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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-12-24 (Tuesday)
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2024 07:30:04 -0800
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On 12/25/2024 9:00 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> 
>> Dear Santa (Paramount+) New Christmas movie from the Farrelly brothers
>> about a preteen boy who writes a letter to Santa.  Except the boy's
>> dyslexic and misspells Santa, Satan.  Next thing you know, Jack Black
>> shows up offering to grant 3 wishes in exchange for the boy's soul.
>> Black quickly catches on the boy thinks he Santa and decides to play
>> along in order to get the boy's soul.  Overall, I liked this movie, but
>> there were some spoilerish implications with the end of the movie that
>> were just completely glossed over, and I'm not just talking about Satan
>> coming to Earth to trick children into selling their souls for eternal
>> damnation.  I was honestly shocked with the ending, but maybe I was just
>> overthinking it.
> 
> It was on Showtime a few weeks ago. I made it 20 minutes.
> 

I recorded it off of Showtime when it aired, but I watched the version 
from Paramount+. The Paramount+ version had much better picture and 
sound.  I'm trying to force myself into the habit of checking the 
streaming services because they will often have superior quality over 
cable.  Which one of the reasons I am extra annoyed that HBOMax 
downgraded their free service to take away the superior sound and audio 
they used to offer.


>> Carol for Another Christmas (TCM) 1964 made for TV version of A
>> Christmas Carol written by Rod Serling.  SPOILERS for a 1964 TV movie!
> 
> I posted a review of this a year ago. It's somewhat interesting.
> 

What I found interesting (and often do) is just how much of what Serling 
was talking about then is still applicable today.


>> This is set in modern America with a bigoted isolationist businessman
>> being visited by three ghosts to teach him the error of his ways.  The
>> movie has a very antiwar message and Serling was definitely not messing
>> around with this movie.  He has the ghost of Christmas (war?) past
>> taking the scrooge character to visit Hiroshima and visit children with
>> their faces melted off from the atom bomb.  And the ghost of Christmas
>> (war?) future takes him to a post-apocalyptic America.  Where Peter
>> Sellers sits as a judge who has fully embraced the selfish bigoted
>> attitudes that lead to the nuclear war, and Sellers preaches those
>> attitudes to an eager audience.  One guy shows up and tries to preach
>> peace and tolerance and they hand a little boy a gun and the boy shoots
>> him. How have I never heard of this before now?!?
> 
> Apparently it aired just one time, not uncommon in the days of
> fully-sponsored programs.

TCM didn't air an introduction, but I found one online that mentioned 
that.  Seeing as how the intro and outro already exist, would it kill 
TCM to just air them before and after the movie?

TCM Introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuMR8WeU1X8

TCM Outro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei7htt7hmVo