A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas 2017

A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas In July

Every Sunday for the next 5 weeks, I'll be posting a new write-up of a classic (or "classic") Christmas special or two.  First up, Two 70's adaptions of the same poem...


'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)/'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1977)

There is no poem in the English language more well-known than Clement C. Moore's A Visit From Saint Nicholas, better known today as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Virtually every line in the poem is iconic, and its description of Santa Claus shaped the way we continue to picture him today.  The primary issue for people wanting to adapt the short is its brevity.  Santa's visit probably lasts only a few minutes, long enough for a theatrical short, but certainly far shorter than the running time of a network special.

The producers of two specials from the 70s based on the poem mostly solved that problem by coming up with an original story, and regulating the actual reciting of the poem to the end.  While the two specials have different stories, there are a number of similarities, including a harried father figure, a turn-of-the-century setting, a know-it-all kid, and even an actor in common.

By far the most famous of the specials is the 1974 half-hour special, produced by Rankin-Bass with cell animation rather than their trademark stop-motion style.  It was a holiday staple on CBS for over a decade and is now available on DVD and runs a few times a year on Freeform.  The special is told and sung by Joel Grey, a couple of years removed from his Oscar win for Cabaret, though much of the heavy lifting is actually done by character actor George Gobel, who plays Father Mouse.  There's an odd trend in many R-B specials to present Santa as a jerk, but 'Twas the Night Before Christmas takes it to an extreme, as Santa blackballs and entire town over a letter in the local paper declaring him not real (this in a world where the existence of Santa is an acknowledged fact).

The special has a weird anti-intellectual beat, as the villain of the piece is nerdy teenage mouse Albert (Tammy Grimes), who is the author of the original letter and later messes up the clock that Grey's clockmaker had built in order to get Santa to forgive the town.  Upon learning of his son's letter, Father Mouse immediately breaks out into "Give Your Heart a Try", which suggests that we should believe in leprechauns and the Easter Bunny instead of just relying on our brains (of course, this is a world with talking mice and Santa, so leprechauns and the Easter Bunny might actually exist.  But I digress).  Oddly, the special walks that back somewhat with the other big number, "Even a Miracle Needs a Hand", which is a paean to planning and hard work. 

Of course, there's a happy ending, as Santa does forgive the town, and goes about his business while Grey recites the poem (meaning everyone pretty much just ignores how much of a dick Santa was).  As R-B specials go, it's far from the weirdest or the darkest (The Cricket on the Hearth, where three characters are straight up murdered, takes the cake for both), but it's still plenty odd.

At least the 1974 Christmas was well-cast and got to stick around.  The same couldn't be said three years later when ABC debuted its one-hour, live-action 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, which also featured an impressive cast.  Unfortunately, for the lead role of a harried-but-loving father, the special cast Paul Lynde, who nailed the "harried" part, but didn't seem the least bit "loving" to the brood of kids running around the set, his mother (Alice Ghostly, who was all of three years older than Lynde), or his wife (Anne Meara).  That might have worked if the writers had supplied him with some choice one-liners, but mostly, Lynde sits around looking exasperated at the events unfolding around him.

There's not much of a plot to the special, as Lynde has to navigate a hectic Christmas Eve, with four kids who refuse to go to bed, the oldest daughter who is determined to prove that there is no Santa, various bickering in-laws, a peddler (Gobel) who shows up and for some reason never leaves, a mischievous cat, and a young neighbor (Anson Williams, who, aside from the kids, is the youngest cast member by 20 years) who pops in to lead a singalong.  A few songs are sung, the kids scream at the top of their lungs, Ghostly keeps talking about the mice in the house, which may or may not have been a dig at the animated competition, and finally the cat escapes, forcing Lynde to climb around a roof set trying to get the thing down.  This all finally leads to Lynde apparently making up the original poem on the spot.  His reciting of the poem is easily the best part of the show, and if the rest of the special had had that amount of energy, it might not have fallen immediately into obscurity.  Instead, ABC, disappointed with the reviews and the ratings, shelved the special after its one showing.

While it's a little inexplicable why two different networks in the mid-70s decided a special based on the poem was necessary, it's understandable why they wanted to cash in on such a familiar (and public domain) work.  Of course, as it's been proven elsewhere, blowing up a slight story into an hour (or even half-hour) special means there has to be a lot of filler, and it's rare that the filler is anywhere near as entertaining as the source material.  That holds true for both 70s 'Twas the Night Before Christmases.

Next Sunday:  A meta special from a Simpsons writer.