Christmas TV 1980 Part 2 (Dec 10 - 16)

 

Christmas TV 1980 Part 2 (Dec 10 - 16)

December 10

Merry Christmas with Love Julie

Julie Andrews is joined by Jimmy Stewart, Rich Little, Joel Grey, Steve Lawrence and others in this renamed rerun of a 1972 episode of her  variety series.

December 13

For the kids, a couple of reruns - Bugs Bunny's Loony Christmas Tales, and Twas the Night Before Christmas. 

For the grownups Mel Torme hosted The Christmas Songs from a year earlier and the premier of Perry Como's Christmas in the Holy Land with special guest Richard Chamberlain.

December 14

A trio of repeats started off the evening...

The spirit of Julie Andrews past returned with a 1973 Christmas rerun

Another rerun, this time from Disney's Wonderful World competed for kids attention with Rudolph's Shiny New Year.

Dance Fever had it's first annual Christmas Show

December 14

Deepening which reality you resided in there may have been a repeat of The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree special.

The Little Rascals also got a rerun in that reality.

Luckily every iteration of existence had a repeat airing of Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

Next up you had a choice of sitcoms or variety

M*A*S*H* and House Calls versus The Osmond Family Christmas (with special guests Greg 'BJ and the Bear' Evigan and Doug Henning) and Highlights of the Ice Follies and Holidays on Ice.

December

Running throughout the month HBS had Christmas on Ice, of which I can find nothing online

The, at the time, seemingly eternal Bob Hope hosted yet another Christmas special (24 and counting), this one featuring Larry Gatlin, Loretta Swit and Loni Anderson.

This was followed by another all time variety great Dean Martin and his guests Beverly Sills, Erik Estrada and Andy Gibb.

Happy Days - White Christmas

Tonight's Laverne and Shirley sounds like it could have made a pretty good Christmas episode - the girls get jobs working at the gift wrap counter of a department store ad Laverne gets sloshed on boozy chocolates. Alas there was nothing particularly holiday-ish about it.

So, instead we turn to another beloved couple for our festive TV fix - Hart to Hart's "'Tis the Season to be Murdered"

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