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.

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing yet another old-time, classic show from the 60s. While some of these shows are painfully dated and seem more stupid than quaint, My Three Sons is not among them. This is a TV series about which I had very little knowledge. I have been a Fred MacMurray fan for a long time. Swing High, Swing Low with Carole Lombard. The Caine Mutiny, The Trail of Lonesome Pine, and of course the magnificent Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck. I’ve followed MacMurray’s career through dozens of movies, some lousy, some great, and one all-time classic. And I never knew he did television. At all. Apparently, he starred in My Three Sons. For twelve years. And I never knew it existed.

But I am awfully glad now that I do. This show, amazingly, was hilarious. And I say amazingly because I assume that any sitcom from the 50s or 60s that isn’t named I Love Lucy or The Hooneymooners must be fairly lousy. Because it isn’t a cultural icon and I don’t see re-runs of it all over the place. But My Three Sons is actually very, very good. And Fred MacMurray is excellent! His comedic timing is terrific, he manages to convey an Atticus Finch-type wisdom, and the dynamic between him and the three boys is remarkable. Also great is William Frawley, who plays the boys’ grandfather Bub. A remarkable show that has either become completely forgotten or has somehow managed to slip past me my entire life, My Three Sons is well worth picking up. Paramount Home Entertainment releases Season One September 30th.