Welcome to the holiday season. In my lifetime, Christmas has gone from something you might start celebrating the day after Thanksgiving to something you start just whenever you want to: in November or maybe even earlier. The reasoning I hear a lot is, “Thanksgiving is a day; Christmas is a season.” Technically, that’s true. But the Christmas season traditionally begins the day of Christmas. Right now, we find ourselves in the season of Advent, but in a mostly evangelical country, the old Christian calendar is not as well known.
That being said, I found myself kind of craving Christmas this year and even had some carols in my head back in the summer—“Christmas in July.” Perhaps I’ve looked forward to it more because of the stress and strain of this year. But, continuing in the spirit of the season of Christmas, I thought December would be a good time to look at some underrated and personal favorite Christmas specials from the boob tube. Some, I hope, may jog memories for you too, if you happen to be of or near my generation.
My father was fairly hip to VHS technology in the ‘80s. He loved recording us with those cameras you had to tarry on your shoulder or set on a tripod they were so heavy. He also recorded many Christmas classics from television for me, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I’ve never bought official DVDs of them because I love getting out the old VHS tapes from the late ‘80s-early ‘90s and watching them as I have my whole life. Even with the increasingly poor quality, you get to see a snapshot of time: when were then shorter commercial breaks with more creative ads that themselves are booming with nostalgia, the images of which are ingrained in me just as much as the freckles on my forearms.
I first wanted to dig into the criminally underrated A Garfield Christmas Special from 1987. The deadpan, sarcastic feline first appeared in comic strips in the mid-seventies from creator Jim Davis. Arguably, on the same level as the work of Charles Shulz, his strip (first called Jon, then Garfield) translated perfectly into animated cartoons, reaching their apotheosis in the Saturday morning TV series Garfield and Friends.
A Garfield Christmas Special, directed by Phil Roman and voiced by the legends Lorenzo Music and Pat Carroll (the original, ahem, only, Ursula from The Little Mermaid), was an autobiographical effort from Davis, who wrote the teleplay. The special also included songs sung by, among others, the late great Lou Rawls.
The special begins with a dream sequence where Jon presents Garfield with a machine that will give him any gift he dreams up. This rapture is quickly dissipated when Garfield wakes up to Jon announcing they’re heading back to his family farm to visit his parents and sibling for Christmas. The dialogue alone in the first scene is hysterical, even today.
“We’re gonna pack up our presents and go to the farm for Christmas. Won’t that be fun?” Jon asks, to which Garfield replies, “You’ve got a real sick sense of humor, Jon.” Jon counters, “The whole family’s going to be there. Dad, Mom, Grandma, and Doc Boy…” to which Garfield retorts, “…and Good Boy and Bad Boy and Oh Boy and Atta Boy and…”
When I see a lot of children’s television today, there may be some misplaced meanness (mostly at the expense of parental characters), but Garfield’s particular tone of ho-hummery, especially voiced by Music, is genuinely funny while still having a bite that children in the ‘80s apparently could handle but would apparently displease the so-called “parents” of today. While I never saw the “live action” Garfield movies, Bill Murray was, in a way, the perfect choice to voice our favorite orange cat. His early comic success depended on a harmless but cutting sarcasm that turned many off at first, but then became a trademark style that launched him into a successful second career as a serious dramatic actor, without ever really leaving behind his trademark persona—including a face with a sort of deep pessimism about the world but without cynicism. A great sarcastic cutting remark, if not cynical, can be joyous.
Garfield, Jon, and Odie do indeed pack up the roadster and this leads to our second musical number, probably the best in the special, “Can’t Wait ‘til Christmas,” which is one of many jaunty traveling numbers in animation, like the “On the Open Road” sequence in A Goofy Movie—tuneful and funny. Jon reminisces about how the family would celebrate. He sings, “Decorating the tree!” which Garfield describes as “Gardening.” Jon: “Wiring all of the lights!” Garfield: “Electrical contracting.” Garfield, of course, does not see the joy of the season, ending the song with, “Wake me when it’s through.”
Jon’s family, all voiced and animated perfectly, are charming. Doc Boy, the brother who apparently still lives at home, has a relatively small part, but shines in it. When he is asked to bless the food, he reluctantly complies, at first struggling to come up with anything, but when he gets going, his prayer becomes more florid and verbose, leaving him with a smack on the head as they begin to eat.
Typical Christmas shenanigans follow—reading a Christmas story, singing carols, opening presents. But the sweet stuff pretty much all involves the lovable Odie and Grandma. Odie spends the special making covert missions to the barn to collect random items for which purpose Garfield doesn’t yet know. Grandma, a feisty and sidesplitting woman who dares Jon to give her a punch in the stomach to show she’s as tough as ever, becomes Garfield’s idol. A particularly sweet scene, where she pets him while he sits in her lap, reveals how much she misses her deceased husband.
When Garfield follows Odie to find out what he’s up to in the barn, he stumbles upon Grandma and Grandpa’s love letters, which he gives to her as a gift. It turns out Odie was assembling a homemade back scratcher for Garfield, which touches him. The overriding message of the special is summed up by Garfield: “Christmas: it’s not the giving, it’s not the getting—it’s the loving,” followed by a beautiful encapsulation of his character: “There, I said it. Now, get outta here.”
In a way, I find this overall theme more prescient today than even the one proffered by A Charlie Brown Christmas. While I personally honor the religious significance of the holiday, Linus telling the Christmas story without context and having nothing apropos to do with the special itself, is sweet but unfulfilling. Garfield’s message, on the other hand, is timeless and a payoff to a special that is geared toward that line. Christmas indeed should be about the loving, and in a hurting world, that is a message we need now more than ever.
It may seem like I’m overselling it but trust me that A Garfield Christmas Special has equal parts laughter and sentiment, both used to astonishing effect. That really can’t be said about A Charlie Brown Christmas, which expresses sentimentality over sentiment. This is not to denigrate Charlie Brown. It’s still a classic, but I would rather have the cutting jibe of Garfield than the morose whining of Charlie any day.
Stay tuned as, over the next three weeks, we’ll look at some more underrated specials that you might be able to find on streaming services to supplement the Rankin-Bass stuff.
You can watch the entire special on Youtube!
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