"Hey, whose leg do you gotta gagoosh to get an Amaretto Disaronno around here?"

                                                -Vinnie, Family Guy, "Christmas Guy"

Tradition wraps itself around The Holidays like a thick, Irish cable-knit sweater: shopping, socializing, gifting, baking, travelling and visiting with family - those fams carefully curated, as well as those into which we are born. Some fams are just wackadoo and amusing enough to engage you into horridly uncomfortable, severely awkward card games. (Note: Cards Against Humanity NOT rec for play with children, nieces, nephews, parents or grandarents. Equal opp embarrassment. Trust Moi.) Some fams are just conservative and deathly boring enough to engage catatonia. Either way, if you are a fellow Earthling, your Holiday traditions are, likely, equally eagerly and dreadfully anticipated. All are carefully navigated. We at JennyPop understand, and empathize with, both extremes of The Holidays pendulum. Ergo, similar to her Thanksgiving Episode Recs, JennyPop has curated a of fave holiday viewing, just for you: season and episodes numbers included (i.e. S1e1) for ease of searching.

Forget ye not FOX holiday animation! Even when some episodes aren't quite en point - debates run year-round throughout a community of online Comic Book Guys - Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons (Simpsons now only avail on Disney+ , Amazon or live network) holiday fare give some of us the warm fuzzies in an already cozy time of year. As I penned for my Thanksgiving TV list, holiday programming is a tasty, gluttonous treat for a viewership family comprised of non-adulting adult-toddlers - totally includes Moi - and ready to celebrate a year's end in the silly and simple joy of twisted family-humour.

All, new, FOX Animation Domination Christmas fare airs Sunday, December 13, 2020:

• The Simpsons:  "A Springfield Summer Christmas for Christmas" (S32e10) Springfield is mis-en-scène for a Hollywood production; and Principal Skinner finds love at the Holidays. 

 

• Family Guy: "The First No L" (S19e9) Lois has had enough making Christmas sans any help and takes a break this year, leaving the rest of the fam to save the season.

 

• Bob's Burgers: "Yachty or Nice" (S11e10) Bob is leery when his restaurant is hired to cater the Glencrest Yacht Club's annual, holiday boat parade; and, Louise sees herself as a boat owner.  

 

*Note: Because The Goldbergs serves up cheerful, Christmukkah joy each season: "Hanukkah on the Seas" (S8e7) airs Wednesday, December 2, 202020 at 8PST/EST.

Now, pour a glass of cab, pour out some spice tea, or craft a festive, adult libation and get to Holiday viewing! As with Thanksgiving TV and film recs,, JennyPop doesn't rank shows, just lists them; as not everyone might agree with a ranking. All are winners though, or they wouldn't be on the list. Season and episode designations (i.e., S1e1) are listed alongside, for easy-peasy searches. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Joyful Viewing to all!

 

 

Fave Christmas and Hanukkah TV Episodes!

Bob's Burgers

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" (3e9)

"Christmas in the Car" (S4e8)

"Nice-Capades" (S6e5)

"Last Gingerbread House on the Left" (S7e7)

"The Bleakening: Parts I and II" (S8e6/7)

Better Off Sled (S9e10)

"Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas" (S10e10)

"Yachty or Nice" (S11e10)

Family Guy

"A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" (S3e16)

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph" (S11e8)

"Christmas Guy" (S12e8)

"How the Griffin Stole Christmas" (S15e9)

"Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas" (S16e9)

"The First No L" (S19e9)

The Goldbergs

"A Christmas Story" (aka Super Hanukkah) (S3e10)

"Han Ukkah Solo" (S4e10)

"Yippee Ki Yay Melon Farmer" (S6e10)

"It's a Wonderful Life" (S7e10)

"Hanukkah on the Seas" (S8e7)

At Home with Amy Sedaris

"Holidays" (S1e7)

Stranger Things

"Holly, Jolly" (S1e3)

"A Stranger Things Christmas" (a ST x Peanuts stand-alone, animation short)

Modern Family

"Undeck the Halls"(S1e10)

"Express Christmas" (S3e10)

"The Old Man and the Tree" (S5e10)

"White Christmas" (S7e9)

"The Last Christmas" (S11e8)

The Big Bang Theory

"The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" (S2e11)

"The Maternal Congruence" (S3e11)

"The Santa Simulation" (S6e11)

"The Cooper Extraction" (S7e11)

"The Clean Room Infiltration" (S8e11)

The King of Queens

"Noel Cowards" (S1e11)

"Net Prophets" (S2e12)

"Better Camera" (S3e11)

"Mentalo Case" (S5e11)

"Santa Claustrophobia" (S6e11)

"Silent Mite" (S7e7)

"Baker's Doesn't" (S8e11)

30Rock

"Ludachristmas"(S2e9)

"Christmas Special"(S3e6)

"Secret Santa" (S4e8)

"Christmas Attack Zone"(S5e10)

Arrested Development

"Afternoon Delight" (S2e6)

The Simpsons  (a sampling, 18 eps avail) 

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (S1e1)

"Mr. Plow" (S4e9)

"Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" (S9e10)

"Grift of the Magi" (S11e9)

"Simpsons Christmas Stories"(S17e9)

"Holidays of Future Passed" (S23e9)

"White Christmas Blues" (S25e8)

"'Tis the 30th Season" (S30e10)

"Bobby, It's Cold Outside" (S31e10)

Seinfeld

"The Red Dot" (S3e12)

"The Race" (S6e10)

"The Strike" (aka Festivus) (S9e10)

Decorating Disney

Holiday Magic 

Northern Exposure

"Seoul Mates" (S3e10)

The O.C.

"The Best Chrismukkah Ever"(S1e13)

Scrubs

"My Own Personal Jesus" (S1e11)

King of the Hill

"The Unbearable Blindness of Laying" (S2e11)

"Pretty, Pretty Dresses" (S3e9)

"'Twas the Nut Before Christmas" (S5e8)

"Livin' onn Reds, Vitamin C and Propane" (S8e7)

The Office (U.S.)

"Christmas Party" (S2e10)

"Benihana Christmas" (S3e10)

"Moroccan Christmas" (S5e11)

"Secret Santa" (S6e13)

"Classy Christmas" (S7e11/12)

"Dwight Christmas" (S9e9)

Rugrats

"The Santa Experience" (S2e14)

"Chanukah" (S4e1)

"Babes in Toyland" (S9e3/4)

Mr. Bean

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean (S1e7)

 

Stand-alone Holiday Specials

A Stranger Things Christmas (ST x Peanuts mashup, aka Merry Christmas, Will Byers)

Keeping up Appearances

"A Very Merry Hyacinth"

Little House on the Prairie

"The Christmas They Never Forgot"

The Office (U.K.)

"Christmas Specials"

Wonderpets

"Save the Reindeer!"

Mr. Bean

"Merry Christmas Mr. Bean"

Any Stella Artois commercials

 

Fave Christmas and Hanukkah Films!

A Charlie Brown Christmas (duh!)

A Christmas Story

Elf

Switchmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Winnie the Pooh: Christmas of Giving

A Madea Christmas

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A Family Man

Love, Actually

The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

Santa and the Three Bears

A Muppet Christmas Carol

Black Adder's A Christmas Carol

Mickey's Christmas Carol

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

A Garfield Christmas

Lady Gaga and The Muppets' Holiday Spectacular

 

If I neglected anything, please let me know! I'm toujours happy to amend my lists!

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy Chanukah, Gledelig Jul, Froehliche Weihnachten, God Jul and Mele Kalikimaka to everyone!!

 

University professors. We love them, we loathe them: the personal stories, the idiosyncrasies, the elbow patches, the tenure, the old corduroys with rubber bands around the ankle, the power to crush souls and foster dreams, the tattered, Indiana Jones briefcases, the sit down bicycles with the tall orange flag. They have a cache about them, cushioned and propped up by years of extended study, education and a narrow, selective slice of exposure behind them. Oft so myopic in their scope, they can serve as one's personal guru, the know-all and be-all of Micronesian anthropology, nitrate film preservation or marine invertebrates; or, they can be the guy who has no idea who The Bluth Family is, who the Kia Hamsters are or the fact that the Haunted Mansion switches to a Nightmare Before Christmas overlay at Hallowe'en. Sad, really.

No worries for these citizens of the quad; they have the benefit of rarely, if ever, being told they're wrong. Similar to the Green Blazer of Augusta, university professors, even the lowly associate professors, are bequeathed the Cloak of Pomposity: a golden shroud of turgidity that protects the wearer from the slings and arrows of correction and opposing viewpoints. College offers great opportunity for intelligent, sharing discourse and confidence building that gives you a priceless carriage and posture of character that will serve you through life. It can also beat you over the head with a sock full of condescension and feelings of inadequacy, especially if you're a nervous and shy sixteen-year old doing her best just to find the right classrooms and fight all her instincts to hide in the library until graduation. Walt Disney said, "With every laugh, there should be a tear." Professors dole out both with great efficiency.

Be they wizards of political science, studio arts, cultural anthropolgy, graduate psychology, French architecture or, Heaven help you, English lit or Italian film theory, they can tell you the sky is plaid with a imperious certainty that leaves no room for debate and a strong desire to switch to STEM studies: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Sure, those can be some of the most brazen and haughty of all species of professor; but numbers and science don't lie, usually can't be fudged and don't take kindly to touchy-feely, social interpretation. If it is, then it is; if it ain't, then it ain't.

 

Don't mistake me, I love the college professor-as-animal. Dear Old Dad spent more than a few years teaching undergrad and graduate psychology at Chapman University, University of LaVerne and University of Miami: student teacher there, I believe. Note to all freshmen, he loathed you most of all. "Always with an excuse," he'd say. "Hey, Dr. G, I'm like, so tired 'cause of last night.", or, "I have midterms for all my classes this week. Could I maybe, like, take yours later?" Charmers one and all, each more brilliant than the last. As kind, supportive and helpful as he and his elbow patches were, and are, he was also rarely wrong, and still is. Proffer an opposing political view? He'll smile, pat me on the head and say, "Where did I go wrong?"

Case in point wherein not all professors are always correct. My husband, many of you know him as the Viking, endured a veritable bumper crop of the cocksure whilst pursuing both his B.A. in Radio, TV and Film and his M.F.A. in Film and Television Production. No Flashbacks was a strict tenet of one screenwriting professor, a fellow whom had had some success writing for Little House on the Prairie. "Contrived, bad writing," according to Dr. D, was the hallmark of the flashback sequence. Years later, it's still one of the silliest rules of media writing either of us have ever encountered. To date, it brings us regular joy and laughter as we watch countless films and television productions which generously employ flashbacks. Thank you, Dr. D, for years of recurring and evergreen, hearty chuckles.

One final thought: pondering going to your fave prof with an idea that will change the world? You have the next gene splicer, the next data scraper, the next drive-through cataract eraser? You might want to fund your venture privately and then apply for that patent yourself. Depending on the institution, products and inventions, including intellectual property, nurtured under the auspices of a university staff and resources, may very well become property of the school in question. How do you think universities end up with so many patents? (Check with your own family attorney. This is not legal advise and I am not an attorney. I do know a bunch of good lawyer and judge jokes, though.) In the words of Donald Trump, Trust Your Instincts. Want an example? I have one. Wanna see it? Here it goes.

Picture it. Orange County, California. 1988. A young, energetic, tow-headed undergrad approaches his Communications Law professor wit

h an idea that would time shift television. The idea? Pre-record to an external hard drive everything coming into a television; play TV off the hard drive and skip the commercials. The would-be adviser in question claimed succinctly and with a sureness only a uni prof could posses, "They would never let that happen." Today, They call it Tivo. Trust your instincts.

 

Notably Flashback-based Films

Amadeus

Interview with the Vampire

Hugo

The Hangover

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

My Last Five Girlfriends

Riding in Cars with Boys

Hannah and Her Sisters

Forrest Gump

Slumdog Millionaire

Titanic

Moulin Rouge!

127 Hours

 

Ditto for TV

Doctor Who

How I Met Your Mother

Lost

Once Upon a Time

Family Guy

Poirot

Highlander

 

Clearly, there are scads of others fine, and poor, examples: vintage as well as contemporary. Hit me back with your fave flashbacks!

 

Looking for more film and TV talk from Moi? From Cecil B. DeMille to Bob's Burgers, I dig it and love to write about it. Hop on the H-town Celluloid Express and head to JennyPop's Film and TV Review tab!