Sunday, July 14, 2019

Christmas in July Quick Reviews: Mitzi Gaynor / Celebrity Holiday Homes / Family / Guess Who's Coming For Christmas


The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show (1967) 
Repeat Viewing | GetTV DVR
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The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show, actually the 1967 festive episode of the The Kraft Music Hall, is everything good about old school Christmas variety specials. Great music, fun dance numbers, and cute skits. Mitzi is joined by guests Cyril Ritchard, Tony Tanner and Ed McMahon.
I wish I could buy this digitally or get it on disc because it’s one of my favorite holiday specials and the GetTV recording on my DVR is woefully out of sync. Even so it’s a holiday staple in the Kringle household. If it airs again this year definitely check it out.  

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 Celebrity Holiday Homes (2012)
First Viewing | Pluto Christmas in July
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 Cheryl Burke, Bebe Winans & Twisted Sister's Dee Snider get their a holiday decor makeover from winner of HGTV's Design Star competition series. Pretty good for the genre but not something I'll ever need to revisit.

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Family:  'Tis the Season (Season 5 Episode 2)
Repeat Viewing | MeTV DVR

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A near perfect mix of standard domestic drama and Christmas stunting, 'Tis the Season packs a number of parallel story lines, all them organically holiday related. 
(...and yes I had a crush on Kristy McNichol, just like every other guy my age I knew. Heck, I even bought the album she put out with her brother - you should have seen the face of the record store clerk when I brought up John Cale's "Paris 1919", The Jam's "In the City" and Kristy and Jimmy McNichol's eponymous masterpiece. What can I say, the heart wanted what the heart wanted. That said, the heart is fickle and while John and The Jam are still faves it took a google search for me to recall the songs Kristy and frère put to vinyl.


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Guess Who's Coming For Christmas? (1990)
First Time Viewing | Youtube



Here's a real treat that I only just got a chance to see thanks to a heads up from the reigning Queen of Christmas TV history!

Treading some familiar holiday movie tropes - tradition versus progress, optimistic dreamer, magical stranger, financial struggles - Guess Who's Coming For Christmas elevates them with a touch of sci-fi and an above average cast. Richard Mulligan, Paul Dooley, Barbara Barrie, and Beau Bridges - no offense to today's Hallmark regulars but a cast like this, a cast of actual actors embodying unique characters, is why older TV movies have a place in my heart  and the assembly line romances of today seem so corporate, cynical and disposable.
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The Naughty: Nothing naughty this time.

The Nice: Mitzi, Mitzi, Mitzi. Plus Family and GWCfC make for fine viewing.







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