Cynical Cinema

Paramount Home Entertainment is in the Christmas spirit. A little early, if you ask me. But they didn’t ask me. They just went ahead and released the Holiday Treats DVD today, October 7th. It’s billed as “8 heartwarming TV classics”, and it actually delivers. For although I have not yet become imbued with the Christmas spirit, and I will likely hold off on that until about December 22nd, these TV episodes stand on their own. I had just turned on the I Love Lucy episode to take a quick gander at the DVD, and I was joined by my nine-year-old stepson. And he forced me to sit there, through eight episodes of Christmas cheer. And, with the exception of the Frasier episode, he laughed the whole time.

There is an episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ricky put up a Christmas tree while reminiscing about the birth of their child. Then The Honeymooners, where Ralph sells his bowling ball to buy Alice her Christmas gift, only to find out she bought him a bag for his bowling ball. The episode of Andy Griffith where they hold their Christmas celebration in the jailhouse. The Brady Bunch episode where Flo has laryngitis. A particularly funny episode of Taxi where Louie puts up his own mother in a poker game with his brother. The Family Ties episode where Alex is visited by the ghosts from A Christmas Carol. Then a truly heartwarming episode of Frasier and a silly episode of Wings that involves Fay throwing her late husband’s ashes out of a plane in a dustbuster.

I could have done without the Family Ties and Wings, but six out of eight isn’t bad. I would suggest saving the Holiday Treats DVD for Christmas, but it’s a gift that could well be opened before December 25th.

In season seven of Wings, out today September 9th from Paramount Home Entertainment, Lowell is still the funniest character. However, Lowell is not around very long in season seven. In fact, this was Thomas Haden Church’s last season on Wings, as he left to pursue fame and fortune in the short-lived series Ned And Stacey. THC finally hit it big nine years later in Sideways with Paul Giamatti, and now he stars in Spiderman movies. When he left, in the third episode of the seventh season, joining the witness relocation program after witnessing a murder, there was precious little reason left to watch.

Oh, the fat guy who played Roy was still hilarious, the woman who played Casey was still hot, but after that there wasn’t much happening on this show. Joe and Brian (Tim Daly and Steven Weber) were that stereotypical brother duo that we’ve seen on every sitcom in the world, done much better on Everybody Loves Raymond. Fay is great, but she’s barely in it. Helen is…not as hot as I remember. Then again, it was the early 90s, big hair was the thing, and I was a kid full of hormones when I thought she was the best looking woman alive. She’s still attractive, but Casey holds up better over time. Tim Daly went on to bigger…well, at least better things, when he appeared as Christopher’s AA sponsor on The Sopranos. Crystal Bernard has done a few scant theatre productions since Wings, Steven Weber has done some crappy TV movies, David Schramm has disappeared off the face of the earth, Brian Haley as well, and Amy Yasbeck has virtually disappeared, despite the promise shown by her portrayal of a frazzled mom in the Problem Child movies.

And Tony Shaloub has done much better work of late than he did on Wings as Antonio. For a truly great Shaloub performance, check him out as a shark of a lawyer in last week’s release of The Man Who Wasn’t There, the Coen Brothers’ forgotten gem. For a truly great TV show, check out…something that isn’t Wings.