So this one will be different. In the past, any Christmas episodes I’ve discussed on the blog or the podcast have been from series I’m mostly familiar with. King of Queens, Full House, and Fresh Prince, for example, are all shows that I remember very well and even still watch from time to time.
Lately, however, I’ve been thinking of going back to shows that I either didn’t watch or at least do not remember well at all. We were recently talking about the restaurant named Mel’s Diner in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, so Alice popped in my head. I figured a Christmas episode would be as good as any to check out.
This feels more like a Rusty show to me (although I have no idea if he really ever watched it or not). I know I’ve definitely seen episodes of it, I feel like maybe at a certain relative’s house or something, but I don’t think it was ever appointment viewing in my house. In fact, when I went to pull up an episode, I was searching for a show titled Mel’s Diner and didn’t even recall that the title of the series was actually Alice.
But eventually I got a hold of episode 11 from season 4 (December 23, 1979), titled “Mel, the Magi,” and will share my thoughts here about a show that I remember absolutely nothing about. I’m just jumping in for some Christmas cheer here at the end of June!
I’ll try to keep my comments and reactions related to this specific episode (and mainly how it relates to Christmas), but first… Did people actually like this theme song?
Anyway, we quickly learn that money is tight for everyone this year and that everyone affiliated with this diner will be spending Christmas Eve alone, including two random truckers who stumble in off the streets. So these waitresses, who seem to have way more time to sit around and talk than any diner waitresses I’ve ever seen, decide to all gather at the diner and spend Christmas Eve together. Even the two potential-psycho strangers!
The “Gift of the Magi” bit comes in as Tommy sells his guitar to buy Alice a pitcher that matches her coffee pot. Of course, Alice had to sell her coffee pot to buy a case for Tommy’s guitar. And when Flo sells her Johnny Cash oil painting to buy Vera’s Burt Bacharach records, you can probably guess that Vera pawns her record player to buy Flo a frame for the Johnny Cash painting. It’s all very forced, and I hope the writers didn’t spend a ton of time coming up with this stuff, but it works.
Looking at the title of the episode, you also don’t need to be a genius to know what Mel will be getting each of them for Christmas.
All the tropes are here. Alice is practical, Mel’s a grump, Vera is goofy, and Flo is loud. You’ll recognize all the sitcom archetypes within the first 8 minutes.
As a Christmas episode, I think it’s pretty good. The diner is decorated, the characters are singing lots of songs, and all of the plot revolves around the holiday. There is even a mysterious Santa Claus who appears. (And maybe he’s also a Grinch?) I even laughed out loud during the scene when Flo describes the possible thief (Santa Claus) to the police over the phone.
I’m awarding bonus points for the Bacharach records. And while I still think it’s absolutely weird that the two truckers are invited to hang out with them, I guess things were just a little different there at the very end of 1970s.
I recommend this episode for both fans of Alice and fans of Christmas on TV.
What’s Up With These Songs? originally appeared on Rusty’s site. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was written by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent.
“I’ll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me.” So far, so good. Great news. I’ll be happy to see you. “Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree.” Hold on a second. I can handle the mistletoe, no problem. But you don’t expect me to provide the snow, do you? I’m not God. It will either snow or it won’t. Also, presents on the tree? You’ve been away so long that you’ve forgotten that, in our house, we traditionally put the presents under the tree. But, if you insist, I’ll see what I can do. “Christmas Eve will find me where the lovelight gleams.” Lovely. You’ve redeemed yourself and you’ve got me all psyched to see you. It’s going to be quite romantic. Can’t wait. “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.” What? You said I could count on you, buddy! I held up my end of the bargain. I put up the mistletoe, I stuck your stupid presents on the tree, and — guess what — it’s even snowing. So where the hell are you? Dreaming about it? Thanks. Guess I’ll go join the growing number of seasonal suicides.
It seems crazy, but this will be the third year that we’ll be doing our Christmas podcast. While we’ve already recorded special episodes for St. Patrick’s Day and Leon Day, we’ll be ramping up for our “third season” sometime around Halloween. It’s practically here!
In the meantime, we wanted to highlight a few fun changes that you can expect for 2021.
New artwork
Our friend Kendall illustrated this cool piece. We had to pretend to podcast for 20 hours straight to model for her as she worked on it, but in the end, it was worth it! Check out Kendall’s Twilight podcast, For Fork’s Sake.
Also, our friend Nik Caesar recently did some custom art for us, based on two of our favorite Christmas characters, Krampus and Jólakötturinn (the Yule Cat). Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Scream 4, and various local TV horror shows have featured Nik’s work in the past. He’s awesome. Be sure to check out his web site.
We’ll have some fun stickers, coffee mugs, and even playing cards available soon.
Christmas zine
Speaking of Nik…
This year we will debut the Snow in Southtown Christmas Zine! The zine will contain fun reviews, trivia, articles, and other goofy Christmas stuff, along with art from Nik (and hopefully others). The zine will only be available in print. Zines are fun! Stay tuned!
Input from friends
If you tuned in for our first season in 2019, you know that we reviewed movies and songs that were picked by our friends. For season two, we chose all of the movies and music to discuss. Now, season three will contain a combination of both! Each episode will have a theme, and we’ll each pick a movie or song to review. Then a third movie or song will come from our friends who vote each week. If you want to participate and help decide what we discuss, add us on Facebook!
We’ll be adding other fun things along the way, so be sure to follow us here and on social media.
Here are some actual taglines that were used to promote 10 of the Christmas movies that we have discussed on our podcast. Can you match them all correctly? Answers are at the bottom.
A. Prancer // B. Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas // C. Home Alone D. Mickey’s Christmas Carol // E. The Santa Clause // F. A Christmas Story G. Christmas with the Kranks // H. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation I. I’ll Be Home for Christmas // J. It’s a Wonderful Life
This Christmas, the snow hits the fan.
Where wishes come true… where angels are real… The greatest gift of all… is right at home.
Holy cow!
Yule crack up!
Peace. Harmony. Comfort and Joy… Maybe Next Year.
He’s back! _ – in his first new motion picture in 30 years…
This yule, be cool.
Something magical is about to happen.
No! Ho! Ho!
A Merry Musical Treat For The Whole Family!
E // 2. J // 3. C // 4. H // 5. F // 6. D // 7. I // 8. A // 9. G // 10. B (Source = IMDb)
What’s Up With These Songs? originally appeared on Rusty’s site.
Andy Williams initially ropes us in here with Irving Berlin’s classic “Happy Holiday” from Holiday Inn. But does he keep going? No. Instead, he takes a sharp right at Cheesy Street, and the song quickly shifts to the second tune in the medley, Kay Thompson’s “It’s the Holiday Season.”
“It’s the Holiday Season” is very focused on Santa Claus and all the stuff he’s bringing us. At first, Williams tells us that Santa has “a toy” for each girl and boy. One toy. But then he says Santa is bringing “lots of goodies for you and for me.” Which is it, Andy? Am I getting one toy or lots of goodies? I kind of need to prepare myself and know what to leave the big guy as a token of thanks.
Speaking of which, I won’t be taking Andy’s suggestion when he tells me to “leave a peppermint stick for old St. Nick.” Sure, Mr. Williams. Sally next door is baking double chocolate chip cookies as we speak and will be leaving Santa a plate full of them along with a tall glass of ice cold milk. And I’m gonna leave him a candy cane I got in a 12-pack at the Dollar Tree? Furthermore, you want me to leave it “hangin’ on the Christmas tree”?! What kind of Where’s Waldo shenanigans am I pulling here? I want to thank Santa, not leave him a puzzle. “Thanks for all the goodies, Santa. Good luck finding the one candy cane I left just for you on my Christmas tree.”
Still, at least all of those lines contain actual lyrics. But what about the line where Andy says, “It’s the holiday season / so whoop-de-doo and dickory-dock”? I think Thompson honestly forgot to finish the song. She knew she wanted to remind us to hang up our socks, and she also knew that she wanted to pinpoint the time of Santa’s arrival as “just exactly at 12 o’clock.” (I do have to add that it seems physically impossible for him to appear at every single residence in the world at midnight. Plus, I’ve tracked him on NORAD.) Look, I have no problem with using gibberish as a lyric placeholder in a rough draft. But come on. At some point in the process someone had to think, “Hey wait. What about the missing lyrics in that one line where we’re just babbling nonsense and plagiarizing nursery rhymes?”
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a catchy song, and my kids seem to like it. But I’m definitely happy when we return to Berlin’s part of the medley.
To celebrate Leon Day and Christmas in July, we’ll be posting each day from June 25-July 4. Be sure to check out our Leon Day podcast episode if you haven’t listened yet!
Rankin Bass has been a big part of our podcast in our first two years, and Rusty and I both consider many of these Christmas specials as essential annual viewing. On our St. Patrick’s Day episode this year, I noted that the music in The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold was surprisingly solid, and I wondered where it might fit if I’d decided to rank all of the Christmas specials based only on music. So of course, I had to do that.
To compile these rankings, I first gave each song a score from 1 to 5, with a 5 being a perfect song. (I’ve mentioned on the podcast that, in my 5-point scale, a 3 is average, while a 4 is something that is good, and I would purposely choose to listen to it.) I then ranked the specials, considering not only my average score per song, but also the amount of songs, along with the number of 4s and 5s each show might have.
Finally, I did not take into account any songs that were already known Christmas tunes before the special aired.
Here are my rankings, where I’ll also note which songs are 5s (perfect) and which are 1s (awful).
NR. Frosty the Snowman (1969)/Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976)
Neither of these shows contain new music (which is kind of weird), so they couldn’t really be ranked here. The original Frosty is in my top 3 Rankin Bass shows.
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)
“Nestor” is a song written by Gene Autry, which was then adapted into this special two years later. There are only two other songs, and neither is very good.
The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1976)
This one is barely better than Nestor, featuring only one original composition, “Money, Money, Money.” But at least it’s a decent song.
Pinocchio’s Christmas (1980)
There are eight songs here, and only the opener, “I Never Know What Gifts To Buy,” reached a 3 on my scale. In fact, “Dancin'” and “Wicked Glee” are my first 1s.
Cricket on the Hearth (1967)
The rest of the music in the shows from the ’60s is so good, so I was very disappointed when I finally watched this one for the first time. Out of nine songs, only the title track is average, while “Fish and Chips” gets a 1 from me.
Santa, Baby! (2001)
This one was tricky. Honestly, I did not even know about this special until I started these rankings. Airing 16 years after the previous special (The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus), it’s kind of easy to see why nothing else has happened since this one. It features Eartha Kitt (of course) and Gregory Hines, while podcast favorite Patti LaBelle contributes a bunch to the soundtrack. But look… it really isn’t watchable, at least not in 2021. Basically, 2001 was a strange time across the board, and that holds true for both animation and music. This was tough for me to rank, as the music attempts to be more contemporary, and I’m just typically not a fan of this style. That being said, the music (at least) is mostly not terrible. I mean, aside from the techno version of the title song, which was already a holiday standard and didn’t factor into my rankings, of course.
Jack Frost (1979)
This one is disappointing, partially because it was a great chance to get some decent Groundhog Day music. There are only a couple of decent songs here (out of seven), but “She Is Beautiful” is a 1.
Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979)
We reviewed this one on our summer episode in 2020 and were both disappointed with the music. There are seven new songs, along with a handful of standards, and “Everything I Always Wanted” is not bad. Although a couple of others are decent as well, “Chicken Today and Feathers Tomorrow” is rough and gets a 1, the last clunker on this list.
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976)
This one is barely any better than Christmas in July. It has a few average songs, including the opener, “Have a Happy New Year,” and I didn’t have any 1s.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
There are only a handful of songs here, and honestly, none are spectacular, although “Big Surprise” is pretty good. Mainly, this special gets a huge boost due to the amazing background score. I need to find just the score, and I think someone needs to release it on vinyl.
The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold (1981)
Again, we covered this special in our spring episode earlier this year. There are only three songs, and they’re all pretty good. “The Rainbow’s End” is my favorite song on this list so far, a 4 on my scale.
The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
Like the Christmas Gold, this special only has a few songs, but they’re all good. “Save a Little Christmas” and “The First White Christmas” are both 4s.
The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
Overall, I don’t think I liked the music here as much as I enjoyed the songs in The First Christmas. However, it has the first 5 on my scale with “One Star in the Night,” so it gets the higher spot on my list. The other songs are all OK.
The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
I could probably go even higher with this special because there is so much great music here. “Sing a Christmas Carol” and “Humbug” are both 5s, and there are several 3s and 4s throughout. On the other hand, the songs were all written for the musical before Rankin Bass animated the story. Ultimately it gets a top 5 ranking due to the fact that I personally had not heard any of the songs until I first saw the Rankin Bass version a few years ago.
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Every song is good here, and “Put One Foot in Front of the Other” is a 5. My average score for the six songs was nearly a 4.
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
This was another tough one to rank because there are only three songs, but all three are among my favorites. “Christmas Chimes are Calling” and “Even a Miracle Needs a Hand” are both 5s, while “Give Your Heart a Try” is super close to being a 5 as well. Based on the music, it’s a top 3 special.
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
Unlike 1979, Rankin Bass was knocking the music out of the park in 1974. Every song in this show is great. “Snow Miser” and “Heat Miser” are 5s, and these are two of the first songs that I turned into mp3s back when that became possible. “I Believe in Santa Claus” is also a 5.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Nothing compares to this one. I’d rate every song as a 5, except for maybe “Fame and Fortune,” which probably shouldn’t even count. It’s just hit after hit. I think the radio stations should just dedicate 15-minute blocks to these tracks during the Christmas season. The songs are that good. Focusing on the music while doing these rankings, I quickly realized that the songs in this special definitely contribute to the fact that it’s the most famous Rankin Bass special of all.
It’s Leon Day 2021, and we watched My Summer Story, the original sequel to A Christmas Story. We also talk about our upcoming zine, some new art/stickers, a podcast format change, and some projects we’ve been working on. We’ll be posting some fun stuff on the blog over the next couple of weeks to celebrate Leon Day.
The Christmas prank call at the end of the show is from Another Prank Call Show. Thanks to King Richard.
“I Just Want To Wear Long Sleeves” is by Braithwaite and can be found at our bandcamp on this free Christmas comp, which also includes songs by Mike and Rusty
Snow in Southtown Christmas Podcast 