The Warner Archive strikes again with another exclusive manufacture-on-demand DVD set which makes a perfect gift for the classic TV fan in your family. Being a classic TV fan myself, I know I would have loved to find it in my Christmas stocking.
This release, the Classic TV Christmas Collection, has a selection of 10 holiday or gift themed episodes from the Warner Bros. TV archive, which of course also includes titles from MGM-TV and Lorimar archive. There are 11 if you count Eight is Enough as two episodes.
Eight is Enough, which is on Disc 2, is actually where I started with this set. “Yes Nicholas, There Is A Santa Claus” is an episode from the show’s second season, and is possibly one of the most memorable episodes of the series. In it, a crotchety old man steals the Bradfords’ Christmas gifts, while Tommy isn’t really feeling the holiday spirit as it is the first Christmas after the passing of his mother. When I first saw this episode, I thought the subject matter was sweet; several years later, after losing a parent myself, I found this episode means even more. Eight is Enough itself is a little ridiculous at times – I don’t think any child could possibly be as naive as youngest son Nicholas – but it’s really interesting to me, especially as this holiday episode aired only a week after I was born.
Seeing this also reaffirms to me how I’d really like to see Eight is Enough in season DVD sets already. The show is very much of its time; it looks very 1970’s, but I really, really like it and am glad this ended up on the collection. If you watch, keep an eye out for 1970’s Spider-Man himself, Nicholas Hammond, as well as “Grandpa Walton” Will Geer in guest roles.
I’m assuming the Eight is Enough episode is made up of a syndicated cut, as it originally aired as a 2-hour special and this is very clearly made up of two individual parts.
Another highlight on this set is an episode of Alice where she, Tommy, Mel, Flo, and Vera take a semi truck to Colorado and get stuck in the snow. The best part of the episode, to me, is how dated the humor is – a whole subplot is centered around the use of a CB radio. Is this how the kids of 30 years from now are going to look at Twitter? Definitely fun. Alice is a show I have not seen much of but would like to see more. Sadly, this, too, looks like a syndicated cut – there’s a freeze frame during the closing credits featuring Old School’s Pat Cranshaw that does not appear in the episode that’s on this set.
I also really liked the CHiPs selection, “Christmas Watch,” and it made me wish for more season sets of the show. Now that I actually live in the Los Angeles area, it’s fun to see familiar landmarks as they looked 30 years ago; but moreso, I had forgotten how such a relatively simple premise about two cops, which is a very serious profession, could be kind of fun. Larry Wilcox’s 70’s hair kind of scares me, but hey. CHiPs’ Sgt. Getraer is played by Robert Pine, father to Star Trek’s Chris Pine, and it’s fun to notice the similarities. Star Trek fans should also keep an eye out for a pre-Trek Michael Dorn.
Perfect Strangers has Balki inviting the hated boss Mr. Gorpley to their Christmas party. The characters are played a bit over the top and the show doesn’t seem to have the same feel I saw in the Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Warner Bros. put out a few years back. Larry and Balki, however, remain great, and it’s fun to see Jo-Marie Payton-France as Harriette Winslow before she went off to do Family Matters (although shouldn’t she be with her family instead of a co-worker’s Christmas party? What would Carl, Laura, and disappearing Judy think of this?)
The concept of the set’s Mama’s Family selection is, as per usual for the series, absurdly funny, and that, too, makes me wish for more seasons of the show on DVD. (Sorry if I sound like a broken record there). It is, to my knowledge, the first episode to be released on DVD in the Iola and Bubba years, and it plays like a stage play, involving the cooking of a gift goose.
Episodes of Suddenly Susan and Veronica’s Closet are on this set, but I can’t bring myself to watch those again, even for a DVD review. Sorry.
A Christmas episode of Dr. Kildare is on the first disc, and it’s the oldest selection in this set. I’ve never seen the show, but I like seeing how it is staged and how different a series of almost 50 years ago was executed.
I had also never seen The Courtship of Eddie’s Father before. Honestly, this episode has very little to do with Christmas but instead is about a gift medallion that is passed from person to person, gifted and re-gifted. Jodie Foster guest stars. The show comes from a simpler time, with no one batting an eye about a boy that sleeps in bed with his father or the fact that they have an Asian housekeeper who defers to them as if she is a servant. This show aired around 1970 and I would think that TV execs would have known better. Viewers were probably alarmed by the very bad ADR on the exterior scenes, the fact that their apartment seems to have no windows, and the fact that if you didn’t know that the theme song was about the kid’s father, you’d hear some pretty homoerotic tones. That said, it’s still great to see The Incredible Hulk’s Bill Bixby, and I loved seeing a series I’d never seen before.
Finally, Welcome Back, Kotter is a holiday episode, but it’s mostly just holiday moments wrapped around a clip show. Not the strongest selection, but I still like that this set has some very diverse selections. The video quality on this episode isn’t too good; I think that might have more to do with the original material than the quality of the DVD itself.
There are some holiday classics – also produced by Warner Bros. – that didn’t make the cut on this set, and I would imagine it is because this collection is made up of episodes that are NOT currently on DVD. So, things like Lois & Clark’s “Season’s Greedings,” The O.C.’s Chrismukkah episode, or The Dukes of Hazzard’s “Great Santa Claus Chase” are all absent. But this is still a fantastic collection providing many hours of entertainment.
The Classic TV Christmas Collection is available exclusively from the Warner Archive, and I think it officially is my favorite release from the Archive so far. I know I sound like an advertisement when I push these things, and I don’t mean to; I just really want this program to succeed so that they explore releasing even more rare TV on DVD.
