Yuletide TV Day 14: Cheers

Series: Cheers

Episode: S6E12 "Christmas Cheers"

Original airdate: December 17, 1987

Santa? A whole horde of mall Santas

Other holidays mentioned: None, but Lilith rattles off a good number of Christmas greetings in a variety of languages

Availability: Netflix

Unique Christmas story:
My apologies for not posting yesterday, my internet went out unexpectedly. No worries though, I'm back on track and will post two today to catch up.

Not all Christmas stories need to be elaborate, and Cheers was a show famous for its simplicity. So it isn't surprising that for one of the few Christmas episode Cheers ever did, they keep the plot simple, while still cramming a lot into the episode.

The problem with a show like Cheers is that it needs to service a large number of characters, so this epsidoe features a number of familiar Christmas sitcom tropes like helping those in need, mall Santas, mixing up presents, not being able to get home for the holidays and trying to escape to a tropical location.

The show starts out with the gang at the bar watching "It's a Wonderful Life," and complaining about the number of times its shown on TV during the holiday season. However, everyone tears up at the end of the film. It's a good commentary on how the holidays may wear on people but it is nonetheless an emotional holiday.

The main plot of the episode then shifts to Sam griping to Rebecca about having to keep the bar open on Christmas Eve. This allows him to exchange presents with Carla and Woody, but trouble arises when they tell Sam they also have bought presents for Rebecca. Cue Sam trying to find a store open on Christmas Eve so he can buy a last minute gift.

Meanwhile, Cliff is trying to win a trip to Disney by holding a canned food drive at the bar, Norm is working as a Mall Santa, and Fraiser is being the Christmas cynic.

Sam, unable to find an open shop, runs into a woman willing to sell him some of her items. Sam brings her back to the bar, where Norm has brought along his Santa school friends, Cliff has lost out on the trip to Disney World by one can, and Fraiser and Lilith have stopped by to drop off presents.

Sam gives Rebecca her presents, thinking they are a pair of earmuffs, but is surprised when she opens the gift and finds it is not what he thought.

Overall it is a very mellow episode. The stakes are low and the laughs are mild, but it's still enjoyable to see this slice of Christmas among people who enjoy each others company.

Unique Christmas Message:
Be careful buying gifts from strangers on the street, you may get more than you bargained for.

Later today:
I visit a man famous for playing Santa, before he was famous for playing Santa.

Yuletide TV Day 13: M*A*S*H

Series: M*A*S*H

Episode: S9E4 "Death Takes A Holiday"

Original airdate: December 15, 1980

Santa? Yes

Other holidays mentioned: None

Availability: DVD

Unique Christmas Story:
Let me help you get in the mood for reading this post. This should do the trick:


.......................


Ok, so I guess there isn't a good version of the theme song online, but I'm going to assume you know how it goes. Just imagine that playing gently in the background while you read this.

The premise for "Death Takes a Holiday" is fairly straight forward. A solider gets wounded during what is supposed to be a Christmas ceasefire, and BJ, with Hawkeye's help, takes it upon himself to make sure the man makes it through the night.

The man's wounds are fatal, but BJ does everything in his power to make sure the man lives past midnight. Being away from his family and put in one of the most horrific places to be during a war outside the front lines, BJ puts extra value on the ability to celebrate Christmas without dealing with the trappings of war. He can't be with his own family on Christmas, but he wants to make sure that this soldiers family doesn't have to think of Christmas as the day their father died.

Everyone wants Christmas to be a happy time. That's where all the stress comes from. Everyone is rushing around to make sure everything goes according to plan. They want to plan the best party, buy the best gifts and cook the best food. BJ is every person who has ever gone out of their way to make the holidays nice for someone else.

His story is nicely paralleled by that of Major Charles Winchester, another man going to great lengths to make the holidays nice for others. The Winchesters have a tradition of anonymously donating a gift to the less fortunate each year, and it is a tradition Charles carries over to an orphanage in Korea. Most of the camp pegs him as miser when he makes a small public donation, but he is determined to carry out his plan in secret.

Both characters try to do something nice for a stranger, but while Charles (mostly) succeeds, BJ's patient doesn't look like he'll make it to midnight. A small gesture by Hawkeye, though, helps BJ achieve his goal.

It's a quiet Christmas story, one that is deftly handled without being overly sappy or dramatic, and one that makes us treasure our own celebrations.

Unique Christmas Message:
If you're under the clock this Christmas, make the clock work for you.

Tomorrow:
Surprise! This was just the tip of the sitcom iceberg.

Yuletide TV Day 12: Band of Brothers/The Pacific

Series: Band of Brothers/The Pacific

Episodes: S1E6"Bastogne"/S1E1"Guadalcanal/Leckie"

Original airdates: October 7, 2001/March 14, 2010

Santa? No

Other holidays mentioned: Band of Brothers - None; The Pacific - Fourth of July

Availability: DVD 

Unique Christmas Story:
Hey, two episodes for the price of one, what more could you want?

I thought it was important to look at two episodes from two mini-series that focus on WWII, but in different theaters. It may be surprising to find that both of these miniseries decided to include Christmas in their story lines, but when you're trying to cover the events of an entire war it's kind of hard not to.

WWII has taken on a bit of a mythical aura, in part due to mini-series and films like these. Part of it also has to do with living through 9/11. My childhood was spent in the protective and innocent 90's, while I spent my teen years living in a post-9/11 world. It's a world where our enemies could be anywhere, and the internet exposed some of our greatest heroes as frauds.

Because of this, WWII becomes a story more than a history lesson. It has clearly defined lines of good and evil, there are identifiable heroes and villains, and it was the last war of its kind to be fought. The atomic bomb meant wars would never be fought in the same way again, and so far that has held true.

If you've taken a history class, you most likely remember the story of the Christmas truce during WWI. What these two episodes, taking place in different theaters and at different times of the war, show is WWII didn't mess around, and these episodes are able to make you feel the terror, the cold and the emotional heartache going on in each of the soldiers.

In "Bastogne" the 101st airborne finds themself encircled by German troops in the winter of 1944. The medic, Eugene, is running from foxhole to foxhole, scrounging for medical supplies, like a parent trying to find this year's must-have toy for their child. Being cut off from supplies, Eugene knows it's not a matter of if his comrades get hurt, but when.

The cold and fighting slowly drive Eugene and men around him mad. They don't know if they're going to get reinforcements and they don't know what the Germans have planned for them. But Eugene is able to get a lift into town with the wounded he looks after and meets a Belgian nurse named, Renee. He finds solace in her company and the two form a bond during his trips her makeshift medical center. Think of the 101st as Eugene's family at Christmas. Television would have us believe that nothing is more stressful than getting a bunch of family members under one roof to celebrate a holiday. So, what will a character due to get away from the stress? They go to the bar, and that's really all Eugene is doing here. He's looking for a little escape from the war.

But on his final trip back, Eugene finds the medical center bombed out. He knows Renee has not survived and he returns to the fighting. Eugene can't escape the war, and we can't escape our families.

In The Pacific, the mini-series starts at Christmastime with Marines who get to spend the holiday at home before going off to war. It's an interesting choice, as we don't get the training setup like in Band of Brothers, nor are we thrown right into the action. Instead, The Pacific gives a glimpse of the characters before they are thrown into the war, and all of this takes up a very small portion of the episode as a whole.

However, it does set up a very Christmas-y theme. Christmas is last time many of us see our families before entering into the new year. It's a snapshot of what we have become in the past 365 days, before we morph into something new. In a similar fashion, the Marines in The Pacific say a final farewell to their loved ones. They don't know if they'll be able to make it back alive, and if they do make it back, they might not be the same as when they left.

Unique Christmas Message:
Christmas may feel like a battle, but it's one worth fighting.

Tomorrow:
I move from one war to the next by looking at Christmastime in Korea.

Yuletide TV Day 11: American Dad!

Series: American Dad! 

Episode: S5E9 "Rapture's Delight"

Original airdate: December 13, 2009

Santa? Alien Santa

Other holidays mentioned: None

Availability: Netflix and Hulu Plus

Unique Christmas Story:

The phrase "War on Christmas" gets thrown around a lot, especially by Fox News nowadays, but this Christmas episode of the under-appreciated American Dad! takes that phrase literally.

Many of the shows I have covered so far have featured Santa in some capacity, but few have taken on the man who is the real reason to celebrate the holiday, Jesus Christ. Not, so with American Dad! Seth MacFarlane has never been one to shy away from any touchy subject, so a Christmas episode based around the second coming of Christ and his war against the Anti-Christ isn't too absurd coming from him.  

"Rapture's Delight" is unlike any Christmas episode I had ever seen before and is all the better for it. The story is divided in two. The first half deals with Stan griping about Chreasters (another subject a surprsingly few number of shows have taken a stab at addressing) and warning about the Rapture. It's overzealous WASPiness that is typical Stan behavior, until the Rapture actually happens while Stan and his wife are having sex in the church closet.

Stan tries to deal with being left behind, while Francine tries to deal with Stan's overbearing Christianity. She takes solace in a stranger she meets at a diner who turns out to be Jesus. He has returned to Earth to wage war against the Anti-Christ, and asks Francine to be his girlfriend.

The second half of the episode fast-forwards seven years to the end of Armageddon. Jesus, who looks like this:

This is how I like my Jesus. Bad. Ass.

seeks Stans, now with a hook hand and glass eye, to help save Francine from the Anti-Christ.

What follows is an amazing riff on post-apocalyptic 80's movies as Stan and Jesus make their way to Francine.

The Anti-Christ turns out to be a cross between Bizarro Superman and Jim Carrey's Riddler, simultaneously over-the-top and slightly sinister. He is the opposite of Jesus in every way. Jesus was a carpenter so the Anti-Christ is unable to construct a good trap to hold his prisoners. Again, it's absurd, but it's an absurdity that works.

Like most of the episodes I've written about so far, American Dad! manages to squeeze a little heart out of its left-field approach to Christmas. The final moments may feel a little trite, and call to attention a whole mess of questions about every episode of the show moving forward, but it works surprisingly well for an episode that feels like it could very easily have been a flop.

Hit the comments with your thoughts.

Unique Christmas Message:

God pays twice as much attention on Christmas.

Tomorrow:

I go from a War on Christmas, to Christmas during wartime.

Yuletide TV Day 10: South Park

Series: South Park

Episode: S7E15 "It's Christmas in Canada"

Original airdate: December 17, 2003

Santa? Canadian Santa

Other holidays mentioned: Hanukah

Availability: Netflix, HuluPlus and southparkstudios.com

Unique Christmas Story:

South Park has a rich history of Christmas episodes to choose from, but there is a distinct reason I choose this one, and that's because it takes place in Canada.

The plot of this episode is terrific, from the events that set it in motion through the entire second act and concluding with its big reveal. This isn't just a very funny episode of South Park, it's actually one of its better attempts to tell a full story.

The Broflovski family is rocked when their adopted son Ike is taken from them by his birth parents. Kyle is determined to get him back  to his family, but he has a hard time convincing his friends to help out. Kenny, Stan and Cartman don't want to miss Christmas to go bring back Ike, but their Christmas plans are put in jeopardy when the town of South Park unexpectedly rallies around the Broflovski family, pledging the money they would have spent on Christmas gifts to help the family pay the legal fees to fight the Canadian government. 

However, this presents an opportunity for Kyle. He doesn't want to wait for the legal system to get his brother back, and his friends don't want their parents spending their money on anything but presents. So the boys hop on plane to Canada in the hopes of not only retrieving Ike, but saving their Christmas presents.

It's a good commentary on people's charitable nature during the holidays. They only give enough to not infringe on their own celebrations, and put their conscience at ease. 

Stan, though, presents perhaps a even more poignant message about Christmastime. As I mentioned, South Park has a number of excellent Christmas episodes, and Stan doesn't want to miss out on this year's adventure by being stuck in Canada. Once he and friends arrive in Canada, they embark on one of the greatest Wizard of Oz parodies of all time, but Stan repeatedly states throughout the episode that he wants to get back in time to have a Christmas adventure. 

A lot of the time we don't realize how great the things are that we already have. We're too busy focusing on something else, we miss what's right in front of us.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are relentless in their mockery of Canada, but they somehow manage to make it all seem in good fun by weaving it around a touching story about family and friends coming together during Christmas.

Watch the entire episode here, and hit the comments with your favorite thing about Canadian Christmas.

Unique Christmas Message:

Christmas in Canada is a wonderfully strange thing.

Tomorrow:

My run of animated episodes concludes with a literal War on Christmas.

Yuletide TV Day 9: Futurama

Ho-ho-oh-no

Series: Futurama

Episode: S2E4 "X-mas Story"

Original airdate: August 1, 2010

Santa? Killer-Robotic Santa with the voice of John Goodman

Other holidays mentioned: None

Availability: Netflix 

Unique Christmas Story:
Futurama is one of those rare shows where it can pull of witty dialogue, low-brow humor and incredibly heartfelt story lines. This isn't the case for every episode of the series, but when it goes for those emotional moments, it rarely misses. Such is the case with "X-mas Story" which begins by focusing on Fry's loneliness living 1000 years away from the life he knew and then shifts to Leela's loneliness of never finding out where she came from.

Fry asks the question "What's the point of X-mas when everyone you loved died 1000 years ago?" It's an important question to ask because so much of how Christmas is defined is through spending time with loved ones.

But as hard as it is to spend Christmas away from loved ones, it is even harder to have never had any loved ones to spend it with. This is what Fry discovers when he realizes that Leela became upset after his wallowing. She's an orphan who has never had a family to celebrate Christmas.

Fry is determined to give Leela a great Christmas, and to do so he embarks on a classic sitcom quest: finding the perfect gift.

Although the episode is pretty standard fair up to this point, the episode unfolds a new wrinkle when Fry learns he needs to be back with his gift before sundown. Why? Because otherwise Santa will hunt him down.

Futurama is set in an absurd future where almost anything is possible, even Santa Claus. Instead of a holly-jolly fat though, the future is subjected to a robotic Santa who judges everyone as naughty and instead of giving them coal, fires rocket launchers at them.

It's a plot device only an adult cartoon could get away with but it does so with such conviction there is never any reason to doubt it. Fry and Leela encounter Robo-Claus, but its the lesson they learn from each other that are more valuable than the gifts they give. They take solace in each other's loneliness, and find that Christmas doesn't need to be as memorable as they were expecting it to be.

Unique Holiday Message:
No matter how bad we think we might have it, someone out there has it worse.

Tomorrow:
Canadian Christmas might just prove to be the best Christmas.

Yuletide TV Day 8: X-Men

Series: X-Men

Episode: S4E10 "Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-mas"

Original airdate: December 23, 1995

Santa? Nope

Other holidays mentioned: None

Availability: Netflix and YouTube

Unique Christmas Story:
After doing this for a week, it is easy to pick up on some patterns that are beginning to emerge in these Christmas episodes. Two main themes, helping the less fortunate and rekindling ones Christmas spirit, have been present in many of the past week's episodes. Each has pulled those ideas off pretty successfully, but "Merry Little X-mas" does not.

This episode shows what happens when a show forces its characters into the holiday spirit whether they want to or not. I think it is very possible to do a good Christmas episode featuring the X-Men, but this particular episode is pretty awful. It's a terrible hodgepodge of boring story lines and weak attempts at physical humor.

Perhaps the best character to focus on in this episode is Wolverine (Surprise!). Similar to Batman in yesterday's episode, Wolverine is lacking in the Christmas spirit. It's not that he's lost it, he just never had any to begin with, and has no interest in getting any now. But then his fellow X-men start judging him for it, and this is, I believe, becomes the first episode on my list to rely too heavily on the "but it's Christmas!" argument.

The main plot of this episode is that a young mutant boy ( a member of the sewer dwelling Morlocks, mutants whose physical mutations have left them shunned by society) has fallen ill. The Morlocks reach out to Storm, Jubilee and Wolverine to help, and ask Wolverine if he would transfer his blood to the boy in the hopes it would heal him. Wolverine is reluctant to help though since he unsure whether or not his the power in his blood will help the boy.

His friends think it's simply because he doesn't want to help others on Christmas, but Wolverine points out that he wants to help the boy, he just doesn't want to make his condition worse. Trying to make Wolverine the bad guy just doesn't work. Is the audience really supposed to believe that his closest friends would doubt his willingness to hep the boy? It doesn't make any sense.

That being said, the episode shows why sometimes it's best for a series to steer clear of Christmas. This episode feels more like a mandate from an executive than a strong original idea from the creative team.

Watch the entire episode below and let me know if it's as bad as I say it is in the comments.

Unique Christmas Message:
Just because someone doesn't celebrate the season, doesn't make them a bad person.

Tomorrow:
I take a look at what Christmas is like 1,000 years from now.