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NETWORK TV Fall 2025

It's that time of year again! The networks are releasing their fall line ups


Fall Line up: FOX NBC CBS ABC The CW

Monday, February 03, 2025

Peanuts: The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show

Peanuts 




            I've held off writing about The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show for many reasons.  I guess with this year (2025) being the 75th anniversary of Peanuts and wanting to write about more Peanuts stuff, might as well get into this one.  This actually makes it seems more like an against my will thing, and not really , but there's a lot to explain.

           The Charlie Brown and the Snoopy Show wasn't the first comic strip-based cartoon series or TV series, but it wasn't the least either. Though maybe a more successful approach was "Garfield and Friends" this series premiered on CBS (The Charlie Brown Station)  the network that gave Peanuts the first ever TV special appearance and was the current home of specials. It very much is fitting that they would be network to commission to have a Saturday morning hours Peanuts cartoon. 

             The was written by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and had Bill Melendez, the man who worked on the specials, working on it, along with Phil Roman who had also become part of the Peanuts animation team. He would later work on the Garfield specials and series. It had everything that be expected with working on Peanuts as a thing.  

         The series premiered on September 17,1983. It came on CBS after a "Dukes of Hazzard Cartoon" because 1980's and before  Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince, a thing Hanna-Barbera was doing that might be a post of its own because it sounds strange enough to exist.  It was on in a "prime" Saturday morning slot meaning later in the morning, but also on against "The Littles" or oh wait it premiered the same day and time as "Alvin and the Chipmunks" on NBC. Ok then. At least, CBS didn't put it on against "The Smurfs" that'd be stupid.  

                What's the show about?  Is a funny question.  Because I mean it's a show with Peanuts characters you've seen the strips and specials it's this.  It's more like the strips in how the show is formatted versus most of the specials. There is one special that I can tie really into sparking the idea of this series and that's special number 23: "A Charlie Brown Celebration" .  ACBC instead of having a full hour long (45 TV minutes long) story it was different segments presented with their own stories.  The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show  uses that format.   

THE NBA team shows up? 



              For example, the first episode is called "Snoopy's Cat Fight" but the whole thing isn't just Snoopy getting into a --- (whisper whisper) oh right yeah, getting into a fight with a cat.  It's six stories put into the 24 minutes the episode has.  They have their own titles like Schulz and the team grabbed random words and were finding ways to use that word for a story.   "Woodstock",  "Baseball". "Sally" "Peppermint Patty", "Piano", and "Blanket".   Not every episode had six stories, some had more, some had less: it depended. So it did have an allowed flexibility.  It fits with the comic strip in how some strips were a simple one day piece and others were a few days or a little longer for a big story. This allowed them to pack alot of segments in the traditional, at the time, 13 episode run of the first season. 


 


             That also means it kind of plays things in a safer way, not really trying to do an ambitious story for 11 minutes, 7 minutes, or 22 minutes.  Peanuts wasn't that disconnected from having stories done in vignette fashion that was more the standard way things were done.  A Charlie Brown Christmas even does that, but does connective into one theme story of Charlie Brown trying to get through Christmas and his feelings.  Most of the specials before "A Charlie Brown Celebration" does eventually have a story even if other things happen to happen in them as well.  


               This series presents viewers with Peanuts snippets almost like taking the comic strip and using and animating it. In fact, a lot of the stories in this series are the comic strip. A factor for this is, now we have easy ways to back track and look at older Peanuts strips from the start to finish.  Back then the only way to see older strips would be to buy one of the compilation books or have the foresight to snip out daily strips from newspapers for years.  There probably was a few other ideas, but either way it wasn't as easy as it today.  The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show isn't the only Peanuts media to take from the strips and make a story or use stories from the strips.  The aforementioned A Charlie Brown Celebration presents stories from the strips, and other specials took lines and stuff from the strips even "A Charlie Brown Christmas" has some dialogue taken from strips.  






                The title of the show fits with most of the specials having the name of either "A Charlie Brown_" , "Charlie Brown's__" , "It's a _____, Charlie Brown" or some variation of that.  If you notice one thing about anything Peanuts made before Schulz's death and some things after, the name Peanuts doesn't show up on specials at all.  It's not A Peanuts Christmas or  Peanuts Easter Beagle.  Schulz never liked the name "Peanuts".  He wanted to the name Li'l Folks at first, since that was the name of the work that became Peanuts, the syndicator didn't want that name because, rightly, did sound like a few other things.  He couldn't think of a new name and they chose Peanuts.  Even saying in a 1987 interview:

     
"It's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing — and has no dignity. I think my humor has dignity."

 source 


              So it also would seem anything that wasn't directly the comics or marketing used Charlie Brown as the title in some form. Charlie Brown and Snoopy being the most well known names makes sense to call the show that too, versus "The Peanuts Show". [ The UK name for the Peanuts Movie is the better name , though Charlie Brown's name should have been first]   

                Back to the show itself, it's the only animated series done by Bill Melendez. I do wish we had more Melendez animated works, personally, I like his style and would have loved to see more characters beyond Peanuts done in his style. [ I know he worked on non Peanuts specials too]. 



         Also like Peanuts specials, the voices for the characters were done by actual human children.  Brad Kesten was the voice of Charlie Brown in season 1, his first Charlie Brown role was in "Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown" (1983), but would be replaced by Brett Johnson in season 2, because voices.  Sally's voice actress was swapped from season 1 and 2 as well. Peppermint Patty was voiced by girls in this series, as opposed to boys who normally did her voice. Victoria Vargas also co-voiced P.P in "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown" (1983).  This was to make sure it had that Peanuts feel to be consistent.   

             In terms of characters, which on one hand does feel silly to write, but stick with me.  There is an interesting mixture of characters in the show.  Characters, that by this point, had been "dead" in the comics do show up here. Shermy, who had really didn't show up any more strips after 1969 is here.  Frieda, who was waning in usage by this point because Schulz really couldn't figure out what to do with her.  Patty (the non Peppermint one) who was cut back on, but seemingly lasted as a background for a long time.  Funny enough, Violet, doesn't show up.  There's a the more, at the time, recent characters of Truffles who didn't appear in the strip since a storyline in 1977, and Eudora was introduced in 1978 and would be gone by 1988.  Rerun is featured here, this is before his big revival in the 90's and after he was kind of pushed back, because Schulz didn't know what do with him but couldn't kill him off fully.  Otherwise, the characters are the key players that last through the strips.



         I wish I could say more about the show in a direct way like about plots and stories, but this doesn't have that as much it's a mixture of shorts stuck together.   They even did the this earlier the same year this series came out with the special "It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown". This is a series for if you like Peanuts it will please you. It's not big or doing big interesting stories.  Of course, another factor is that new specials were still being made. 


         The enjoyable thing is seeing Peanuts characters doing stuff. It's also nicely animated  and near special quality in terms of animation.  The music is also befitting a Peanuts piece of media. It also calmer than other Saturday Morning affairs.  The theme song also simple a piano piece composed by Desiree Goyette and Ed Bogas. That was for the first season, they or the network or someone must have thought it wasn't energetic enough and they went for more an upbeat version of the theme with lyrics. The music piece of "Let's have a Party" was used  on the soundtrack of "Flash Beagle" and then an edited version was used for the 2nd season of this show.  



          The series aired on CBS in that prime slot for a bit, but it seems it didn't catch what CBS thought it would do. They moved to the quieter and earlier slot of after  Captain Kangaroo and on against reruns of The Flintstones and whatever ABC was doing.  It seems Alvin and the Chipmunks had more juice in it (it did run longer) and maybe because NBC had the Smurfs the audience just stuck around for Alvin.  It probably would have made more sense to run it after "Dungeons and Dragons" and not after a cartoon based on "The Dukes of Hazzard". 

             Then again, this is Peanuts, so shouldn't have done better just by the fact it's Peanuts. You would think that Peanuts would have done really well in the space. The specials were still, at this time, doing well in ratings enough where again CBS had 3 run in the same year as the premiere of this show. Does the format hurt the show? That's hard question to answer.  Alot of cartoons around this time were either full 22 minute stories or were shorts combined together, and rare but existing 11 minute 2 halves affair that were starting to gain more and more later on.  This show really fits in with the contemporary feel of cartoons at the time.

             You also might look at the year it came out and wonder wow, 1983, that's 33 years after Peanuts first came out, the first special was out in 1965- 15 years into the strip's history.  If anything, Schulz was protective over his property as much as he could be. Any interest anyone would have in making a Peanuts TV show would have to follow what he wanted and he wanted people, including himself, he could trust to bring it. The other thing is he felt the strips should be the direct source instead of an original set of stories, though Schulz did insert some extra stuff too. But did it come out too late to have the same impact versus being the 1970's, for example?   

          I, myself, don't know. There's nothing really wrong with the series, it does what you'd expect. Maybe played it too safe by just using the comic strips as a main basis and not doing television-exclusive stories, but even some specials were using the strips.  It might be because it was on CBS Saturday Morning which seemed to be losing to NBC, but at least beating ABC?  The show wasn't on the line up in the 1984-85 season, but returned for a second season in 1985 and was put in the slot that's pretty much not even Saturday Morning in the Eastern time zone, and a slot where sports might take it out in the west coast. That season was really 5 more episodes. They also seemed to trim down the shorts to just 3 shorts per episode. Then the show was over. 

            The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show  wasn't the only Peanuts series made whilst Schulz was alive.  The mini-series "This is America, Charlie Brown" came out in 1988 running various specials on American history.  Peanuts, of course, didn't stop being successful because of end of this series, the strips continued, and there would be at least a few more years of CBS getting specials for Peanuts. 


           This show did end up in reruns later on. It ran on Nickelodeon under the bad title of "You're on Nickelodeon, Charlie Brown" this was the era of Nickelodeon that when they got reruns to  "Pinky and the Brain" they stuck their logo in the intro because that sounds sane.  It also ran on other channels for a while as well.  


          It did take some time for another Peanuts TV series affair came out until the also  named "Peanuts" series from a French animation studio and network. They made a series that you know Charles Schulz isn't alive because of that title, that went was also a series of shorts done very much in comic strip style, taking comic strips and put them in motion. It wasn't bad, but wasn't strong or good either. The idea was somewhat more limited in scope and felt like something you'd air between shows on a kid's channel, like one short then back to "Ben 10".  


             When Peanuts made a deal with Apple for the Apple TV Plus streaming service they ended up making a new series called "Snoopy In Space" which was an educational series that would be for STEM focus something something that came out in 2019.  Then in 2021, They created "The Snoopy Show" which is also a bad title. That series decides to go with a problem many current (written in 2025) Peanuts media does go really hard with Snoopy and seemingly skewing younger in target. It's not a bad series, but does feel a little too off to be Peanuts.  They also made a series called "Camp Snoopy".  

            It is interesting to kind of see that Peanuts didn't have a long run as a series. In terms of comic-strips becoming animated shows it does depend.  I think Garfield and Friends probably is the strongest one, with maybe Dennis the Menace the 1980's series, and the funny thing about that one is Dennis had a live-action series first that ran longer than the animated version. "For Better for For Worse" tried a series, that didn't last long, same with even "Big Nate". (Different factor for that latter) One would think that Peanuts would have had a better success. Maybe the specials model fit it best, telling stories at different times , instead of a weekly series. 

        I do think this series is good because again it does bring the fun of Peanuts to the screen and allowed for shorter stories to be brought out. It pretty much is an animated version of the comic strip, but nothing about it seems half done or bad, everyone put as much work into how this looked and sounded as they did with the specials.   


            That's it for now, tune in next time when we have a party with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, then Snoopy gets a hangover. 


             

                    

Thursday, January 23, 2025

2025 Oscar Nominations announced

Oscars Award Shows 


         The 97th Academy Awards nominations are out.  Movies like "Dune: Part Two" , "The Brutalist",  "Wicked" are up for Best picture.  "Flow" , "Inside Out 2" , "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"  etc. are up for  Best animated film.  The award show airs March 2nd at 7pm ET/4pt on ABC and Hulu.  Here's the full list. 

CNN to make Daytime line up Changes

CNN 


    CNN is changing their line up with those details of the changes to their daytime and afternoon line up Thursday. The Situation Room is leaving its long running early evening slot for a morning block, Wolf Blitzer will also be joined by current 11 AMET Newsroom anchor Pamela Brown. 

         Jack Tapper's  The Lead is getting a new time slot, so is anchor Kasie Hunt who is moving to afternoons.    Tapper will be moving down one hour to run from 5-7pm ET and Hunt will be hosting a new show The Arena, coming in at 4pm ET. 

         In the morning hours,  Audie Cornish will be on CNN This Morning at 6amET, whilst the 5AMET hour is being replaced by  5 Things hosted by Rahel Solomon. 

           Left out of these changes is current Newsroom at 10 AMET anchor Jim Acosta. Rumors have come out the network was considering moving him to Midnight ET. He might leave instead.  

          CNN hasn't announced when the new line up will start.  They are also working on creating a new streaming service and commenced layoffs Thursday. 


Here's the new line up all times Eastern  (Shows different than current are italicized) 

5-6AM  5 Things with Rahel Solomon 
6-7AM  CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish 
7-10AM CNN News Central 
10-12pm The Situation Room  with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown 
12-1pm  Inside Politics with Dana Bash 
1-4pm  CNN News Central 
4-5pm The Arena with Kasie Hunt 
5-7pm The Lead with Jake Tapper 
7-8pm Erin Burnett OutFront
8-9pm  Anderson Cooper 360 
9-10pm  The Source with Kaitlan Collins 
10-11pm  NewsNight with Abby Phillip
11pm-12am  Laura Coates Live 


Here's the full press release after the jump 

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Fall TV Look 2025: What's New, What's Renewed, What's Ended?

Fall TV Look 2025 ABC CBS CW FOX NBC


This post was last updated on May 12 at 2:24pm MT 
        The decisions are being made about the fates of many different TV series.  This is our annual list that will be updated frequently as news about different broadcast networks shows comes in and what their status is for the next season.  This list primarily focuses on scripted series as those tend to get their announcements done in due time  before the May upfronts.  Though other non-scripted series due end up in the list  eg: 60 Minutes, since they are centerpieces of a network's line up. I will include a list of unscripted series too, but in some cases they are either renewed at various times. summer series also aren't part of the main lists as that is out of the main seasonal part of the year. 



ABC 

Renewed 

9-1-1
Abbott Elementary
America's Funniest Home Videos 
American Idol 
Celebrity Jeopardy!
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
Grey's Anatomy 
High Potential
The Rookie
Shark Tank 
Shifting Gears
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Will Trent
 

Canceled

The Conners 


New Series 

911: Nashville 

To Be Determined

Doctor Odyssey 



CBS 

Renewed 

Elsbeth 
FBI (renewed through season 9; currently on season 7) 
Fire Country 
Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage
Ghosts (2 seasons) 
Hollywood Squares 
Matlock
NCIS 
NCIS: Origins
NCIS: Sydney 
The Neighborhood (renewed for a final season) 
Tracker 
Watson 


Canceled

Blue Bloods
The Equalizer 
FBI: International 
FBI:  Most Wanted
Poppa's House
The Summit 
SWAT 

New Series 

Boston Blue 
Sheriff Country 


To Be Determined 








CW 

Renewed 

Sullivan's Crossing

Canceled

Joan  (Limited Series) 
Superman & Louis

New Series 


To Be Determined 

All American 
Children Ruin Everything
Good Cop/Bad Cop 
Wild Cards



FOX

Renewed 

Animal Control
Bob's Burgers  (4 seasons)
Doc
Family Guy  (4 seasons)
Going Dutch 
Grimsburg 
Krapoplis (renewed through Season 5; currently on season 2) 
MasterChef 
Murder in a Small Town
The Simpsons  (4 seasons) 
Universal Basic Guys (renewed through season 3) 

Canceled

9-1-1: Lone Star
Rescue: Hi-Surf 

New Series 

American Dad (moving from TBS back to FOX) (4 seasons) 

To Be Determined 

Accused
Alert: Missing Persons Unit 
The Cleaning Lady 
The Great North 


NBC

Renewed 

Brilliant Minds
Chicago Fire 
Chicago Med 
Chicago PD
Happy's Place 
The Hunting Party
Law & Order 
Law & Order SVU
St. Denis Medical

Canceled

Found 
The Irrational  
Lopez vs. Lopez 
Night Court 
Suits LA

New Series 

To Be Determined 

Grosse Pointe Garden Society 





Wednesday, January 15, 2025

NEWSNATION Makes Schedule Changes

NEWSNATION 





            Nexstar owned cable news channel , NewsNation is making some schedule changes with the end of  Dan Abrams Live.   

           Dan Abrams announced in December that his nightly, 9pm ET show would be ending. Wednesday, News Nation announced that On Balance with Leland Vittert will be taking that slot from February 10.  Like  Dan Abrams Live , On Balance premiered in 2021 as part of the network's shift to personality hosted primetime shows. it first aired at 8pm ET before getting its current 7pm ET.  Meanwhile, Elizabeth Vargas Reports will be taking the 7pm ET slot, and Vargas has signed a deal extension with the network. Her program premiered in 2023 at 6pm ET, before moving to 5pmET.  The 5pm ET slot will be filled by a 3rd of News Nation Now with Connell McShane. 

            Here's the line up from February 10, 2025; all time Eastern 

      3-6pmET News Nation Now with Connell McShane 
      6-7pm ET The Hill 
     7-8pm ET Elizabeth Vargas Reports 
     8-9pm ET Cuomo 
    9-10pm ET  On Balance with Leland Vittert 
    10-11pm ET Banfield



Full Press Release after the jump 

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Christmas: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas





      In the grab bag, let's see what we have this time, hmm a Hallmark Channel movie.  Hmm interesting.  Hallmark Channel Christmas movies and their movies, in general, seem to be their own genre in a way.  Even the network itself has tried ideas to break away and do slightly different ideas, but also they know what the people come to watch.  

             This movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is from 2008, it's an older Hallmark Channel  movie that the network still seems to run. The network seems to bump movies that are older down to their other channels or streaming thing.  They tend to go rampant hard with Christmas and introduce a lot of new movies a season.   It is interesting that this one still gets repeats on the main channel. I'm not a big Hallmark Channel movie viewer, if anything I watch the channel for their sitcom reruns, but I do like this one. 

         The movie is simple and seems to set up things that became Hallmark Channel uh hallmarks in their movies later on.  The best thing about this movie is Henry Winkler.  Winkler plays Uncle Ralph, the protagonist woman's uncle.  He a retired police officer who coming to visit his niece, Jennifer, for Christmas. Ralph -and his wife- essentially raised her. He brings a quirky and loveable charm to the movie and makes it a fun trip. 

             The movie starts with Jennifer Cullen (Jen) played by Brooke Burns. She is a single mother with a son named Brian. She is single, because plot reasons, but she does have a boyfriend whom umm... also plot reasons.  Her son wants a bike called a rocket wheel.  Also boys at school had Brian think Santa isn't real because that also happens in Christmas movies.  Jen is a business woman who does business-y business stuff.  She also isn't big into Christmas anymore. 

Son, for Christmas, do you want a less boring room? / Copyright Hallmark Channel



             We finally see Ralph, our hero. Picking Henry Winkler for this role was great and glad they chose him and he said yes and we have this existing.  We see him leave  a bar a mugger wants to mug him.  Ralph decides that there's going to be need for an ambulance call, not for him, but the mugger. If had put Ralph in Home Alone Marv and Harry would be dead.  This is a fun start for a movie about Christmas. 

Took him down hard/ Copyright Hallmark Channel 



            Jen finds out that thing her son wants for Christmas is also very hard to get. I am also concerned that a Chicago newspaper's top story is about a toy.  Jen's mother isn't coming over for Christmas because Hallmark didn't get an actress for her.  (sure) Jen is bothered because she can't make turkey and Christmas dinner, she's trying to impress her boyfriend's parent. The boyfriend is named Richard. ( A bit on the nose, movie) I'm going to like spoil things in this, so this how these posts go.  Richard plays the role of the boyfriend that will not be one at the end.  He's not too bad as a character, he's not evil or over the top.  The characters in this do feel like people, maybe a little different too many others you'd meet since they are more business-y business people, minus uncle Ralph and the kid. He also doesn't seem to like Ralph. (He must have been mad how Happy Days changed later on)   

They created the most stiff guy they could/ Copyright Hallmark Channel 



             There's a neighbor woman who wants Jen to put up her Christmas lights and what kind and how, because reasons. Jen thinks about running her over with her car. (that would be a different movie)  She goes to a toy store. She wants to buy the rocket wheel bike in the window the guy uses to bait and switch and she makes a deal.   



             Ralph is taking an airplane and a man named Morgan Derby helps him. Morgan is played by Warren Christie. Ralph takes an instant comradery with the man.  He gets them both on the plane quickly and first class. (Henry Winkler should always get free flights)   Ralph and Morgan getting along on the plane is good and again I like how they mesh. Morgan is also a more a free spirit but not over the top and strange.  Ralph doesn't like her boyfriend either, he doesn't trust people with 800 dollar shoes. 

So, do you know Laverne and Shirley? / Copyright Hallmark Channel 


             There's a strange running gag in this movie of the wreath being too big and falling off the front door and Jen going it's not too big. I'm sure someone thought that was funny.  Morgan can't go to Denver because flights are canceled (typical) and he is able to somehow bump into Jen and Brian and creeps them out by knowing their names and what they look like.  Ralph asks Jen if Morgan can stay the night. She, of course, is against the idea but he wears her down.  Also saying that Morgan is a chef might be of help. 

more after the jump

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Christmas: The Simpsons: Marge Be Not Proud

The Simpsons  Christmas 





          The Simpsons is known for starting off its series run with a Christmas episode , but it didn't do A Christmas episode every season. It's probably for the best to have your series have one big Christmas episode that will be memorable and playable every year. But, eventually, they did take another crack at the holiday being shown for a plot.  The very next time was in Season 7 with "Marge Be Not Proud".

            This episode aired December 17, 1995 which is 6 years to the date of them airing the first episode. Both days were Sundays. It's fitting in a way for them to do this.  
 

              The Krusty special in the beginning is funny in how it both homages the classic Christmas specials like with Bing Crosby would do, but also go off the rails because it's Krusty the Clown. It also is  a good way to bring in something during the commercial break  Bart sees the commercial for a video game for video game Bone Storm. He wants his parents to get it for him. Also Marge saying the game costs $70 which is funny that the price of average video game now $70 so why don't Simpsons predict the future didn't run with this?  

Storm of Bones? Copyright Fox 



            The thing that this episode is really about is Bart and Marge. It was a rarer pairing for this show to take at the time, where most Bart and parent stuff was Bart and Homer.  Bart doesn't like that his mom baby's him , he doesn't want her to tuck him in and sing to him a good night song. It will play well when things get switched up later. 

            Millhouse is funny for refusing Bart a spot to play the game and that he would call his mom just to get rid of him. It plays well into how kids are and yeah I think Bart would have done the same if he was the one with the game.  I love the added sauce of Bart doing minor swears when he was trying to tell Millhouse's mom that he wasn't swearing. This episode really adds in a lot of little things that add to it. 


           Bart goes to the store and he sees some kid who can his mom names and can get the get the game. He sees Nelson and Jimbo who are shoplifting.  The Simpsons acknowledging they are cartoons with 4 fingers is funny.  Bart struggles but with the encouragement of video game characters he decides to steal the game. He forgot he's not a minor character so... uh oh and gets caught by security.  
Bart has gone down/ Copyright Fox 



              Security guy Don Brodka is an interesting character. I like how he looks with his Marine tattoo and clinched cigarette. He shows Bart a shoplifting is bad video but hates it and stops it.  This is a man who loves his job and shows it well. He calls Bart's parents but does it so well to convince Bart he called them live, but only left a voicemail. Lawrence Tierney really plays this role well. He tells Bart a parting  line that if he sees him in that store again- it's over. 

                There's not a lot of Homer in this episode. He takes a back seat to Bart who takes over Act 1 and Marge who will be part Act 2 a lot more. Both of those in Act 3 with Bart getting a little more. He does get some funny moments though. I like his reaction to Bart saying "Go to Hell" and he just says "There's a little thing called please" and his listening to the tape that Bart swapped out for the answering machine and asking Marge if Lisa went to camp Granada was funny.  


            Uh oh guess where Marge wants to have the family picture taken?  He tries to figure out away to make sure that Brodka can't figure it's him. There's a painfulness to wondering to see what happens and does Bart get away with it. Lisa, like Homer, doesn't get much to do this episode. Her moments she does get range from funny to a little charming.  Bart does get found. 

             Marge, because of Bart being able to make sure she and Homer didn't get the voicemail, goes up to bat for Bart and it's sweet that she does. That is until the guy shows her the tape and Bart tries to make her not see it but we get a multiple TV frame instead. 

Woah I don't have time for Home Alone! / Copyright Fox



            This is where the episode changes tone a little.  You can kind of tell Marge feels broken and not happy.  She skips him for the good night song and tuck in and just says good night and closes his door. She tells Homer maybe she mothers him too much.  It's a flip in where Bart feels bad at not having his mother's attention and even ends up hanging out with Millhouse's mom because he misses it.  The episode does this in balance where it doesn't seem that Marge has pushed Bart away it's more she feels that maybe he needs his space and her mothering was bugging him and he realizes that maybe he kind of likes some of it still and doesn't want her to totally detach from him.  



             Bart comes home and looks like he shoplifted, episode has us going in that first half there. But he ended up buying her a gift.  She lets him open a gift early and it's kind of sweet that she got him a video game. It was the wrong one, but done in earnest.  




           I think the episode is fairly good. It stays towards "The Simpsons" tone without getting syrupy or sappy to the point it feels like you'd be watching an episode of "Full House" on Christmas where Stephanie stole something and everyone is concerned she might end up becoming a future murderer.  It does a story that  many can fit with. At some point, a kid feels like they are too old for their parents to be so parental, but then sometimes might miss something that their parent did they weren't expecting to miss if it didn't happen. 
    
            Something that can be noticed in this episode is how Christmas is more the background and not the main plot.  The Christmas special  Bart watches gives the catalyst to him seeing the ad for the video game but that could have really been anything.  If anything, Christmas comes into play really into Bart using his money to buy Marge the gift photo. But Christmas is lightly sprinkled into the episode. It's not a bad thing, I like how it works here for a balance of the story not having to try and force itself around Christmas but still fit the Christmas spirit.  

        A lot of fun of the episode is the Simpsons charm and hallmarks.  It makes you feel for Bart and Marge in what's going on in the episode.  It knows how to keep the beats of funny going as well as sprinkling in the heart.  It's a good one , there's a reason why this one is liked. 

         That's it for now, tune in next time when we stop this shoplifter and force him to write a post.  

                 

        

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Christmas: Noël (The Christmas Ornament Special)

Christmas 





            I've decided to dip into something that's a little more obscure and weird for Christmas.   This special has a Rankin-Bass connection, but wasn't created by them , instead it involves Romeo Muller. If you watched a Rankin-Bass special like "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" you would have seen the name Romeo Muller. He had found ways to take really short things like  Christmas songs to make full special stories about them.  He also told a story every year on radio station WGHQ  and that story is the basis of this special.  I also have to mention that Muller died at the end of December 1992. 

            Noël first aired on December 4, 1992 on NBC, the same night as they aired "Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas" what an odd night. This special has fallen out of play , I think the last US airing was on Fox Family in like 2000 (that channel is now known as Freeform).  It's not highly remembered and their might be some reasons for that.   

        
          The narrator of this is Charlton Heston with his distinct voice giving a sense of seriousness to a special where there's talking Christmas ornaments and the words "people things".  The main story is there is a glass blower who was blowing glass (as one does) to make ornaments back in the time when ornaments weren't heavily factory produced in some factory in another country.  His name is Herman, he gets a name but isn't going to be here that long. Anyway, he's really happy because he got news that his daughter has given birth to a girl and he's really happy and his tear of joy ends up going into an ornament. 

I'm a little too happy 



           Noel is our main character and one of those round ornaments, the simple ones, and is red.  Because he is filled with the happiness tear he's filled with "a happiness" as it's said.   There's another ornament named Miss Freezenda, she seems to be filled with not happiness. I don't even know why she's mad or grumpy. It's also funny that she thinks she's upper class and will be sold , with Noel and 10 other ornaments, for cheap.  The other ornaments don't seem to have names. It's an odd set with 12 different types of ornaments. 

                 Some woman buys the ornament set for her family and there's a girl that seems to know Noël's main character energy and likes him best to kiss him.  I'm also a little confused on how the other ornaments know more about things than Noël ,like did Noël  miss a meeting or something?  Also interesting they say people-things to mean humans but then call children, children-things, I guess children aren't people to them. This says the word 'thing' a lot to the point it won't be word anymore. 

            Noël  meets the Christmas tree named Brutus.  (Brutus? Noo Noël  watch out!) Brutus doesn't seem to be bothered by Noël  questions. The tree also has accepted his fate that he was born to be cut down and decorated for Christmas. Ahhh talking train with a face!  There's also a little nativity under the tree that's only explained as that's what Christmas is all about.  I like how the tree knows about Christmas stuff but only as far as a few things but doesn't know much about the Christmas story. 

This is what Christmas is about. What? Umm we won't tell you. 



            It kind of goes out of its way to explain Christmas Eve night and things (oops) to a point where it feels like this story probably wasn't meant to be 22 minutes long.  Noël's happiness also seems to give him the power to feel things that only people, animals, and some trees can.  This lore is something.  

             It runs through the days between Christmas and New Year then the worst day of the year -January 2nd- shows up and everything is taken down. Also Brutus gets dragged out to die. Then it speed runs a year, and eventually allows Christmas to return again.  Noël  is happy, the little girl kiss him again and it lots of repeating. New Christmas tree, though.  (yay) 

She senses the happiness 


            Then Christmas is over again.  Fine alright. Then the specials this happens for years and years. It even mentions that the kids grew up, also mentioning World War II, like the boy was in World War II.  Everything else. Then, it's decided by the now old parents that Christmas won't be happening at their house.  Noël  has gone in a deep sleep, while the parents died.  Good work this bleak, let's go. 




         Finally, a 90's family shows up and has bought the house.  The new mom finds the ornaments in the attic and is like these are all chipped and old compared to their new plastic ones. The new mom only finds Noël usable. Also, this time a boy for some reason kisses Noël . I don't know why children want to kiss him. Noël  is by himself and the new tree talks to him. Anyway, Noël  dies.  That's right his clip breaks because of age and he falls, breaks and dies. But guess what? Apparently that happiness is his soul and he can finally see the nativity. Now Noël  can spread his happiness around the world or something. That was an ending. 

        
             
Great he thinks he's a god now! 


                 The ending is very much closely aligned with the concept of death being a leaving of your cold glass body but your soul is free. Noël's happiness is explained as his real essence. Does leave some questions open for why the other ornaments are alive and if they die do they cease completely?  Oddly it also just goes and shows a nativity and says that's what Christmas is about but doesn't say what they mean. I know what they mean, but it's more like they are going "If you know, you know" sort of thing.  Should have just said what it out loud special, don't be cowards! 

           I'm surprised that the guy who found ways to make very simple stories that were songs and make them into 25 minute or 47 minute specials had a special that really feels like it shouldn't be 22 minutes. There's lot of padding. It goes through how Christmas goes like it's a new unexplored concept then runs through a lot of years in details. There's also not a lot that happens here. It's mostly just Noël  asking questions and some other ornaments whining. Then Christmas stuff, then being sent to the attic, then repeat, random kissing, a mention of war and death, then finally one last time and Noël  falls and is now just a spirit. It feels like they were going for an allegory but also showing the spirit of joy is inside and we should spread it around.    This special might work for younger kids more than any older people.  


            That's it for now, tune in next time when we question what the ornaments thing about us.