Daily post 05 Oct 2006 08:42 am
Christmastime
- Just signing onto AOL, I was greeted with the top news story:
“12 Must Have Holiday Toys.”
It doesn’t take much to remind me that Christmas is coming.
When I was a lot younger, Christmas was an exciting time because there would be exciting TV specials to look out for. I think Charlie Brown’s Christmas must have started it all. The Grinch stepped things up a notch, and Rudolph drove it home.
For years after this the networks covered Christmas in every possible way, and the animation studios took advantage using a lot of “lack of imagination” to create the swill that they did. Eventually, the viewers tuned out, and the well dried up. The last entertaining Christmas special I can remember was Olive The Reindeer.
Two years ago I went to three of the networks to pitch a Christmas show that already had funding, was based on a best selling book, and came with stars. It just had to air on a US television “network”. CBS was in the Nickelodeon business. All they would do was rerun Nick’s noodling.
Fox just said no, but they offered distribution and some more funding through their namesake.
ABC had just bought the Charlie Brown library, and that’s all the Disney-owned network would air.
The film didn’t get made.
These days the networks aren’t the Networks anymore. With a couple of hundred channels, how many people actually look forward to anything (other than sports) on the big four (five/six?) anymore? The days of multiplicity hasn’t brightened the world enormously with the glut of entertainment, it’s just given us a lot more of the lower end.
One wonders what kids, these days, do look forward to. There just aren’t “Specials” anymore. Too little in the entertainment world looks or feels special. This is a question I actually ask myself often enough.
I was an animation freak, so I waited in anticipation for that short block, on NBC, which included The Bullwinkle Show followed by The Wonderful World of Color.
Today there isn’t any such block of tv – unless you look forward to Deal or No Deal or Survivor, the Racist Edition. Or there’s Saturday Night Live (which just feels dead) or the two shows about the making of Saturday Night Live – all on NBC.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps I only see things this way because I’m old and my interests have grown more and more limited to the point where I don’t find anything outstanding on television other than the very infrequent Sopranos episode or a dynamic Yankee game.
Anyone with children out there who has something to say about this, please do. I’m interested to know.
on 05 Oct 2006 at 7:25 pm 1.Rudy Agresta said …
Hi Michael,
I couldn’t agree with you more! My wife and I have 5 children – ages 4 to 20. The two oldest shared a bit of what you and I found so special when we were growing up. I still look through a compilation of the Sears Christmas Wishbook in order to capture that special feeling. Every Christmas as a family, we make it a point to watch the big 3 you mentioned plus Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It’s still not the same, however. I used to look forward to seeing the advertisements for these shows in the TV Guide and would clip them out. My anticipation quickened each time the networks would run a commercial advertising the specials. Those days are gone and it saddens me. Kids today don’t have anything of worth to hang on to. But I guess what you never have experienced can’t be missed. It may be a consolation for today’s generation, but it pains me to know what they are truly missing.
Yes, there are many more stations than what we were used to, but the quality barely skims the surface with most shows and specials.
Keep up the great work with SPLOG, it’s wonderful.
Rudy
on 06 Oct 2006 at 12:43 pm 2.Ward said …
What we try to do with our kids is make a conscientious effort to watch the “specials” when they air them on regular TV: Charlie Brown, Rudolf, etc. We try to make it a BIG event, with popcorn, goodies — the works — and we sit down with them and ooh and ahh in all the right places and laugh loudly when there’s a joke or gag. Even though we own these specials on DVD/VHS, to see them on regular TV just makes it all the more special. A fleeting moment that only comes but once a year, like a flittering firefly. Brief but bright. It seems to do the trick, and the kids end up having a better appreciation of what they watch for entertainment during the holidays.
on 06 Oct 2006 at 5:48 pm 3.Nadia said …
Is it TBS that shows those old animation Christmas films for the 25 days of Christmas and of course the marathon of A Christmas Story? (my favorite) Now that my daughter is now 2 1/2 my world revolves around Noggin and Nick Jr. So yes I do miss such blocks of tv shows for kids. On the same kind of note…are the networks trying to regain the saturday morning Cartoon blocks? I noticed that CBS and NBC and ABC are showing more cartoons like Madeline and Babar…etc. CBS used to have Nick Jr. Do they still?
on 06 Oct 2006 at 5:58 pm 4.Nadia said …
Ok…it’s the Family Channel that has the 25 Days of Christmas with Jack Frost, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph….etc…..:)
on 07 Oct 2006 at 10:58 am 5.David N said …
Yeah, but to get the real effect for me the specials have to be proceeded by :
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wuFD7_x9WM8
or
http://www.kingoftheroad.net/KARD_html/peacock2.html
on 07 Oct 2006 at 11:11 am 6.David N said …
Oh, man, just one more ! Look at this one. This is one of the films that made me want to be an animator:
http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/international/video_us_abc/abctrail1974d.rm
(NB: clicking this link will launch the clip in RealPlayer)