Do You like Christmas Specials?

Small Screen Specials, Series and Direct-To-Video
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Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by gaastra » November 19th, 2016, 10:12 pm

I hope so as Friday 25 all but one of the main networks are airing Christmas specials AT THE SAME TIME!

Only fox is not airing one!  Also nick is airing spongebob and loud house Christmas specials also!

ABC-Santa Claus is coming to town and Disney Parks holiday
CBS-Frosty and Frosty Returns
NBC-How the Grinch stole Christmas and Murry saves Christmas
CW-Grandma got run over by a reindeer
Nick-SpongeBob and Loud House Christmas specials

Has this happened before where 4 of the 5 main networks had Christmas specials on at the same time and which one will you watch?

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Ben » November 20th, 2016, 5:17 am

It would be a toss between Santa and Grinch for me.

Fox could join in and show their Ice Age special again. ;)

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by droosan » November 20th, 2016, 1:55 pm

I haven't had live cable TV for a few years, now .. but faced with those choices, I'd probably opt for the SpongeBob/Loud House combo .. just to see something new (since I have most of the rest of those specials on DVD, which I can watch at my leisure).

My favorite Christmas special back in the day was Rankin-Bass' 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, which was released on DVD as a 'bonus' feature with Frosty's Winter Wonderland.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by EricJ » November 20th, 2016, 5:38 pm

Basically, networks don't LIKE to do specials of any kind anymore:
Networks are now corporately owned (Disney/ABC, NBC/Universal), and to be asked to sacrifice some of their corporately-owned series that they market themselves upon, it had better be for one good corporately-marketable reason.
So, we might get the Iconically Marketable specials, like Rudolph and Charlie Brown--or any new animated special that Macy's commissioned as an extended tie-in commercial to this year's store theme--but we're less likely to see a new or generic variety special crop up just out of the network's altruistic holiday spirit.
And, of course, the general death of TV-animation studios didn't help either.

Still, I wait for Thanksgiving, minimum, to line up my Blu-rays of Mr. Magoo, The Snowman (not any of the cheap sequels), Charlie Brown, and Little Drummer Boy, and parcel them out for more appropriate nights.
Then I go on Amazon Prime, and see if I can find any corny old 60's "Holiday variety specials" on their public-domain catalog. Before them, I'd never actually seen a King Family Christmas Special before.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Dacey » November 29th, 2016, 12:14 pm

Sort of related, but we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at my house on Thursday, which was followed by This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyage. The latter had been "fully restored"...in the worst possible way.

Basically, it seemed to be that method where idiots remove all the "grain" thinking they're removing all the "dirt," when they're actually removing texture and depth. The weird result of this was that it made the animation seem much cheaper. Our taped copy from CBS back when it first aired in the late 80's looks better!

What's odd is this restoration wasn't used for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which makes me wonder if this is something they're going to do for "second tier" Peanuts specials in the future, or if this was the result of a disc release I wasn't aware of. Either way, ugh. :(
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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by EricJ » November 29th, 2016, 5:13 pm

Dacey wrote:What's odd is this restoration wasn't used for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which makes me wonder if this is something they're going to do for "second tier" Peanuts specials in the future, or if this was the result of a disc release I wasn't aware of. Either way, ugh. :(
The History special was paired as the "B-side" with ACBT as far back as the days of cheap DVD, back when they weren't planning anything as big as Blu-ray restorations, and things just got quickie noise-reduction.
ACBT was their big iconic audience classic, so naturally it got the film-source master for its big Blu release, everything else was just bonus.

"You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown" used to be the cheap DVD B-side to the Halloween special (because Linus talks about the Great Pumpkin), but got upgraded to its own solo-title disk-marketability when it came out during the Elections...Was that one properly remastered? Haven't seen the newer disk versions.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Ben » November 29th, 2016, 9:35 pm

Disc.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by EricJ » November 29th, 2016, 11:32 pm

Ben wrote:Disc.

"Magic shiny round thing"...Well, was it or not?

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Ben » November 30th, 2016, 6:43 am

Disc.

We've been through this before: both have been adopted for alternate means, the robust-sounding "disk" more for computer hardware (usually indicating a floppy black round thing in a plastic casing), and the sleeker, softer sounding "disc" for magic, shiny round thing content, right from the LaserDisc and Compact Disc days.

All of those, as with Digital Versatile Disc and Blu-ray Disc, became service marks (you say "blu", right? Not "blue"!), so in the context you were referring to, the correct nomenclature is...

Disc. :)

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Bill1978 » November 30th, 2016, 6:04 pm

I continue to be impressed that the US still airs the classic Rankin Bass specials. I remember when growing up that they were a staple of Australian morning TV in December. I would wake with anticipation to see if this was the day Little Drummer Boy was on, or maybe it was Rudolph. But then suddenly kids morning TV stopped being a thing in Australia and got replaced with Morning News shows.

I have not seen any of the old specials on Australian TV since my mid teens (and that was ages ago). The only guarantee I know that will get shown is The Polar Express one night around Christmas and it seems Elf and Arthur Christmas may be heading down the path of being a staple on Australian television. Lucky I got access to the Rankin/Bass specials of old to relive every Christmas. If I was to get political I would almost say there was a case of the de-Christmas-fying of Australian television.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by EricJ » November 30th, 2016, 8:55 pm

Ben wrote:Disc.
We've been through this before: both have been adopted for alternate means, the robust-sounding "disk" more for computer hardware (usually indicating a floppy black round thing in a plastic casing), and the sleeker, softer sounding "disc" for magic, shiny round thing content, right from the LaserDisc and Compact Disc days.
No--YOU'VE been through this before, I'VE been trying to get on with the freakin' discussions, because I'm not trying to pursue some anal-retentive personal grudge!! :x
Bill1978 wrote:I continue to be impressed that the US still airs the classic Rankin Bass specials. I remember when growing up that they were a staple of Australian morning TV in December. I would wake with anticipation to see if this was the day Little Drummer Boy was on, or maybe it was Rudolph. But then suddenly kids morning TV stopped being a thing in Australia and got replaced with Morning News shows.
Same here--Saturday morning was becoming more outdated and losing animators to cable, until networks basically just started simulcasting cable-network shows from Disney Channel and Discovery Kids, since it was too much work to come up with their own concepts, and those that did only had cheap Flash studios to work with.
(And wait, did they show Drummer and Rudolph in the morning? That's weird...)

And TV doesn't air all the Rankin-Bass specials (you probably won't find Little Drummer Boy anymore), but it's now a Corporate Property, which means you'll make more money showing Year Without A Santa Claus to baby-boom parents who don't remember anything but the Heat Miser song.
Same thing with Warner owning Charlie Brown and the Grinch: We basically get only the Core Boomer Classics of the R-B's--Rudolph, Frosty and Santa is Comin' to Town--since network programming itself is too much of a corporately-marketed property for networks to dare giving up cult-series time for something new. Unless it's Macy's doing a store tie-in special for "Yes Virginia" or "Elf on the Shelf".
Even so, they have started showing "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" again, for lack of any New Year's Eve specials apart from the Charlie Brown one.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Ben » December 1st, 2016, 5:13 am

Ooh, who hit a nerve!? (He used bold and everything!)

Believe me, Mr Jansen, I have no wish to get anal-retentive with you, and have no idea what personal grudge you're banging on about.

Besides, respect for others and staying on topic "with freakin' discussions" have never been strong points for you, have they?

There's no need to be a d*** over it (see...that word uses a c *and* a k!). :)

If you wanna get mad, go do it on someone else's forum. If you wanna get mad right here, then please do go straight ahead, and let's see who's still here after the fact.

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Re: Do You like Christmas Specials?

Post by Bill1978 » December 1st, 2016, 2:43 pm

[quote="EricJ"][quote="Ben"]Disc.
(And wait, did they show Drummer and Rudolph in the morning? That's weird...)

Yep. I imagine when they were first broadcast in Australia they may have been evening fodder. But I have always known them as morning shows. It was glorious. Al the regular children's shows were shunted for December and non-stop Christmas specials were shown. Not just Rankin Bass but all the other forgotten classics as well. Australian TV in the 80s were allergic to primetime animation of any sort.

I think the shift has a lot to do with how TV ratings have changed in Australia. As a kid, we had a definite summer viewing period where television honestly didn't care about ratings, so dumbed whatever they had on TV in December/January. But then somewhere - around the 2000s TV started paying attention to the ratings over Summer and realised lots of money could be made from the advertisers. So rather than not caring if a show rated well they started to make sure only shows that were getting high ratings were airing. And I am pretty sure that's why the kids Christmas shows were dumped and replaced with talking opinions disguised as a news program.

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