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 #12: Coopers' Camera

Okay, I guess I'm burned out a little this month. Sure, I've posted a lot, but some of the stuff hasn't been very good. Like this. In fact, mostly this. I guess this movie has an audience, but I'm not it. I've seen a lot of cringe comedy, and enjoyed a lot of Jason Jones' work in the past. But I didn't like the vast majority of this film, and the few bits I did like were overwhelmed by the horrific, cartoon awfulness of practically every member of this extended family.

I have two more posts to write, and I don't want to waste my energy working hard on a post about this movie -- it's already taken too much of my time. If the trailer makes you laugh out loud, this may be for you. It certainly isn't for me.

As a Christmas movie, I rate this 2/10. As I said, there are a handful of parts I liked.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 2/10. I guess it's slightly better than Postal (probably), if you want to see a movie with Dave's penis.

Christmas With Dave Foley #11: Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

So the second Prep and Landing is... not as good as the first one. It spends a lot of time with new characters and relationships, and the story is more kid-friendly this time.  It focuses on Dwayne's brother, and their relationship. I like how their story mirrors the "villain" in the show, and the dual resolution of both parts is a nice touch.

In fact, it's so nice I almost want the rest of the show to be better. I like Lanny's sideline story a lot (though he gets so little screentime I question his top billing in this one), and there are some fun twists, but this is a lot less interesting to me as a grownup than the first one.


So, like the first special, this one has a bunch of Easter eggs. There's a small plush cameo from Nessie, the star of the two directors' previous short. Mickey and several princesses appear as merchandise, too. And then there are these two kids, in a scene with a mall Santa.

We get to see more of the North Pole's culture in this show, and I got a silly amusement-park kick out of their mass transportation system (and I can only hope that any one of our several "Santa's Village" parks install something like that).

Overall, this is a flawed but fun sequel to something nearly perfect. The worst thing about it is that it can't live up to the first one.

As a Christmas special, I rate this 6/10. It's certainly better than the average, and I'll watch it several more times. It's got plenty of laughs, but the laughs and the heart feel separate from each other this time, not intertwined in the same way the first one managed.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 6/10. He doesn't get as much to do emotionally, and I feel like his character has a lot less Dave in it this time.

Christmas With Dave Foley #10: Prep And Landing

So why am I spending so much of this December with Dave? Well, because of this, really. There have been three Prep and Landing cartoons (so far), and Dave starred in all of them as an old-hand helper elf, Wayne. The original, in 2009, got good ratings and reviews, and a handful of awards. It also introduced us to Wayne, who's been doing his job for several centuries and is a little burnt-out. Naturally, he gets an idealistic new rookie for a partner, to play off of.

We get to explore a lot of North Pole culture, with specialized jargon (all the adult language has been replaced with jolly holiday euphemisms, which makes me laugh more than it should) and a fully-developed society. The elves all have a lot of nifty spy gadgets to help them do their jobs, which lend the special a continued air of quirky technocool, even while it's all in the service of the holiday story.

Besides the performances from Dave and Sarah Chalke and an offscreen Santa played by W. Morgan Shepperd (who played The Big Guy onscreen the next year in a TV movie), the script continually surprises. I expected this to be a lot more kid-centered and, frankly, a lot less interesting. But like the best family entertainment, there's a level of jokes and story to appeal to adults too. If, like me, you avoided this for that reason, I'd recommend giving it a try.

As a Christmas special, I rate this one 10/10. It exceeds technically, artistically, and has plenty of heart and holiday spirit. It's fun and funny, and my third viewing this week was still interesting.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 7/10. Wayne has a pretty big character arc for just 25 minutes, but it's ALL about his story. Dave gets to play a lot of different tones, most of which are right in his wheelhouse.

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.

Christmas With Dave Foley #8: Dr. Ken "A Park Family Christmas"

It's been a while since I watched anything on TV live as it aired, but last night, Dave appeared on Dr. Ken's first Christmas episode. I've only seen two previous episodes, and I don't really love the show, since it leans into about every family and workplace sitcom cliche ever. The parts I have enjoyed are the few twists -- Ken Jeong's terrible use of street slang, and Dave's perverse glee at being such an awful pennypincher.

One of my favorite Christmas episodes (which I haven't seen in a few years) is from The Bob Newhart Show. Bob and Emily invite all their friends, and a lot of Bob's patients, over for a party at their apartment. The patients talk out a lot of their holiday issues, and end with a nice singalong. I couldn't help but remember that funnier, smarter show when Dr. Ken and his wife end up inviting a patient (hey, it's Ted from Scrubs!) to their house for a party, which of course ended in a heartfelt singalong (even Dave's character seemed to be feeling the song). I didn't get moved by much of the sweet family stuff, though a surprise gift exchange made me go "aww" near the end. And most of the jokes didn't do anything for me, though I imagine some of them would land better if I knew the characters.

In my experience, ABC.com won't let you stream shows the first day or two after they air, but [edited] the link should work now for the Americans. Or, you might get lucky here. And, of course, since it's brand-new, I won't put on a buy-link either.

As a Christmas episode, I rate this one 5/10. It's got music, and decorations, and gift talk, and generosity of spirit, and people learning lessons about the meaning of the holidays. But that's just dressing for a bog-standard sitcom.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this one 4/10. His tiny, one-note character is at least a fun note.

Christmas With Dave Foley #7: Dan Vs. "The Mall Santa"

What show is this? That's not a rhetorical question -- I had no idea this was a show. Apparently it was originally created for a venue like Adult Swim, but ended up on a kids' network, near Transformers and My Little Pony and Fraggle Rock reruns. Besides Dave as the main character's best friend, it also has Paget Brewster as Dave's wife, and this episode features voice actor Grey DeLisle as the mall manager, and some guy named Mark Hammel... um, Hamill, as the mall Santa.

What a show. I don't know that I'd want to watch the whole run of the series (though apparently it has a decent following), but it's fun and offbeat and weird. 

As a Christmas show, I rate this 9/10. It's got music and decorations and heartfelt reminiscences about Christmases past, and a lot of discussions of joy and generosity.

As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 6/10. His character is interesting, but he doesn't get to do much except voice-of-reason in this episode.

For some reason, only the first season got a physical release, so your buy link is for streaming rights. Or, y'know, just watch em all for free on YouTube. Your call.

Christmas With Dave Foley #6: The True Meaning of Christmas Specials

So here's a lost Dave Foley Christmas item. It's an hourlong Christmas special, written by, directed by, and starring Dave himself. It's got a ridiculous cast, with Kevin McDonald, Jason Priestly, Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty reprising some SCTV impressions, Andy Richter, Mike Myers in full-on self-parody, and even Dick Dale. I love Dick Dale.

Most of the guests have something fun to do, and Dave gets to play with a lot of Christmas special tropes. He mopes at the hollowness of commercialism, sings, ice-skates, and even undergoes the whole Christmas-Carol-three-ghost-deal. I laughed, or at least chuckled, pretty consistently through the whole special, but I think I know why this one's lost. Dave's a really good writer, but he's best at short sprints -- knocking out a six-minute sketch with Kev, or coming up with individual character bits on the Newsradio stage. I don't know why there weren't more writers on this special. Dave knows plenty of fantastic writers, and he was smart enough to collaborate on things like The Wrong Guy (which is undeservedly forgotten by most). For one example: I didn't think Dave's shadow-realm exhibitionism is very funny, but I kinda get the idea that Dave's never been a perfect feminist. 

So it's not perfect, but there are so many enjoyable moments. Dave's impression of David Bowie is better than you think, and seeing him and Flaherty reenact the old Bing/Bowie "Little Drummer Boy" duet is a hell of a lot of fun. There's also a quick scene of Dave and Kevin bickering about Christmas specials yet to come that reminds me of their easy chemistry. Finally, if you've never seen Dick Dale and El Vez collaborate on a Christmas song, you haven't lived. (I love Dick Dale.)

If you've never seen it, it's fine to put on in the background while you wrap presents for an hour. Or, you can fast-forward through the songs and finish it in half the time. You can't buy this thing anywhere, but the whole video's been up on YouTube for years without getting pulled down, so it should be safe to watch there for a while.

As a Christmas special, I rate this 5/10. It's got some funny twists on the old ideas, but none of the heart.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 7/10. He does a lot of different things, but his auteur status reflects poorly on him when the whole thing feels hollow.

Christmas With Dave Foley #5: Newsradio "Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show"

Newsradio's final Christmas episode is "Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show" (from the same titling geniuses who brought you "Super Karate Monkey Death Car" and "Spooky Rapping Crypt"). Matthew has been fired by Andrea Planbee, and a wacky sitcom plot ("which, when I think about it now, doesn't even really make sense at all," Matthew says) hinges his reinstatement on the staff winning a talent show.

Dave's embarrassed about all his talents (the tapdancing revealed in the previous season, plus jelly-making and possibly his high-school performance in Grease), so everyone else has to come up with acts. I love watching Vicki Lewis get to sing (which Beth never did much, and you should totally check out Vicki's Christmas album), and it's always nice to see Bill at the piano. Lisa offers to do mental math. Joe hits stuff.

Sidebar: Maybe because it's not mentioned in the dialogue, I don't remember noticing the end of Joe's story before today. During the final scenes, both his hands are bandaged up. I wish the DVDs had deleted scenes.

Double Sidebar: While I'm wishing things, this was the first episode after Khandi Alexander left, and I'd be interested to see Catherine's talent. Catherine is maybe too regal to entertain at a silly talent show, so would she just refuse? Or would she have something surprising to help Matthew?

And so Dave has to pull out his final, genuinely impressive talent: knife-throwing. This episode, of course, is memorable as Dave's reunion with Kevin McDonald, who appears as a perfectly Kevin-ish character, Dave's knife nemesis.

Dave's short-lived confidence leaves as quickly as it came, of course, and so the real hero turns out to be Matthew all along. He pulls out his surprise talent: ventriloquism. And it goes about as well as anything Matthew does, though he gets a depressing holiday surprise: more pity, and his job back.

So Dave's depressed, and we're all feeling sorry for Matthew, and then Dave puts the final twist on the show, and Christmas at WNYX has come to an end. It's by no means their best Christmas show, but it's plenty good, and I still watch it every year.

As a Newsradio episode, I rate this one 6/10. It's got plenty of memorable lines. But the plot is so constraining, and frankly the show had a hard time righting itself after Khandi left. But, a Newsradio 6/10 is a 9/10 for most other shows.
As a Christmas episode, I rate this one 5/10. It's got Matthew singing "Silent Night," in the first and best scene. There are decorations and a little bit more Christmas talk, but not a lot of holiday spirit. When Beth sings, she sings "Makin' Whoopee," which is a great song, but not exactly seasonally appropriate.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this one 8/10. Dave Nelson is usually a bundle of nerves, and this whole season saw Dave on edge more than usual (I still love "The Public Domain," for example). It's great to see his dynamic emotional arc in this show -- he's got a roller-coaster of emotions, and Kevin to play off of.

Christmas With Dave Foley #4: KITH "Santa Claus"

I can imagine how this came to be written, and I bet you can too. I haven't done any research about it, but I KNOW it: one too many holidays was ruined by parents hectoring for grandchildren. I just know it. And like with our parents, we all love Santa, even if we don't want to get pushed around by them.

There's not much Dave in this, but it's so seasonal I can't NOT write about it. I love Mark's version of Santa, with hints of Jim Backus and a perfect childlike tantrum when he hears a "dirty" word. I would've liked to see Santa come back for more sketches, where he had to react to real life, but I'm pretty sure Mark already had enough iconic recurring characters.

As a Christmas sketch, I rate this one 9/10. It's a perfect juxtaposition of Santa's holiday idealism with reality, and the problems in that intersection.
As a KITH sketch, I rate this 7/10. It's short, and simple, and the premise is everything. It could work almost as well on SNL or Laugh-In, though the twist at the end is wonderfully KITH-y.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 3/10. He's onscreen for less than a minute, but one of his three lines has a nice twist in the delivery.

Christmas With Dave Foley #3: Newsradio "Christmas"

Newsradio's second Christmas episode is from 1996, and it opens with a magnificent Joe/Matthew scene. In just two minutes, we learn everything we ever need to know about their relationship, and how the rest of the staff react to them.

Matthew's also busy helping Jimmy James pick gifts for all his rich friends (Bruce Springsteen gets mittens, for example). Dave finds himself doing everyone's work, which puts a crimp in his plans to take Lisa home to meet his folks (to her relief).

And while Joe is preempting postholiday depression by ripping down decorations ("Now you can go fire Bob Cratchit and kick Tiny Tim in the leg"), Beth and Bill record a commercial.

Sidebar: I'm not entirely sure radio stations mail out Christmas cards to advertisers the week of Christmas, and I'm pretty sure the advertisers don't record their Christmas-themed commercials that week either. But I'll get over it.

Beth is really the star of this episode -- the montage of her botched takes is lightning-fast and hilarious, a real spotlight of her manic childlike energy. It's also great to see Matthew reenacting the old Christmas tradition of the Feast of Fools, as he sits in Dave's chair and pretends to be him.

One final note: Please don't let your dogs eat Polaroids. 

Second sidebar: I wonder whose dog that is. It could easily be a stage dog, though it's not credited. I know all the writers brought their dogs to work with them -- did it one belong to one of them?

As an episode of Newsradio, I rate this one 8/10. Everyone has something funny and in-character to do, and only Catherine gets shorted on screentime (no surprises there, I'm afraid).
As a Christmas episode, I rate this 7/10. Decorations, plenty of holiday talk about gifts and family and food.
As a spotlight for Dave, I rate this 7/10. He gets to hit almost all of Dave Nelson's notes in this one, from bemusement to bone-dry sarcasm, and even a bit of sweet romantic Dave. (The only color missing from the palette hadn't really surfaced yet in the course of the show, the unhinged, frustrated Dave they leaned on too much in Season Five.)

Christmas With Dave Foley #2: Kids in the Hall "Bellini Day"

I'm not doing this series in strictly chronological order, so our next thing, randomly chosen, is a holiday sketch I adore.

This won't make a lot of sense if you haven't seen a lot of Kids In The Hall, or at least enough to know the recurring use of writer Paul Bellini as a silent, bizarre absurdity. (If you're not familiar, stick around after the sketch to hear Dave and Kevin explain a little of that history.)

Obviously, the unnecessary slam on religion is a memorable part of this sketch, and I can imagine that putting a lot of people off. But it's by no means the most heretical thing the Kids ever did, and the way Mark overplays it makes it funny, even the third time it happens.

I've always loved Bruce's kid characters, and his clueless laughter at 1:18 gives me life. Of course, we're nominally here for Dave, and he shows up in the mostly thankless role of dutiful mother (though he gets to show some leg, and even a stylish hairdo).

I'd hoped to find enough Christmassy or winter-themed KITH sketches to make 15 or 20 minutes into a compilation, but this and the next sketch I post will have to do. Sorry.

As a KITH sketch, I rate this 7/10. It's too inside for people who aren't familiar with the show, though it works hard to reach the heights of absurdity the show consistently depended on.
As a Christmas sketch, I rate this 9/10. It has all the hallmarks of an old-fashioned "true meaning of Christmas" scene, with everything twisted a little to make it hilarious.
As a scene for Dave, I rate this 5/10. Mom is kinda one-note, and even her hair is overshadowed by everything else around.

Christmas With Dave Foley #1: Newsradio "Xmas Story"

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.