The Santa Project: Life With Louie: A Christmas Surprise for Mrs. Stillman

In the early 90's, Fox Kids rolled out an animated series during the waning era of Saturday Morning Cartoons.  It was Life with Louie, and it was stupendous.  It featured misadventures loosely based on comedian Louie Anderson's childhood in the upper Midwest.  In real life, Anderson was raised in Minnesota.  In the series, Anderson's animated avatar's childhood moments took place in Wisconsin.  You know, the way the good lord intended. 

The pilot for the series was a holiday special entitled A Christmas Surprise for Mrs. Stillman.  As it happened in the series run, in the pilot, Anderson voiced his young self as well as his curmudgeonly father.  Their interplay was both hilarious and touching.  The pilot episode's ability to tap into the holiday season as well as the winter feel of the upper midwest is both dead-on and heartwarming.  

Anderson's glum voicing of his own childhood self and his father's grumpy squawk are really something.  Much like his thespian performance as Zach Galifiniakis' Costco-loving mother in the under-appreciated comic maelstrom that was Baskets, you forget Anderson is in there.  He embodied the performances in both series so richly, the fact it was Anderson becomes disposable.

Young Louie is growing up in his winter-wonderland homestead with his soft-spoken but understanding mom, his varied and adorable siblings, and of course, that hard-working, cranky but loveable ex-military pops. The animation is of the wonderful hand-drawn variety and makes the feel of the whole thing that much more quaint. 

The lesson here is community is family as a struggling neighbor feels the love of Louie's neighborhood around the holidays, in an episode that really and truly could have easily fit into television history as an annual view.  Gather the family around the holidays to watch this episode along with Charlie Brown, The Grinch, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. 

Well.  Maybe at least the Garfield Christmas Special and Ziggy's Gift anyway.

I taped Life with Louie's pilot the night it debuted because I had a feeling from the trailer it was going to be up my alley, and I wasn't wrong.  I kept that VHS tape around for years. Shit, I need to see if this is available on DVD.  Why haven't I gotten around to that yet?

What the hell's wrong with me?

Why you limpin'? You get hit in the ear with an iceball?

Enjoy what I feel is some of the most under-appreciated holiday television right here:

 

The Santa Project: Little Debbie's Christmas Tree Cakes

 I remember that it was late fall of 1985, and we lived in Waco, Texas.  On a grocery run the week of Thanksgiving, Ma brought home these goofy looking cakes.  

The now legendary Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes.  Looking at them, I didn't think they'd be much different than the basic Little Debbie baked treat.  After all, it was common knowledge among us Latchkey Kids that Little Debbie was the cost-cutting way of putting something in your lunch of the cake or cookie variety.  

 

 The Christmas Tree Cake, after decades of munching on them, has become a comfort food, and I've learned I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Observe: 

@thejonahbolona Anyone need to bum a tree? #christmastree #lildebbiecakes #relatable #comedy #christmastreecakes ♬ Burn - Usher

That's right.  Somehow you always feel a little better during the holidays with one of these seasonal treats. They've been around forever.  And Lord Willing, will continue to be.  Be advised however, that you'll be accountable for the few extra pounds they add to you by the new year.

The Santa Project: Batman, February 1973

I thought it’d be fun to ring in the holidays with a vintage Batman comic book. I mean what normal solid minded, completely stable genius individual wouldn’t? 

This particular issue, dated February 1973, actually covers Christmas Eve and New Years!  For a Batman comic, the plot is a little bit more convoluted and definitely more complex than your typical Denny O’Neill written (with Irv Novick art) story, and that’s pretty satisfying. 

It starts with a slickly cool Noirish opening. 

Check out O’Neill’s writing: 

"Somewhere, this bleak Christmas Eve, people are celebrating....singing and laughing and filling their nostrils with sweet scents of pine and punch...

But here, on a lonely hillside, there is no merriment...!  No, here there is only wind as sharp as a blade and endless swirls of cruel snow and the struggle of three desperate individuals to reach distant lights...

...and, a mile away, on the far side of the rise, a fourth figure breasts the storm, his garments stark against the whiteness, the face beneath his mask grim...

The Batman."

Look out, Cornell Woolrich....

We have a Christmas Eve intervention by the world‘s greatest detective, saving a family from murder by a conspiratorial asshole, and with the aid of a Christmas Eve star no less! Very touching indeed.

Then it swings into a second portion which deals with December 31st, where one of the individuals involved in the horror story opening is the spark plug that starts a narrative to drop nerve gas on the city of Gotham as the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. 

It goes without saying that this is done with very little gratuitous violence, but a whole lot of bat action and detective work, not just from our Caped Crusader, but also by Alfred the butler and the boy wonder, Robin.  Also, of course, it has Bruce Wayne’s alter ego saving the day. This was a fun read; pretty cool stuff, very snappy vintage fun. 

The Santa Project: 3 From the Recent Holiday Flick Selection

 Merv:

Merv is a rom-com starring Boardwalk Empire and Daredevil's Charlie Cox and Zooey Deschanel from Elf, The Happening, and TV's The New Girl.  The pair have decent enough chemistry and play a couple who have decided to break up, thus causing their dog, the titual Merv to slip into depression.  I'm sure you can see what that plot set-up is going to lead to, but there's some reasonable chuckles along the way. Cox is very winning, Deschanel is very good in an underwritten role, and Merv, played by Gus, would have probably been my favorite movie dog if not for the Oscar-worthy performance of Indy in this year's Good Boy. 

This all takes place around Christmas where the difficult struggles of a broken relationship are accentuated by the season.  Overall, it works well enough as a romantic story trying to fit iself into the guise of a holiday film. 

Oh. What. Fun.

Funny enough film, the cast is enjoyable and it’s a nice edgy holiday storyline. However, it runs out of gas in the third act in my opinion, it could’ve been approached better.  I would’ve liked to have seen better development with the delivery driver that Michelle Pfeiffer shares a hotel room with, after running from her family. Nice work by Jason Schwarzman and Chloe Grace Moritz here, and a not too shabby turn by Denis Leary, playing against type. 

A nice touch is a scene where in order to piss off her neighbors, Michelle Pfeiffer’s character sets up and inflates Christmas blow-up yard decorations. As she’s doing so, she sits there with an evil grin, crouched down as the red light of one of the inflatables encircles her, making  her look like a demon. Especially with those angled eyebrows. Nice touch by director Michael Showalter.

Christmas Eve in Miller's Point

This film is highly regarded by many, and I don't begrudge those folks their thoughts and opinions.  But I was not sure I was feeling it.  Nothing wrong with the performances or direction. The music design is terrific stuff.  I'm not sure I felt moved like I would like to be by a holiday film.  Production-wise, you could put this movie on in the background and it would serve the purpose of a digital yule log. It is visually Christmas incarnate in spades, and for that production design it deserves a major kudos. 

Many critics despised Caddyshack for it being less a movie and more a string of sketches.  Many of those same folks have lined up to praise Miller's for being pretty much the same thing.  It's a series of events and interactions with no real through line tying it together, and no resolution to the events that had arisen through the course of the film.  It felt like neither a comedy nor drama as I didn't laugh, and I didn't feel compelled by much that these folks were faced with, by and large. 

No diss meant here for those who loved this movie,  because it's definitely different from many recent holiday films, and you can't begrudge the filmmakers for taking a shot at doing something off the beaten path.  I wasn't disconnected enough to stop watching it; however, as I was interested to the degree where I wished to see what would happen, despite most of these characters being not entirely likeable. 

I just didn't find any of that out. 

Out of commission

Due to the monstrosities in my life that are called recurring sinus problems, the return of epilepsy, and the sudden onset of chronic nonstop headaches, (which is something I've never dealt with before) I have been laid up for much of the last month, particularly during Thanksgiving. During the stretch, I have felt no desire to write, no inspiration, and no energy at all. It’s been a struggle just a walk through my day. I try to apply the sensibilities of a lyric from the band Hawks and Doves, “Stop looking for a way out, try looking for a way through” so with the help and love and strength from Frani and her family, some inspirational empathy from Aidan, and the assistance of my neurologist, ENT, and my shrink, forward I shall go.

 This string of concurrent illnesses basically caused me to cut the Samhain project short, completely miss out on the gobble project, and has me basically delaying the Santa project. I hope to at least partially remedy this for anyone who gives a shit, over the next week by writing up some pieces. 

I’ll engage with Some things I've already watched, fond memories, classic holiday works of the past, and how about a change of pace with some Christmas espionage? 

 I hope to reinvigorate my blog here a little bit for those who care, and have read it, and return it back to where it was before I was beset with these belligerent health issues . I hope you join me and I hope I can at least bring back some of that holiday warmth that I gave myself, and possibly you readers in the past, with some quality entries in this blog during the current season. 

What’s left of it anyway. 

Samhain Project 5: Riding the Bullet

                                        
                                         

It's November 1st.  Or Samhain.  Today is the day where the membrane between the living and the dead is supposedly at its thinnest.  I've picked a film where that's an obvious plot point. 

Anyone who's in the know knows.  What?   Never mind.   Mike Flanagan has the reputation of being the king of the King adapters at the moment.  At one time however, Mick Garris wore that crown, and for good reason.  Whether on the big screen (Sleepwalkers), the small screen (The Stand) or independent cinema (Desperation), he did a hell of a job adapting Steve's work.  

One of the lesser known projects he did, Riding the Bullet, (and carrying big admiration from story source King, Bullet was the world's first mass market e-book), is a damn fine independent film.  This was released almost direct to DVD nearly two decades ago. 

It's Halloween eve, 1969, and our lead, Alan, played by a guy who's probably not quite deeply skilled enough to handle the role, Jonathan Jackson (for some reason, I always thought Jonathan Tucker would have been a real nice choice here) has just had his girlfriend give him the "playing the field" speech.  He's decided suicide may be a good idea.  This leads to a fracas between Alan, his girl, and his friends which may be relieved by the sudden arrival of tickets to see John Lennon.  That is until Alan finds out mom had a stroke.  Crushed by the news, Alan has to leave his friends and the tickets to hitchhike from Orono, Maine to Lewiston to see her.   

That's where the story begins.  Hitchhiking brings awareness of many things.  The value of life, our time on Earth, and where do we go (or deserve to go) afterwards.  As weak as Jackson is, the supporting roles carry the day for him.  David Arquette, Barbara Hershey, Cliff Robertson and others pepper the steak with life and spice as the journey begins to seem surreal and dreamlike, with spots of well-established humor flaked in.  They appear just when you least expect them, though some may feel they miss the mark, in my eyes they really establish color in what could otherwise be an almost too bleak story. 

Riding the Bullet is a pretty damn good flick, not just for its horror elements, but the existential angles that make it more than just the simple ride it could have been.  Nice character arcs and supporting subplot pop-ups that are more than they seem, make this one to pay attention to and be savored. 

Samhain Project 5: The Young Ones: Nasty

"Excuse me, do you dig graves?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're all right."

It was sometime in 1984.  I was only about 12 or so the first time I encountered BBC's The Young Ones.  As I watched on MTV, it was a sitcom about British angry college youth, living in their dorm (or flat) and shouting at each other.  But like many of my contemporaries, I loved it.  It aired from my perspective anyways, Sunday Nights, right after Monty Python's Flying Circus, and before another British piece of television, which escapes me at the moment.  And then 120 Minutes.  

I loved the show so much that I eventually passed it on to Aidan decades later. The memories of it were so strong for the two of us, that it led to amazing text conversations like this one.

Anyways, I watched every episode, but the one that really stuck with me was Season 2's Nasty.  It wasn't intended as a Halloween special, as it aired originally in May, but it certainly fits the aesthetic.  From the opening credit's Horror styled graphics to its vampire-related plot. See, the 4 young protagonists have got a video, (Yes, they've got a VIDEO!) that is being used on loan from Harry the Bastard.  Sadly, none of these fuckers know how to work a VCR. 

They're trying to watch a video nasty of course.  For those not in the know, a "video nasty" is a banned videotape in the UK, a case of horrendous censorship pushed upon Britain by the British Film Commission.  Some titles took decades to be freed up.  The whole thing was bollocks.  Anyways, do they get the VCR to work?

It doesn't matter.  A vampire shows up, the boys run, and the first time I saw the episode, it was my first taste of The Damned.  And of course, they perform Nasty, one of their more memorable tracks.  And, natch, it's a song about video nasties.  Perfect.  I fell in love with the band at this point.  They looked bizarre, they were loud, their music was extremely varied, and unlike many of their contemporaries, they could play. 

As a 12 year old, I overthought the shit out of everything.  And as far as things I overthought, The Young Ones was no different.  First of all, they were edgy as fuck.  Way more than any of the sitcoms I was watching that were produced stateside.  Angry British youth in the era of Margaret Thatcher?  Should one be surprised?  But every once in a while I'd see a flicker.  Being an inquisitive young lad, I recorded this episode, found the flicker and guess what?

It was a still image of an outdoor spigot.  Pretty Benign.

But part of me thought that something sinister may be going on, because it didn't seem to make any fucking sense.  Was this some sort of weird attempt at a subliminal imprint?  Who knows, but it weirded me out.  Not enough to stop watching the show, of course.  It was too funny to do that.  If I was going to keep listening to AC/DC despite Night Prowler's presence on Highway to Hell, why interrupt this?

Years later, I'm still throwing my Young Ones DVD in for that 80's flashback.  And I miss the shit out of Rik Mayall despite his lack of American appearances,  

With MTV shuttering this week, it's an end of an era, one that actually ended a long time ago when the channel stopped being Music Television.  But when I remember back to my earliest days of watching cable's musical stalwart, The Young Ones is a healthy chunk of it.