General TV

The Wish Writer (Macy’s)

Whoa – that pen just rolled out of the TV. Could be a magic pen. And would you look at that? It is. The poor girl soon realizes she can’t write a wish for herself – still, wishing it would snow for your brother is a pretty unselfish gesture. And so the wish writer springs all manner of happiness and surprises to many others in the town at Christmas time. And just when she thinks her own wish has not come true, her brother obliges. The whole thing has a real feel-good aura, in fact would make a decent movie, no? I bet you forgot what the whole sentiment was advertising, right? Yeah, me too.

Penny Brings Gifts (The Big Bang Theory)

The Big Bang Theory, essentially about a bunch of science nerds, has been the kind of success many could not have imagined. Those characters have molded the affections of its audience over the years, and so one Christmas moment from the show really struck a chord with us. As Penny arrives to hand out gifts, Sheldon is as cynical and rigid as ever. Although he snootily claims it, he is indeed not prepared for Penny has to offer – in fact she almost breaks him. His reaction to the incredible gift and gesture from Penny is as emotive as it is funny. Is this the first tie Sheldon participates in a hug? Anyway, to say he is grateful is an under-statement. One of the show’s best moments, period.

Mr. And Mrs. Claus (Roseanne)

Many of us remember the long-running TV comedy Roseanne quite fondly, and so as you would expect there was quite a backlog of Christmas related moments I could have chosen. In fact, with these clip-hunting expeditions often take up a lot of my time (enjoyably). Anyway, from the hat I went with Rosanne and Jackie’s Christmas dress-up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus respectively. Hiding the laughter for Rosanne would have been made easier with that beard were it not for the fact that Roseanne Barr tends to laugh (or just about) through her eyes. Laurie Metcalfe as Jackie steals the whole charade though (as she often did) by portraying her Mrs. Claus as a kind of joyless drill instructor rather than the bringer of joy.

Christmas Commercial 2013 (Apple iPhone)

Okay let’s bring the festive sentiment back into play with another television commercial break. A family gathering seems to blossom – there’s snow, presents, the tree is up, and there are adventures to be had. One member of the family, a boy, seems to be blending into the background, not getting too involved, seemingly just content enough to be playing with his iPhone. Of course this is a modern day thing now, you literally have to pull your children away from their phones and computers. However, this young lad is all the while getting right into the Christmas family spirit more than any of his relatives could have imagined. Very touching.

When favorite TV series end, the most fervid fans often ask themselves this question: “What other show can I latch onto to fill this void?”

We’re in the Golden Age of television, so even though cultural phenomena like Mad Men ended this year, there’s surely another great drama just around the corner (or already on television, Hulu, Netflix, whatever).

The same cannot be said for E!’s The Soup. When the network revealed in late November that they would not be bringing back Joel McHale and company for episodes in 2016, I asked myself what show I could watch to supplement my weekly dose of reality television and snark, and nothing came to mind.

Sure, there have been copycats (remember Danielle Fishel on Style Network’s The Dish or Chris Hardwick on Web Soup?), but none of these shows lasted because they deviated from what was most crucial to the success of The Soup: biting commentary on the ridiculousness of television. For even though we are in the Golden Age of TV, we also live in an age where Keeping Up with the Kardashians has aired more episodes than critical darlings like 30 Rock (150 to 138).

In many ways, The Soup was a part of the checks-and-balances of the TV world. The networks were the “lawmakers,” or the ones that would greenlight crap like Bad Girls’ Club and Wives with Knives, while The Soup was part of the judicial branch, the people to shake our shoulders and remind us that we had just watched a two-hour block of shows about storage units.

While reality television isn’t as potent as it was 10 or 15 years ago, when Survivor dominated the ratings, it’s more superfluous now. If you do have cable, you can’t change the channel without coming across some sort of reality programming, and The Soup crawled these channels for the worst (Finding Bigfoot), the so-sexually-suggestive-you-can’t-look-away (Gold Rush Alaska), and the blink-and-you-miss-it moments (Spaghetti Cat?).

Tosh.0 may be the closest thing to filling the void, but it doesn’t have the heart of The Soup. After all, when The Soup was supposed to air the night of the Paris terrorist attack, they canceled. In 2008, when Heath Ledger died, they told the paparazzi to leave him and his family alone. For as much poking and prodding as they did to celebrities, they also were respectful of reality.

The Soup was also the one show on E! to keep the network legitimate and real. If you’ve ever caught E! News, you know that it really should be called Kardashian News or Why is this News?. The Soup was the one show that never pandered to the aura of celebrity. Now, without this show on the network, E! has officially cultivated a world of vapid men and women and botched plastic surgery. There’s no counterbalance. Even Chelsea Handler is gone.

I suppose that The Soup was going to end soon anyway, especially since most people don’t have cable anymore, and if you don’t have cable, you’re not able to know these reality TV references or even watch the damn program on E!. So maybe the end of The Soup is the end of an era.

Unfortunately, we’ll still be overrun by unnecessary reality shows. We just won’t have anyone to dish with about it.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Six Feet Under)

There is no intention here to bring the festive mood down, but as bleak as it often was, Six Feet Under was an excellent TV drama. Let’s go back to the very beginning, when the Fischer dad Nathaniel, and head of the family funeral service, does not quite make it home for Christmas. Nor does he show up at the airport to pick up his son, also called Nathaniel. That pilot had quite the impact (excuse the pun), but certainly set the mark for some of the most compelling, morbid drama in the last few decades. Drive safe, and merry Christmas.

 

Christmas Sacrifices (Supernatural)

This one is for the Supernatural fan base out thereDean and Sam Winchester now have quite a back catalog as hunters of the damned, blood-suckers, ghosts, demons, and many, many other such creeps. Even at Christmas time, as seen here in an early episode (season 3), an idealistic middle-aged couple turned festive nut jobs, I mean pagan Gods, take to torturing our captive hunters before the disturbed meet their end via a Christmas tree. The full episode also features some poignant flashbacks of Dean and Sam as boys witness to their own Christmas revelations. A couple of moments in the following clip, as Dean and Sam await being sacrificed, are not for the squeamish.

Walking In The Air (The Snowman) 

This takes me back to many a Christmas Eve as a young one in front of the TV, the majestic, bright and breezy animation – Academy Award nominated I might add. For a child, and now an adult, this captures the imagination and fills the heart. So I guess in some ways it would not quite be Christmas as we know it without hearing the short film’s famous song “Walking in the Air” – which accompanies a terrific, soaring sequence as the snowman of the title takes the young boy on a winter flight he will never forget and could never have imagined. Sit back, then, and let it take you too.

Holiday Armadillo (Friends)

Perhaps more renowned for the Thanksgiving shenanigans with regard to holiday antics, the US smash hit TV comedy Friends tended to have something for everyone, for all occasions. Desperate to be more involved with the festivities with his own son, Ross has little choice at such short notice to hire a costume so he can become the holiday armadillo. Whether or not little Ben is sold on this idea is not given much time as Chandler shows up as Santa Claus to at first unknowingly jeopardize Ross’ plans. A stubborn, amusing lock of horns between Ross and Chandler ensues, and the agenda becomes more about adult pride than a child’s Christmas education. Fun stuff as always. Poor Chandler though, in the end he did not get to shake his belly like a bowl full of jelly, but Monica has other ideas for his Santa costume.

Is Love In The Festive Air? (The Office Christmas Special)

Having lost his managerial job with paper merchant Wernham Hogg, David Brent still desperately wants to give off the impression he is successful (he is not particularly), trying to get a date for the Christmas part via a dating website to name one such mishap in the Christmas Special. Tim meanwhile has to endure the obnoxious office colleague (replacing the disturbed Gareth) while privately looking forward to the brief return of Dawn for whom he has much more than just a soft spot for. On one date Brent puts his foot in it early on, a natural comedic trait of awkwardness that was a huge part of what made the show successful, both here in the UK and across the pond in America. This is Christmas though, so without spoiling it, all is well that ends well. Like much of Ricky Gervais’ work, beyond his rather too-close-for-comfort social parody he can provide a real emotional redemption.

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