It seems I always miss all of the televised holiday specials when they come around on TV now that I’m an adult and while I realize that they’re all available on DVD/VHS allowing me to view them whenever I please, I can’t get over the idea that doing so is somehow “cheating.”
As a kid the eager anticipation of specials like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving hitting the airwaves was as close as I ever came to experiencing what a heroin addict goes through. The Charlie Brown specials alone were can-not-miss-for-any-reason-short-of-my-premature-death events even after having seen them over a dozen times. Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t and I realize it’s somewhat weird and perhaps a border-line psychosis, but I loved watching the annual holiday specials and I was crushed if I missed one.
Don’t even get me started on the It’s A Wonderful Life viewing marathons I used to engage in back when everyone thought the copyrights had expired so you could find it playing 18 times in one day on a dozen different cable TV channels. Colorized, original black and white, in Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Pig Latin. Didn’t matter, I watched it. Repeatedly. Till I could recite every line from memory. I so wanted to be Jimmy Stewart.
As I got older, though, time sped up and Christmas day was arriving before I had time to realize that I had missed every single holiday special let alone have time to be upset about it and for the past couple of years I haven’t had a clue as to when said specials would be airing. This year the folks at MSN have come to my aid with their timely article titled Holiday TV: From Classic Tales to the Ho-Ho-Hokey. From the classics to some new tales (including a new Charlie Brown special), they’ve got them listed with dates and times.
Sweet!
And with the handy-dandy calendar function of my PDA I can even program reminders to plop my ass down in front of the TV and indulge myself is a little holiday nostalgia. All without “cheating” at it. Life is good.
Cool,I’ll have to check that out. I’m the same way it does feel like cheating. I can remember getting my jammies on, eating a bowl of ice cream and just giggling with delight when Charlie Brown bought the little tree! I think I love those specials best because it was a time of such excitement. Now Christmas is kinda a chore.
Oh Boy!! Did I raise a couple of softies or what? I must admit that it used to upset me when I had to leave the Tv to baste a turkey or start sweet potatoes and the Thanksgiving Day Parade was on!!!!
I watched the Thanksgiving special a few days ago and was saddened to see that they trimmed the end credits. originally, Snoopy and Woodstock could be seen eating a full dinner—including turkey. now, they cut right to the part with the pumpkin pie. I had always found Woodstock’s quasi-cannibalism funny in a twisted way… maybe they decided it was too disturbing for children…