December 25, 2021 • 24 mins
It's a Williams family Christmas in search of Romeo Muller's last film, 1992's Noël . https://youtu.be/BzKj4jYuG-I
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I live on one of those families now where anything
that I say could show up in a podcast. Hello,
Hello bro, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well
as some listeners may know. My producer here, Max Williams,
and myself are flesh and blood brothers. We go to
(00:21):
the same home for Christmas. We are there now, yes,
recording in a spare bedroom. So well, yeah, I'm saying
we're just doing something a little different. Today's something a
little fun. Um. There's a moment, uh in a recent
episode that we did, the episode about Romeo Mueller and
his ranking bass specials and so many Christmas specials over
(00:41):
the years, and his last one, the last one that
was produced in his lifetime, his last script. It was
a movie called Noel. We have Rick Coachman talk about
it for a second and I mentioned in brief passing
that it was my personal childhood favorite, but I didn't
feel like I did justice to just how fascinating I
(01:01):
think that film is watched it probably every year at
least while we were children. Like a lot of our
things in our childhood, and you know, being a year
and a half apart, I guess we're shared in that occasion.
So I've watched no Welfield a bunch of times that
I don't really remembering myself that well at all. Yeah, well,
I mean, you know, it's about a little Christmas ornament
(01:22):
who has very special conditions when he's being created. Of
all the Christmas tree ornaments turned out that year very
long ago, only one head of happiness. The glass blower
that's making him receives a memo. A child break runs
up to him with this little paper and runs away,
and he's blowing this ornament with his other hand. He
reads the memo and and the narrator, Charlton Heston, lets
(01:44):
you know that his granddaughter, his first granddaughter, has been
born or something, and he has a little tear of
joy that runs down the glass blowing stick and it
goes into the ornament. It was Noel. Is a good
fortune that that one marriage year became heartet of him,
And then down was this ornament who becomes known as
Noel with a certain happiness. Is Noel. And I have
(02:08):
seen it for one thing. It is directly about ephemera.
It's about this box of a dozen Christmas ornaments, or
a thing called a dozen. All of them together we're
something called a dozen in a thing called a box.
Where are we in the box? Thing stupid? In a
(02:29):
thing called an attic, and a thing called a home.
What's the hole? Thing? People? Things, books, and we're talking
about this? And a thing called a podcast. Uh that
that gets forgotten about, Noel. The rest of the dun
were put into a high, dusty, dark thing called etch,
where they became a thing called forgotten, And really the
(02:54):
whole house gets forgotten about. Noel never heard the terrible
final shown the lock bay as it shut off life
and warmed the joy from the old empty house, leaving
it with the ghosts of long ago Christmas is which
everyone you'd forgotten. And as the years crept slowly by,
(03:15):
the dozen slept on like the house, their bright colors
faded and chipped. Indeed, everything seemed over. But to maybe
a little bit of Christmas magic, these forgotten objects get
a chance at a second life. I say seemed over,
because when you have a happiness, nothing has ever completely gone.
(03:39):
So I went looking for a copy of it. Well
as he was short, okay, Noel, the christ boum Google.
I'm sure he only showed one or a few years
around ninety two, when it came out. There was a
Golden Book's adaptation during the television promotion leading up to
(04:02):
the premier and it looks like, yeah, there was a
vhsot that came out at the time. I went looking
on Amazon to see if you could buy it. Well,
n yeah, you can. You could get the VHS tape
used starting from eight nine nine eBay. Oh yeah, okay,
(04:30):
you can get this out of print VHS rare on
eBay forty nine plus shipping That sound like faby, I say, wow, okay,
I'm not really easy to find. I knew it was
on YouTube at the resolutions it's pretty low. It was
(04:52):
really gonna that's what we got. That's what we got.
That's what you get to do with. Unfortunately, oh we
we Well, we might have it on VHS. I was
so confident coming back home for the holidays that I
would be able to find and Dad's extensive VHS archives.
It was confident that I would be able to find
(05:14):
the you know, the well worn, well loved copy of
it that we played over and over. Dad. Do you
do you think that we have no l on VHS? No?
Do nothing we did before? Well, I don't know what
happened to it if we did, and so we Yeah,
we searched all over. Can I hear? And you looked
up there? Yeah, that's all d ds. Okay, the closet
to the closet, we shall go. You want to look
(05:36):
at the top and I'll look at the bottom. Sure,
Charlie Brown, Christmas can look for Noel. Yeah, that is
funny that, like halving, these things are now in my handwriting. Well,
here's children's Christmas videos. If we have it. It seems
like it's going to be on that. I swear that
tape is around. We looked extensively for it. I know
(05:59):
there was a tape, and I remember the tape. You're talking, Well,
I think that might all be for not And this
is all that Dad would have gotten rid of it,
though he didn't. He likes to say that he did,
but I know he didn't. It's just I'm not in
his nature. He never did. Like no help. I have
had over the years these super passionate disagreements with Dad
(06:23):
about that movie, which I think is is visionary and
he thinks is just terrible, just unbearably unbearably bad. Why
do you think that Dad dislikes this movie so much?
Repetitive that's very very repuditive, which children like. But you
didn't like that. It's a happiness, isn't this thing? He
(06:47):
says the same things over and over again. Yeah, I
know you. You were a very big fan of it.
I mean there's a you know ornament we're gonna call
it that you made it as a child and was
always on every Christmas tree. You're no wilds, they're on
a little trick looks just like I forgot that I
made a Noel. But what was cool as you just
made that was like as a big fan, you just
(07:09):
made that. You like founally supplies yourself and made it,
you know, like nobody sat you down and said let's
make it a well. I was just the most surprised
about the biggest defender of Noel, who was not you.
I mean, obviously you defended it. I did not. I
don't have any horses. First, I am the constant. But
Mom's feelings towards this movie. Do you remember the movie? Mom? Oh?
(07:33):
I know it. I know well. I liked it. He
got the happiness because the glassblowers found out that his
granddaughter was born. Believes his only daughter you've just given
birth to a baby. Good he was a grand at last.
And then there's the cranky like the angel, the Angel,
she's not angel, which she is? I am missed, Freezone,
(07:54):
the ice Maiden. If you please, I am a very
unusual friend. Gracious you have a different tree every year.
My name is Brutus. That knows you season's gratings. Who's that?
That's the train? J creet Hi, and then I'm January.
(08:16):
First they get put in the attic and he's really
traumatized at first, goodbye little fellow, goodbye he that happiness.
Of course, never Noel ever saw Brutus again. And then
he learns it gets to come out. Hi, I know it.
(08:44):
Do you know? It's the same writer that wrote Rudolph.
His name is Romeo and mother. He wrote Rudolph, He
wrote Frosty, he wrote you were out of Santa Claus.
He wrote Santa Claus Coming to Town. He wrote a
Little Drummer Boy. He wrote all of those Rank of
Bass movies. And this was his last movie while he
was still alive. This was his last script. That's a
good movie. We couldn't find the tape. I thought it'd
(09:09):
be one of those who's not here. It's not here.
We end up streaming on YouTube, watching it with mom
and dad. Unless it was a better happy No, it's funny.
It's also narrative by trying heston, I did not know that. Hi,
my name is Noel, and I have a happiness. It
was trying to who's breaking record. They're also creaky, yes, Noel,
(09:36):
but I had a happiness. How terribly middle clubs. Hi,
what a little bake? Baby's walking around? Don't shout? They
are called people thing down him a little ack. Oh,
honestly they are children. Then I don't know why they
know everything and he doesn't. And he was blown the
(09:56):
same r. It was a thing called the mother. Is
it from possible? They look at everything that's Christmas? I
love you, she loves me. What's that down there? Miss?
(10:17):
I can't see inside? Trusted as a toy stable, So
why would they have a toy table? Well, somehow that
little stable is the thing that night is hold Moms.
She was crying in the first act, before anything sad
had happened. Yes, yes, when things were there the first act. Anyway,
(10:43):
you guess your party cry if you want to. I
definitely think that I got my sensitivity from mother. Oh
me too. It's a running joke that it's like, oh,
this is gonna make me cry, And I know that's
not a high bar to clear. They've done. Oh wow,
I'm down. There was a new tree named Harrob, but
(11:08):
almost everything else was the same as the year before.
But it seemed but almost before it started, Christmas was
over again. Noel said goodbye to Harrow, to the attic,
thank you his prison once more. And in this way
year followed year, a bitter sweet, blended joy and attics.
(11:29):
After Harold, there was Bernard. After Bernard, there was Anthony
and Gregory and Irving Jock. Then one day, years later,
Noel heard something terror from down below. Oh what's the use?
Kids scattered all over the country with families of their own.
(11:50):
Let's not bother with a tree this year, all right, dear,
Oh no, no, Christmas. The animation is actually than I
remember you know what it actually it is. Yeah, it's
not Yogi Bearer, it's not. Perhaps it was the happiness working.
(12:10):
It's magic. I found these old ornaments in the attic.
These are just too chipped and old to use. Shipped
an old bear. Con Wait, we could use this little
fellow to balance out that branch in the back such
a mom thing to say to balance out this branch
(12:33):
of the bag, the little old red ornament. It's broken,
but someone old Noil was still aware. He was on
(12:53):
the floor. He knew that, and for the first time
he could look into the tiny stable. Why there's little
toy people think, and a little joy children think, think
all found He was like all the different continents. Now
(13:14):
I did not remember this part the continents, but now
that his own last body was no more, the happiness
that was really was released. So it was very nine.
It was like the world some spoke, different tongue, different
ways of life, something that never even heard of Christmas.
(13:46):
But this last list, last line is we if I
make just my case for it very succinctly. I mean,
I think that the message is really lovely in it,
I think, and now I guess I think about it
(14:07):
differently because I know a little bit about the backstory
of the person. I think maybe the thing that I
find that I found really interesting about it as a
kid is it was about these like you know, forgotten artifacts,
and you like the ephemorality. Yeah, I mean, I I
think that certainly drew me to it as a kid.
But you know, so I think that I think about
(14:27):
it now. I think about this guy who spent a career,
He spent three decades writing Christmas specials and this was
the last one that he did. And the message of
it is so like the material world is not going
to last. You as a material being are not gonna last.
(14:48):
And everyone's getting old, everyone's everything is changing, and like
the houses are falling apart in the ornaments are getting older, cracks,
and the kids are growing up and and getting married,
going off to war. And I mean it doesn't really
even though it's total really spoken to a kid, it
doesn't sugarcoat a lot of things. You never see Bruce
again when Bruce is dragged out, He's gone right there,
You're super straight with you. You know, there's you know,
(15:11):
they don't sort of dumb it down for for the
child listeners, but just the fact that every material thing
is going to go away, and the point of it
all the meaning of Christmas. I mean, you could take
it literally is the is the is the Christian meaning,
that's the baby Jesus. But I also think that, like
I think about the scene in the in the Manger
(15:33):
down there is a family come together, right and it's
all the message of all the baby, he got the
happiness because of the baby. A baby, right, it's the
message is community always a little weird, but but even
I mean so, and it's it's very steeped in the
aesthetic of the time that it was in. But it's like, oh,
everywhere in the skyscrapers of New York and then the
(15:54):
eaglues in the North Polem wherever like that, it doesn't
really matter, and it doesn't even isn't necessarily it transcends
like you know, one particular religious belief where it's like
it's just how worthwhile it is to just embrace the
people that you love. I think it's a beautiful message.
And other thoughts, other thoughts on no, well, I just
(16:18):
love no. Well. I liked it then the and we've
got a little hokey for me back then. But you know,
it's you know, it's like they it's kind of reminds
me a little those three students at the end, where
like they don't know how to end it, so they
just ending that was good. Yeah, I get how annoying
the whole repetition thing is. It is. I mean, I
(16:39):
think my complaints are fairly superficial. They're not. It's not
that it's a bad story, but I think you enjoyed
disliking it. Yeah, no, no, that's not will say the story.
The story is a plus. It is a good story.
Just get on you. I'm like, it's why are you
mad at that? It's wholesome? They're watching something wholesome. It's
got a good message. Why you like running down such
(17:02):
a thing that's toldsome? They like it. I used to
get mad at him because he was like, I mean,
it's a lot, a lot like the Power Arrangers were.
They're beating each other up. Noel was good. I get
the whole thing joke. But it's just into that ground.
It's like kind of six minutes into it, it's running
to the ground them. So like I think Christmas Specials,
(17:26):
by their very nature have a tendency to be kind
of saccharin and sort of like overly sappy and kind
of goofy. They all already some extent, but they're like
different for the different eras that they're in, right, Like
Rudolph is super campy, but it's in like an aesthetic
of your guy's time. It is because you were that
(17:47):
was when it was first coming out that maybe being
a nonconformist was okay, Yeah, that was new, that was
a new concept. I didn't even think about Rudolph is counting.
Oh yeah, because like him and Hermes were like outcast
because Herms didn't like to make toys and Rudolf had
that nose. Even Santa threw him out. It was terrible.
(18:10):
You weren't supposed to be different in the sixties. Hermes
was wanted to be a dentist, right, yeah, you weren't
supposed to be different in the sixties. And even at
the end, they said, even Santa realized he might have
been a little hard on Rudolph, a little hard on Rudolph.
He told Rudolph couldn't be he was main to him.
So you know what, Mom, I think that I got
(18:32):
my sensitivity from you. Well I know where you didn't
get it from? What Dad? You have anything that no
one will criticize you for two minutes. You have anything
he likes to say about Noel, anybody feeling you know what,
you don't go for it. This is this is your
chance to The writing is a little a little rough
(19:00):
in it, especially the repetition of the of the specific
you know, motifs in the writing, like the thing thing
you know, and and that as an adult watching uh,
children's programming with their kids, especially when there's a lot
of repetition of watching that same program at a certain
(19:22):
time of year, for me, that's really really hard. And
and that's why like Tom Stangon was better, like really
clever things that were on TV. It sound like Doug
better because they didn't make those concessions in their writing.
The other thing is that it's just kind of cloying.
(19:43):
Lee sweet it is, it is, It is awful sweet,
it's a little it's like just like you said, Sachran
and and so like it's not because the other ornaments
are me wait, wait, wait, wait, do you want my
opinion you're not thank you a second, okay. And I
(20:04):
think those superficial things like the message of Noel's fine
nothing world, the message of Noel He's uh, he's got
the no actually, I mean, do you want the brutal trip, Yeah,
there is that. I mean someone's gotta say he's got
a happy venus. It is like a little too much
(20:25):
of a pause. A lot of good times. I've heard
it over and all I can hear now I've never
heard that but now you're gonna send it like, wow,
I can't I can't not hear that terrible, So there
(20:47):
have you on to play it bad for you? And
then the last time, the last time, he says, when
he turns into a soul, when he's just the blowing orbit.
After the ornament breaks, he goes around. He's like, my
name is no Well, and I have of a no,
I am a happy penis. It's not what they mean.
(21:13):
Of course, that's not what they mean, but it doesn't matter.
Sometimes sometimes it's what you're saying. Just say yeah. It's
like you don't think they come so enjoyed it. It's
going down so bad now, no, no, no, I get
to edit it, mom, So I'm gonna make it. We're
gonna win in the end. Yeah, of course, but anything
(21:34):
else pops, anything else. She's like, da, No, I think
it's pretty. I think it's I like, I do appreciate
the fact that the permanent things are permanent and they
don't things don't magically come back to life and stuff
like that. I think that's actually good scriptwriting um and
good story planning. So I think as a Crystal special
(21:56):
what it lacked in execution, it's themes were good, it
just was really tough to watch for me with you
guys when you're a little like, what do you all
think the legacy of something like this should be? You know,
like this movie came out nine two, it was made
for tv UM. It did, I think have some kind
(22:17):
of home VHS distribution and maybe showed a couple more years.
But I mean it's got no legacy, particularly besides you
know a little bit on YouTube and archive dot org.
I can't I don't imagine it's every really gonna be
reissue to put on DVD. I mean, I don't know.
What do you think about that? Well, I think it's
a shame. I I don't believe that anything should be
left to the dusty shelf that's been worth something to anyone.
(22:41):
I mean, it's certainly a better quality than a lot
of stuff that's still a brand. I think was the
quick to video, wasn't it. This whole era was like
they were cranking out stuff at a pace that they
hadn't before. Are because there was no such thing as
(23:03):
on demand. That didn't exist yet. You had to buy
the physical media or or get it from the video.
I don't know who was playing it because I want
to say you only they only played it once a year,
but you know what, things weren't played once a year
in two like when we were kids, Like you watched
Peanuts Special at this time, and that's the only time
you got to see it. So I don't as many
(23:24):
times as we saw this, it had to have been recorded.
Why I appreciate you guys watched it with me, especially
honorable Mention and Dad for watching it and being and
being so thoughtful with your criticisms. And I look forward
to next year when we get to watch it again. Y'all.
There we go. I loved it. I loved it for
a minute of it, and I'm glad we had the
(23:44):
actual Noel out. I totally didn't put that together. Do
you all want to sing this song for Noel? What
we can leave my place? Merry Christmas? Williams? Is that's
(24:06):
going to the episode? Alright? Bro? Well thanks for watching
Noel with me? Of course, bro coaxing woman, Dad? Did
you're doing it? I don't think Mom needed much coaxing,
and honestly, I don't think that needs I think that
needs even less coaxing because he just wanted to say
(24:26):
complain about it. What are you doing tomorrow? I am
probably gonna presence with you, Okay, yeah, well I look
forward to that. Um, I guess this is coming out
tomorrow for so Merry Christmas. I hope you like what
I got you. Thank you. I would be like what
I got you too. Yeah, and Merry Christmas to anybody
(24:47):
who managed to listen to this. Merry Christmas, y'all, Chris
your fifteen commercial ads right now, we're gonna oh yeah,
here's We're gonna put fifteen ads at the end. Merry Christmas.
I live on one of those families now where anything
that I say could show up in a podcast. Hello,
Hello bro, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well
as some listeners may know. My producer here, Max Williams,
and myself are flesh and blood brothers. We go to
(00:21):
the same home for Christmas. We are there now, yes,
recording in a spare bedroom. So well, yeah, I'm saying
we're just doing something a little different. Today's something a
little fun. Um. There's a moment, uh in a recent
episode that we did, the episode about Romeo Mueller and
his ranking bass specials and so many Christmas specials over
(00:41):
the years, and his last one, the last one that
was produced in his lifetime, his last script. It was
a movie called Noel. We have Rick Coachman talk about
it for a second and I mentioned in brief passing
that it was my personal childhood favorite, but I didn't
feel like I did justice to just how fascinating I
(01:01):
think that film is watched it probably every year at
least while we were children. Like a lot of our
things in our childhood, and you know, being a year
and a half apart, I guess we're shared in that occasion.
So I've watched no Welfield a bunch of times that
I don't really remembering myself that well at all. Yeah, well,
I mean, you know, it's about a little Christmas ornament
(01:22):
who has very special conditions when he's being created. Of
all the Christmas tree ornaments turned out that year very
long ago, only one head of happiness. The glass blower
that's making him receives a memo. A child break runs
up to him with this little paper and runs away,
and he's blowing this ornament with his other hand. He
reads the memo and and the narrator, Charlton Heston, lets
(01:44):
you know that his granddaughter, his first granddaughter, has been
born or something, and he has a little tear of
joy that runs down the glass blowing stick and it
goes into the ornament. It was Noel. Is a good
fortune that that one marriage year became heartet of him,
And then down was this ornament who becomes known as
Noel with a certain happiness. Is Noel. And I have
(02:08):
seen it for one thing. It is directly about ephemera.
It's about this box of a dozen Christmas ornaments, or
a thing called a dozen. All of them together we're
something called a dozen in a thing called a box.
Where are we in the box? Thing stupid? In a
(02:29):
thing called an attic, and a thing called a home.
What's the hole? Thing? People? Things, books, and we're talking
about this? And a thing called a podcast. Uh that
that gets forgotten about, Noel. The rest of the dun
were put into a high, dusty, dark thing called etch,
where they became a thing called forgotten, And really the
(02:54):
whole house gets forgotten about. Noel never heard the terrible
final shown the lock bay as it shut off life
and warmed the joy from the old empty house, leaving
it with the ghosts of long ago Christmas is which
everyone you'd forgotten. And as the years crept slowly by,
(03:15):
the dozen slept on like the house, their bright colors
faded and chipped. Indeed, everything seemed over. But to maybe
a little bit of Christmas magic, these forgotten objects get
a chance at a second life. I say seemed over,
because when you have a happiness, nothing has ever completely gone.
(03:39):
So I went looking for a copy of it. Well
as he was short, okay, Noel, the christ boum Google.
I'm sure he only showed one or a few years
around ninety two, when it came out. There was a
Golden Book's adaptation during the television promotion leading up to
(04:02):
the premier and it looks like, yeah, there was a
vhsot that came out at the time. I went looking
on Amazon to see if you could buy it. Well,
n yeah, you can. You could get the VHS tape
used starting from eight nine nine eBay. Oh yeah, okay,
(04:30):
you can get this out of print VHS rare on
eBay forty nine plus shipping That sound like faby, I say, wow, okay,
I'm not really easy to find. I knew it was
on YouTube at the resolutions it's pretty low. It was
(04:52):
really gonna that's what we got. That's what we got.
That's what you get to do with. Unfortunately, oh we
we Well, we might have it on VHS. I was
so confident coming back home for the holidays that I
would be able to find and Dad's extensive VHS archives.
It was confident that I would be able to find
(05:14):
the you know, the well worn, well loved copy of
it that we played over and over. Dad. Do you
do you think that we have no l on VHS? No?
Do nothing we did before? Well, I don't know what
happened to it if we did, and so we Yeah,
we searched all over. Can I hear? And you looked
up there? Yeah, that's all d ds. Okay, the closet
to the closet, we shall go. You want to look
(05:36):
at the top and I'll look at the bottom. Sure,
Charlie Brown, Christmas can look for Noel. Yeah, that is
funny that, like halving, these things are now in my handwriting. Well,
here's children's Christmas videos. If we have it. It seems
like it's going to be on that. I swear that
tape is around. We looked extensively for it. I know
(05:59):
there was a tape, and I remember the tape. You're talking, Well,
I think that might all be for not And this
is all that Dad would have gotten rid of it,
though he didn't. He likes to say that he did,
but I know he didn't. It's just I'm not in
his nature. He never did. Like no help. I have
had over the years these super passionate disagreements with Dad
(06:23):
about that movie, which I think is is visionary and
he thinks is just terrible, just unbearably unbearably bad. Why
do you think that Dad dislikes this movie so much?
Repetitive that's very very repuditive, which children like. But you
didn't like that. It's a happiness, isn't this thing? He
(06:47):
says the same things over and over again. Yeah, I
know you. You were a very big fan of it.
I mean there's a you know ornament we're gonna call
it that you made it as a child and was
always on every Christmas tree. You're no wilds, they're on
a little trick looks just like I forgot that I
made a Noel. But what was cool as you just
made that was like as a big fan, you just
(07:09):
made that. You like founally supplies yourself and made it,
you know, like nobody sat you down and said let's
make it a well. I was just the most surprised
about the biggest defender of Noel, who was not you.
I mean, obviously you defended it. I did not. I
don't have any horses. First, I am the constant. But
Mom's feelings towards this movie. Do you remember the movie? Mom? Oh?
(07:33):
I know it. I know well. I liked it. He
got the happiness because the glassblowers found out that his
granddaughter was born. Believes his only daughter you've just given
birth to a baby. Good he was a grand at last.
And then there's the cranky like the angel, the Angel,
she's not angel, which she is? I am missed, Freezone,
(07:54):
the ice Maiden. If you please, I am a very
unusual friend. Gracious you have a different tree every year.
My name is Brutus. That knows you season's gratings. Who's that?
That's the train? J creet Hi, and then I'm January.
(08:16):
First they get put in the attic and he's really
traumatized at first, goodbye little fellow, goodbye he that happiness.
Of course, never Noel ever saw Brutus again. And then
he learns it gets to come out. Hi, I know it.
(08:44):
Do you know? It's the same writer that wrote Rudolph.
His name is Romeo and mother. He wrote Rudolph, He
wrote Frosty, he wrote you were out of Santa Claus.
He wrote Santa Claus Coming to Town. He wrote a
Little Drummer Boy. He wrote all of those Rank of
Bass movies. And this was his last movie while he
was still alive. This was his last script. That's a
good movie. We couldn't find the tape. I thought it'd
(09:09):
be one of those who's not here. It's not here.
We end up streaming on YouTube, watching it with mom
and dad. Unless it was a better happy No, it's funny.
It's also narrative by trying heston, I did not know that. Hi,
my name is Noel, and I have a happiness. It
was trying to who's breaking record. They're also creaky, yes, Noel,
(09:36):
but I had a happiness. How terribly middle clubs. Hi,
what a little bake? Baby's walking around? Don't shout? They
are called people thing down him a little ack. Oh,
honestly they are children. Then I don't know why they
know everything and he doesn't. And he was blown the
(09:56):
same r. It was a thing called the mother. Is
it from possible? They look at everything that's Christmas? I
love you, she loves me. What's that down there? Miss?
(10:17):
I can't see inside? Trusted as a toy stable, So
why would they have a toy table? Well, somehow that
little stable is the thing that night is hold Moms.
She was crying in the first act, before anything sad
had happened. Yes, yes, when things were there the first act. Anyway,
(10:43):
you guess your party cry if you want to. I
definitely think that I got my sensitivity from mother. Oh
me too. It's a running joke that it's like, oh,
this is gonna make me cry, And I know that's
not a high bar to clear. They've done. Oh wow,
I'm down. There was a new tree named Harrob, but
(11:08):
almost everything else was the same as the year before.
But it seemed but almost before it started, Christmas was
over again. Noel said goodbye to Harrow, to the attic,
thank you his prison once more. And in this way
year followed year, a bitter sweet, blended joy and attics.
(11:29):
After Harold, there was Bernard. After Bernard, there was Anthony
and Gregory and Irving Jock. Then one day, years later,
Noel heard something terror from down below. Oh what's the use?
Kids scattered all over the country with families of their own.
(11:50):
Let's not bother with a tree this year, all right, dear,
Oh no, no, Christmas. The animation is actually than I
remember you know what it actually it is. Yeah, it's
not Yogi Bearer, it's not. Perhaps it was the happiness working.
(12:10):
It's magic. I found these old ornaments in the attic.
These are just too chipped and old to use. Shipped
an old bear. Con Wait, we could use this little
fellow to balance out that branch in the back such
a mom thing to say to balance out this branch
(12:33):
of the bag, the little old red ornament. It's broken,
but someone old Noil was still aware. He was on
(12:53):
the floor. He knew that, and for the first time
he could look into the tiny stable. Why there's little
toy people think, and a little joy children think, think
all found He was like all the different continents. Now
(13:14):
I did not remember this part the continents, but now
that his own last body was no more, the happiness
that was really was released. So it was very nine.
It was like the world some spoke, different tongue, different
ways of life, something that never even heard of Christmas.
(13:46):
But this last list, last line is we if I
make just my case for it very succinctly. I mean,
I think that the message is really lovely in it,
I think, and now I guess I think about it
(14:07):
differently because I know a little bit about the backstory
of the person. I think maybe the thing that I
find that I found really interesting about it as a
kid is it was about these like you know, forgotten artifacts,
and you like the ephemorality. Yeah, I mean, I I
think that certainly drew me to it as a kid.
But you know, so I think that I think about
(14:27):
it now. I think about this guy who spent a career,
He spent three decades writing Christmas specials and this was
the last one that he did. And the message of
it is so like the material world is not going
to last. You as a material being are not gonna last.
(14:48):
And everyone's getting old, everyone's everything is changing, and like
the houses are falling apart in the ornaments are getting older, cracks,
and the kids are growing up and and getting married,
going off to war. And I mean it doesn't really
even though it's total really spoken to a kid, it
doesn't sugarcoat a lot of things. You never see Bruce
again when Bruce is dragged out, He's gone right there,
You're super straight with you. You know, there's you know,
(15:11):
they don't sort of dumb it down for for the
child listeners, but just the fact that every material thing
is going to go away, and the point of it
all the meaning of Christmas. I mean, you could take
it literally is the is the is the Christian meaning,
that's the baby Jesus. But I also think that, like
I think about the scene in the in the Manger
(15:33):
down there is a family come together, right and it's
all the message of all the baby, he got the
happiness because of the baby. A baby, right, it's the
message is community always a little weird, but but even
I mean so, and it's it's very steeped in the
aesthetic of the time that it was in. But it's like, oh,
everywhere in the skyscrapers of New York and then the
(15:54):
eaglues in the North Polem wherever like that, it doesn't
really matter, and it doesn't even isn't necessarily it transcends
like you know, one particular religious belief where it's like
it's just how worthwhile it is to just embrace the
people that you love. I think it's a beautiful message.
And other thoughts, other thoughts on no, well, I just
(16:18):
love no. Well. I liked it then the and we've
got a little hokey for me back then. But you know,
it's you know, it's like they it's kind of reminds
me a little those three students at the end, where
like they don't know how to end it, so they
just ending that was good. Yeah, I get how annoying
the whole repetition thing is. It is. I mean, I
(16:39):
think my complaints are fairly superficial. They're not. It's not
that it's a bad story, but I think you enjoyed
disliking it. Yeah, no, no, that's not will say the story.
The story is a plus. It is a good story.
Just get on you. I'm like, it's why are you
mad at that? It's wholesome? They're watching something wholesome. It's
got a good message. Why you like running down such
(17:02):
a thing that's toldsome? They like it. I used to
get mad at him because he was like, I mean,
it's a lot, a lot like the Power Arrangers were.
They're beating each other up. Noel was good. I get
the whole thing joke. But it's just into that ground.
It's like kind of six minutes into it, it's running
to the ground them. So like I think Christmas Specials,
(17:26):
by their very nature have a tendency to be kind
of saccharin and sort of like overly sappy and kind
of goofy. They all already some extent, but they're like
different for the different eras that they're in, right, Like
Rudolph is super campy, but it's in like an aesthetic
of your guy's time. It is because you were that
(17:47):
was when it was first coming out that maybe being
a nonconformist was okay, Yeah, that was new, that was
a new concept. I didn't even think about Rudolph is counting.
Oh yeah, because like him and Hermes were like outcast
because Herms didn't like to make toys and Rudolf had
that nose. Even Santa threw him out. It was terrible.
(18:10):
You weren't supposed to be different in the sixties. Hermes
was wanted to be a dentist, right, yeah, you weren't
supposed to be different in the sixties. And even at
the end, they said, even Santa realized he might have
been a little hard on Rudolph, a little hard on Rudolph.
He told Rudolph couldn't be he was main to him.
So you know what, Mom, I think that I got
(18:32):
my sensitivity from you. Well I know where you didn't
get it from? What Dad? You have anything that no
one will criticize you for two minutes. You have anything
he likes to say about Noel, anybody feeling you know what,
you don't go for it. This is this is your
chance to The writing is a little a little rough
(19:00):
in it, especially the repetition of the of the specific
you know, motifs in the writing, like the thing thing
you know, and and that as an adult watching uh,
children's programming with their kids, especially when there's a lot
of repetition of watching that same program at a certain
(19:22):
time of year, for me, that's really really hard. And
and that's why like Tom Stangon was better, like really
clever things that were on TV. It sound like Doug
better because they didn't make those concessions in their writing.
The other thing is that it's just kind of cloying.
(19:43):
Lee sweet it is, it is, It is awful sweet,
it's a little it's like just like you said, Sachran
and and so like it's not because the other ornaments
are me wait, wait, wait, wait, do you want my
opinion you're not thank you a second, okay. And I
(20:04):
think those superficial things like the message of Noel's fine
nothing world, the message of Noel He's uh, he's got
the no actually, I mean, do you want the brutal trip, Yeah,
there is that. I mean someone's gotta say he's got
a happy venus. It is like a little too much
(20:25):
of a pause. A lot of good times. I've heard
it over and all I can hear now I've never
heard that but now you're gonna send it like, wow,
I can't I can't not hear that terrible, So there
(20:47):
have you on to play it bad for you? And
then the last time, the last time, he says, when
he turns into a soul, when he's just the blowing orbit.
After the ornament breaks, he goes around. He's like, my
name is no Well, and I have of a no,
I am a happy penis. It's not what they mean.
(21:13):
Of course, that's not what they mean, but it doesn't matter.
Sometimes sometimes it's what you're saying. Just say yeah. It's
like you don't think they come so enjoyed it. It's
going down so bad now, no, no, no, I get
to edit it, mom, So I'm gonna make it. We're
gonna win in the end. Yeah, of course, but anything
(21:34):
else pops, anything else. She's like, da, No, I think
it's pretty. I think it's I like, I do appreciate
the fact that the permanent things are permanent and they
don't things don't magically come back to life and stuff
like that. I think that's actually good scriptwriting um and
good story planning. So I think as a Crystal special
(21:56):
what it lacked in execution, it's themes were good, it
just was really tough to watch for me with you
guys when you're a little like, what do you all
think the legacy of something like this should be? You know,
like this movie came out nine two, it was made
for tv UM. It did, I think have some kind
(22:17):
of home VHS distribution and maybe showed a couple more years.
But I mean it's got no legacy, particularly besides you
know a little bit on YouTube and archive dot org.
I can't I don't imagine it's every really gonna be
reissue to put on DVD. I mean, I don't know.
What do you think about that? Well, I think it's
a shame. I I don't believe that anything should be
left to the dusty shelf that's been worth something to anyone.
(22:41):
I mean, it's certainly a better quality than a lot
of stuff that's still a brand. I think was the
quick to video, wasn't it. This whole era was like
they were cranking out stuff at a pace that they
hadn't before. Are because there was no such thing as
(23:03):
on demand. That didn't exist yet. You had to buy
the physical media or or get it from the video.
I don't know who was playing it because I want
to say you only they only played it once a year,
but you know what, things weren't played once a year
in two like when we were kids, Like you watched
Peanuts Special at this time, and that's the only time
you got to see it. So I don't as many
(23:24):
times as we saw this, it had to have been recorded.
Why I appreciate you guys watched it with me, especially
honorable Mention and Dad for watching it and being and
being so thoughtful with your criticisms. And I look forward
to next year when we get to watch it again. Y'all.
There we go. I loved it. I loved it for
a minute of it, and I'm glad we had the
(23:44):
actual Noel out. I totally didn't put that together. Do
you all want to sing this song for Noel? What
we can leave my place? Merry Christmas? Williams? Is that's
(24:06):
going to the episode? Alright? Bro? Well thanks for watching
Noel with me? Of course, bro coaxing woman, Dad? Did
you're doing it? I don't think Mom needed much coaxing,
and honestly, I don't think that needs I think that
needs even less coaxing because he just wanted to say
(24:26):
complain about it. What are you doing tomorrow? I am
probably gonna presence with you, Okay, yeah, well I look
forward to that. Um, I guess this is coming out
tomorrow for so Merry Christmas. I hope you like what
I got you. Thank you. I would be like what
I got you too. Yeah, and Merry Christmas to anybody
(24:47):
who managed to listen to this. Merry Christmas, y'all, Chris
your fifteen commercial ads right now, we're gonna oh yeah,
here's We're gonna put fifteen ads at the end. Merry Christmas.
Ephemeral News
Host
Alex Williams
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