Christmas on Television (The Praeger Television Collection) [Hardcover]

Diane Werts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0275983315 | ISBN-13: 978-0275983314

Christmas just isn't Christmas without Christmas on TV. Whether it's the made-for-television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, a M*A*S*H* Christmas in Korea, Kramer playing Santa on Seinfeld, or the annual holiday disaster on The Simpsons or South Park, television's many representations of this beloved holiday have become as essential a part of our holiday season as lights, gifts, or mistletoe. In this entertaining chronicle of television and the Christmas season, former Television Critics Association President Diane Werts weaves discussion of the many programs that have appeared during the holiday season throughout the years with interviews with writers, producers, and stars. Not only are readers given a chance to re-live their favorite holiday moments on TV, but also to gain illuminating cultural insights into the increasingly strong bond that unites these two American traditions.

Diane Werts's book is the first to cover the entire history of the depiction of Christmas on television, and includes a discussion of programs that celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the winter solstice. An introductory overview helps readers to understand the basis on which television's success with the holidays is based, and chronological chapters go on to consider the many different ways in which the season has been celebrated in variety shows, sitcoms, specials, and dramas of the past six decades.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Werts, a full-blown Christmas fanatic, covers most of the heights and depths of TV's love affair with holiday fare….[i]t's a yeoman effort."

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Aberdeen American News/The Bradenton Herald/The Dallas Morning News/Ventura Coun

"The line between obsession and expertise can be a fine one, but thanks to Werts' new book, Christmas on Television, the Newsday TV columnist has made it safely over to the expert side, with a detail-rich exploration of television's long love affair with Christmas….With commentary on everything from The Sopranos' Christmas episode _ remember the Big Mouth Billy Bass Meadow gave Tony? _ to South Park she's also kept faith with the Ghost of Christmas Present."

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Philadelphia Daily News/Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

"Newsday TV critic and friend Diane Werts is onto something with her new book, Christmas on Television, which explores the nakedly visceral emotions stirred by Christmas shows. She also looks back at how television began to acknowledge Christmas with specials in the 1960s and then followed with series episodes in the 1970s and after."

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Scripps Howard News Service/The Buffalo News

"It revisits classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas while, invaluably, offering a critical reading of themes in Christmas episodes from sitcoms to Westerns up to The O.C.'s 'Chrismukkah."

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TV Guide

"Bing Crosby and David Bowie sang duets in a 1977 Christmas show. Collie star Lassie may have outdone them for weirdness nearly 20 years earlier munching fake candy canes. Bony actors have donned the red suit with varying results, most series with more than 13 episodes in the can have cranked out a Christmas project, and the sensitive can rejoice in that both Kwanzaa and Hanukkah have had their time on the tube, with Hanukkah celebrants including an armadillo. Journalist Werts treats all this with the appropriate seriousness, covering early television, alternate holidays (Festivus for the rest of us!) and tips on how to create a holiday show. Particularly interesting are her comments on Christmas specials, ranging from family warmth, revered traditions, perverse Santas, miracles, social statements, dance numbers, cartoons, impressions of Dickens and lots and lots of people wishing they had never been born."

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Reference & Research Book News

"For those who think the best holiday shows were the ones they watched as a kid."

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The Kansas City Star

"[I]ndispensable for anyone--viewer, fan, or fanatic--who wants a complete catalogue of the medium's yuletide output over the past sixty years or so."

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Television Quarterly

Review

"Christmas on Television is the ultimate stocking-stuffer for anyone who loves television. Just about every TV series has celebrated the holidays in its own special way, giving us some of the most memorable, touching, and truly surreal moments in television history. In this book Diane Werts covers holiday celebrations from almost every show, from the obscure (Something So Right and Martial Law) to the cultish (The Man from UNCLE and Xena Warrior Princess), and from classics (I Love Lucy and Twilight Zone) to recent popular hits (The West Wing and Everybody Love Raymond). Her thorough, engaging, and surprisingly touching examination of yuletide television makes for fascinating reading that reveals the surprisingly deep and emotional connection that exists between viewers and the television characters they invite into their homes--especially during the holidays."

(

Lee Goldberg, Television writer and producer, author of Successful Television Writing

)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (December 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275983315
• ISBN-13: 978-0275983314
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #610,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for the ages!!!, December 6, 2005

By 

Keith Marder (Manhattan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas on Television (The Praeger Television Collection) (Hardcover)

This is a book that will be fun for both the casual television fan and the television historian. I found it informative and entertaining. There are no two stronger cultural icons in America than Christmas and television and the author did an extraordinary job weaving the two together.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT MEMORIES THIS BRINGS BACK!, February 23, 2006

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Christmas on Television (The Praeger Television Collection) (Hardcover)

The first thing that struck me about Christmas on Television is that there was another person out there who has as much fondness for old holiday episodes of TV shows as I do. Each year I find myself watching Christmas episodes of TV shows that I do not even watch regularly. This wonderful book from Praeger Publishers and written by Diane Werts is the Holy Grail for fans of holiday themed TV. I don't know if she mentions every Christmas episode of every TV show but I bet she comes pretty darn close. Werts begins with a look at early shows such as Ozzie & Harriet and Father Knows Best, and early specials like the 1953 Liberace Holiday show where he is joined on the set by members of his family...which would become a common theme in many future specials.

Rather than just go chronologically through the years Werts takes a different tack, instead looking at these shows through the many different themes that were used over and over through the years such as shopping, decorating, feasting, being away from, or coming home for the holidays. Werts sites an unending supply of examples for the various themes such as the Partridge Family bus breaking down in a ghost town on Christmas Eve in a 1971 show or Tim Taylor being stuck in an airport during a storm in a 1995 holiday episode of Home Improvement. The theme of a working Christmas was explored in a 1970 Mary Tyler Moore show when Mary finds herself alone in the newsroom until the rest of the cast show up to bring the Christmas party to her.

One of my favorite themes is the one where Santa is proven to be real. In a 1964 Christmas episode of Bewitched, Samantha takes a little boy (played by Billy Mumy) all the way to the North Pole to prove to him that Santa is real. The same year also gave us the Flintsones show where Fred helped out an ailing Santa by delivering gifts but forgets his own family's presents. The desire for an old fashioned Christmas and lamenting commercialization has been a common theme from the days of A Charlie Brown Christmas right through the 2003 Christmas episode of Bernie Mac. And Dickens' A Christmas Carol has played out numerous times over the decades on shows like The Odd Couple, Sanford & Son, and The Simpsons. Thank God for TV land who runs blocks of these old Christmas shows every year!

Of course what would Christmas on TV be without mentioning the great, and regrettably now missing variety shows. Bob Hope did his first Christmas show on NBC in 1950 and continued for over forty years. His most famous shows were those he spent entertaining our armed forces throughout the Korean, Viet Nam, and first Gulf Wars. His 1970 and 1971 specials from Viet Nam are still ranked among Neilsen's Top 30 shows of all-time. Besides Bob there were so many other great variety shows...who can forget the annual Bing Crosby and Andy Williams shows, or even the Muppets. Werts also takes a look at the great animated shows like Frosty the Snowman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer. While many classic Christmas episodes are forgotten and variety shows are no more, the classic animated specials never get old or lose their luster.

Werts' book is filled with a comprehensive bibliography and index making it easy to find your favorite old Christmas episode. There is also a short, but enjoyable photo section. Truly a fantastic book! My highest recommendation!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pop culture scholarship at its distinguished best, August 29, 2006

By 

Lee Hartsfeld (Central Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christmas on Television (The Praeger Television Collection) (Hardcover)

Diane Werts' "Christmas on Television" is astonishingly well written, remarkably thorough, and utterly invaluable as a basis for future scholarship in this area. Every paragraph reads like the progeny of intense and loving research, yet the text flows and entertains in the manner of a first-rate episode of, say, "M*A*S*H." If the average pop culture survey were a tenth as good as this, mass-media scholarship would be sitting pretty. Such is hardly the case, but maybe if we're especially good, Santa will bring us more works of this quality.