L]

The Beverly Hillbillies episode where they work at the department store to buy Mrs. Drysdale a gift where Jethro is Santa, Elly is Santa's helper, Jed works at the lingerie counter and gives away everything, Granny works at the lingerie counter first where Mrs. Drysdale sees her and she puts some gowns in her purse and is arrested for shoplifting.

I DVR'ed that one the other day..I like the end where the cast sings "We wish You a Merry Christmas" at the end of the episode..Then break character at the end and wish the audience a Merry Christmas..

The ones I havent seen yet (or in years) are the Beverly Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction/Green Acres Holiday Crossovers..They were supposed to be on TV Land this morning so I recorded them then..Looking forward to seeing them..

 

[Stanislav]

The Beverly Hillbillies episode where they work at the department store to buy Mrs. Drysdale a gift where Jethro is Santa, Elly is Santa's helper, Jed works at the lingerie counter and gives away everything, Granny works at the lingerie counter first where Mrs. Drysdale sees her and she puts some gowns in her purse and is arrested for shoplifting.

I DVR'ed that one the other day..I like the end where the cast sings "We wish You a Merry Christmas" at the end of the episode..Then break character at the end and wish the audience a Merry Christmas..

The ones I havent seen yet (or in years) are the Beverly Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction/Green Acres Holiday Crossovers..They were supposed to be on TV Land this morning so I recorded them then..Looking forward to seeing them..

While I liked all those Paul Henning/Filmways sitcoms, I remain ambivalent about the BH/PJ/GA crossover arcs. Sure, it produced some cute storylines (Granny taking a shine to Sam Drucker, Jethro trying to impress and romance the Bradley girls, Drysdale having a conniption when Jed finances a new “bank” for Sam, etc.), but it’s always seemed to me like a clash of backgrounds and settings. Yes, I know it was done primarily as a ratings stunt to shore up several shows that had seen better days and were running out of ideas, and one cannot get too nitpicky about continuity in silly sitcoms, but...

As we previously have discussed, the Clampetts are clearly Southerners. (Granny was even an unabashed Rebel in the earlier seasons, with displays of the Confederate flag and references to “President Jefferson Davis.”) While even within BH their roots were malleable (early on, they were referenced as being from Tennessee, while later episodes, especially the Silver Dollar City arc, implied an Ozarks origin), they were clearly from south of the Mason-Dixon.

PJ and (especially) GH, OTOH, always struck me as having more of a Midwest-flavored milieu, with the relatively flat terrain in stock establishing shots, the lack of discernible Southern accents and dialect (more like generic TV “country” accents – you don’t hear any “y’all’s” in PJ/GH, for example), and the mentions in GH of Chicago being in relatively close proximity (I believe one GH ep referred to Chi-town as being about a 300-mile trip.) Actually, I don’t recall how (plot-wise) the two TV worlds even came together, or how and why the Clampetts made their Hooterville connection in the first place. (Help me out here...) So, there is a contrivance factor that dampens my enjoyment of these crossovers.

And I won’t even mention how the Clampetts (or Miss Jane, who drove there them once) make these repeated trips to Hooterville as casually and efficiently as a day trip, instead of a several days long 2000-mile drive. (But then, if people on 24 can drive from one side of the L.A. region to the other in 15-20 minutes, why not?) :

 

[bpatrick]

I always assumed the Clampetts were from either Arkansas or Missouri,
but Granny would sometimes talk of Tennessee; once she was referring
to a monkey as a "hairy goomer," and when someone accidentally overheard
her and wanted to know what she was talking about she mentioned a non-
existent "Harry Goomer, the handsomest man in Tennessee."

Even if Granny was from Missouri, she might very well have been pro-Confederate;
there were plenty of those even though Missouri stayed in the Union.

Exactly where Hooterville is, is full of red herrings, much as the location of
Springfield on either "Guiding Light" or "The Simpsons." I guess it's wherever
you want it to be, but personally I like to see these towns located in specific states.

 

[nightfly61]

The Adam-12 episode was a favorite, with the DUI guys & the woman who got her car stolen with her kid's presents in the trunk & when they caught the thief they asked "Did you steal the car with the intent to also steal the childs gifts in the trunk?"...and the thief said "I may be a car thief but I'm not that low to take presents from a kid- I didn't even know they were in the trunk" so they got the presents from the evidence room & gave them back to the woman.
The Married With Children first season Xmas episode was pretty filthy & tacky, from the Santa getting killed crashing into their house among other things. I never cared for the Simpsons either, so any Xmas specials just added fuel to the "dumbing down of society fire". :

 

[Stanislav]

I always assumed the Clampetts were from either Arkansas or Missouri,
but Granny would sometimes talk of Tennessee; once she was referring
to a monkey as a "hairy goomer," and when someone accidentally overheard
her and wanted to know what she was talking about she mentioned a non-
existent "Harry Goomer, the handsomest man in Tennessee."

And early on, there are plenty of mentions of their home town, Bugtussle, which I’m pretty sure was explicitly identified as being in Tennessee. The Ozarks flavor came with the Silver Dollar City episodes; while I don’t think the locale was specified in the shows, SDC is a longstanding popular Ozarks attraction, and the Clampetts were “going home” to attend the mythical festival there.

Even if Granny was from Missouri, she might very well have been pro-Confederate;
there were plenty of those even though Missouri stayed in the Union.

Sure – there are no hard and fast lines/borders in that part of the country, at least culturally. The Ozarks in general are considered to be part of the South, even though the region includes part of Missouri, which is thought of as midwestern rather than southern. And yes, there were a lot of Confederate sympathizers in border states like Missouri, especially in the southernmost areas.

Exactly where Hooterville is, is full of red herrings, much as the location of
Springfield on either "Guiding Light" or "The Simpsons." I guess it's wherever
you want it to be, but personally I like to see these towns located in specific states.

I’ve always thought of Hooterville being perhaps in far downstate Illinois – it is largely farm country, and it would fit the geographical proximity to Chicago, as well as the overall Midwest “feel” to the shows.

 

[Tim L]

Exactly where Hooterville is, is full of red herrings, much as the location of
Springfield on either "Guiding Light" or "The Simpsons." I guess it's wherever
you want it to be, but personally I like to see these towns located in specific states.

I’ve always thought of Hooterville being perhaps in far downstate Illinois – it is largely farm country, and it would fit the geographical proximity to Chicago, as well as the overall Midwest “feel” to the shows.

From what I've read in recent years, a lot of Paul Henning's "Hooterville" is vaguely similar to another "midwest" town in the early days of radio.."Wistful Vista" from NBC's "Fibber McGee and Molly"..This was Henning's first writing job in 1937-39. You figure..Both appear to be in the midwest, both have intriguing characters in them..Hooterville makes mention of Chicago, Jim Jordan's McGee mentions Peoria quite often..

Also, former "Fibber McGee" head writer/Producer Don Quinn served as "Script Consultant" to Henning's "Petticoat Junction" in the first several episodes in 1963..Too much similar to be just a coincdence..

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=henningpaul

Paul Henning Bio in the Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications' Encyclopedia..