Christmas With Dave Foley #13: The Grand Finale

Dave's done a handful of other Christmas things over the years, most of which were too short to write whole blogposts about, so here's a roundup of all the ones I know about.

Waaaay back in 1996, the emotional heart of Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy took place at Christmas.

Sidebar: Remember how in Newsradio's second Christmas show, Dave and Lisa manage to visit his parents' house, but they can only stay a few minutes? It always reminded me of this scene.

In between full-length stories from the Prep and Landing elves, Wayne and Lanny had a shorter, special quest to fulfill in 2010's "Operation Secret Santa."

And just last month, Wayne and Lanny got another adventure, at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida, with a big projection/fireworks show, "Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!" It's pretty standard as far as these types of things go, with a melange of quotes from wintry and Christmas scenes from the best-loved things in the Disney canon. It has a nice framing story, as the elves have to rescue Santa from Oogie Boogie.

And even more recently, just two weeks ago today, Dave appeared at a Christmas cabaret, and read a new poem, playing off one of my favorite KITH skits (which I linked to earlier this month), and it's a Seussian retelling of our frettingest, most cretinous, upsettingest election ever.

Finally, two holiday reminiscences from Dave. First, a short interview he gave for Coopers' Christmas, with a recollection of his childhood Christmases. Next, a memory of his favorite and best Christmas present.

And now, if I may, a short recitation:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Dave Foley gave to me:
Twelve bad relations,

Eleven naughty children,

Ten elves a prepping,

Nine scammers dancing,

Eight Parks-a-singing,

Seven Dans-a-fighting,

Six guest stars singing,

Five silver blades!

Four moms and dads,

Three minutes home,

Two gravied trouts,

And a Pepsi with Fibber McGee.

Thanks, Dave, for a great December.

I wish you a Merry Christmas! I wish you Happy Holidays! I wish you the best Bellini Day ever!

Christmas With Dave Foley #9: Leverage "The Ho Ho Ho Job"

Dave guest-starred on a lot of TV, so it's not much of a surprise when he pops up during the most wonderful time of the year. This is a Christmas episode of Leverage, a show I've seen most of and enjoyed.

This one sees the team helping out a mall Santa who's been framed, and fired from his beloved job. Turns out the mall is hemorrhaging money, and the manager has brought in new, thuggish Santas to rob the joint on Christmas Eve. (Willie Soke would be so proud.)

Dave is that manager, and while the team races to foil the evil plan, they realize an old nemesis (hi, Wil Wheaton!) is behind the grinchy plot. Dave spends most of the episode in a nice character turn, whacked out on morphine and determined to redeem himself.

While Eliot gets a lot of time undercover as Santa (the whole episode builds up to a big five-way Santa fight), this episode belongs to Parker. I've forgotten how much I enjoyed her character in particular. She dances, speaks in an elf voice, and decorates the office Christmas tree with millions of dollars in stolen jewelry. (Plus, I love the idea that Hardison might actually have hacked the weather so she can get her snow.)

This episode also makes a handful of jolly references: Die Hard, Kill Bill, Back To The Future, and the writers even named Dave's character Eben (Santa suspects it's short for "Ebenezer").

Sometimes it's a bad idea to watch too much Christmas TV -- I'm reminded of how much I enjoyed certain shows, and want to see more again. But I'm so behind, and I've still got four more Dave Foley days to go (and big plans for January). I liked Leverage: it was mostly good fun, a light-touch wish-fulfillment show with heist-con elements. It hit a lot of my favorite entertainment buttons.

As a Christmas episode, I rate this 9/10: All the characters, and the plot, are motivated by Christmas. Sometimes a Christmas episode doesn't have much Christmas in it, but this one is wall-to-wall merry. The gift exchange at the end is a series of perfect character moments.
As an episode of Leverage, I rate this 7/10: I recall episodes I enjoyed more, with stories that reached higher levels of genre fun. But the whole team is in good form, and Parker was always my favorite character.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 7/10. His character journey may not be new or innovative, but I think I mentioned how fun it is to see him enjoying so much morphine.

25 Days of Christmas #10b: "Christmas Attack Zone"

It's the final Christmas 30 Rock: "Christmas Attack Zone."

Tracy's gotten an award nomination for his seriously depressing (and depressingly serious) drama, Hard To Watch, and trying to be serious all the time is hard for him. He's presenting the film at a special Christmastime charity screening, in a women's shelter.  Kenneth points out that making people laugh is really important, too. Why, Kenneth wonders, wouldn't Tracy let the studio release his sequel to The Chunks?

Meanwhile, Jack's mother is visiting for Christmas, and she's sure to disapprove of his impending (unmarried) fatherhood, and his fiancee to boot. He goes on the offensive and invites his father, Colleen's shameful sex secret, to come too; maybe this year he can come out on top. Liz points out what a bad idea this all is, as she's only attending the dinner to avoid her own family's drama.

Of course, in the long run, all he gets is everyone mad at him. And, for the first time in his 50 years, both his mother and father are yelling at him. He loves it; who knew?!

As soon as Tracy gets to the shelter, he realizes Kenneth was right: these women and children don't need more depressing stories. They just want to laugh at Tracy, in various and assorted fat suits, falling down stairs and hose-vomiting in his suppressed movie The Chunks 2.(Embarrassing admission here: I've never seen Sullivan's Travels, but even I know this is the reference here.)

Meanwhile, Jenna's not coping well with her breakup from Paul, the Jenna Maroney impersonator she's been dating recently. Nobody else really understood Jenna like Paul (their sweetly twisted relationship was always hilarious and touching). It hits Jenna especially hard at Christmas, because there's a celebrity New Year's Eve party, and they could have had the best couple costume ever. They visit briefly, and it turns out they had the same idea, so they go ahead and put the plan into action:

"You dress as Natalie Portman from the movie Black Swan and I dress as former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Lynn Swann! We're two black swans!"

Jenna and Paul sing our final Christmas 30 Rock duet over a montage of Liz riding a bus home to suffer with her own family for a change, of Jack's parents berating him, of underprivileged women and children laughing and laughing and laughing at Tracy's movie. Christmas episodes usually have a sentimental ending; this is the weirdest, creepiest ending for a touching show I've ever seen.

As an episode of 30 Rock, I rate this 7/10: the main players and guest stars get almost all the screentime, but I'd love to see the writer's room and show staff too. They don't even put on a show this week.
As a Christmas episode, I rate this 6/10. The sentimental theory of the ending is stronger than the actual sentiment achieved, in my book.

Christmas Attack Zone  30 Rock: Season 5