Friday Funnies Reveal

Last week's Friday Funnies post was based on the film below.

From the comments received, it was clear that, unlike ourselves, either not many bloggers are avid holiday film watchers or were not familiar with this one. Congrats to fellow blogger Emma (Leaves on My Tree) for correctly naming the film.

For all the non-movie fans, here are the answers:

• Christmas with the Kranks was a moderate box-office movie success.
• It was based on Skipping Christmas (John Grisham), a best-selling book.
• Luther and Nora Krank plan to skip it after daughter Blair left for the Peace Corps.
• Neighbors Bev and Walt Scheel had a pet cat. Bev had health issues.
• Vic  Frohmeyer was the neighborhood leader, his son was Spike.
• A character, Marty was in several scenes and flew off as Santa in a Volkswagen.

Synopsis

After their daughter, Blair) leaves for service with the Peace Corps before Christmas, Luther Krank (Tim Allen) totals up that $6,000 was spent for Christmas the previous year with nothing to show for it. He convinces wife, Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) to forgo the traditions of cards, gift-giving, donations, entertaining, tree buying, decorating and instead take a Caribbean cruise for less cost. This plan irks Christmas-obsessed neighbors Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) and Walt Scheel (M. Emmet Walsh), who are determined to win the best decorated street competition. Every home was to feature an oversized Frosty on the roof. When the Kranks refuse to decorate with their snowman, they become neighborhood outcasts. When Blair unexpectedly is returning home for the holidays, the Kranks are faced with pulling together a holiday party on short notice. Neighbors are relunctant to help until Frohmeyer reminds them the party is for Blair, not her parents. All ends well with much help from the neighbors. Krank gives the cruise to the Scheels.

The movie was panned by many reviewers, including film critic Roger Ebert who gave it a single star. Some have labelled it as one of the worst movies that includes everything wrong with how some celebrate Christmas. Despite this, it's viewed regularly at the holiday season and has become a cult favorite. Full disclosure, we have a DVD of the film.

Filming

Christmas with the Kranks takes place mainly in the Kranks' fictional neighborhood of Hemlock Street in a suburb of Chicago, ILL over the course of Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. But, none of it was filmed in the Midwest part of the U.S. The town was built in a parking lot. 

Former Downey Studios and Christmas with the Kranks Street (internet source)

After a search for filming locations, filmmakers decided to set up the neighborhood in an empty location and selected the parking lot of a former NASA/Boeing site in Downey, CA, about 15 miles from downtown LA at Downey Studios. The first three weeks were spent designing houses. In the next 12 weeks, hundreds of carpenters, plasterers, and painters built what would become the largest exterior set ever built for a film which included 5 complete homes and 11 facades at a cost of $5 million. The film's producer stated the set would be available for other movies, TV series and commercials to use afterwards. However, film workers claimed their health problems were caused by toxic residues and hazardous conditions at Downey Studios. The studio closed in 2012 because of these issues, also a lack of profit. Today the site is home to the Promenade at Downey retail center.

Not all of the film's scenes were shot at Downey Studios, as it didn't have a downtown backlot set. Instead, the production team filmed the movie’s urban scenes at other CA studios and locations. A scene involving Chip’s Market was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood in the studio’s New York Street area. The stationary store, where Nora didn’t place a holiday card order, was also filmed there. A supermarket scene was filmed at Cordon's Ranch Market in Glendale, CA. The scene in which police officers apprehend a burglar was filmed at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank. A mall scene was filmed Westside Pavilion Mall in LA, which has since closed.

And, now you know, the rest of the story, and that's all, folks, almost . . .

We met up with this Frosty on Main St in Lititz, PA, last weekend