SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT: A MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS

As a kid, one of my favorite things about the days of school vacation leading up to Christmas was watching cartoons and sitcom reruns on weekday mornings.  The majority of them were Christmas-themed episodes, and not only was it a delicious privilege to watch these normally unavailable shows, reserved only for the occasional sick day or summer vacation, seeing that the TV programmers has specially selected to air Christmas episodes always gave me the feeling that the holiday was truly everywhere; pervasive in the best sense of the word.

This is how I first saw A Muppet Family Christmas, being rerun on some random channel one Christmas Eve morning.  I stumbled upon it while channel surfing and was amazed that up until then I’d never seen this special. My sister and I loved the Muppets growing up: we religiously watched Muppet Babies on Saturday morning and rented The Muppets Take Manhattan on a steady rotation.  And yet somehow this greatest of Muppets specials was never a part of our holiday traditions. It may be due to the general scarcity of the special, which remained difficult to find for years and even now only exists in an edited form (scenes were removed after the original broadcast due to song rights issues). 

Falling in love with the special after that first viewing, I eventually tracked down a used VHS copy, which is the same way I still watch it every Christmas Eve morning (it's now available on DVD, but as long as the VHS still works I figure why fix what ain’t broke?  Besides, VHS cassettes have a big nostalgia factor for me).

Any Muppets fan or child of the 80s should adore A Muppet Family Christmas because it brings together the Muppets, Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street. It even features a brief cameo by Jim Henson himself, not long before he passed away.  Not only is it dripping in Christmas spirit, it’s the ultimate tribute to Henson and his beloved characters.  There’s such a thrill in watching the Swedish Chef plot to cook Big Bird, or Kermit travelling to Fraggle Rock (via an entrance in the farmhouse basement).  The Muppet Babies even make a very brief appearance on a projector screen (their scene/musical number is one of the ones that was sadly cut).  This TV special is truly special, not just because of the Christmas theme but also the sense of worlds (in the form of separate TV shows) overlapping.  Not since the Jetsons met the Flinstones have I gotten such a thrill from seeing different characters interact.

The storyline is incredibly simple: all of the aforementioned Muppet characters gather together on Christmas Eve at Fozzie Bear’s mother’s farmhouse.  A blizzard hits, causing Miss Piggy's arrival to be delayed and Kermit to worry.

There are several running jokes and plotlines that have become Christmas lore for me and an entire generation.  There’s an icy patch at the front door that, despite the constant warnings, everyone slips on.  Fozzie’s mother is forced to think of increasingly creative places for her endless flow of guests to sleep (including the bathtub and eventually hanging on hooks on the wall—much to Gonzo’s delight).  There are musical numbers throughout, and the special ends with an amazing Christmas carol medley, composed of just about every Christmas song you can imagine and sung by the assembled cast, a huge crowd of childhood favorites all crammed into one room.  It really feels like a captured moment in time, like someone’s home movie, and even though I watch it year after year, it’s like a special, one-time event each time.

Sadly this year we lost actor Gerard Parkes, who played Doc in Fraggle Rock and, other than Henson’s cameo, is the sole human in the special.  He starts out as the curmudgeon who has rented the farmhouse for some peace and quiet, only to see it invaded by a steady stream of weirdos.  But of course he comes around, won over by the Muppets’ charm, and ends up first dressed first as a footman accompanying Miss Piggy’s sleigh during her dramatic entrance and then as Santa Claus himself.  Parkes’ death will make this year’s viewing rather bittersweet.

If I could chose one TV world to spend Christmas in, it would have to be that snow-bound farmhouse.  Sure, it’s crowded and a bit chaotic, but also incredibly cozy and the love and sense of surrogate family feels so genuine and powerful.  Plus, those Muppets really know how to carol!

Merry Christmas to All—and watch out for that icy patch!