And now, this month's special feature: Christmas With Dave Foley. We've got about a dozen holiday things to talk about (no, really!), so let's get started, shall we?
Newsradio's first Christmas episode came during their first full season, and it's a nice twist on the old Christmas tropes. Messages of kindness and generosity are spoken, but not actually observed by any of the characters. (Even Dave's big generous gesture seems hard for him -- he has to psyche himself up for it.) Jimmy James has dropped the ball on gift-giving, so he scrambles to make up time. Meanwhile, Bill has another stalker, roleplaying as a charity Santa. (I don't spend a lot of time looking for metaphor in this show, but one of the few times Andy Dick truly injured himself during a pratfall on this show, he slipped on money. True meaning of Christmas. Think about it, folks.)
Sidebar: I've always had this weirdly specific fan theory about Newsradio: they're all a family. (I know, I know, but hear me out.) Dave and Lisa play the parents, of course, even when they're not really a couple. They have to reign in their three unruly kids (oldest Joe, middle child Beth, and the youngest, and strangest, Matthew). The bickering couple next door (Bill and Catherine) are always popping in to borrow a cup of sugar and sow discord, while the family's eccentric, rich Uncle Jimmy constantly brings odd gifts and weird situations into the house.
Double Sidebar: Back in the day when I was playing with the idea of writing my own Newsradio fanfic, I wanted to write a fantasy episode wherein the cast all played out those roles, with canned laughter and all, but I couldn't find the right framework for it. Was it all a dream? Whose? And for a show with such a rich history of noncanon fantasy episodes, how could I ever do it justice?
That family dynamic is, like in the best episodes, front-and-center here. Dave and Lisa really have to step up and fix Jimmy's gift situation for Matthew's sake, while trying to keep their own sanity. They're so focused on reconciliation they can't even enjoy their Miatas. (Is that plural right? I feel like "Miata" should have one of those faux Greek/Latin plurals, like "Miati" or "Miatae.")
In fact, everyone else is so focused on Matthew's problem that Bill gets little attention from his coworkers in this episode. The whole show, he's ignored and laughed at, and his whole story plays out with nobody else around. (The AV Club reviewer called it "Snuffleupagus all over again.") At this point in the series, we knew little of Bill's early life, but I imagine holidays at the McNeal house weren't particularly happy, so for Bill this particular Christmas is just another example of "good times."
As an episode of Newsradio, I rate this 7/10. Everybody gets at least one big laugh, and it's a good example of how everyone plays off everyone else. I'm a nerd, but I'd rate this one a whole point higher if, at any point, anyone did any radio-related business. (There are plenty of places in Manhattan to buy a radio.)
As a Christmas show, I rate this 8/10. There's plenty of gifting and discussions of holiday heart. Bill even learns a moral lesson or two, which isn't always true for the show.
As a feature for Dave Foley, I rate this 6/10. He doesn't get to play a lot of different things here, but his default Dave Nelson is so thoroughly lived-in and nuanced, even this early in the series. Like Bob in The Bob Newhart Show, he's the center of the show, but not the most obviously funny person in it; his job is mostly to react. Later in the series, Dave would get to do bigger and broader things (and sometimes it went a leeeeeetle too far), but this is centered, stable Dave at his best.
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