Christmas on TV

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

You’ve no doubt seen all of the holiday classics over the years.

Back when I was a kid it seemed like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Strees,” “A Christmas Story,” and multiple different versions of “A Christmas Carol” were on basically around the clock on one channel or another. For my money, the 1970 musical vesrion of Charles Dickens’ tale, titled simply “Scrooge,” and starring Albert Finney and is a musical is still the best.

Of course, there are plenty of other great holiday movies, TV shows and specials that have gained popularity over the years, like “Elf,” “Home Alone,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,”Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and of course “Christmas Vacation.”

And you’ve got the more irreverent debatable Christmas movies like “Die Hard,” “Gremlins,” “Bad Santa”or “The Nightmare before Christmas.” But those are another argument for another time.

These days, there is virtually no limit to your holiday-themed offerings on TV. The Hallmark Channel all by itself could run a different movie about some overworked woman who goes back

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home, rekindles an old flame and discovers the true meaning of Christmas or whatever from now until next Christmas and never run out of content.

And thanks to streaming, I can watch everything from Bill Murray’s very-1980s “Scrooged” to one of my new favorites, Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds’ 2022 musical “Spirited” to non-stop music videos around the clock and at will. You’re likely to get Christmas whiplash at my house as Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis” leads to “Little Drummer Boy” by the Jackson 5 and then into Josh Groban’s “O Holy Night.”

Funny thing: Out of nowhere the other day, a TV special I hadn’t thought of in decades popped into my head. It was “Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas.” If you’ve never heard of it, don’t be surprised. As far as I know, it only aired on HBO and only from around 1980 give or take a few years.

Curious, I looked, and lo and behold, it is actually availalbe for streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video service.

I’m about to spoil it for you, if you can actually call it “spoiling” a 40year-old kids’TV special.

Produced by Jim Henson and the whole Muppets crew, Kermit the Frog narrates the story of Emmet Otter and his widowed Ma, who scrape by on the small amount of money Ma gets from doing laundry and Emmet gets from doing odd jobs around their community in Frogtown Hollow.

Emmet and Ma are kind to their neighbors, despite often being cheated out of what they deserve for the work they do.

While window shopping in nearby Waterville, Ma and Emmet wistfully reflect on Pa's life, and his unsuccessful snake oil venture. As Christmas approaches, they each hear of a talent contest with a grand prize of $50, and separately decide to enter, so they can afford to surprise the other with a present: Ma, a fine guitar for Emmet, and Emmet, a piano for Ma. However, they must sacrifice each other's livelihood to be able to perform. Ma hocks Emmet's tools for dress fabric while Emmet turns Ma's washtub into a washtub bass for a jug band, each convincing themselves it is what Pa would have done. Emmet assembles Wendell Porcupine, Harvey Beaver, and Charlie Muskrat as the Frogtown Hollow Jubilee Jug Band.

Emmet and Ma each perform well (despite Emmet's band having to frantically change songs after another contestant performs their song), only to be defeated by the last-minute entry of the Riverbottom Gang, a group of hoodlums (made up of Chuck Stoat, Fred Lizard, Howard Snake, 'Pop-Eyed' Catfish, and Stanley Weasel), as a rock and roll band called The Nightmare.

However, as Ma and Emmet's band walk home together, disappointed, Ma realizes their two songs could fit together, and as they sing, they are overheard by Doc Bullfrog, one of the talent show judges, who hires them to play regularly in his restaurant.

Emmet and Ma decide they will be happier performing together than with the thankless work they had been doing before, and Kermit concludes the special with Emmet, Ma, and the gang playing in front of Doc and his customers.

Yes, it’s super cheesy and yes, it’s a pretty formulaic plot… and yes, I watched it yesterday and still loved it just as much as I did in 1980.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a movie about Santa stopping a home invasion called “Violent Night” that I’ve been meaning to watch…

Photo courtesy of CBC Video