Reviewing Old Christmas Tapes

Aside from the traditional fare that TV stations and cable show every year, such as Lifetime and Hallmark Channel's Totally Ridiculous Holiday Happy Endings Marathons, I review some of my old homemade DVDs or other Christmas specials.

Aside from the Grinch and Charlie Brown, I also have holiday specials from Billy and Mandy, My Life As A Teenage Robot, and Robot Chicken. I also have Little Drummer Boy and the Alistair Sim version of Christmas Carol, which don't seem to be on TV this year. I also have a ton of GSN reruns including Christmas shows from I've Got A Secret and What's My Line, but they can be seen anytime.

Anyway, I also started to look at which specials have the best stories. I saw Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, but I have to admit after Kris Kringle escaped from Burgermeister the story starts to fade out. We should have had Burgermeister tossed out of town by the kids who didn't have toys thanks to him, and their parents. For compelling stories, nothing beats the Grinch, Rudolph and Charlie Brown. That's why they're required viewing.

Cable TV , meanwhile, have their own ideas. It explains why Spike is running Bad Santa 24 hour a day, while TNT has A Christmas Story. It's too bad NBC is only allowed to show It's A Wonderful Life twice a year. Why not throw in a couple of cable showings on Lifetime, USA or even SyFy? It should really be in Turner Classic Movies.

Whedonistas, meanwhile, now swear that proper holiday fare are are both the "Amends" episode from Buffy and "Objects In Space" from Firefly, only because Jubal Early compares himself to Santa. Angel should have had a New Year's episode where some terrible thing was about to happen at the start of a New Year, only it gets defeated by too much vodka.

Afterwards, what happens on the 26th? Are holiday specials automatically obsolete? There's Boxing Day in the UK and Canada, and that's Leftover Christmas. I say you watch those specials through Sunday, especially in those areas where their NFL teams are not going to the playoffs (cough49erscoughRaiders,dammitcough).

So, I will look over as much as I can from my Xmas DVD collection, even though Saturday. If I saw the MST3K version of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", I should see the Cinematic Titanic version.

Strange Mail from Los Angeles

A while ago, I mentioned that I wanted to see the Nov. 23rd taping of The Ellen Degeneres Show. I had to give up a ticket to Conan O'Brien to do it. Then, the people from Ellen informed me that taping had to be rescheduled. I casually asked if I could be in one of the tapings for December, but they said they were already sold out. Considering you get a bunch of stuff from those tapings, that made sense. Thus, I'll have to wait until they had an opening in 2010, which for me could be March depending on what they'll offer at the Paley Festival. April may not be possible because getting from Anaheim to Burbank without borrowing a car or basic knowledge of freeways would be too painful for most people.

That being said, look what I got yesterday....



They mailed this to me on the 18th, the day after its last taping for the year.
This, I think, is sort of surprising. I'm guessing the secretary just wanted to get the mailing done before the two-week break. It happens.
I left voice mail for the audience relations person for the show, and told her that if I can get to Burbank, I do plan to see the show. I also added a note to the Twitter page.
I mean, when was the last time a talk show sent someone a ticket to a taping that was rescheduled and a month too late?
Just in case someone doubts me, I'll keep it along with the ticket to the Comic-Con Dollhouse autograph session I wasn't allowed to be in because Fox miscalculated how many people would show up. That's why I want to go to the Wizard World event in Anaheim in April. I am hoping this time I'll actually exchange a sentence with Eliza Dushku, like most men would.

Where did Bonnie go?

Today is the first day The Bonnie Hunt Show has been off Sacramento TV. Her show lost the annual game of musical chairs that daytime talk shows play when there's a new show.

In this case, Dr. Oz is the new hot show, because he's the second spinoff from Oprah Winfrey's show. He's been taking Bonnie's time slots in several cities, including Sacramento. In nearly every case, she has found a new home.
Guess where she hasn't?

If KCRA had hoped that no one would notice Bonnie is off the air, it was sadly mistaken. A lot of Sacramento fans went to the show's website to complain. A few others did do on the fan page. I knew about this about two weeks before anyone else only because I saw an ad for Dr. Oz, and what time it would be on. That's how I sent an e-mail to the station, asking if, at the very least, they'd ship Bonnie off to KQCA, My58. Well, they didn't. My58 is very happy showing two episodes each of Maury Povich and Jerry Springer...and repeats of Oprah and Dr. Oz after KCRA shows them. Thus, no room for Bonnie. Too bad.

Now, I am going to see a Bonnie Hunt taping next week, and I'll tell the warm-up guy where I live. I fully expect scorn and dirty looks from the guy. Hey, you have to blame someone.

I notice a few other people wondering where Bonnie went, not realizing she went to another station. You'd think the stations who will get Bonnie would promote it, even she's on the other station. Well, things should settle down by the end of the month, and things should be fine....almost everywhere.