Bad, terrible and downright lousy Christmas Specials...

[Slackbot]

The He-Man/She-Ra Christmas special is an amazing mess. One of Orko's pratfalls sends him to Earth in a rocket. He is found by a couple of children, all three return to Eternia, and they have adventures that make no sense at all with the "Manchines." The kids teach Orko about The Meaning of Christmas and Skeletor's heart grows three sizes.

I love cheese, so I can watch it and laugh. But, yikes.

 

[Drtooth]

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.

Actually I'd say that song was the only thing halfway decent with that whole abortion.

I tell you when that news reporter in one scene said "This kid is doing something besides contributing to the obesity epidemic" I wanted to throw the television out the window and then beat the ever loving crap out of it. Oh, and the multiple references to goth. "HEY! We're at the moment! WOOO!" Yeah, so much for being timeless.

The He-Man/She-Ra Christmas special is an amazing mess. One of Orko's pratfalls sends him to Earth in a rocket. He is found by a couple of children, all three return to Eternia, and they have adventures that make no sense at all with the "Manchines." The kids teach Orko about The Meaning of Christmas and Skeletor's heart grows three sizes.

That one made some comic book magazine's list years ago... Yeah, I kinda dig He-man in an ironic way (I hardly enjoy it the same level I enjoy their Ghost Busters and especially Bravestarr from that same decade... actually, I got that Christmas special, and I didn't get a chance to watch it yet) but that sounds almost as bad as the movie did. Ugh... any excuse to have characters that shouldn't have Christmas to actually celebrate Christmas, am I right?

 

[Blue Weirdo]

The He-Man/She-Ra Christmas special is an amazing mess. One of Orko's pratfalls sends him to Earth in a rocket. He is found by a couple of children, all three return to Eternia, and they have adventures that make no sense at all with the "Manchines." The kids teach Orko about The Meaning of Christmas and Skeletor's heart grows three sizes.

I love cheese, so I can watch it and laugh. But, yikes.

hey I LOVE that special! Now maybe I'm bias since I'm such a huge He-Man/She-Ra fan but the only part I really don't like is Bow's annoying song in the middle.
(Okay there's also the Idiot Ball moment when He-Man and She-Ra get rid of Horde Prime by simply hurling his ship back into space instead of capturing or killing him and thus ending the Etherian war right there but...)

And don't forget Queen Marlena is an Earthling so it does make sense for her and her children to celebrate Christmas.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

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.

That was just my point. It is annoying when specials use the generic term "holiday" when they actually specifically mean Christmas. If that's the case, then just call it a Christmas special and be done with it- but it's annoying to me when they do try to genericize it and act like it's all inclusive of multiple winter holidays, but in actuality it's still a Christmas special at the core.
All I was trying to say was that it was a bit annoying to me that the Arthur special was labelled as a Christmas special but then suddenly springs Hannukah and Kwanzaa in. It gets annoying when it seems like it's forced in there- that of course, there's convenienty a token Jewish person who celebrates Hannukah and a token African-American who celebrates Kwanzaa. I'm not saying "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" is necessarily trying to have token characters- it's just annoying when it comes off feeling that way because that's almost just as whack as not having any at all. It's been a while since I've seen "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" so maybe it was better juxtaposed than I can recall. If that's the case, it's not a huge thing then. I mean, I don't freak out about Mr. Hooper celebrating Hannukah in "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street"- he's Jewish, I would expect him to.
So yeah- I don't mind some specials sharing holidays as such, as long as it's done in an honest way that doesn't feel forced just for the sake of "diversity". Because Jews celebrating Hannukah and African-Americans celebrating Kwanzaa are diverse just as the vast majority of Americans and I would dare say people the world over celebrating Christmas is diverse.
(Okay, now I'm getting into my beefs with affirmative action being self-defeating, so I'll stop here.)
Hope that made sense and didn't come off wrong. Happy Hannukah to the Jews out there, Happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate it (okay, I typically associate some African-Americans with this- and I'm wondering- since no particular religion is necessarily associated with this observance- would Kwazaanians work as a point of reference?)- and Merry Christmas to all.
(I suppose that's the other difference there too. While Christmas is primarily a Christian holiday, obviously more than just Christians celebrate it. It's funny that of all the religious holidays out there, I've only seen Christmas and Easter, both Christian holidays, widely adopted by people of all kinds of backgrounds. I can't think of many other holidays that would be true for...)

 

[Drtooth]

Arthur is a show that deals with that stuff anyway... I mean, they dealt with heavy subjects like Cancer and Aspergar's syndrome in a single season. They're all about teaching different topics, so why would a Christmas special be any different. To me it wasn't so much about Francine being Jewish... just the fact Muffy didn't know or seem to care, nor did she see that was just as to Francine as Christmas was to her. Somehow, I like that subplot better than the main story, actually.

 

[CensoredAlso]

but it's annoying to me when they do try to genericize it and act like it's all inclusive of multiple winter holidays, but in actuality it's still a Christmas special at the core.

That's the problem to me. I'd love a special that actually talks about all the different holidays. But often what we see is what's clearly supposed to be a Christmas special, but the creators being too afraid to call it that. And the other holidays barely get mentioned. Political correctness hasn't been a friend to tolerance.

 

[RedPiggy]

This isn't a bad episode, but it just kinda made me wonder ...

When Doc is teaching Sprocket all about various traditions, I get it's supposed to be educational, but there really seems to be little context. I don't get a feel for what DOC thinks. Did he have any warm holiday memories (warm, meaning fuzzy, not the temperature, LOL)? Did he ever have family over?

I realize we were never going to see Ms. Ardath or Ned, but I, as I type this, have started to conclude that a better plot would have been to have Doc invite the two of them over and teach Sprocket the meanings of THEIR holidays (they could certainly have different traditions, right?) and then have the final message be that no matter which party we pick, we can all try to get along during the holidays. It would fit better with the Fraggle scene in MFC, which has that kind of "well, we do this" and "well, we do this" and they both share a mutual moment together. Having Doc just sound like he's kinda giving a Powerpoint presentation to Sprocket takes away some of the personal issues that could just as easily have brought up.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Having Doc just sound like he's kinda giving a Powerpoint presentation to Sprocket takes away some of the personal issues that could just as easily have brought up.

LOL, that's so true, it was like that.

I got the impression they wanted to concentrate more on the Fraggle story, but obviously just had to have something of Doc, you know what I mean?

 

[RedPiggy]

LOL, yeah, but it's one of the few eps where I thought they could've thought a bit harder.

My scenario would have Ned celebrate Hannukah, Ms. Ardath celebrates, maybe Christmas, but perhaps with some tweaks to it ... and Doc tries to plan a party for both of them and the differences stress him out. Sprocket and Gobo have a moment (during or just after the freeze). Sprocket uses his new knowledge of the bells, and as it's a common element in many traditions, Doc uses the idea to bring everyone together. It would develop characterization, encourage more interaction between the different worlds, and leave Doc's plot seem less tacked on.

 

[CensoredAlso]

My scenario would have Ned celebrate Hannukah, Ms. Ardath celebrates, maybe Christmas, but perhaps with some tweaks to it ... and Doc tries to plan a party for both of them and the differences stress him out.

I think that would have been interesting, and actually something not even adult shows have done very well in the past. But Fraggle Rock was no ordinary show and I think they could have pulled something like that off.