Yesterday’s installment of the countdown trended more adult. Lots of cartoons not for the kids, but today’s list definitely is more general audience. I like the spread today. It’s dominated by animation, as it so often is, but we also have a live-action, puppet, type show. We have weekend cartoons, and week day cartoons. There’s shows from Disney, shows from Warner Bros and it’s almost all entirely dominated by 90s properties. I haven’t really been keeping tabs on the decades as I go through this list, but it makes sense that the 90s would be heavily represented all throughout. That’s when cable really exploded and we had a whole bunch of cartoons with massive episode orders and throwing a Christmas one into that mass of stuff sure makes things a whole lot easier. Networks originally were said to dislike holiday episodes, but I think they changed their tune when they realized they could program an entire day, or even week, around a holiday like Christmas or Halloween. Even the prime time shows tended to do this sort of thing. Anyway, I feel like I’ve talked about all of this before so let’s cut the preamble and get to number 93:
It pretty much looks like Christmas, but with a fridge instead of a tree.
Dinosaurs was a real treat to come back to when Disney+ launched a few years ago. I watched it as a kid when it was airing on ABC, but kind of lost track of it. I think it got shuffled around some, or maybe my family latched onto something else in the same timeslot. I don’t know. What I do know is the show is great. It holds up very well in basically all respects. The satire it went for is still biting and relevant today, which is both a good and bad thing. Dinosaurs never technically did air a Christmas episode, but instead we got “Refrigerator Day” which is basically their version of Christmas. Since there is apparently no dinosaur Jesus, they worship at the altar of the refrigerator which changed their lives so completely. It’s a society that’s very consumer-driven, if you couldn’t tell. Despite that, the plot is pretty conventional and, for some, may be a tad too much like The Simpsons since Earl’s horrible boss foregoes Christmas bonuses and things get tight for the Sinclair family. However, they stumble upon a million dollar idea, the concept of store returns, and in exchange for making a huge company even more wealthy they get a few measly gifts and their repossessed appliance is returned. It’s a bit dark, but pretty funny. If you haven’t checked out Dinosaurs in a long time then do yourself a favor and go back to it. I promise you, it’s not as dominated by the baby character as you may remember.
It’s a weird environment for Bugs and pals, but it also kind of works?
The Looney Tunes Show is perhaps a more interesting concept than show, but the little I’ve seen is honestly not bad. It’s basically a sitcom starring the cast of Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny is dating Lola Bunny and is roommates with Daffy. Foghorn Leghorn is the mayor, and Yosemite Sam is more like a rich Texas guy than an outlaw. This Christmas episode of the show involves Lola directing a play, the titular A Christmas Carol, while Foghorn and Daffy head to the North Pole to try and find a way to make their local climate cooler. Their adventure is a bit more madcap, while the story with the play is more grounded. Lola turns out to be a very interesting and funny character. She’s very self-confident without any reason to be and a lot of the characters in her orbit are too polite to tell her when she’s making a bad decision. The play is basically terrible and goes way off the rails, but also the real Santa shows up for it which I honestly didn’t expect. I can’t figure out what the audience was supposed to be for this show, but I do know I was entertained by this more than I was the conventional Looney Tunes Christmas specials and that sure surprised me. It’s still not the best Looney Tunes Christmas special though.
The folks over at Warner Bros. got a lot of mileage out of this bit.
Our second look at The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries is the stronger of the two Christmas episodes. It’s a sort-of parody of It’s a Wonderful Life, only instead of focusing on the George Bailey character it centers on a stand-in for his drunk uncle. If you’ve never seen the movie, what sets the plot in motion is George’s uncle Billy losing a deposit of money that their savings and loan business was to make that night. Essentially, they lost the money of a bunch of people and would have probably been arrested for theft or misappropriation or something. For this cartoon, Granny and her animals are going to help her brother find the money he lost by retracing his steps from the prior night. They do a solid job of tiptoeing around the whole alcoholic aspect of the Uncle Billy character to keep things PG, and we do get a Potter stand-in to act as the villain. There are some solid gags throughout and none of the characters really dominate the episode, which is a full-length one as opposed to the half-length one we looked at days ago. It will amuse you if you’re familiar with the movie, but also you don’t have to be in order to be entertained. And it even one-ups the movie by having the Potter stand-in actually face some consequences for his thievery.
It’s kind of weird that they can’t share the same tree.
The Nicktoons tended to have solid Christmas episodes, few great ones, but most of them are fine. CatDog was one I had ignored for a long time because I simply wasn’t watching Nickelodeon when it was airing. I knew it had a Christmas episode and it was on my list for years until I finally sat down and watched it just a year ago. And you know what? It’s fine. I liked it more than I expected and I’m even ranking it ahead of shows I did watch a ton of like Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show. I’m not elevating it to the level of Rocko’s Modern Life or even Rugrats, but this episode is fun enough. It’s almost a little like Mickey’s Good Deed in that CatDog essentially sells itself to a wealthy family as a Christmas present, but then has second thoughts. It’s the Christmas special that taught us being a whore isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Everything works out though and even the bratty kid that bought them comes around. It has a pretty straight ending where everyone learns something, but it’s not too syrupy sweet or anything. If you’re like me and didn’t really give CatDog much of a chance then you may want to reconsider this Christmas.
I still can’t believe I enjoyed an episode of Bonkers more than Darkwing Duck – and a Christmas one at that! Bonkers is the character no one wanted. He should have been Roger Rabbit, but that just wasn’t possible so we got this weird bobcat character. At least he’s better than Bubsy. This episode is a solid one though and it actually doesn’t feature a ton of the titular character. It’s centered more on his partner Lucky and an amnesiac Santa Claus. Poor Santa got knocked out of the sky and stuck with the character Fall Apart. Since no one can find him, the elves turn to the police and Lucky is chosen to basically be a stand-in. His motivation to help out is his daughter’s belief in Santa Claus. Pretty conventional stuff, but it all wraps up nicely. The animation is also gorgeous as it often is for the Disney Afternoon and the antics between Fall Apart and “Jim” are pretty funny. This also is just a fun world and the premise of the show is terrific, it just rarely came together to form a cohesive half hour of entertainment. For Christmas though, it nailed it.
Maybe this is why Batman doesn’t seem to like Christmas?
This Christmas episode of Batman: The Animated Series is fine. It’s funny, the Joker is a good villain for this type of thing, and I usually watch it every year. It’s also an episode that I just wish was better and that’s because of the show it hails from. Batman is the greatest superhero show to ever come around. I say that as a lover of X-Men, but the quality was just so much better. The writing was tighter and the budget greater so it looks terrific. It also helps that the cast was small and that’s one reason why I just can’t get into shows like Justice League following this one. This episode is a fairly standard Joker plot where he’s kidnapped some people and there’s a bomb or something. It just happens to be at Christmas so we get some Christmas puns and festive attire out of the Joker. It unfortunately doesn’t look as good as some episodes and there’s some awkward shots in here. Maybe it was rushed so there was no danger of missing the holiday? I don’t know, I just know it’s a pretty even episode of Batman, but not one of the show’s best.
You just know they’re going to spoof some holiday classics.
Batman’s network-mates the Tiny Toons got to make a contribution to Christmas. Unlike the more seasoned Sylvester and Tweety, their It’s a Wonderful Life parody mostly plays it straight. In the role of George is Buster Bunny who is questioning his own worth. Not to the degree that George was, but maybe he’s just not cut out for the life he wants? Through the magic of his guardian rabbit, Harvey, Buster is going to see what life would be like had he never been on Tiny Toons. Plucky is the star, Montana Max owns the Looniversity, and Babs is a humorless solo act. Naturally, Buster has a revelation and has his life restored where he’s able to help the other toons put on an entertaining Christmas show. It doesn’t do anything to upend the framing device, but the humor of Tiny Toons is able to carry this one. Tiny Toon Adventures is a show I can only handle in small doses, but when done well it’s usually pretty rewarding. This one is animated well and there’s some easy Christmas special gags to be found as well which are real crowd pleasers. I tend to lose track of this one among the many other Warner Bros. Christmas episodes and specials, but it’s worth returning to.
TaleSpin, like Bonkers, is another Disney Afternoon show I didn’t really care for in the moment, but it has a good Christmas episode. This one centers around the child character Molly, who is the daughter of Baloo’s boss, Rebecca. She’s having a bit of a Christmas crisis where her belief in Santa Claus is in doubt and it’s mostly all because of Baloo. He, with the help of Louie, tries to stage a North Pole to trick Molly into believing, but when Louie’s bar is closed for way too long on Christmas Eve the local drunks overrun the place and blow the whole thing. Now, this episode does fly too close to the sun for me when it comes to whether or not Santa Claus is real. I don’t particularly like it when a show aimed at young children places too much doubt on his existence, but they do rectify it at the end (as if there was any doubt). And that’s really my only complaint with the episode. It otherwise is pretty entertaining and it’s very well animated and heartbroken Molly worked on me so when her moment of triumph came it also affected me in much the same way. TaleSpin isn’t reinventing the wheel when it comes to Christmas episodes, but it brings the feels.
And that’s not even close to capturing the whole Anderson family.
Life with Louie is one of those forgotten Fox Kids shows. The network never celebrated its works like a Disney or a Nickelodeon would. They kind of just paid for them for the moment, then sold them off when it no longer suited them. As such, I think this show is owned by Disney who bought most of Fox Kids if not all. The company kind of treated most of these shows the same way Fox did using them to pad out expanded, digital, cable channels until it was no longer profitable. Some shows saw DVD release, and many did not. Life with Louie was supposed to according to series creator Louie Anderson, but it never happened. It’s too bad because Life with Louie is a sweet coming of age cartoon. There’s not a ton of stuff like that, especially from the 90s, and it managed to be plenty funny too. In this Christmas episode, Louie basically finds out a kid he thinks is the greatest is actually an orphan and it forces him to reexamine his own relationship with his family. It’s all heartwarming stuff and we get to see Louie’s dad be forced to play Santa which is where a lot of the comedy comes from. I prefer the first Christmas episode from this show more, but this is a worthy (if unexpected) follow-up.
Sing it with me, “It’s time for Animaniacs!” Yes, the first of three entries for the series is “‘Twas the Day Before Christmas.” In 1993, Animaniacs did the odd thing of releasing two Christmas episodes. I guess when you’re a weekday afternoon program you can afford to do that. It also helps that Animaniacs was a pretty large ensemble so giving everyone their own Christmas arc was just not possible in a single half hour episode. Maybe they first envisioned an hour long prime time affair? I don’t know, but this is the lesser of the two despite the other one being a parody of A Christmas Carol. I know – shocking! And the main segment is basically designed to squeeze most of the cast into one short as Aunt Slappy relays the story about the day before Christmas on the Warner lot. It’s the strongest segment across both specials, but it’s not very substantial since its just Slappy reading a parody of A Visit From Saint Nicholas with some funny stuff animated to it. The second segment is Chicken Boo who is playing a mall Santa. One kid sees the character for what it is, a chicken, but no one else does and he freaks out. It’s pretty damn funny, but also brief. The third segment is just the Warners in a toy store after hours where the toys come to life. It’s pretty weak and drags this one down, but it’s not terrible. It’s still an entertaining 25 minutes and most of these characters work best in quick bursts anyway, but there’s better stuff ahead. Especially for a couple of laboratory mice.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
When it comes to Christmas themed cartoons featuring Popeye, I’ve somehow managed to work backwards. We’ve looked at two previous Popeye cartoons that center around the holiday, but today’s Christmas short is Popeye’s very first. It comes to us all the way from 1933 where it premiered as just the fourth Popeye cartoon. I don’t…
Today we continue our lookback at the best holiday specials ever sent to television and today’s subject is everyone’s favorite pair of Gen X deadbeats Beavis and Butt-Head. Beavis and Butt-Head were created by Mike Judge and the pair got its start on MTV’s Liquid Television in 1992. There they were a cruel, destructive, pair…
Today we are continuing our look back at the best of the best when it comes to Christmas specials and today’s entrant comes from the quiet, mountain, town of South Park. South Park burst onto the scene in 1997 and basically transformed the Comedy Central network from the get-go. The show about four foul-mouthed kids…
Nothing puts one in the Christmas Spirit like carols about the refrigerator. Or so Dinosaurs would have you believe. Not that Christmas is actually mentioned at all in today’s special because it takes place in a setting on Earth millions of years before the Christ in Christmas was born. Back then, the sentient beings of the world celebrated a different sort of holiday and it was one centered around the refrigerator. Think about it for a second – the refrigerator really is an amazingly transformative invention. Prior to its creation, there was no way to keep food from spoiling when the outside temperature was above 50 degrees or so. People would have root cellars where they would store things like apples and cheese in the winter because they were hearty. Apples could be turned into apple sauce or pie while cheese would spoil from the outside in. Those moldy parts could be discarded, or consumed if you like that sort of thing. That’s why in a society that apparently doesn’t really worship a god a refrigerator can seem like a truly miraculous thing.
Dinosaurs was an ingenious idea that lead to a pretty great show.
On this blog, I tend to stick with cartoons when it comes to the daily Christmas post, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. And Dinosaurs is kind of like a live-action cartoon. It was often compared (sometimes negatively) to The Simpsons during its heyday and it’s fairly apt. Both shows are sitcoms that just go about the whole medium thing different. Where as The Simpsons is a bonafide animated production, Dinosaurs is a costumed one with advanced puppetry. The show was created by Mike Jacobs and Bob Young and receiving a “developed by” credit is the infamous Jim Henson. Henson died before the show’s premiere, but it’s he who is credited with the idea of doing a sitcom about a family of dinosaurs. The costumes for much of the cast are very similar to what the company made for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. You basically have an actor in a big, rubber, suit, with animatronics built into the face that are then operated by a puppeteer. I can’t imagine how miserable these costumes must have been to wear, but the technology on display is truly amazing. These characters are as alive and expressive as most sitcom stars and the show became an overnight success when it debuted in 1991.
The Sinclair family is a fairly typical family of four at the beginning, but made five before the first episode ends.
Dinosaurs was considered an expensive production, but despite that it ran for four seasons totaling 65 episodes, an important number if syndication was going to be in its future. It’s also a show that has become infamous since it left the air because the final episode basically kills everybody off. I mean, it’s a show about dinosaurs – how else could it have ended? The Sinclair family doesn’t literally die, but the ice age is essentially about to begin and it’s pretty bleak. Their doom was brought about by their own society’s ills and in that regard it’s even less of a surprise the show ended in such a fashion. Dinosaurs is a sitcom and a funny one at that, but it’s also a pretty biting satire of 90s culture. The show was very critical of war during a time when most of the country was consumed by Gulf War patriotism and the show even tackled religion in a pretty savage way for network television. In my experience, the show burned bright and faded quickly with most only remembering it for the baby and his infamous “Not the mama,” routine, but once the show hit Disney+ I gave it a complete rewatch and was kind of blown away by how well it holds up.
The enduring image from the show.
If you are new to the show, Dinosaurs is about the Sinclair family. Earl (Bill Barretta as the suit actor, Stuart Pankin the voice) is a typical sitcom dad in that he’s a blue collar worker with a mean boss who just wants to be left alone when he’s not on the job. He’s not stupid, but he is pretty ignorant which leads to some stupid decisions. His wife, Fran (Mitchel Young-Evans, Jessica Walter) is the typical moral center of the family and a stay-at-home mother to a pair of teenagers, Robbie (Leif Tilden, Jason Willinger) and Charlene (Michelan Sisti, Sally Struthers). Both kids have pretty typical teenaged problems dealing with popularity, the opposite sex, puberty, and so on. In the very first episode, Fran lays a surprise egg which hatches into Baby Sinclair (a more conventional puppet operated by Terri Harden and Kevin Clash with Clash providing the voice) who basically throws their world for a loop. Earl and Fran, already having teenaged children, certainly weren’t looking to start over with another baby, but life is funny like that.
This will be Baby’s first Refrigerator Day.
“Refrigerator Day” is the 12th episode of the show’s second season. It originally aired on the ABC network on December 11, 1991. The episode begins with everyone in the Sinclair household decorating for Refrigerator Day. Basically, it looks like Christmas with a different name. Fran has just finished baking a traditional mold pie while Baby asks his grandmother Ethyl (Brian Henson, Florence Stanley) what Refrigerator Day is. She dryly informs him she already told him, but he asks if he was listening. The humor in this show is very much in-line with The Muppets. Ethyl explains that before there were refrigerators life basically sucked. Fran chimes in as well, but the whole thing is lost on Baby who doesn’t understand their explanation, but does perk up when Charlene mentions it includes lots of presents.
Instead of having to introduce a new item to the home and decorate it, the dinosaurs just trim-up their fridge. It’s a sound method.
Robbie asks his dad if he’s basically going nuts on gifts this year and Earl is happy to tell his son that he indeed is. He gets in a dig at his own expense when he points out that it’s easy to blow all of their money on presents with his salary, but he’s in a very jovial mood so his dead-end job as a tree pusher isn’t going to bother him. He does bring up the dreaded Refrigerator Bonus, so you know he’s either not going to get one or its going to be miniscule. He reaches into that holiest of appliances, the refrigerator, to pull out a snack. It’s a living, small, mammal which gives the show an almost Flinstones vibe as most of their food is seen alive first and is often sarcastic. Fran comes over to lecture him about the true meaning of the holiday. And wouldn’t you know, it’s basically all of the same stuff as Christmas with the noted exception that this holiday is preceded by two days of fasting. Fran snatches the little vermin away from Earl who also gets to make a fat joke at the expense of the megalosaurus.
We jump to later in the day and Earl is on the job. His friend and co-worker, Roy (Pons Mar and Julianne Buescher as puppeteers, Sam McMurray voice) is puzzled by Earl’s lack of lunch who is then forced to explain the whole fasting ritual. Roy, being a bachelor, doesn’t have a wife to enforce such things. Earl isn’t too bummed though, because he soon hears the summons of his boss B.P. Richfield (Leif Tilden and Steve Whitmire, Sherman Hemsley) which can only mean one thing: bonus!
“Toddy.”
Earl heads into his boss’s trailer in a very good mood which is unusual for him as heading into the boss’s trailer is usually a terrifying experience for Earl. Richfield is apparently in the Refrigerator Spirit as he’s decorated his trailer with lights and tinsel and even installed a fireplace so his workers could come in out of the cold. He offers Earl a hot toddy and even takes time to remark what a funny word “toddy” is. Earl is very much enjoying this as his boss produces three envelopes. They each contain a Christmas bonus and when he asks Earl to guess which one is his he surprises him by saying “All of them!”
Now that’s the Richfield we know and love (?).
If this all seems too good to be true it’s because it is. Earl is having a pretty sad fantasy about getting love and respect from his boss, which is shattered by the screams of said boss to get in his trailer. The actual trailer is just as cold and miserable as usual. No fireplace, no hot toddy, no offers of an embrace, and perhaps not unexpectedly, no bonus. Earl actually gets handed four pencils, not to keep, but to sharpen. When he prods his boss about a bonus he’s met with an angry stare and confirmation that there is none. They do a little Looney Tunes bit where Earl tries to say there will be one, while Richfield says otherwise, but Earl being a dinosaur and all has never seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon so he doesn’t know how to turn the argument around in his favor. When Earl protests that he depends on the bonus, Richfield tells him that’s why he isn’t getting one. When you expect a bonus, it’s just salary. When Earl tries to tell him that he isn’t expecting one now, Richfield just remarks, “Good! Now you won’t be disappointed!” As Earl leaves dragging his tail behind, Richfield tells him not to tell anybody else about the no bonuses this year. He wants to tell them himself and describes it as a little holiday treat. I love Sherman Helmsley as Richfield, he is just so damn good at being a terrible boss.
At least Earl doesn’t try to hide his lack of a bonus from his family.
If you’re worried that this means we’re about to embark on an A Christmas Carol like plot involving Richfield then worry not. He’s beyond hope. Instead, Earl heads home with the bad news. We first find Charlene and Robbie preparing more decorations while watching TV. There’s a commercial about celebrating Refrigerator Day by giving paint which Robbie finds distasteful, but Charlene seems more open to Refrigerator Day commercialism. It’s followed up with a holiday greeting from the We Say So corporation about deregulation and corporate freedom. Wow, does it ring true in 2024. Following that is when Earl enters to summon the family to share the bad news. At first, Baby won’t let him share the bad news as he keeps interrupting to talk about his new found love of Refrigerator Day which involves drawing a refrigerator, drawing on the refrigerator, drawing on the walls, etc. Earl is finally able to get it out that he’s not getting a bonus and that they’re broke. Charlene sees no problems here because Earl already bought the presents. When her mother points out that they have no money to pay the bills she still fails to see a problem. Earl tries to reassure everyone that they’ll be okay. It’s the holiday season and everyone is more charitable at this time of year and more willing to wait for their money.
Avert your eyes, dear reader, it’s too gruesome!
We smash cut to the family’s refrigerator getting repossessed in front of a distraught Earl. Larry the repo dinosaur informs him he’s half a day late with his payment so the fridge has got to go. Earl tries appealing to the guy by pointing out his children and that it’s Refrigerator Day. Baby has even latched into his leg, but his mother pulls him away. Larry informs the family that his boss demands that they take the appliance that leaves the biggest mark and puts them under the most pressure, hence why the fridge goes. Earl refers to the guy’s boss as an evil man, which Larry confirms also while adding that he did give them all a nice holiday bonus. With the fridge gone, Earl is left to confront his own failure. He declares himself lower than dirt and despite his family trying to console him he announces that this will be the worst Refrigerator Day ever!
Earl is not coping well.
Earl rises the next morning and, out of habit, saunters over to where the refrigerator would normally be. When he discovers it gone, he becomes delirious and basically starts sobbing. The rest of the family retreat to the living room where Fran shares an idea she has with her kids: they take the presents back to the store, get their money back, and use it to buy back their fridge! Charlene is so disgusted by the suggestion that she can’t even form a proper analogy to describe what it would be like to have no presents on Refrigerator Day, but one look at their father singing to himself while holding ice trays is enough to convince the others. It’s here we find out that the concept of returning purchased goods to a store is a completely foreign concept in dinosaur society. Fran acknowledges it’s an odd thing to do, but thinks they have to try. Meanwhile, Earl seems to be getting even more delirious and cries out that they’re starving. Fran reminds him that they’re fasting, but Earl points out that fasting is a choice. They have no food and therefore are starving. He’s pretty logical when he wants to be.
These two just can’t wrap their heads around the idea of returning bought merchandise.
We next find the family at Kave Mart, a pun that is generic enough to still work today, but is obviously a pun on K-Mart which no longer exists or barely does. Fran and the kids carry in their wrapped gifts and approach a clerk about returning them. He seems puzzled, but says okay and tells them to just put them whereever. When Fran explains that she also wants her money back he gets real confused. He calls in his co-worker Hank to try and figure this out. It’s basically a very straight-forward discussion on logic: why would a store, which already has enough product, buy back its own merchandise? And why would someone like Fran try to sell something without making a profit? This is what it’s like to have a discussion with a libertarian. The two clerks get a bit angry with Fran thinking she’s trying to pull a fast one before declaring that the only way they would be willing to buy merchandise would be if they paid wholesale. Fran reluctantly accepts despite the protests of Robbie who rightly points out that they’ll get practically nothing for these items. What kind of fridge could they possibly get selling these items back to the store for far less than what they paid?
Refrigerator Day is saved?
A Styrofoam cooler, that’s what. We smash cut to the not-fridge while Ethyl takes a gander as Fran informs her mother it was all they could afford. Earl enters to wish everyone a happy Refrigerator Day, but in a very gloomy manner. He informs them he wanted to give them the presents he bought, but it seems they’ve been stolen so he’s going to head to the garage to hang himself. Fran intercepts Earl’s suicide march to tell him the gifts weren’t stolen and they returned them to the store to buy back their fridge. Earl can hardly believe it and nearly becomes overwhelmed with emotion, until he sees the new fridge. He’s back to feeling suicidal as he apologizes to Baby for ruining his first fridge day and implores him to take a whack at his dome with a pot as he so often does. Baby declines which makes Earl feel like an even bigger failure. Ethyl is there for him though as she strikes him across the belly with her cane reminding him that she’ll always be here for him, “Fat boy.”
And now Earl’s own son has rejected the proposal of inflicting violence upon his skull. Could this day get any worse?
It’s at this point that Fran feels inclined to remind everyone what Refrigerator Day is all about. She reminds them all the day is for them to reflect back on their ancestors who have nothing and appreciate all that they have today. She tries to throw it back at Earl by declaring them blessed, but he’d still rather head to the garage and hang himself. Fran stops Earl to inform him that they are going to do the annual Refrigerator Day pageant. Earl replies, “At the risk of sounding immature – I don’t want to!” and stamps his feet. Fran pushes past him to say then they’ll do it without him as the kids follow along behind her. I’m finding it hard to believe that teenagers would go along with a family pageant, but they are a different breed from me.
Now here’s a custom I can do without.
We cut to Ethyl reading from a book, “And now it can be told…the True Story of Refrigerator Day.” It’s essentially a parody of A Visit From Saint Nicholas/Twas the Night Before Christmas. Come to think of it, that’s what this holiday is lacking. A cosmic being who spreads presents and good cheer. Actually, the story is more like the first Thanksgiving complete with pilgrim-like costumes. Earl reluctantly takes part while the rest are fairly enthusiastic. We learn the story of the holiday is that the patriarch of this story heard a voice demanding he build a box that’s cold inside. The dinosaurs stopped migrating and constructed their box. They do, and the family has a little, prop, fridge for their story. As its told, to make it cold they were going to toss it in a lake, until the daughter discovered it had an electrical plug. The play ends with the family singing a “Fridge Carol” that sounds like “The Feast of Stephen.” It’s a crazy holiday, but when you get right down to it, Christmas is pretty wacky too. And don’t get me started on Easter!
It’s a Refrigerator Day miracle!
Performing in the pageant has done wonders for Earl’s mood. He declares his love for the pageant while someone is at the door. It’s the guys from Kave Mart! They’ve brought back their fridge and all the presents from before. Refrigerator Day hadn’t been stolen, it came just as before! Actually, there was no change of heart or visit from three ghosts. The store just figured out that a return policy like the one Fran proposed is a huge, money-making, idea and to buy off the Sinclair family from claiming credit for it they’re being bribed with their old refrigerator and gifts. Earl even gets his bonus and the store also installed snow machines on the roof for ambience. All they have to do is sign away all rights to the return policy idea which Earl is happy to do.
With everything all wrapped up in a neat, Refrigerator Day, package, there’s nothing left to do but celebrate. The children gather around the refrigerator while Earl and Fran reflect on what they have. The image is framed like a greeting card with the cast and crew of Dinosaurs wishing us all the happiest of Refrigerator Days!
The Sinclairs get a happy ending, but they’re also swindled out of a million dollar idea.
It’s not exactly Christmas, but it’s just Christmas with a different name. Dinosaurs took a conventional plot, oddly one also utilized by The Simpsons which Dinosaurs was sometimes accused of ripping off, but they found a way to turn it on its head. The concept of a return policy is completely off the wall in this consumerist society. The world of Dinosaurs is one dominated by We Say So which basically has a monopoly on everything. Do they own Kave Mart? Probably. The bit at the store is great and the show has several expertly crafted cuts to drive home its own brand of satirical, sometimes dark, humor.
It’s that dark humor that can possibly rub some the wrong way. We have multiple suicide jokes and the Richfield character is truly detestable. I find it all pretty damn hilarious, but that’s just me. The characters emote really well and this episode contains a rare additional set in the form of the department store. The one criticism I have of the show is it often takes place in very familiar locations, but that’s because new sets are really expensive. The extras, like the clerks and repo man, are basically stock costumes that get used and reused constantly throughout the show. Sometimes they change up the voices and sometimes they stick with the same ones. It’s almost like a fourth wall situation where the dinosaurs are just actors in this show we’re watching and they play the roles expected of them.
Every Christmas episode should end with a faux greeting card.
Dinosaurs is a terrific little 90s gem of a series. If you remember it somewhat negatively as “The Baby Show” then know that your memories are inaccurate. While Baby was a breakout star, he wasn’t relied upon to do a lot of heavy lifting outside of an episode here and there. It really is a family sitcom, but one that’s not at all sweet or mild and it really leans into the satire. It has a lot of Muppets-styled timing with some of the jokes, but it’s far more focused and lacks that intentional corn of its more famous predecessor. If you have never watched it definitely give it a try especially if you’re a fan of other Jim Henson productions. It’s a pretty unique show and it’s all available on Disney+ so it’s pretty accessible by today’s standards. And remember, while you’re drinking down your nogg and opening presents, think about those who made our refrigerator possible and thank them. If you want to know their names, go check Wikipedia or something. I’m busy decorating for Refrigerator Day.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
In 1995, Warner Bros felt it was a big enough entity that it could launch its own broadcast television network. Dubbed The WB, it would try to compete with the big four of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, but never really achieved that level of success which is why it no longer exists. The strategy…
In 1994, Nintendo and developer Rare Ltd. released unto the world Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo. It was a pretty big deal because with Sony prepping its 32-bit PlayStation console for release, and Nintendo no where near ready to unveil the Nintendo 64, the company needed to eke out a few more years…
In the early 1960s, content producers were still trying to navigate the lay of the land when it came to television. Animation had been popular for decades in movie theaters and the big studios knew they appealed to kids, but it was just so expensive to produce that few were willing to try it on…
This year we’re celebrating two things at The Christmas Spot. Well, 3 things if you count Christmas by itself, which I suppose you should. Every fifth day, we’re celebrating the best of the best which is why yesterday was A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you read the feature on December 1st for this year, then you also know that I am personally celebrating 35 years of my beloved family heirloom The Christmas Tape. I basically want to cover everything on that tape and the good news is I had already covered most of it going into this year’s countdown. What I had yet to cover was the special Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town which I rectified already. That leaves one other special left: A Muppet Family Christmas.
Oiriginaly broadcast in 1987, my Christmas tape was once a sought after item because of the fact that it contained this unedited broadcast. Future broadcasts were not in primetime and not on broadcast networks so the special was trimmed down to accommodate cable. Subsequent releases of the special on VHS and beyond contained the cable cut, or some stuff was omitted for copyright reasons, I’m not sure. I never actually had to watch them or any rebroadcast because I had the original at my beck and call whenever I wished (provided it was in-season, no watching The Christmas Tape in June, house rule). I did include this special in my original Top 25 Christmas specials, but when I redid those rankings a couple of years ago I actually dropped A Muppet Family Christmas. This puts it in the odd spot of not being in consideration for the every fifth day redo the other specials are getting, but it’s still worthy of a better write-up than the original one I gave it so let’s do that now.
A Muppet Family Christmas was unique at the time because it sought to combine all of the Muppet brands under one umbrella at Christmas. And in 1987, those were primarily the Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street. It aired on ABC and was followed by Julie Andrews’ The Sound of Christmas, a special I will in all likelihood never look at and my parents thankfully did not record it in ’87. The format for this one is nothing special, all of these characters are getting together because it’s Christmas and we have a nice scenic home in the countryside where the holiday can be celebrated. There’s a B plot involving Miss Piggy, and the special does its best to incorporate everyone as best it can. Jim Henson also makes a cameo which gives this one a little added “oomph” given he’s no longer with us and would only be around for a few more years following the broadcast. Let’s not let that get us down though as this musical special wants to make us laugh, and add in a dose of Christmas melancholy, for the next hour.
The Muppet gang has packed up their pickup and is heading out to Fozzie’s childhood home in the country for a good old-fashioned family Christmas!
The special begins with a beat-up pick-up truck driving through a snowstorm. Our driver is Fozzie (Frank Oz) and riding shotgun is Kermit (Jim Henson) with Gonzo (Dave Goelz) seated between them. In the bed of the truck are a whole bunch of characters. Now, I’m a pretty basic Muppets fan and I pretty much only know the heavy hitters by name so I won’t attempt to name everybody, but it sure looks like most everybody is in this truck. And if they’re not, it’s because they’re making their own entrance later. Anyway, the gang is singing “We Need a Little Christmas” as they drive through the snow and I think this is honestly my preferred version of this song (sorry Johnny Mathis), but it also might be the first version of the song I ever heard so that undoubtedly is influencing my opinion.
Fozzie’s mom, Emily, is in for a real surprise that’s going to ruin her holiday vacation. It’s partly her own fault for not sharing with her son her holiday plans.
We get a break in the singing for Fozzie and Kermit to basically set up the special. The whole gang is heading out to the country to surprise Fozzie’s mother for Christmas. She has no idea what’s coming for her. Fozzie assures Kermit this is fine as his mother is likely seated in her farm house all alone and wishing someone would come spend Christmas with her. As he sets the stage, we see a lovely farm house that certainly looks like it’s owned by an old lady. Maybe not a bear, but it has real grandma energy. Fozzie’s mom (Jerry Nelson) comes walking into the scene and she is not some granny looking to sip tea in a rocking chair. She’s carrying a suitcase and sporting some fancy shades as she talks aloud about being bound for Malibu! It seems Fozzie’s mom had found a much more entertaining way to spend the holidays this year. We cut back to the gang in the truck so they can finish their song while also getting a few shots of other occupants of the truck.
Doc clearly has no idea he’s in a Muppets special since he’s expecting a nice, quiet, Christmas.
After our first commercial break, we return to the farm house where Emily “Ma” Bear is looking over her airplane tickets and getting ready for her departure. A ring of the doorbell interrupts her and on the other side waiting for her is…Doc! Doc (Gerry Parks) is here with his trusty, canine, companion (who is a Muppet) Sprocket (Steve Whitmire) and he is apparently renting Emily Bear’s house for Christmas while she’s on vacation. Both he and Sprocket are surprised to find out that Emily Bear is an actual bear, but they seem to pay it no mind. If you’re unaware, Doc is from the Fraggle Rock show and the premise there is Sprocket sees and encounters the Fraggles, but Doc does not.
As the Muppets come storming in most will fall victim to the dreaded icy patch. Emily has a farmer’s porch, so in order for her to have an icy patch there must be a leak in the roof above. She should get that looked at.
As Doc heads upstairs to his room, another ring of the doorbell occurs. This time it’s Fozzie, and Emily is very surprised to see her son, but not disappointed. They do a special greeting and it’s rather sweet as the two embrace. She doesn’t tell him about her vacation, but when she remarks how this is quite the surprise Fozzie lets her know he has an even bigger surprise: he brought all his friends! Since Emily is wearing sunglasses we can’t see how surprised she really is as Kermit and the gang all come barging in. As they do, most, if not all, of them slip on an icy patch she previously warned Doc about who deftly navigated it with little more than a stumble. The various Muppets mostly go head over heels on the thing and it will be a running gag throughout the special.
Doc and Sprocket are going to have to just roll with this.
As the crew comes pouring in, Emily tries to mask her disappointment at this development so as to spare her son’s feelings. Doc is not so concerned and he calls from atop the stairs asking if she remembers him, the guy who wanted a nice, quiet, Christmas? He’s going to say that a lot. All Emily can do is shrug, a gesture indicating she’s just rolling with it, while Doc warns Sprocket to stay clear of these potential aliens. Emily tells him they’re just from television and describes them as Fozzie’s “weirdo friends.” When she does, Dr. Teeth (Henson) confirms this while Sam Eagle (Oz) wonders aloud “Why am I here?” Doc also asks Sprocket, in a whisper, if these characters are like those Fraggles he keeps telling him about and Sprocket just holds up his hand to make a gesture that says “Sort of.” I had no idea Sprocket was capable of communication enough to be able to actually tell Doc the word “Fraggle” at some point in the past.
Emily meets the lizard.
Fozzie then introduces his mother to Kermit, whom he describes as his boss, friend and inspiration. Emily just responds “Oh yeah, the lizard.” Kermit politely corrects her on his species before apologizing for all of them barging in like this. Emily, ever the gracious host, will here none of it and tells him they’re all welcome while Doc reminds her of his desired nice, quiet, Christmas. She just throws it back at him by saying “You’re disappointed? I just took three months of surfing lessons for zilch!” The telephone rings, which Animal announces, to break up the brief argument. Animal (Oz) is the one to answer it and he seems excited, but then says “Oh…pig” and drops the receiver.
Miss Piggy has better things to do than spend Christmas Eve at a farm house. She’ll come when she’s ready.
Miss Piggy (Oz) is on the other end when Kermit picks up the phone. He asks where she is as she was supposed to join them at the farm house, but she apparently neglected to tell him about a teensy, weensy, photo shoot she had scheduled. She explains she’ll be heading his way once she’s done, the whole time they’re talking a photographer (David Rudman) is calling out instructions from off camera to Piggy to do various poses ending with a kissy face up close at the camera. Kermit hangs up looking a bit disappointed while Emily is leading a bunch of characters up the stairs to show them to the guest rooms while Doc pleads with her to do no such thing. The door rings and you can see the guy’s heart basically hit the floor as he cries, “Not more!”
Am I the only one who is kind of creeped out by Chef’s actual, human, hands?
Fozzie answers it and it’s Swedish Chef (Henson). He’s arrived with a bunch of cooking equipment and promptly dumps it all as he wipes out on the icy patch. After he gathers himself, Fozzie basically translates his gibberish for us as we find out he’s here to cook the Christmas turkey though we could have figured that out because he says “Gobbly gobbly turkey!” Fozzie is excited to have him and offers to show him to the kitchen. As the two head there, they both basically just sing the melody to “Good King Wenceslas.” I realize that Swedish Chef is considered by some to be offensive these days. I think he’s just called “Chef” now to reflect that. I view him as rather innocuous, but I’m also not Swedish so my opinion might not matter. I’ll probably just refer to him as Chef the rest of the way, mostly because it’s shorter, but also to respect those wishes.
Gonzo is just looking out for this turkey, but he’s basically punished for doing so.
As the two walk towards the kitchen, Gonzo is shown searching for his precious Camilla, the chicken. He’s the original Chicken Lover. The doorbell rings once again and Gonzo stops his search to answer it only to find a turkey on the other side. The turkey (Whitmire) is sporting some shades, a newsboy cap, and carrying a tennis racket for some reason. He’s very colorful too, far more colorful than most turkeys. Gonzo is shocked to see him and ushers him out onto the farmer’s porch. There, he tries to discourage the bird from attending this gathering for he knows what Chef likely has planned, but the turkey won’t take a hint. He says he was invited by some Swedish guy wearing a Chef’s hat and thinks this is a great place to spend the holidays. He just demands to know where his room is and Gonzo tells him if he isn’t careful it will be the oven, but this turkey dismisses his concerns because he’s a survivor. As he walks off, Gonzo calls after him, “See you at dinner!”
Robin sucks.
In the kitchen, Chef is surrounded by a bunch of chickens, rats, and Fozzie and Kermit. He’s not too happy about this and when Kermit asks what the problem is Fozzie tells him that Chef doesn’t want rats and chickens in his kitchen. Seems reasonable. Kermit suggests that he show them their bedrooms and Chef seems to like that idea so Fozzie does as suggested leaving Kermit and his nephew Robin (Nelson) alone in the kitchen. Kermit remarks how crazy things are getting, but Robin reminds him this is how Christmas usually is. A very sweet, but also loud, version of “Jingle Bells” starts to play in the background as the frogs reflect on their current station. By the way, Robin sucks. I hate Robin, he’s such a dork, and it might be this scene that makes me dislike him as he just starts singing this very sickeningly sweet rendition of “Jingle Bells” in sync with the music. Yuck!
I would much prefer to listen to Doctor Teeth and Electric Mayhem than Hall & Oates or whoever else recorded “Jingle Bell Rock.”
Dr. Teeth apparently agrees with me as Robin’s song is interrupted rather quickly with “Jingle Bell Rock” courtesy of Electric Mayhem. Suck it, Robin! It’s a lively and fun rendition of the song which Robin and Kermit are shown enjoying. The rats like it too, as does Sprocket, though Doc looks a bit befuddled by the whole scene. When it ends we go to a break, but return with Fozzie outside building a snowman that’s clearly a Muppet. A bear and a raccoon are harvesting a Christmas tree and soon Rowlf (Henson) comes upon them. He enters with a joke, “I’ve been chasing a truck the whole way and boy am I exhausted” which Fozzie enjoys. He tells him to head inside and introduce himself to his mother who loves canine humor.
Dog meet dog.
Emily directs the beer and raccoon on where to put the tree and then turns to Doc to help her with the garland for the banister. It would seem since she wasn’t planning on being home for Christmas she decided not to bother decorating and now they have to hastily make the place seem merry. Rowlf comes bounding in and slips on the icy patch momentarily dropping the presents he was carrying in. When he gets up, he informs Emily he’s hear for the holidays and Doc is not happy to hear this. Emily just sighs and indicates she’ll see if there’s a pillow in the kennel. Rowlf seems to get the impression his being there is an inconvenience, but he doesn’t dwell on it since he encounters Sprocket. The two trade barks and Doc actually smiles for once as he remarks “Don’t you just hate it when you can’t speak the language?”
They make a cute couple.
Rowlf soon spies an old piano and heads for it. As he starts playing “Sleigh Ride,” on it he remarks it’s out of tune before adding that he loves out of tune pianos. We then cut to outside where Fozzie comes in with the lyrics as he continues to build his snowman. When he gets to the line “Out here the snow is falling,” it’s not Fozzie, but the snowman, who sings it much to Fozzie’s delight. He and the snowman (Richard Hunt) work their way through the song before breaking into a comedy routine. They trade lame jokes and are soon joined by a bunch of penguins and later some more woodland animals. Doc and Sprocket are also shown enjoying the song from the porch so he’s gradually lightening up.
Nope, still not ready to spend the day with the other weirdos.
When the two finish their song, one of the penguins tells Fozzie they’re the funniest comedy duo in the area. This gets Fozzie all excited as he goes running into the house, slipping on the icy patch in the process, calling for Kermit. He finds the frog in the kitchen, but before he could tell him about his new act the phone rings and Kermit goes to retrieve it. It’s Miss Piggy and her photo shoot is done, but she still has to do some Christmas shopping. Kermit is disappointed that she isn’t on the way, but Piggy doesn’t seem to care as she reassures him she’ll be on her way shortly. He hangs up as Miss Piggy starts eyeing some fuzzy, green, slippers and turns his attention to Fozzie. He tells him he’s “All ears,” but before Fozzie can get it out they’re interrupted by the sound of a dog barking. As Kermit goes to investigate, Fozzie remarks that frogs don’t even have ears. Yes they do, you stupid bear.
For a Christmas special, there sure is a lot of attempted murder in this one.
The source of the barking turns out to be Sprocket, he is under attack from the Chef who seems to think Sprocket is a turkey. Doc is getting quite exasperated with Chef as he explains that Sprocket is a dog, but Chef seems to be rather convinced that Sprocket is not what Doc says he is. Doc can apparently understand Chef and it’s through him we find out that the turkey told Chef that Sprocket is a turkey which causes Doc to remark “The dog is not a turkey, the turkey is the turkey, you turkey!” He leads Sprocket away as Chef seems to head back into the kitchen. Then the turkey comes into the frame to laugh and indicate that he’s having some fun. Camilla then walks in which gets the turkey’s attention. Apparently, she being a chicken isn’t a problem for him as he starts hitting on her.
Lets gather around and watch some Muppet Babies!
Scooter (Hunt) then calls out for Kermit’s attention as he found some home movies to share. Doc is seated beside him and seems genuinely interested to watch what Scooter describes as the very first Christmas the Muppets ever spent together. Kermit is eager to see it as a bunch of individuals have gathered in the living room. Scooter rolls tape and it’s basically the Muppet Babies, minus Skeeter, but in actual puppet form. They’re singing “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” with Rowlf on piano. When Fozzie’s part comes on, Mrs. Bear remarks he was still in diapers back then which seems to embarrass him. Someone refers to Rowlf as a wee puppy which just opens him up to make a pee joke while Gonzo thinks the baby version of him was rather handsome. The song ends with baby Animal tearing through a present and they all remark “Oh, Animal” which is his cue to come ripping through the projector screen. Doc enjoyed the show and remarks to Sprocket, “Even weirdos are cute when they’re babies.”
Gonzo doesn’t deserve this.
Some clucking from the other room gets Gonzo’s attention and he runs over to find Camilla in the arms, err wings, of the turkey. He angrily orders the turkey to get his hands off of his girlfriend which the turkey seems to find disgusting on account of Gonzo not being a bird! This turkey is a racist, opposed to this sort of inner-species love, so now I’m fine with him going in the oven. Gonzo is ready to throw down and the turkey seems game as well as they both go nose-to-nose until Kermit runs over to break them up. He indicates that he hears something, which Gonzo chimes in with “Yeah, you’re about to hear me make some turkey hash,” but Kermit tells him it’s carolers that he hears.
Now this party can really get started!
It’s the gang of Sesame Street that has come a caroling, appropriately enough singing “Here We Come A-Caroling.” As they all come into view for Kermit to enthusiastically point out it’s the Sesame Street Gang, the song stops so Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) can wish everyone a Merry Christmas from Sesame Street! They then go into “Deck the Halls” and characters from Sesame Street get a little face-time in between “Fa la las”. For some reason, a random cow puppet gets a line in(her name is apparently Gladys, but I don’t remember her as being a featured character), while the rest basically just play it straight. The only gag is when it’s Oscar the Grouch’s (Spinney) turn he just says “I will not sing this song!”
This is the best joke in the show.
When the song is over the gang basically storm the house. Doc seems to be accepting his fate at this point as he remarks to Emily this likely means he and Sprocket will have to give up their hammock in the attic. I get wrecking the guy’s nice, quiet, Christmas and forcing him to adapt, but I do think he’s at least owed a bed, no? It’s not like he’s the host, after all, but I guess it’s just funnier this way. After his remark, Emily says it’s either that or he builds bunk beds so he tells Sprocket to find him a hammer. As Emily leaves, Doc is introduced to Bert and Ernie (Henson). He’s cordial, and when he says his name is Doc, Bert (Oz) replies with “That begins with the letter D!” When Doc confirms it does by saying, “Yes,” Ernie points out that begins with the letter “Y,” and Doc says “True,” and you get it. When Doc asks what’s going on, Bert informs him that this is small talk where they come from. That is a perfect Sesame Street joke that isn’t taking place on Sesame Street.
Time’s up, turkey!
Doc excuses himself to go build some bunkbeds and Bert and Ernie continue the bit amongst themselves. In the kitchen, Chef has finally got his mitts on the turkey and he isn’t being tricked anymore. He’s literally measuring him to make sure he’ll fit into the roasting pan he brought all the while the turkey tries to convince him he’ll make a terrible meal. He has one more ace up his sleeve though as he leads Chef to the door to show him what just entered the house: Big Bird! Chef is blown away and refers to Big Bird as a “Gobbly gobbly humongo!” He rubs his hands together and tosses the roasting pan aside as that won’t due any longer while the turkey snickers off in the background.
There’s some good old-fashioned Muppet humor.
Oscar then tells everyone to be quiet as there’s a news bulletin coming on. A newsman (Henson) comes on to warn of an oncoming blizzard and indicates that barometers are falling sharply. He’s them bombarded with a bunch of literal, falling, barometers. Scooter has a laugh at the newsman’s expense, then reacts to the snow falling outside while The Count (Nelson) tries to count the flakes as they fall, an exercise in futility. Kermit peers out the window with worry on his face for Miss Piggy still hasn’t arrived.
They’re gonna do some stuff in that can.
When we come back from a break, Fozzie and his mother are working on a checklist for where everyone will be sleeping. When they get to Oscar, he informs them that he’ll be fine right here in his trash can. Rizzo the rat (Whitmire) then comes to scope it out and asks Oscar if he could bunk with him. Oscar rubs his chin and thinks it might be nice having a rat in his can and I’m not sure how we’re supposed to interpret that thought. Janice (Hunt) comes wandering over baring Christmas cookies and comes upon the wrong guy: Cookie Monster (Oz). He devours every last morsel on her tray leaving her standing there wondering “Who was that strange, blue, creature?” Animal is there to add “That my kind of fella!”
I think it’s pretty incredible how the Sesame Street gang upstages the Muppets in this one. Maybe it was just liberating for everyone to get these puppets off of PBS for a night?
Ernie then calls for everyone’s attention as he and the gang are preparing to put on a play: Twas the Night Before Christmas. He will be playing Papa, and in the role of Mama is a very embarrassed Bert who needs some coaxing to come out from behind the curtain. They all have a laugh at Bert’s expense, including Ernie, before things get started. Ernie reads the poem and after the first line out comes Grover (Oz) dressed as the mouse who is not stirring. We know he is not stirring because he’s carrying a bowl to illustrate that he is clearly not stirring.
If you’re watching this today with your kids they’ll be delighted to see Elmo, then bummed that he never says or does anything in this special.
Ernie moves on to the next part of the poem, the arrival of Santa, and when the curtain is thrown aside we see a sleigh full of eight…monsters! In the middle is Elmo and I only point this out because this is when he was a new character and not the phenom he would become, so Elmo is seen in this special, but not heard. Bert seems almost disgusted with Ernie for selecting the monsters as reindeer and wants to know who is Santa. Ernie tells him to hold on as he gets to that part and in comes the two-headed monster with both heads sporting hats and beards. Sam Eagle is left to remark, “Is nothing sacred?” as he drops his face into his hands. Bert just tells Ernie to get to the finish, so he does, and it’s the monsters who get the last line. They all leave to raucous applause.
Miss Piggy can’t defeat a blizzard.
Doc then comes bursting in through the front door to confirm that, yes, there’s quite a blizzard raging out there. A few of them head over to the window to look at the storm and it’s Emily Bear that remarks to “the lizard” that it’s a good thing all of his friends are safe and warm inside the farm house. Kermit basically gulps out, “But all of my friends aren’t safe and warm inside the farm house.” The phone rings and Kermit runs off to grab it and, of course, it’s Miss Piggy. She’s calling from a phone booth (remember those?) to tell Kermit that her chauffer, Jerome, got the limo stuck in a snowbank so she’ll be taking a taxi the rest of the way. Kermit advises against doing so on account of the blizzard, but Miss Piggy dismisses his concerns as “Just some snow.” She hangs up and it takes all of her strength to force open the phone booth doors to get out. As she starts walking up the street, the wind is fighting her the whole way. First her hat sails off, then the phone booth, and soon she follows with a scream and a loud crashing sound is heard offscreen.
Even the snowman wants to come inside.
Kermit is left holding the phone, worried, as Fozzie comes by to cheer him up. He indicates to Kermit that he could use a dose of comedy right now and tries to take him outside to view his new act. Kermit tries telling him it’s too cold to go out there, but Fozzie insists it’s fine. They get to the door and it swings open and in comes the snowman looking to warm up. Kermit just looks at Fozzie with an “I told you so,” expression, but Fozzie just tells Kermit this is his new partner. The snowman agrees and declares they’re terrific together. Fozzie welcomes him towards the living room and asks if anyone wants to see they’re act. Responding in the affirmative are Fozzie’s mortal enemies: Statler (Hunt) and Waldorf (Henson). They play off of each other with one saying “We’d love to see your act,” followed by, “In fact, we’d hate to miss your act,” and finishing with “In fact, we’d love to hate your act!” As Fozzie bemoans their presence, he finds out they’re friends of his mother who always visit her around the holidays.
The best Muppets. The crappiness of this image is reminding me to point out that I’m taking this from a well-worn 35 year old VHS tape.
Fozzie can’t believe what he’s hearing and as he stands there speechless, it’s Statler who remarks “These two are made for each other; the snowman’s ice cold, and the bear’s not so hot!” They’re killing it, but Fozzie and the snowman try to go into their act, but every time they approach a punchline, Statler and Waldorf beat them to it. The snowman complains he’s starting to melt, though I think it’s his pride that hurts most. Waldorf zings him once more, and Fozzie sadly leads the snowman out of the house and to the back porch.
The Count gets to do his thing in prime time.
By the window, Doc and Kermit are just staring out at the snow. Kermit is clearly worried, and Doc mentions that he’s “One worried frog,” to the nearest character, which just happens to be The Count. He restates Doc’s observation the only way he can, and then Robin comes in (I hate that frog) to indicate he’s not the only one worried so Count gets to add, “That’s two worried frogs! Ha. Ha. Ha,” before walking off. Sprocket appears confused and Doc remarks it must be more small talk before saying he should go collect more fire wood. Kermit and Robin are left standing together looking out the window with Kermit draping an arm around his nephew’s shoulders.
Bert and Ernie get to be funny, but Big Bird is still pretty much Big Bird.
In the kitchen, Chef is up to something. Big Bird soon enters and it would seem Chef lured him there. He tries to smack Big Bird with a rubber mallet, but Big Bird doesn’t notice and as he turns around he knocks the chef on his ass with his tail. As Chef prepares to try again, Big Bird tells him he brought something for him: chocolate-covered bird seed. He completely disarms Chef with his generosity as he indicates he felt he must be feeling a little blue since he’s so far from home. Chef is touched and seems to forget about murdering and cooking Big Bird and the two go into the most unlikely duet of the special: “The Christmas Song.” Chef sings in gibberish which is what makes this a rather bold choice. When they finish, he begins to sob as he clearly is lonesome this Christmas. Big Bird seems to pay it no mind, or he wants to cheer him up by changing the subject, and asks what he’s making for Christmas dinner. Chef seems to have had a change of heart as he explains something to Big Bird which the kind, yellow, bird translates as shredded wheat and cranberry sauce. This is apparently his favorite. I say he should go back to killing the turkey, if Gonzo hasn’t already.
Piggy is suddenly determined to get to this Christmas gathering.
Once again, we see Kermit by a window. Beauregard (Goelz) is there with him this time to remark he’s got a lot of shoveling ahead of him. He becomes the latest to remind Kermit of the current situation by asking him, “Aren’t you glad you’re all in here all warm and toasty?” leaving Kermit to remind him that Miss Piggy isn’t. We cut to Piggy and she’s positioned behind a taxi. She tells the driver to “Gun it!” as she’s trying to help get it unstuck apparently, and all that happens is she gets sprayed with mud from a spinning tire. Doc then comes in with the firewood and sees Kermit. He acknowledges Kermit’s worry, and then offers to go look for Miss Piggy. Kermit is surprised since he doesn’t even know her. Doc explains that he didn’t know any of them before today, but now he considers them all friends. He then adds how he and Sprocket were planning on having a nice, quiet, Christmas alone, but this is better! When he asks Kermit what she looks like, he indicates she’s a pig causing Doc to remark, “Well, up until a short while ago I would have thought that strange.” He vows to give it a try and heads out leaving Kermit to remark, “What a sweet guy.”
Now seems like a good time to investigate a strange hole.
Robin (ugh) then calls out for Uncle Kermit from the cellar. Kermit heads down there to see what the kid is up to only to find some, weird, tunnel. Robin asks him if this might be a Fraggle Hole, and Kermit seems to think it is so the two investigate further. As they walk in they find an expansive system of caves. As they wander, some beings in the background are poking their heads up to look at the frogs. Kermit thinks he heard something, but doesn’t see anyone. It’s played off as kind of spooky and as the two frogs turn a corner they nearly bump into a Fraggle.
We can’t leave out the Fraggles, though they honestly don’t add a whole lot to this thing.
It’s Red Fraggle (Karen Prell) that gives the two a mild start which causes them to bump into Gobo Fraggle (Nelson) behind them. They’re soon joined by Mokey Fraggle (Kathryn Mullen), Boober Fraggle (Hunt), and Wembley Fraggle (Whitemire). They’re pretty confused by what they’ve come across, but Kermit knows that they are Fraggles. He tells them they’re frogs, and that doesn’t clear anything up, but they move on when Kermit says they came down to wish them a merry Christmas. The Fraggles don’t know what Christmas is so Robin explains it as the time of year when you gather with the people you love to wish them peace on Earth. A nice sentiment, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard Christmas described in such a way.
Remember kids, Santa may not have brought you what you really wanted, but at least he didn’t bring you an orange rock.
The Fraggles indicate they have a similar time of year, and it’s going on right now! Mokey says they gather together and give each other presents and says she’s about to give a pebble (which looks like a pretty large, orange, rock) to Boober to mark this occasion. The other Fraggles all chime in that they’ve been passing this rock around for years and it’s Goober who confirms it’s been a gift 37 times. Apparently, re-gifting is encouraged in Fraggle Rock. This prompts the Fraggles to sing a pretty lame song called “Pass it On.” There’s some bongos and they just do a sequence of “La la’s” ending with “Pass it on!” There’s some verses and such about gift giving, and how it’s better than receiving, but little in the way of jokes or anything. The frogs get in on the act and when the song is over it’s Robin who is given the Fraggle pebble.
Miss Piggy wasn’t going to let a little thing like a blizzard keep her from making a grand entrance.
As the two leave remarking how nice a meeting that was, Scooter calls for Kermit because they heard something outside. He rushes to the window where others are gathered and soon Miss Piggy comes into view. She’s being brought to the farm via dogsled with Doc serving as the driver. She’s no longer covered in mud and looks about as elegant as a pig can. Doc is also wearing a fancy uniform and he laughs as he explains that when he found her she had the costume for him. Kermit is left to remark that Piggy always does know how to make an entrance.
And, naturally, Piggy gets taken down by the icy patch.
With everyone now outside, Piggy goes into another song: “Home for the Holidays.” It’s played straight, as most of the songs have been, with the whole gang joining in as Piggy makes her way into the house. As the song is fading out, Kermit leads Piggy into the house where she slips on the icy patch. All of the onlookers cry out in unison, “Careful of the icy patch!” I think that’s the last time that joke is recycled and they did save the best instance of it for last.
At least they’ll sleep well.
After the break, Fozzie is putting the finishing touches on the tree to lots of “oo’s” and “ah’s” now that it’s lit. Fozzie then calls for quiet as his mother has an announcement. It’s at this point that Emily Bear formally welcomes them all here, and then follows by asking that they are all here now? She’s relieved to hear it confirmed that everyone is indeed present and then breaks the news that two people are going to have to sleep hanging from hooks on the wall. We cut to Gonzo remarking to Animal what a great idea this was as the two are hanging from said hooks. Animal appears to be in agreement. We find out that’s how Animal always sleeps. Emily Bear refers to them all as weirdos, but nice weirdos.
The party really starts when Kermit puts on pants.
Kermit, now clothed and seated beside Piggy, tells everyone it’s time for their annual carol sing. He gives Rowlf the signal to start them off, and now my job gets easy because they’re going to sit and sing. A lot. They start with “Happy Holidays,” then move onto the following: Ding Dong Merrily On High, I Saw Three Ships a Sailing, Good King Wenceslas, The Holly and the Ivy, I’ll be Home for Christmas, Happy Holidays (a reprise), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Caroling Caroling, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, It’s in Every One of Us, Old Friends New Friends. There aren’t really any jokes during those 8 minutes or so of singing, save for Beaker doing some of his weird noises. The Fraggles are also shown ascending from the basement and they’re singing with Doc and Sprocket, though I think the implication is that Doc doesn’t notice them.
Here you go, Piggy, your own living, sentient, being.
When it’s mercifully over, we return to the living room where Emily is finishing hanging Fozzie’s stocking so that Santa can leave him a present. Fozzie indicates he’s embarrassed again, so his mother offers to take it down, but he stops her pretty quickly. This reminds Kermit that he has a present for Miss Piggy. She is quite excited to receiver her gift, and when Kermit announces that he got her a mink she practically faints. Then she gets rather sour when an actual, mink, Muppet named Maureen (Prell) comes into frame. She obviously thought she was getting a coat, but somehow Kermit managed to find her an indentured servant in 1987 (seriously, I get the joke, but this is rather weird, no?). Piggy cheers up when Maureen expresses how she’s a huge fan and worships the ground she walks on. Piggy then gives a little chuckle and embraces the mink to show Kermit she’s happy with her gift, but I’m not convinced.
Oh good, we’re doing more with the pebble.
Off to the side somewhere, Robin and Grover share a moment where Robin gives Grover his Fraggle pebble. Grover is surprisingly delighted by the offering and Robin gets the satisfaction of carrying on the tradition. Or he just didn’t want a rock. The doorbell then rings, again, and in comes…Santa! Well, it’s clearly Doc dressed up as Santa, but the sentiment is nice. He’s got gifts which he starts to hand out while everyone else breaks into song, again, with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
It’s Christmas, so even Jim is going to get in on the fun.
We then cut to the kitchen and diehard Muppet fans are encouraged to reach for the tissues. It’s Jim Henson shown watching his creations celebrate. He’s not alone as Sprocket is at his feet. He remarks how they’re having a good time out there and adds that he likes it when they have a good time. He then gives Sprocket the bad news that there’s a lot of dishes to do. He offers to wash while Sprocket dry, and I’d love to see how that works.
It’s time to say good bye. It was fun, but I’m ready for this one to be over.
We then zoom out from an image of mistletoe while the Muppets keep right on singing. Underneath the deadly plant are Kermit and Piggy. Piggy tells Kermit to look up and he does remarking “Uh oh,” upon seeing the mistletoe. Piggy plants a gentle kiss on his cheek and wishes him merry Christmas. Kermit returns the favor and expresses the same. They then turn to the camera as the song finishes and the whole crowd shouts, “Merry Christmas everyone!” The title comes back onto the screen and the credits roll to raucous applause from the many Muppets on screen.
Over 6,000 words later, this one is done! These hour long specials take even longer as a write-up, but they’re worth it. A Muppet Family Christmas may have been knocked from the ranks of the top 25, but it’s still a special I enjoy watching each year. It’s charming and there’s a lot of sweetness to it. The jokes tend to be corny, but there’s some good material here as well. Mostly, this one just serves as a celebration of all things Jim Henson in 1987. It’s pretty neat seeing it all come together, and it’s really in the joining of Muppets and Sesame Street where the best comedy is found. The Fraggles do feel a bit tacked on, but I’m sure for fans of their show it was a big deal to see them included. I personally have never been a fan of the show Fraggle Rock so I could do without especially since their scene feels like padding. This probably didn’t need the full hour, but again, if you were big into The Muppets in 1987 this probably hit a lot harder.
There are so many puppets in this one that they can’t even fit them all into one shot.
Where this one does suffer a bit is in its self-indulgence. It’s greatest strength is it’s greatest weakness. We don’t spend a lot of time with anyone except Kermit as there’s just so many characters here. And even so, around one fifth of the special’s runtime is devoted to a medley of Christmas carols and Muppet/Sesame Street originals. That’s the moment where the special really drags and every time I watch it I’m surprised at how long that segment lasts. It just keeps on going. At the same time though, it’s really impressive seeing all of those puppets in one place at one time all being manipulated. The set must have been fairly large and pretty expensive to construct for a one-off. I’m not a Muppets expert so I don’t know if this set was ever reused or not. There were definitely a lot of extra hands here as Frank Oz and Jim Henson can’t work 8 different puppets each at once so this thing’s existence is special. It’s just more interesting on paper than it is in reality.
Seriously, here’s the ones you can’t really see in that other shot.
If you are a big fan of the Muppets then this is probably a must see each and every year, and I get that. If I were a bigger fan of the Muppets then I’d probably like it more than I do. And I do like it! I just don’t love it. If you wish to view it, it has been released on physical media though I know it’s tricky to find the right one. I want to say the Canadian release has everything, but I’m not positive. It is available on YouTube for free and it’s the 87 broadcast so it has everything, and there’s even one out there with commercials included. Though if I’m being honest, the commercials on my tape for this special are kind of weak, but better than nothing. Maybe ABC just didn’t get the good ones or advertisers weren’t sold on The Muppets? Oh well, as fun as old commercials are, the special is what matters most.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
In the 1980s, Nickelodeon didn’t have a lot of animated content. That’s probably surprising for today’s adolescents, but that’s how the network was in the old days. That was due in large part to the network first prioritizing educational content, and then wanting to make sure whatever it aired couldn’t be found on another channel.…
When Pixar set out to create competing, fictional, toys in its debut film Toy Story it settled on cowboys and space rangers. The thought being that once upon a time cowboys were the most popular fantasy toy among boys, but were soon replaced by fantastic space voyagers once real-life space travel became possible. In order…
I was doing a lot of different things in the year 2014. It was a busy one, but one thing I was not doing was watching Canadian children’s animation. Which is why I had zero knowledge of the cartoon series Nerds and Monsters before today. Nerds and Monsters, from what I have read and the…
For the past several years, the folks over at NECA have been making San Diego Comic Con an annual event for fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I mean, it’s always an event, but it’s been especially fun for TMNT fans because NECA has been able to release limited action figure sets based on the property. These sets have been wildly popular and thus a bit hard to get ahold of for fans not attending the event. They often sell-out and command big mark-ups on the secondary market. As a result, while enthusiasm remains high, there can be some backlash for those who are unable to secure a copy at MSRP.
The reason for all of this is essentially Playmates. Playmates was a partner with Mirage Studios and Fred Wolf Productions in bringing the TMNT from print to the small-screen. In the 1980s, getting a show to air for boys often necessitated a pairing of show with toys in a symbiotic relationship. The franchise was viewed as risky, and creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had a hard time finding a toy company to make their dream happen. Playmates eventually jumped-in, but got a pretty nice deal out of the whole thing thanks to the desperation of those trying to make money off of this thing. As a result, they still hold the master toy license for the franchise and can dictate who can and can’t make toys based on the franchise here in the United States.
About 10 years ago, NECA was able to release a set of TMNT based on their original Mirage look. They were specialty shop toys and were very well received. NECA would also release an April O’Neil and show-off a Shredder, but it never made it to retail. At this time, Playmates was still consumed with making toys based on the Fast Forward cartoon produced by 4Kids and likely didn’t feel threatened by another company releasing collector toys based on the comics. Eventually, maybe after seeing the success NECA was having or due to diminished interest in the cartoon, Playmates would engage the collector crowd with their own Mirage Turtles which may be why NECA’s line ended with April.
Ever since then, NECA has had to find a way to create product based on the franchise (a favorite of NECA Director of Product Development Randy Falk) that works for them as well as Playmates and Nickelodeon (the current owner of TMNT). As a sort-of compromise, NECA has been allowed to produce 6″ scale figures as convention exclusives only. In addition to being allowed to sell them at conventions, they’re also permitted to sell them online as a pre-sale in advance of the event, but not after or in perpetuity. The only exception has been the quarter-scale line which NECA has been allowed to produce and release to retail, presumably because Playmates has no interest in figures at that scale.
Via these convention exclusives, NECA has been able to finish off their old Mirage line by releasing a set containing Shredder and some Foot soldiers. They also did figures based on the original TMNT arcade game and just last year released a massive set of 8 figures based on the first season of the 1987 cartoon. For 2018, NECA may have felt pressure to out-do that 2017 set and once again turned to the 1990 film – which is perhaps the greatest version of these classic characters. For the past two years, NECA has been releasing these figures in its quarter-scale line, a line I loved and own each figure from. A lot of fans have been begging for a release of these same figures in a 6″ scale and now they finally have their wish.
I was one of the lucky few to score a set during the pre-sale on NECA’s website. Two versions were offered: the set of four turtles and a set of four turtles with a diorama. The set ran for $125, and the diorama set was $250. The diorama is going to be released to retail in a slightly more generic format, but it captures the grit of NYC from the 1990 movie. It’s also huge, which is why I passed on it as I don’t really have room for it. I was content to just settle for the set of action figures, and I am quite pleased with the product delivered to me roughly two weeks after San Diego Comic Con commenced.
The four brothers come housed in packaging designed to mimic the original VHS release of the 1990 film. It’s obviously over-sized to properly house the figures and all of the images of the characters have been replaced with photos of the actual action figures and it’s pretty damn remarkable how close to the actual thing these look. If it weren’t for the fact that Donatello is smiling on the original release, you probably would be fooled by the cover. The reverse side has the film critic quotes replaced with quotes from folks in the toy (and wrestling) world praising the set. It’s not as durable or as resplendent as the case released with last year’s set, but my fondness for this movie means I probably prefer this one to last year’s Archie inspired case.
The outer case is a sleeve that slides right off once you get past some tape. Behind it are the figures in a window box setup. They’re not as easy to remove from the packaging as last year’s action figure case inspired design as the feet are actually through some holes, but you’re unlikely to destroy the packaging when removing these treasures. In addition to the four turtles and their weapons, NECA also included a second set of bandana tassels, four sets of interchangeable hands, an ooze canister with removable top, and an entire pizza broken out into individual slices housed in a paper box. The sets of hands should be familiar to those with the quarter-scale versions as they’re all from there: a set of slightly open hands, a set of completely open “high-five” hands, a set of thumb’s up hands, and a set of pointing hands. It’s slightly disappointing that we don’t have four open palm hands to recreate a cowabunga pose, but otherwise it’s more than adequate. The turtles themselves have tighter fist hands by default for holding their weapons.
The hands and bandana tassels are all easily swapped in and out. Action figures that take advantage of swappable parts are often tight and even a little scary, but these figures are pretty effortless. If anything, the pegs on the other hands are moved too freely as that’s the only challenge in pushing them in as they want to move around on you a bit, but it’s no big deal. The wrist bands on each turtles are now molded to the figure which also makes swapping the hands easier. The bandanas are just as easy. The quarter-scale version had fabric tassels, but these versions opted for plastic which is why there’s some options presented. You basically can just decide if you want your turtle’s tassel to flow left or right. It’s not as good as the quarter-scale ones, but it’s fine.
The real star of the accessories though has to be that pizza. It may sound ridiculous, but it might be my favorite part of the set. NECA earlier this year released a set of baby turtles for their quarter-scale line that contained a box for the pizza released with the main figures as well as the rest of the pizza. This is basically a down-scaled version of the same. The box is designed to resemble a Domino’s box as seen in the film only it’s from Tile Game Pizza instead due to obvious licensing issues. It looks remarkable and there’s tons of little detail including a coupon taped to the top and little grease smears. It’s so lovingly detailed that it borders on absurd and it makes me want to order some pizza every time I look at it.
It slices, it dices…
The figures themselves, the real stars of the set, are down-scaled versions of their quarter-scale cousins. This means they possess basically all of the pros and cons of those figures, and in case you’re wondering, there were very few cons. Let’s get to the few differences first, shall we? I already mentioned the bandana and wrist band difference, but the only other main difference is the loss of Donatello’s straps for his bo staff. You can basically just jam his bo under his belt to achieve the same thing though. This also may be unique to my set, but my Raph is also a bit cross-eyed in comparison with the quarter-scale version with his right eye looking down instead of straight-ahead. He has really narrow eyes so it’s not that noticeable unless you’re holding the figure right in front of your face. A difference in a positive area though is these guys have slightly more articulation than the larger toys. And since they’re lighter, their joints don’t have to be as tight and they can be posed a lot easier as a result.
Do you like penicillin on your pizza?
The figures are a nice, soft, plastic that reminds me of the old Playmates Movie Star Turtles I adored as a kid (and still have). The texture on the flesh is exquisite and perfectly captures the look of the film. Each figures uses the same base body with a different belt, head, and shell. The shell itself is actually the same, but each turtle has unique blemishes and such with Raph’s being significantly more battle-damaged. The only drawback to the figures using the same base is that they’re all the same height. It’s an issue the quarter-scale ones possess as well. They were all different heights in the film, though the only one that stood out is Mikey who was shorter than his brothers. He looks a little off as a result, but it’s obviously not a deal breaker.
If you were lucky enough to get ahold of this set then you will likely have a ton of fun trying to recreate poses from the film. Especially if you grabbed that diorama or have some fun custom ones of your own. These guys really look stripped from the film and it’s so rewarding to pair them up with the quarter-scale versions. NECA is prepping an already gave a peek at their quarter-scale Foot Soldier and a Shredder is expected as well. Naturally, this has fans hoping for 6″ versions of the same to pair with these to really complete the set.
If you were unable to score one of these sets then I have some good news for you. NECA recently reached a deal that will allow them release TMNT product at retail in a 6″ scale. Randy did say the movie figures will remain convention exclusives, but maybe that only refers to this specific set. Could single-packed figures make it to retail? Who knows? I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but maybe hold off on paying eBay prices for now and take a wait and see approach. These figures are so damn good that it’s kind of a shame if they remain exclusive to this one set, but at least we have them as-is and I can’t wait to see what NECA does next with the franchise. They have yet to disappoint.
It took awhile, but I finally have my hands on the second turtle from NECA’s 1/4 scale series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the original film. Raphael was released back in February, but I left the preordering of this series to my wife who saw them as gifts for basically the coming year for me. My wife, bless her, is not someone who normally orders such things and she ordered from a site I had never heard of that ended up not getting Raph in when they were supposed to, so what was originally planned as a Valentine’s Day present turned into a June birthday gift. Fear not though, I have since clued her in to better vendors so my actual birthday present (Leonardo) should be arriving soon, as I know you are all waiting with bated breath for my reviews.
If you read my review for Donatello way back in January, then you should already be pretty familiar with Raph. Structurally, he’s essentially the same figure as Don as both make use of the same parts. This is both good and bad as it means the things that are great about Don are shared by Raph, and the not so great things are as well. That’s sort of the “curse” of being a TMNT collector as you basically buy the same figure four times, but it’s hard to argue against the practicality of the release.
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way before getting to the good. This is a big figure, being 1/4 scale, so he’s also pretty heavy. Being heavy means he needs tough joints or else his arms and legs would be too flimsy for posing. This also means some of the joints are really hard to work, and the cumbersome nature of a turtle shell doesn’t make things any easier. My Raph has a particularly troublesome left shoulder that’s hard to get the socket to work right so that he can lift his arm. There’s definitely some “breaking-in” required for these figures, but since they’ll end up running you over $100, there’s a reluctance to work the joints too hard out of fear of breaking them. While Raph possesses an abundance of articulation, it’s not the most functional articulation out there and the pictures you see in this post are essentially the only poses I was comfortable creating.
Hey, brother!
These figures are also somewhat minimalist when it comes to included accessories. Raph, by virtue of having two weapons, actually has one more accessory than his brother Don. Don came with five extra hands, a canister of ooze, and a slice of pizza in addition to his bo staff. Raph comes with six extra hands and a slice of pizza to go with his twin sai. Strangely, one set of extra hands is identical to his stock hands so I guess you can break and/or lose a set before you’ll be missing anything. Raph has one unique hand gesture compared with Don, a finger-pointing left hand that can be used to hold his sai in a unique way or use as a gesture. He famously gestures to his holstered sai when confronting a pair of muggers in the film, though sadly his range of motion can’t quite recreate that one. This is consistent with Don who has a thumb’s up hand gesture that Raph does not. The slice of pizza included with Raph is the same as the one Don came with, right down to the placement of the black olives. Laying them side by side, it looks like we’ll need four additional pieces to make a complete pizza so I wonder if Mikey will come with some extra slices when he’s released this fall. The missing accessory here is obviously Raph’s trench coat, hat, and backpack he sports in the film when he heads out to a movie. I can understand why NECA didn’t include such as it would probably be a substantial cost addition, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss it.
Raph primarily differentiates himself from Don with his head sculpt. One my favorite aspects of the original film is how the costume designers, the without peer Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, made sure each turtle looked unique. It was really the first time you could tell the turtles apart without their weapons or colored masks, even though they never remove their masks in the film. NECA did a great job with Don, and maybe a better job with Raph. His facial expression perfectly captures his beady eyes and that tough, but sympathetic, aspect of his character. A more serious expression works better for Raph than it did the more jokey Donatello, so it was probably easy for NECA to settle on a facial expression than it was Don. The “tails” on Raph’s mask are also of the same cloth-like material used for Don’s. The color matching between the tails and sculpted plastic of the mask is well done and it’s a nice, authentic, shade of red. The material adds a little personality to the ends of the mask that sculpted plastic can’t replicate. As I mentioned before, aside from the head sculpt the body is basically the same as Don’s. The freckles are different, and I don’t know if they’re just randomized for each turtle or if they match to the actual costumes in the film. Raph’s shell also sports significantly more ware and tear than Don’s, implying he’s probably been in more fights than his brother which certainly fits with his character. The musculature of his limbs is the same though, with an added vein here and there. His belt rides lower, as it did in the film, and the sai fit off to the side just fine, though I find angling them in the same manner as they are on the back of his box a little tricky. And that box, which resembles the original movie poster and VHS release of the film, is a nice way to display the figure for those who do not like to open their toys. I also love how the NECA logo on the rear of the box resembles the old f.h.e. logo of the home video release of the old cartoon.
Added battle damage when compared with Don.
NECA’s Raphael is every bit as good as Donatello which came first and which figure is better is probably determined by personal preference for the characters. Raphael was basically the star of the first film, and it’s great to see him brought to life like this. The 1/4 scale may not be for everyone (he stands over 16″ tall), but it’s hard to deny the level of detail the format allows. Licensing agreements with Nickelodeon and Playmates, who has held the main TMNT toy license since the cartoon was launched, prevent NECA from doing what they want with the license, but it’s clear the company has a love for the franchise. The price, which basically starts at $99.99 but is sometimes priced higher by other merchants, is also steep, but at least the release of each turtle has been spread out to help minimize the impact of such an expensive purchase. The figures are impractical, but if you loved the original film as much as I did, then you can probably talk yourself into collecting this line.
A Muppet Family Christmas has become an almost mythological Christmas special due to its limited availability. First debuting in 1987, it got tangled up in licensing issues shortly there-after and has been infrequently rebroadcast. It also has been released in very limited fashion with a lot of what first appeared in the special being left behind. And now that Disney has acquired The Muppets, a re-release on DVD or even Blu Ray seems unlikely so long as Disney does not own the rights to the other properties featured in the special.
A Muppet Family Christmas was an ambitious special as it sought to combine multiple Jim Henson properties into one special: The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street. It starts out rather simply with Fozzie leading the Muppets to his mother’s farm house to surprise her for Christmas. Unknown to him, his mother was planning on heading to Malibu for some fun in the sun for Christmas and has rented her home out to Doc and his dog Sprocket for the holidays. Doc is seeking a nice, quiet, Christmas and he gets anything but that when The Muppets arrive. It turns out, Fozzie also invited the Sesame Street gang which just adds to the overcrowded house, and Kermit and Robin discover that the Fraggles live downstairs. An impromptu concert breaks out with Electric Mayhem and Sesame Street also stages a play. A horrible blizzard descends on the house trapping everyone in there, but when Miss Piggy fails to show up it’s up to Doc to go out and find her.
That’s one packed house.
Aside from the mash-up of properties, the special is most known for its inclusion of several musical numbers. The special is basically over-stuffed with them, especially at the end, and it almost feels like one of those old sing-a-long VHS tapes. The combination of The Muppets and Sesame Street actually works pretty well and lends itself well to some jokes. Henson and his writers weren’t shy about poking fun at their educational property, probably knowing that if they just played it straight the results would be kind of dull. There’s nothing vulgar by any means, or even mildly offensive, so the property isn’t hurt at all by it. The Fraggles are kind of tacked-on, and since they only interact with Kermit and Robin, their segment is a bit dull. As usual, the funnier members of The Muppet clan do the heavy lifting here and mostly succeed at drawing laughs.
At this point in time, A Muppet Family Christmas’s reputation likely exceeds its true value, but it’s still a unique and entertaining Christmas special. At least until you get to the end and the nonstop caroling becomes tiresome. Kids might like that though.
As I mentioned in the lead-in, this one is pretty tough to track down these days and is no longer broadcast on television. An edited DVD was released over ten years ago, but if you want to see it as originally constituted, you may need to turn to Youtube where people (like me) who were fortunate enough to have recorded the original special in ’87 have uploaded it for all to enjoy.
Hollywood loves to go after us folks who are suckers for nostalgia. We’re easy targets as it doesn’t take much to lure someone in with a touch of nostalgia. Especially today. We live in a world of 24 hour news networks and the internet puts information at our fingertips at all times. The media’s tactics haven’t changed either, there’s still a lot of doom and gloom coming over the airways, especially in trying economic times. It’s easy to let nostalgia take over as for most it’s the act of bringing one back to their childhood, which for many, was a happier time. The sad truth though is that Hollywood usually lets us down when it revitalizes an old product. Over the years we’ve seen movies based on Transformers and G.I Joe, none of which proved very satisfying. If you want to indulge in a bit of a nostalgia, your best bet is to seek out an old television show or movie on home video.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a great start for anyone looking to recapture that nostalgic magic. The original film arrived at the height of Turtle-mania when every kid in school was seemingly sporting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunchbox, backpack, or pencil set. It was inescapable. Recently I acquired the new compilation of TMNT comics and had a blast looking through them for the first time. It really got me to thinking about the Turtles from my youth, the animated and the live action. I thought that after reading the original books that it was a good time to go back and check out the original film. I always had held the impression that it was pretty faithful to the comics and wanted to confirm that. Instead I came away thinking it was a success because it combined both the animated series and the comics in a truly harmonious way.
It’s hard to consider Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a comic to film adaptation because it’s quite obvious that without the cartoon, this movie never happens. The comic may have started this whole thing, but it was the cartoon (and probably the toys) that reached the biggest audience. And it was that audience comprised mostly young boys that made the Turtles into such a big thing in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Even if the writers wanted to adapt the comic for film, they would have never secured enough funding without targeting the cartoon’s audience. This put the developers behind the film into a position where they could take from both mediums while adding their own touch.
The similarities between the comic and film are quite apparent. The Turtles themselves live in a sewer that looks like a sewer, unlike the TV show. There’s a damp and dank feel to the scenes shot in their sewer home that’s certainly comforting from the couch. The Turtles’ origin is also mostly intact. Splinter was now always a rat, like the comic, and Oroku Saki murdered his master Hamato Yoshi. The only difference is the removal of Saki’s brother, Nagi, who in the comic feuded with Yoshi over the love of a woman. The removal of Nagi just shortens the story slightly and doesn’t lessen the impact of Saki’s actions against Yoshi. The writers even decided to make it slightly more personal by having Splinter get some licks in on the would-be Shredder, who responds by slicing his right ear off.
“I bet he never has to look for a can opener!”
The Shredder may actually be the most faithfully adapted character from the comics to film. It was pretty much a given that the writers were not going to use the bumbling screw-up Shredder that the cartoon possessed, but they also ditched that Shredder’s design. Not that there was much separating the two Shredders visually, but the film’s Shredder is basically lifted from the pages of Mirage comics. He sports a red suit and all of the appropriate blades are in place (save for his right hand which is missing the two hand blades for some reason). They even toss a cape on Shredder for his first big scene, some weird zebra-print thing that they wisely ditch for when Shredder finally confronts the Turtles. Shredder also gets to show his lack of honor, when he tries to sneak a dagger into Splinter which is reminiscent of him pulling a grenade on the Turtles in the comics. The writers do give the character a bit more depth. In the comics we really don’t know much about Shredder’s operation in NYC. In the film we see it’s a process where kids are brought in at a young age and brainwashed by the Shredder into thinking of their order as a family. They presumably graduate to pickpockets as they get older until the best show they can handle being full-fledged members of the Foot. And the foot soldiers themselves are pretty faithful in appearance to the comics.
Don and Mike have a close relationship with one another.
As for the Turtles, they’re pretty much a mash-up of the two mediums. Leonardo is the most faithful to his comic book counterpart, which makes him pretty faithful to his cartoon persona as well. No turtle really changes as little as Leo when moving from one medium to the next. Here he is the unquestioned leader of the Turtles, and serves as an extension to Splinter. He’s also a bit uptight when compared to his brothers, but not to a fault. Raphael is definitely more similar to his comic approach. He’s the hot head and loner of the group, only here that loner quality is amplified for dramatic effect. Splinter laments how hard he tries to get Raphael to let go of his anger and to let others in. We get the impression that it’s a constant battle, but Raphael grows and changes in a believable way as the film moves along. Michelangelo is the turtle who most clearly takes after his cartoon character than the comic book one. He’s a goof ball and has a hard time being serious about anything. His lingo isn’t quite so surfer heavy as the cartoon but he’s always expressive and exhuberant. Donatello, on the other hand, doesn’t really fit the mold of either portrayal. In the comic book he’s a quiet gear head, a bit introverted though not a loner like Raph. In the cartoon he’s basically a genius and his genius is practically a super power. In the film, he’s got more of a goofy side and comes off as kind of a dork. He struggles to come up with the interjections that Mike is so fond of but other things come much quicker. He seems pretty intellectual though not showy. His sense of humor also comes across as a coping mechanism. He’s arguably the most developed character and that might have to do with his voice actor being the biggest “name” in the film, Corey Feldman. Either way, this is my favorite take on the Donatello character. It should also be noted, that the Turtles do bring their strong affection for pizza from the cartoon to the big screen (and Dominoes paid a lot of money to make sure we knew it was their pizza the Turtles preferred).
As for the supporting characters, April (Judith Hoag) is not surprisingly a news reporter instead of a lab assistant. This just works better and suits the plot. The writers are able to work her old VW into the story, as well as her antiques store from the comics. Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) also shows up and his portrayal is pretty spot on. He plays off of Raph and the other turtles quite well and makes for a good addition to the story. The romance angle between him and April does feel a bit forced and unnecessary though. April’s boss Charles and his son Danny (who apparently loves Sid Vicious) serve as a minor subplot to the tale as well, and as far as I know, were created just for the film.
The plot of the movie borrows quite heavily from issues 1, 2, and the Raph micro issue for its plot. It’s mostly the issue #1 but with the Shredder on the offensive as opposed to the Turtles. Certainly it’s a lot easier for parents to buy into these characters as appropriate for their kids if they don’t come across as blood thirsty creatures out for revenge. The writers take what Eastman and Laird already had done, and do a good job of turning it into a different story. The film, at its heart, is basically a father-son tale with emphasis placed on the Turtles and Splinter as well as Danny and Charles. There’s certainly an element of brotherly love as well, as the Turtles learn to rely on each other as they’re basically all they have. It’s a nice approach that I find charming.
Jim Henson has plenty of reasons to smile in this picture.
The visuals are what people remember most about this film. It was a risk taking the Turtles to live-action as anthropomorphic creatures rarely play well in that form. New Line Cinema wisely recruited Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to create the turtle costumes and what a great job they did. The Turtles stylistically combine the comic and cartoon look, keeping the comics understated belts but keeping the cartoon’s color-specific bandanas. The design of the Turtles is pretty spot-on, they look like turtles! To achieve the proper look, the masks were outfitted with some sophisticated animatronics for facial expressions and mouth movements. It’s quite impressive the range of emotions exhibited by the Turtles through-out the film. I’m not sure if they had to swap out masks for the actors for certain scenes or if each head was capable of sadness, joy, anger, etc. It is obvious that they had at least one other mask for the fight sequences. Those masks full of gears were probably pretty heavy and tough to backflip in, so during the fight scenes the Turtles are noticeably sporting slimmer heads with static expressions. It’s really noticeable if you’re looking for it and not really jarring. The director does a good job of hiding each turtle’s mouth if they had to speak during one of these sequences. The most obvious scene is Mikey’s nunchaku duel with a foot solider as his head there is an almost entirely different shape.
I have a home movie where members of my family can be seen watching this scene in the background. Everyone busts up laughing over Don’s “It’s a Kodak moment,” line. The reaction of people laughing at that moment is way funnier than the actual line.
Script-wise, the performance is a mixed bag. There’s lots of one-liners and puns and plenty of them are groan inducing. This is the downside of watching a movie geared towards kids. There are a couple of bright spots though. I do love Mikey’s line for the pizza guy (“Wise men say, forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for a late pizza.”) and Casey’s misunderstanding of the word claustrophobic is quite amusing as well. And even though it may be a tad on the cheesy side, Splinter’s “Cowabunga!” is pretty awesome too. The film’s score is mostly up-beat pop tunes. It’s nothing special, but the main theme is pretty damn catchy.
When I watch this movie it’s pretty much an experience of pure joy. I can notice its short-comings but really few of them bother me. A lot of fans, as the kids of 1990 become the adults of 2012, have gone on to really embrace the original comics and are aching for a true to comic film, but it’s never going to happen. No studio is interested in making a TMNT movie that alienates the kids in the audience. And even if one did I really don’t see how the Turtles could better be adapted for the big screen. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is, by no means, a perfect film. However, it is the perfect Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and needs no improvement.
For the past several years, the folks over at NECA have been making San Diego Comic Con an annual event for fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I mean, it’s always an event, but it’s been especially fun for TMNT fans because NECA has been able to release limited action figure sets based on the property. These sets have been wildly popular and thus a bit hard to get ahold of for fans not attending the event. They often sell-out and command big mark-ups on the secondary market. As a result, while enthusiasm remains high, there can be some backlash for those who are unable to secure a copy at MSRP.
It took awhile, but I finally have my hands on the second turtle from NECA’s 1/4 scale series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the original film. Raphael was released back in February, but I left the preordering of this series to my wife who saw them as gifts for basically the coming year for me. My wife, bless her, is not someone who normally orders such things and she ordered from a site I had never heard of that ended up not getting Raph in when they were supposed to, so what was originally planned as a Valentine’s Day present turned into a June birthday gift. Fear not though, I have since clued her in to better vendors so my actual birthday present (Leonardo) should be arriving soon, as I know you are all waiting with bated breath for my reviews.
Hollywood loves to go after us folks who are suckers for nostalgia. We’re easy targets as it doesn’t take much to lure someone in with a touch of nostalgia. Especially today. We live in a world of 24 hour news networks and the internet puts information at our fingertips at all times. The media’s tactics haven’t changed either, there’s still a lot of doom and gloom coming over the airways, especially in trying economic times. It’s easy to let nostalgia take over as for most it’s the act of bringing one back to their childhood, which for many, was a happier time. The sad truth though is that Hollywood usually lets us down when it revitalizes an old product. Over the years we’ve seen movies based on Transformers and G.I Joe, none of which proved very satisfying. If you want to indulge in a bit of a nostalgia, your best bet is to seek out an old television show or movie on home video.
The Nostalgia Spot 