Bad, terrible and downright lousy Christmas Specials...

[GonzoLeaper]

Hahaha- some of the choices on here are just funny. Maybe it's because I love a lot of the movies that everyone else tends to hate on (I'm talking stuff like "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" and "Supergirl" and "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie", etc.)- but I find the whole "We Wish You a Turtle Christmas" hilarious. It's certainly not the best in the world, but I'm sure there are worse ones out there. I think that one maybe tows the line of being so bad that it's actually kinda good.
Anyway- I don't know that "The Star Wars Holiday Special" really even counts as a Christmas special. It was aired at Thanksgiving in 1978- ONCE! Never again! LOL- But yeah- I've seen this in its entirety- it's fun. They definitely weren't celebrating Christmas here though- it's a Life Day special!
(Though that would be a pretty apt name for Christmas as well since Jesus said in John 10:10 that that was exactly what He came to do- to bring us life and life more abundant!)
By the way, there are actually 3 Flintstones' Christmas specials and I love watching them. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be set in cave man days and so we're pretty sure it's before the birth of Christ, but I'm not going to fault them for that. For that matter, B.C. also had a Christmas special and it falls into the same category on that issue. But it's Christmas- and technically God already had it all in mind to send Christ before the foundation of the world anyway. (Revelation 13:8)
I would also agree that I don't care much about the "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" Christmas special.
There are some other infamous ones out there- I'll have to think about it more before I can post any others.
If we're counting Christmas movies though- there are a couple of those I would list- like "Fred Claus" and "Bad Santa" and similar movies- those are just awful.

 

[Drtooth]

come on we wish you a turtle christmas is a classic..i own it on vhs...hey i even went to Coming out of our shells tour as a kid

I have a problem with the idea of making the Turtles a rockband to begin with, actually. The songs are quite iffy... though Pizza Power is pretty righteous actually... and they CLEARLY aren't using any Henson costumes here... even the Saban series ones looked better... you can clearly see a hole in the back of their mouths from which light pops through.

Plus, I gotta admit, I LOVE the 1980's cartoon and without it TMNT would just be in the annuls of obscurity, but as someone who loves the comics like a gazoolion times more, I tend to dislike how everyone boiled the characters down to such generic personalities and an obsession with Pizza (in the original comics, they actually ate Chinese food). So what we generally got in these concerts and side projects were personality devoid kids who just love pizza cowabunga skateboards... and that lead to even WORSE knock offs like Stone Protectors, Street Sharks and Extreme Dinosaurs.

I LOVED the 2k3 Christmas episode... if only for Usagi Yojimbo and Gennosuke's cameo. Too bad we didn't have a proper 80's TMNT Christmas episode, as generic save Christmas from Shredder as it would have been.

Anyway, most of this is matter of taste stuff. Come on. There's gotta be something with universal ICK factors to them. Something devoid of point, effort, and general watch-ability.

Also, while they're not downright terrible, I just have a bit of a problem with not one but two Flintstones Christmas specials.

Flintstones deals with so many anachronisms, you would think that would slide by too. I liked the Christmas Carol (a brilliant spin on it since EVERYBODY has done it before) and even that odd one made in the 90's where they adopt an orphan... but really, how the heck CAN you celebrate the birth of someone who won't even be born for centuries AND with all the pagan stuff they took centuries after that... not to mention German customs that.... aw heck, you just can't add logic into that mess, can you?

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.


Yet, Cartoon Network just HAS TO AIR IT EVERY SINGLE YEAR...

I understand the whole concept of basing half hour to an hour specials on Christmas songs, but let's face it... Rakin Bass DID that, and they managed to do it well. Rudolph was obviously a novelty song of sorts, much like this one was... but really... I never really felt Grandma got Run over by a Reindeer funny as a song, let alone an hour of confusing, bleckky plot with such terrible music. Suing Santa? I guess that comes off the fact someone sued for spilling coffee on themselves... I can't even remember how that one went. Either it left NO impression on me, or my mind is purposely surpressing it from memory.

Anyway, couple more to add to my list.

A Freezerburnt Christmas... just... just very poorly done, aside from the animation. Lousy generic saving Santa plot. I almost taped it, and just gave up halfway through.

Sonic's Christmas Blast. Now, I gotta admit, I actually do like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog outside of internet meme. I was making jokes about that specific Robotnik BEFORE Youtube. However, I like the series mainly for Scratch, Grounder, and of course, Long John Baldry's over the top Dr. Robotnik. I resent how wimpy Tails was, though. But as far as the Christmas special goes, it has it's moments with Robotnik "Happiness is so much more enjoyable when it's based on the misery of others." But the plot is JUNK, the fact they tried to (and failed at) linking the Sonic SatAM series to the AOSTH series by referencing Swatbots and having a mute Sally Acorn, and just... there's this little kid that follows Sonic and Tails around I just wanna punch in the face. The generic Save Santa plot could be over looked, but Sonic saves Christmas by running a random obstical course to unlock the full potential of his speed... ugh. Both Mario ones (even the SMW cartoon) were actually enjoyable,... this one wasn't.

 

[redBoobergurl]

The "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" special from the early 90's is not great. It's not horrible, but it's on the DVD I have right after the original Charlie Brown and the animation is really quite bad actually. It's a bunch of shorts, which is cute, but I don't know, pretty lame compared to the original. I'd rather watch "I Want a Dog for Christmas Charlie Brown" which isn't much better, but it's better than this.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

By the way, there are actually 3 Flintstones' Christmas specials and I love watching them. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be set in cave man days and so we're pretty sure it's before the birth of Christ, but I'm not going to fault them for that. For that matter, B.C. also had a Christmas special and it falls into the same category on that issue. But it's Christmas- and technically God already had it all in mind to send Christ before the foundation of the world anyway. (Revelation 13:8)

I agree, A Flintstone Christmas Carol is massively underrated. One of the better things Hanna-Barbera did with the characters following the end of the show. I like the idea of doing a theater production of the show, it makes it distinct from, say, The Muppet Christmas Carol.

But how can we not mention Yogi's First Christmas, Hanna-Barbera's infamous overly long TV movie starring the whole HB comedy team with not much plot for 100 minutes?

 

[Drtooth]

The "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" special from the early 90's is not great. It's not horrible, but it's on the DVD I have right after the original Charlie Brown and the animation is really quite bad actually. It's a bunch of shorts, which is cute, but I don't know, pretty lame compared to the original. I'd rather watch "I Want a Dog for Christmas Charlie Brown" which isn't much better, but it's better than this.

I tend to disagree on multiple levels that I want a Dog is worse.

First off, the posthumous specials, while still entertaining are stiff from being just animated strips loosely related to each other, or altered in such a way that they are. THAT was the Charlie Brown and Snoopy show, actually, but it was done much better there, relating everything to shorts, much like other comic book based cartoons.

Christmas Time Again WAS like that, but it had a better flow. Actually, I find the end almost Seinfeldian for some reason (the Hockey Stick bit). And while there was one small section of that that was used on the Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, I want a Dog used the better part of a series of strips that were also used on CBSS, only altered to be more Christmassy (unless of course the strips WERE used in that fashion, in that case, CBSS was stipped of it... but it STILL ran better as a 6 minute short).

Now, I want a Dog's worst feature is the fact that instead of a compact half hour it runs for a big, bloated FULL hour and it feels even longer than that being a bunch of strips smooshed together. Plus, do we REALLY care about Rerun?

What it all comes down to is the original Peanuts specials were memorable BECAUSE they were original stories.

Surely, there's gotta be a BAD special that no one's heard of and for good reasons. I'd rather discuss those if anyone has any.

 

[RedPiggy]

If no one's heard of it, how are we supposed to discuss it?

 

[GonzoLeaper]

But how can we not mention Yogi's First Christmas, Hanna-Barbera's infamous overly long TV movie starring the whole HB comedy team with not much plot for 100 minutes?

Well, I didn't mention "Yogi's First Christmas" because I thought it was a great Christmas special. I've got it on VHS and it was just recently released to DVD through WBshop.com
But I love all those Hanna Barbera cartoons- "Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper" was just released on DVD earlier this week in stores and I've been excited about checking that one out too. (Actually, Yogi Bear's other 3 cartoon specials from the late '80s are getting released to DVD through WBshop.com as well- so something good is coming out of the "Yogi Bear" movie, if not the movie itself. LOL)
And I also agree that "The Flintstones' Christmas Carol" was a nice twist on the so over-used "A Christmas Carol" plot. But somehow that story never gets old to me.
But since we're looking for bad Christmas specials- how about this old chestnut?
I have a feeling some folks might know this because it's gained notoriety through "Mystery Science Theater 3000", but I would think this has to be on the list-
"Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" (1964 live action movie)
I have seen it and it is pretty hilariously bad- but it also has a Sesame Street connection amazingly enough. (Bill McCutcheon stars in it as Dropo- who of course, years later, also appeared as Uncle Wally on Sesame Street!)

I'm not saying these are necessarily totally bad here, but I find specials like "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" and "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" annoying when they insist on including segments on Hannukah and Kwanzaa alongside Christmas. It's not a huge thing, but if the special advertised has Christmas in the title, I expect it be about Christmas- not about other holidays. At least when Sesame Workshop put out "Elmo's World: Happy Holidays"- that was a more honest title since it covered Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa. And that's fine, since Sesame Street has always been all about educating children and certainly part of that education should include different cultures and holidays.
And I like that Prairie Dawn put on a Christmas pageant and we got to see the Nativity of Jesus Christ- that was pretty cool. I appreciate the humor there with the mishaps and all, but I did feel it was a slight bit irreverent. And I really wish they would have done more than just call Jesus a good man- since He more's than just a good man. He's God and Man and He came to be the Savior of the world.
But at least they did make an attempt to educate kids about the origin of Christmas and I do appreciate that.

I can't think of any others right now- I usually enjoy most Christmas specials, even the really corny, cheesy and goofy ones. Probably the only ones I don't like are ones that are disrespectful and/or crude and crass- or a Christmas-themed episode of a show I don't like to begin with- for example, The Simpsons' Christmas specials, The Family Guy, American Dad, Beavis and Butthead, etc.
(Of course, these are the ones that generally fall into the disrespectful, crude and crass category. The writers can be quite funny though- and I would like them pretty well if they could keep the shows clean.)

 

[Drtooth]

I'm not saying these are necessarily totally bad here, but I find specials like "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" and "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" annoying when they insist on including segments on Hannukah and Kwanzaa alongside Christmas. It's not a huge thing, but if the special advertised has Christmas in the title, I expect it be about Christmas- not about other holidays. At least when Sesame Workshop put out "Elmo's World: Happy Holidays"- that was a more honest title since it covered Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa. And that's fine, since Sesame Street has always been all about educating children and certainly part of that education should include different cultures and holidays.
And I like that Prairie Dawn put on a Christmas pageant and we got to see the Nativity of Jesus Christ- that was pretty cool. I appreciate the humor there with the mishaps and all, but I did feel it was a slight bit irreverent. And I really wish they would have done more than just call Jesus a good man- since He more's than just a good man. He's God and Man and He came to be the Savior of the world.
But at least they did make an attempt to educate kids about the origin of Christmas and I do appreciate that.

I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to go on a rant now...

Arthur's perfect Christmas was great BECAUSE it featured other holidays... I rather liked the subplot with Francine and Muffy having a fight because Muffy is such a WASPy figure she remains completely ignorant of Francine's unavailability... I always die at the end when Ed Crosswire gives them a ham. I will say the Brain Kwanzaa thing was a might forced, but at least they managed to slightly go into it.

The problem with adding Kwanzaa and Channukkah to Christmas specials IS that they don't really have any of their own. And the Channukka specials basically teach non-Jews about their traditions. Even with Shalom Sesame to an extent. And if they at least address that to some extent were there's a clear plot (like Arthur did) it's a much better exercise in diversity than the hollow practice of pretending to accept everyone by calling everything "Holiday." Oh, yeah... please, let us ignore your customs and beliefs and force our own down your throats while we oh so considerately call everything a "Holiday" while using specifically Christmas ONLY imagery.

Heck, only Kwanzaa special I've ever heard of was the Rugrats one... and if it counts that episode of "Everybody Hates Chris" where the father purposely switches the family over to Kwanzaa because he's too cheap to want to get any presents for anybody.

Think about it... there are millions of Christmas specials out there, like a handful of Channukkah ones (all video exclusives... some with BAD puppetry), an episode of Rugrats and Everybody Hates Chris. We can share a couple here and there.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Here's a real stinker. "Holiday," the Christmas episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. You can read a recap of it here (just note that it's not exactly family-friendly all the time, reader discretion advised): http://dumbbaby.net/degrassi/e/311.shtml Trust me, I've seen it. It's bad. Even if you like Degrassi, it's bad.

 

[Oscarfan]

I actually liked "Yogi's First Christmas"; it's one of my fondest memories of when Cartoon Network was...ahem, better than today.

I think a great representative of bad Christmas specials is the live-action remake of "A Year Without a Santa Claus." I mean, Harvey Firestien as Heat Miser? That ruined the best song in the original special.