Revisiting Episode 93: Christmas Specials

In a throwback to 2012, Michial Farmer moderates a conversation with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and special guest hosts Stephen Sandridge and Tim Rhodes (from the Night Cheese podcast) about the television Christmas special. Starting with adaptations of A Christmas Carol and moving through the weirdness of Rankin-Bass, the crossover crew digs into the ways that sentimentality gives way to irony in the course of television's brief Christmas history but never quite overcomes Charlie Brown. Among the television shows and other realities discussed are Mr. Magoo's Christmas, Rudoloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Alf's Christmas special, and A Claymation Christmas.