FRIDAY
DECEMBER 19
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CW, 8:00 p.m. ET

“And razzleberry dressing!” This 1962 animated Christmas special predated even A Charlie Brown Christmas by several years, and I love that it’s getting the full-respect treatment tonight. CW is presenting this wonderful musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic in a 90-minute time slot, which means, even with commercials, it will be presented relatively intact. Gather the family and enjoy, because the songs, by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, are delightful – and when I was a kid and watched this special for the first time when I nine years old, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come haunted me long after the special was over. (And my family didn’t have a color set, so that particular ghost was even scarier in black and white.) Jim Backus stars, of course, as the voice of the vision-impaired Mr. Magoo, who’s shown here starring as Scrooge in a local theater production of A Christmas Carol.

 
  
 
 

ABC Family, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 2003 movie appears to be becoming a holiday tradition of sorts, receiving lots of airings since Thanksgiving. And why not? Will Ferrell is goofily giddy as the overgrown elf who leaves the North Pole to encounter life of a less sheltered sort, and Bob Newhart, as his elf boss, is a delight. So, by the way, is Zooey Deschanel, who showed off her lovely singing voice here long before she began releasing CDs as half of She and Him. And did you know that the voice of Leon the Snowman was provided by Leon Redbone? I didn’t, until just now.

 
  
 
 

Starz!, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 2014 Muppet comedy introduces a Kermit the Frog doppelganger – Constantine, “The World’s Most Dangerous Frog,” who schemes to have Kermit thrown into a Russian prison so he can take Kermit’s place and commit crimes while on tour with the other Muppets. Tina Fey is particularly outrageous as a Russian prison guard – but luckily, Vladimir Putin did not hack the Disney studio to protest his country’s negative cinematic image. Other human co-stars: Ricky Gervais and Modern Family star Ty Burrell.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Talk about high society: This 1956 movie musical is the romantic comedy made by Grace Kelly after she had just become engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Here, she’s one point of a romantic triangle, the other points being crooners Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra plays the guy she intends to marry, and Crosby plays her ex-husband, who wants her back. Oh, and Louis Armstrong and his band are on hand throughout, making this even more valuable a movie musical.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 12:35 a.m. ET

SERIES FINALE: Last night, Stephen Colbert provided a very fitting farewell to his Colbert Report, gathering dozens of favorite guests on stage for a group sing-along before flying off to immortality on Santa’s sleigh. Tonight, Craig Ferguson ends his 10-year reign as the host of The Late Late Show, CBS’s follow-up to Late Show with David Letterman – and does it by featuring, as his final guest, Letterman’s one-time late-night rival, Jay Leno. Doubtlessly, there’s a message there – and there’s also likely to be a message, or at least an homage, in the show’s closing minutes. For a decade, Ferguson has been increasingly loose and impromptu with his opening monologues and his interviews with guests – but expect him to go out as Colbert did, with an involved and ambitious final sequence. These guys not only have am attuned sense of when to exit – but how.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 11:35 p.m. ET

A long-standing TV tradition ends tonight. With David Letterman set to step down next year, long before Christmas 2015, tonight’s annual Christmas show is the last time Darlene Love will be on hand to sing “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home”). It’s also the last time Jay Thomas, who has been on the show most years to toss a football at the giant meatball atop Letterman’s Christmas tree, is likely to share his story of driving around stoned with the Lone Ranger in his back seat.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.