It's Christmas time. A time that many of us begin to reminisce. Remembering the early days of TV (that vast wasteland). Besides waiting eagerly for the Frosty, Rudolph, and Charlie Brown specials, there were the great Variety Show specials. If you are under 50 years old, you may want to consult wikipedia for an explanation of 'variety show'. BUT i think most of you know.
Now my mother was not one to miss a good variety show. We came from a long line of variety show junkies. They would even get together to have variety show critiques. "Judy looked a little tired this week", "Oh that Dean Martin, drunk again, and on TV", "Did you catch the Sullivan Show????? Can you believe what that Elvis person did????? ". And at Christmas time you heeded her warning of "DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!!!!!"
Ah yes, the great days of TV. As most of you know, Beatrice and i don't watch much TV. BUT we do watch movies. And if you check our sidebar we have some of our favorite Christmas ones listed. Just a small sampling of the collection. We usually start watching on Thanksgiving evening with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". This year though we were a day behind, and with the Grankids. As usual we broke the "NO GIFTS OR CARDS" promise we make to each other on holidays. I left the window open a crack in the motel and those pesky Card Fairies got in, and the Muppets (love them) version of Scrooge appeared in her bag.
So started the Holiday Movie Marathon. We are almost half way through.
The pile on the right have been watched…. the pile on the left are waiting to be seen.
Yesterday was one of those nasty, gray, damp, rainyish days here. So what better to do than take a nap while waiting for Beatrice to finish her post, then
fire-up the DVD player for another Christmas Marathon. The nostalgia bug had bitten me, so i found our two DVD's of old Christmas TV specials. The first was 1950's classics. Two Red Skelton's, an Ozzie & Harriet (America's favorite Family) from 1956, a Burns & Allen with George & Gracie at their best, Jack Benny being his cheapest, and Ray Bolger (remember the scarecrow in Wizard of Oz????). All in grainy black & white, just like the old days. I actually remember watching some of those on that wonderful old DuMont 9 inch TV that took up half of our living room. Lying on the floor, squinting up to see the little people who were trapped in the big wooden box. {SPECIAL NOTE: If you are scratching your head asking "what the heck is he talking about", you may be too young to be reading this!!!!!!}
Then we moved into the 50's, 60's and up to the 90's. Two of the lost episodes "I Love Lucy" from 1956, one had 'Little Ricky' and flashbacks to the episode where Lucy goes to the hospital. Then one pre-Little Ricky. From NYC we went to America's favorite town, Mayberry RFD. Growing up i always wanted to visit there. Where Andy, and Oppie, and Aunt Bee always made everything right. And in just 25 minutes. Then back to NYC for a visit with the Kramden's and their friends the Norton's. As always, classic Gleason and Carney. Some of you 'young'uns' may remember them from the eternal re-runs that are still running somewhere, but i was reliving the originals. By then we had moved up to the 'big screen' days. Nineteen inches of pure entertainment in fantastic shades of gray. My father thought color TV was just a fad.
From there we time warped to the Brady Bunch, Taxi (loved DiVitto in that), Family Ties with Alex as the classic Scrooge, Frasier, and Wings.
BUT!!!!!! Where are the Great Variety Show Christmas Specials???????? Well i found a place that still has some from the past…..www.tvparty.com. Thats where i got the top graphic from. Unfortunately, they want you to pay to watch them….. I remember them as free the first time around….. OH WELL.
Tonight may be a turning point for us. The Princess has learned that Michael Bubbley (whoever that is) is having a special on TV. And now for the challenge!!!!! Hoping that the reception is good (not a usual thing). Wish us luck, we only have till 10 pm to wait.
Grenville (in the Christmas Mood)
11 comments:
You two are so much fun! I didn't grow up with a TV but I love the old shows and movies.
There are many Christmas movies I love but the best one for me is 'Preacher's Wife'. My son got that one for me for Christmas several years ago.....haven't watched it yet this year.
In my family everything stopped for the Andy Williams Christmas Show. Christmas Story is a favorite movie of ours and as we got into a conversation with our recent company about what kinds of Christmas movies we enjoyed watching, all the old ones were mentioned but I was told about a new one to us at least, Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan and Sydney Greenstreet. They bought it for us as a parting gift. We haven't watched it yet and are keeping it for when we get another set of company nearer Christmas.
Great post , Oh the memories of all these shows . We have lots of the Christmas old movie's and the original kids Christmas shows on DVD now . I have been watching a lot of the Christmas movies on TV every night , lots of new ones I have never heard of just made for TV to . A cup of tea and Christmas shows or movie with my blanket and Miggs at my feet and wood stove crackling , perfect ! Have a good evening !
I have lots of great memories about many of the shows you mention here. Your marathon sounds like a lot of fun.
There is a great musical "Scrooge" from the early 70's that has Albert Finney playing Scrooge. I always tell people to watch it, but most people have never seen it. My Dad would NEVER sit and watch a movie with us when we were kids, but when it first came on TV, he watched it all the way through and when it finished, he looked at me and said "Good". I love men who get to the point!
And by the way, variety shows... do you remember The King Family? Where they were all blonde and they sang? We never missed those!
Great posts and yes, I remember some well. I used to love the Lawrence Welk show.......I was a teen and had dreams of auditioning for that show. LOL. I wound up being wedding singer instead. Enjoyed this post!
we had not TV until 1959 and daddy did not like variety shows and he was king of the house. but we did watch Jack benny and bob hope and gracie and george. i love most Christmas movies, and use the DVR to grab the ones i want to watch. my favorite is Miracle on 34th St, the original. but i like the newer one also.
Fun post! We watch a few of those old Christmas movies every year too.
Fine nostalgia here. I remember those well. When the "vast wastland" got much worse in the 90's I pretty much gave up TV (except for baseball and PBS)
What a great idea, and so much better than some of the trash movies I get sometimes from our Netflix. Love those old musicals...remember the Hit Parade too on TV back when. Still my alltime Christmas fave is White Chirstmas, Bing, Danny, Rosemary, etc.
You have a nice selection of Christmas DVD's there!
My husband is going to make the antenna he saw here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
It's supposed to improve the spotty reception.
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