It’s beginning to look like Christmas — on TV
‘T’is the season, right? Christmas movies already abound and will dominate schedules. The Hallmark Channel may well redub itself The Christmas Channel once December arrives.
My personal favorite is Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen in “White Christmas.” The Irving Berlin score helps. Besides the title song, I sit and anticipate Clooney and Vera-Ellen doing their “Sisters” number and Clooney going darkly torch with her rendition of “Love You Didn’t Do Right By Me.”
Of course, James Stewart is bound to show up numerous times in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Macauley Culkin cam be seen as a child again in “Home Alone.” Judy Garland will encourage all to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Tim Allen will show up in “The Santa Clause” and Will Ferrell in “Elf.” “A Christmas Story” will not only be seen via the classic 1983 film starring Peter Billingsley as Ralphie but in a live action Fox special on Sunday, with Matthew Broderick in the narrator’s role.
Scrooge will be prevalent, the best remaining Alistair Sim in the 1951 movie, and Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn will act out “The Miracle on 34th Street,” Gween earning an Oscar for his turn as Santa Claus.
And don’t forget two often overlooked Barbara Stanwyck comedies, 1945’s “Christmas in Connecticut,” in which this candidate for best actress in screen history plays a newspaper columnist who writes about subjects like cooking and home decoration and can’t boil an egg, and 1940’s “Remember the Night,” in which she plays a shoplifter Fred MacMurray doesn’t have the heart to lock in jail over Christmas and, so, takes her to his Midwest hometown to spend the holiday with his family.
The Christmas program to which I look most forward is “The Spirit of Christmas,” two 15-minute sketches of “The Night Before Christmas” and “The Nativity” featuring the Baird Marionettes. This show played several times a year on every Philadelphia television station when I was a child. It disappeared for a while, only to be found in an archive vault at Channel 12. Bless the local PBS station’s heart, it restored “The Spirit of Christmas” and schedules it a few times every holiday season. Watch for it.
So much Christmas is available, holiday junkies can feast on it from now to New Year’s. Here is a list of the first time, starting today, some classic and current favorites will air.
Tonight: “TCM Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas,” a preview of holiday films, “Elf” on Freeform, and “Home Alone 2: on Starz.
Tomorrow: “The Polar Express” on Freeform, “Scrooged” on AMC, and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “The Santa Clause” on Freeform
Wednesday: “The Santa Clause 3” on Freeform and “A Christmas Carol” with George Scott on AMC
Thursday: “The Wonderful World of Disney Holiday Special” on ABC (Channel 6) and “Christmas with the Kranks” on Lifetime
Friday: “It’s a Wonderful Life” on USA, “The Santa Clause 2” on FX, “Holiday Affair” on Turner Classic Movies, and “The Shop Around the Corner” on TCM, “It Happened on Fifth Avenue” on TCM.
Saturday: “White Christmas” on AMC, “A Christmas Carol” on TCM, “A Miracle on 34th Street” on AMC, “Dr. Seuss’s ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’” on Freeform, “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” on ABC, and “Meet John Doe,” also with Stanwyck on TCM.
Sunday: The live performance of Pasek and Paul’s “A Christmas Story” musical on Fox (Channel 29), “Christmas in Connecticut” on TCM, “The Bishop’s Wife” on TCM, and Disney’s “Frozen” on Freeform
Tuesday, Dec. 19: “Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas” on Fox
Wednesday, Dec. 20: “The Secret of Giving” on getTV C.
Thursday, Dec, 21: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on ABC
Friday, Dec. 22: “The I Love Lucy Christmas Special” on CBS (Channel 3), “The Dick Van Dyke Show: Now in Living Color,” also on CBS, “Remember the Night” on TCM, and “Meet Me in St. Louis” on TCM
Saturday, Dec. 23: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” on Freeform
‘The Crown’ continues to shine
Within minutes, even before the credits roll, you know the second season of “The Crown,” the Netflix series depicting the complete life of Elizabeth II of England, will mirror the quality of the first season and remain interesting.
Two major conflicts dominate the first installment of “The Crown’s” sophomore season. The first involves the queen’s relationship with Prince Philip, the second an international crisis that erupts when Egypt’s President Nasser takes control of the British-built and operated Suez Canal in 1956.
You see a restless Philip, unhappy with being second to his wife in all matters and having to surrender some of Elizabeth’s time and his own pleasures for the good of the state.
Philip’s own pleasures are the crux. After a night in which the sullen prince and the straightforward queen, whose love for Philip shows in her eyes as played by Claire Foy, have an enjoyable time that doesn’t involve politics, duties, or even children, a time that leads to them being the young romantics they are – they are age 30 and 35. – Elizabeth decides to surprise Philip with a special present, a versatile camera he can use on a fivemonth adventure of his choosing. Advised by one of Philip’s valets to place the gift in the prince’s brief case, where it will remain hidden by found almost immediately upon Philip’s departure, Elizabeth opens the brief case and finds a framed picture of a woman she suspects Philip is seeing. Attitudes change. A frosty Elizabeth sees Philip off on his journey. The chilliness lingers to their reunion on a yacht anchored outside Lisbon, the last stop of Philips tour. It all makes for good watching and further insight into the talent and tact of Elizabeth II.
Episodes of the “The Crown” are often written by someone I consider a leading authority on the queen, Peter Morgan, author of the 2006 movie, “The Queen” and the 2013 play, “The Audience,” both of which were about Elizabeth II and which earned acting awards for Helen Mirren in the lead roles.
“The Crown” is often directed by Stephen Daldry, who helmed “The Audience,” a series of vignettes showing the queen with a selection of her prime ministers, including Winston Churchill. Oddly, the play does not depict Anthony Eden or Harold Macmillan, who are so integral to the Suez sequences on “The Crown.”