Least favorite Christmas specials/episodes?

N

Noelle.

New member
In light of the holiday season being upon us (and not wishing to start yet another "Christmas special cliches" thread), thought I'd start this one instead:

What're your *least* favorite Christmas specials/episodes?

Mine:

- Didn't care much for Futurama's "Santa's a terrorist/Christmas-in-the-future-is-weird" episode, much...

- "A Flintstone Family Christmas" was OK, but didn't care much for the idea that Fred and Wilma (as grandparents, meaning they must be up there in years) would opt to adopt some homeless kid... not to sound cruel or anything. (That and that chronologically, it's the "last" appearance by the Flintstone characters, barring another special set in the "Fred and Wilma as grandparents" twilight years of their lives...)

- That Simpsons Christmas episode where Bart ruins their gifts and the townspeople wind up taking away all the stuff in their house at the end of the episode.

Might come up with more later...

-B.
 
To be fair the writers did kinda take the idea of Christmas and turn it on its head, which takes some re-adjustment. The second one isn't as good as the first, but there was an easter egg for it on the DVD, which was sorta funny.



This one can't really hold a candle (no pun intended) to "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". I also belive the series was past its very best by that season as the episode had an almost anti-ending to it. Some of the succeeding ones haven't really interested me either.

Other than that it's hard to think of a particularly bad show. There's a couple of corny ones that work Christmas/Santa into the story somehow (Sonic Christmas Blast anyone?) but even then they're not truly memorable for the wrong reasons.
 
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica] When it comes to naming bad holiday specials, one of the first to come to mind is usually always Christmas Comes to Pac-Land, which premiered on ABC on December 16, 1982. It was based on the Pac-Man animated series which was airing on ABC Saturday mornings at the time. For those of you who weren't around during the 80's or simply missed this special when it aired, I saw it, and yes, it was every bit as bad as you've heard.

Another noteworthy holiday stinker is Christmas with the Lollipop Dragon, which aired in syndication during the late 80's. I can't sum it up any better than a reviewer from Video Review magazine did, so I'll just reprint it here:

"It's Christmastime in the kingdom of Tum-Tum, and the Lollipop Dragon and his friends engage in a sleigh race against the nefarious Baron Badblood. About halfway through this special, I started routing for the Baron." The Lollipop Dragon, like many 80's cartoons, was based on a short-lived toy line (candy line, in this case). It looked like they had planned to do more Lollipop Dragon specials, but the apparent unpopularity of this one negated the desire to make any more. We were lucky and we didn't even know it.

Not a special per se, but the Xmas episode of The Flinstones (original series) was also a bit of a jaw-dropper. Not especially bad, but far more treacly than the average installment of the show; and at the center of it all, was a completely out-of-character Fred Flinstone. Can you imagine the original "frog-mouth" singing happy Christmas songs and helping Santa, down with a cold, to deliver presents to all the boys and girls on Xmas Eve, and not try to get rich quick from it? It was a truly weird viewing experience, because not once did Fred look even remotely like he was about to lose his temper. Even as a kid watching this, I would routinely ask, "Who is this goody-goody Pod Person, and what has he done with the real Fred Flinstone?"

And lest we forget that perennial holiday favorite: He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special. (Syndicated, November 1985).

It's an ill wind that blows through the chimney.... [/FONT]
 
I'm going to put a couple here that I can think of:

The Simpsons: Dude where's my Ranch?- This technically counts as a Christmas episode, and was featured on one of the Christmas DVD's. Another in a long line of Stupid event leads to stupider unrelated event, leads to the story's main plot halfway through act 2. I do like how it began, but a terrible episode all around.

Sonic's Christmas Blast- It starts decent, nothing memorable, but halfway through Sonic has to run a pointless obstical course (that apparently existed for hundreds of years, including a Hang Glider that looks like it was just put there). Seems like they had half a Christmas special, and decided to just fudge the rest of it. Though I admit, Robotnik and the 2 Dumb Bots were pretty entertaining. And the less said about the inconsistant, arbitrary blending of Sonic SatAm and AOSTH the better.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer- Did you hear that? Warner's just said "hey! We think we're Ranking Bass and can shove a storyline into a random Christmas song." Unfortunately, Rankin Bass can do a good job. The whole thing seemed arbitrary and pointless. Nothing is memorable, it's generic, and the new songs are horrendous. Ramndom Island song about Suing Santa? No thanks. No thanks.

Edit: Forgot one

Freezerburnt Christmas- I don;t even remember anything but it being a complete waste of great claymation. Bad cheaply produced songs, and just the same "Let's kidnap Santa" type plot without an interresting twist of any kind. Bleh.
 
All the Rankin/Bass stop motion creations and Frosty The Snowman; Karen (the blonde girl with the omnipresent earmuffs) is a wuss wimpy crybaby when she weeps when Frosty melts. If I had my way, I'd give her one BLISTERING 115 degree Fahrenheit spanky spanky so that she'd somethin' to truly cry 'bout.
 
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica] One Christmas special that comes to mind is NBC Productions' Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls, a prime-time animated special based on the Wacky Wallwalkers toys that aired only one time (December 11, 1983) on NBC. The special itself wasn't all that bad, but the very idea that someone would attempt a holiday special based on a line of novelty toys was pretty wacky in itself. What's next? Christmas with the Slinkys?

Anyway, in the special, the Wallwalkers were cast as space aliens (very chic for the post E.T. era) who come to Earth in search of the meaning of the star of Bethlehem (just like the aliens in Nelvana's A Cosmic Christmas). The most memorable thing about this special was it's voice cast, which included the legendary Daws Butler as Wacky (the groups' leader), Peter Cullen as Big Blue, Marvin Kaplan as Stickum, Howard Morris as Crazlylegs, Frank Welker as Bouncing Baby Boo, and the before-she-was-famous Tress MacNeille as Springette, the token female Wallwalker.

Another Xmas speical with a sci-fi twist that sticks in my craw would be The Aliens First Christmas, the 2nd of 2 Aliens half hour specials that premeired on the Disney Channel on December 21, 1991. The story focuses on Roger and Fran Peoples and their son Benny, who move to another planet after father Roger gets a job transfer to the far away planet of Zolognia (very believable). This 2nd special deals with the Peoples' attempts to bring Christmas to the alien planet. What could have been an interesting, innovative idea turns out to be a dreary, unimaginitive collection of tired Life of Riley-esque slapstick courtesy of the well meaning but inept Roger. A schtick that anyone who's watched television in the past 20 years could write in their sleep. And you don't feel like going to sleep after viewing this special, you ain't sleepin'! [/FONT]
 
Frosty Returns

John Goodman made a horrible Frosty, the songs sucked, the characters looked like blatant Peanuts ripoffs, and worst of all--Frosty was alive without his hat on. The hat is the whole reason he's alive in the first place, and he was able to stay alive without his hat.
 
I don't think I've ever seen Frosty's Winter Wonderland. Was that the recent one that was just made a couple years ago? Where Frosty runs around laughing like Patrick from Spongebob and the kids show it's okay to be yourself or whatever they did? If so, yeah, I hate that one too.
 
Rankin Bass probably wouldn't have touched it. Sure, Rudolph had adventures added to his animated special. But it was still the basic storyline as the song. This wasn't. The Grandma in the song left the house drunk on eggnog and having not taken her meds... only to be found dead the next morning. And that's really not the terrain you want for a family Xmas special. So you know what you do? You don't make it into one, simple as that.
 
One Christmas special that I enjoyed as a child but do not like very much now is The Smurfs' Christmas Special (The first one) or as I affectionately call it The Smurfs Conquer Satan!

The plot of the special is two children and their grandfather are en route to visit the Prince that the Smurfs, without his knowledge, occasionally help out. Long story short some cloaked stranger complete with villanious mustache plans to kidnap said children as revenge on their father "by the very nature of his goodness has ruined too many of my plans." Papa Smurfs rescues the children who think he is Santa and teaches them a song about "Goodness making the badness go away." The children are later kidnapped by the man who is obviously Satan. Soon the kids and Gargamel are captured by the cloaked stranger and he begins a ritual to send them home. We really tell he's evil because of the ominous tone of his incantation as he summons a ring of fire to surround them. When the Smurgs start singing their little song the stranger is furious and starts chanting "Fire! Fire! Rise much higher! Let no goodness pass this ring!" He warns the Smurfs that they don't know the power they are trifling with. Smurfs sing the song villian fades due to the overwhelming power of their goodness. This whole special is a trainwreck and I cannot look away when its on.
 
Actually, no. I'm talking about the Rankin-Bass sequel that ABC Family usually airs. But glad we're on the same page on the recent Frost special.
 
Super Duper Sumos - Santa's a Big Phat Sumo

Apart from the fact that Super Duper Sumos a really stupid show, the title gives away the "surprise" ending.

The Night B4 Christmas

I swear, I'm not racist. I just don't like rap.

A Flintstone Christmas

The idea of Fred taking over for Santa was recycled from Christmas Flintstone, and all the songs were recycled from some Christmas special I can't remember the name of.

The Christmas Raccoons

The ending makes no sense. Also, Cyril Sneer is a one-dimensional villain instead of the multi-dimensional antagonist we're more familar with.
 
Oh, I think I know the one you're talking about. I think I watched the first five minutes of it or so last Christmas, but quickly dismissed it as another bad Frosty sequel and changed the channel.

These people making the newer Frosty specials need to see the original and pay attention to what happens to Frosty when he doesn't have his hat on. Or, better yet, just leave Frosty alone and stop making Frosty specials.
 
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