It’s that time of the year: holiday visits and visitors, annual Top 10 TV lists, and, tonight on NPR’s Fresh Air, my end-of-2015 debriefing with Terry Gross. Lists, links and holiday greetings follow…

2015

Dec

A CHRISTMAS STORY MARATHON By David Bianculli

Tonight’s Best Bets will be all Christmas, all the time – or, at least, all devoted to Christmas specials and special presentations on this evening’s TV schedules. Start, at 7 p.m. ET on TNT, with the now-annual tradition of a 24-hour nonstop marathon showing of 1983’s A Christmas Story, about little Ralphie’s quest for a Red Ryder B.B. gun. This marathon also runs, beginning at 8 p.m. ET, on sister network TBS, so for a solid day, tonight and tomorrow, you can watc

2015

Dec

MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

Televised in 1962, this was TV’s first animated Christmas special – and it’s still a personal favorite, thanks to a surprising fidelity to the original Charles Dickens story, an even more surprising aptness to Jim Backus’ Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge, and some delightful original songs by Jule Style and Bob Merrill. (Two years later, they’d write the music for Broadway’s Funny Girl.) Play your cards right, and change your channels at the right time to the ri

2015

Dec

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE By David Bianculli

Another TV holiday movie tradition, but this one, these days, is repeated only a few times each season, on various networks in the NBC Universal family. Tonight, on NBC, the 1946 Frank Capra film, starring James Stewart, gets a well-deserved, perfectly placed, prime-time showcase on Christmas Eve.

2015

Dec

TV’S FUNNIEST ANIMATED STARS: A PALEY CENTER SPECIAL By David Bianculli

Interviews with animators are interspersed with samples from their work, in this overview looking at the 40 most iconic animated stars… as ranked, at least, by the Paley Center. And though it's not strictly a holiday special, it's shown on Christmas Eve... and if it doesn't include mention of the Peanuts and Mr. Magoo Christmas specials, then I say humbug to it.

2015

Dec

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli

After watching 1962’s Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol on the CW, flip to ABC at 9 p.m. ET, to enjoy a repeat showing of 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, the other must-see Christmas holiday animated special. Let Linus explain the meaning of Christmas, and you can pretty much leave it at that.

2015

Dec

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON By David Bianculli

There’s a new Doctor Who special arriving on Christmas Day – and in the meantime, BBC America is filling its schedule, all this week, with a marathon “Doctor Who Takeover.” I mention it in progress because, though BBC America also did this last year, I find myself, and my TV, gravitating that way again. These old episodes from the modern era, working their way through the various Doctors, hold up very well to repeated viewings: As I write this, I’m watching an old e

2015

Dec

I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL By David Bianculli

CBS is repeating a treat, or trick, from last year, and once again going into its vaults to present a different pair of vintage I Love Lucy episodes – colorized for the occasion. I detest the idea of colorizing old classics merely to make them palatable for a new, monochrome-averse generation, but I also show one of the episodes presented tonight, the 1952 classic in which Lucille Ball’s Lucy prepares to pitch Vitameatavegamin in a live TV commercial, in my TV History college class e

2015

Dec

SUPERBAD By David Bianculli

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote this script about high-school seniors planning a blowout, booze-filled party back when they were teenagers, then had it produced by Judd Apatow in 2007, launching a whole new posse of young stars. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera play high school buddies named, notably, Seth and Evan, and co-stars include Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Emma Stone (pictured with Hill)… and Seth Rogen. Greg Mottola directs, very deftly.

2015

Dec

HAPPY HOLIDAYS WITH BING AND FRANK By David Bianculli

This was a special episode of The Frank Sinatra Show in 1957 – special not only because it was a holiday show teaming Sinatra with Bing Crosby to sing an hour of Christmas carols and other numbers, but because Sinatra had the foresight to film it in color, where the rest of his TV show output was recorded in black and white. So expect TCM to give this the full-color treatment, without having to resort to colorization – and also expect, at the end, Bing Crosby to sing “White Chr

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