Rich Little's impersonation of W.C. Fields as Scrooge dominates the proceedings of 1978's "Rich Little's Christmas Carol," but Rich also adds a lot of supporting characters.
Bob Cratchit is “played” by Paul Lynde, a familiar TV figure at the time. He was best-known as the center square on the “Hollywood Squares” TV show, where he always had a snappy answer. He was a popular target of impressionists because of his distinctive manner of speaking that made everything sound somewhat sarcastic.
I don’t think there’s any particular reason for Paul Lynde to be Bob Cratchit, it’s probably just because Rich Little does a good Paul Lynde. This would seem to indicate that anything goes.
That would be borne out by having Johnny Carson as Fred. Rich Little did a great Carson and gives it his all here, with all of Johnny’s mannerisms. He makes his entrance to the actual “Johnny’s Theme,” which shows this production doesn’t skimp on music fees.
The two scenes with Fred have him give a monologue of sorts, complete with jokes that bomb. Johnny Carson was often funnier when a joke didn’t go over, as he’d playfully “curse” the crowd. We even get a “Carnac the Magnificent” bit thrown in.
Modern viewers who don’t know Paul Lynde or Johnny Carson will have no idea what’s going on, but anybody watching this in 1978 or so would have been amused.
The charity solicitors come in next and like W.C. Fields, they’re more of the “classic” variety. There are two of them, so why not have them be Laurel & Hardy? I think Rich Little does a pretty good Stan, but I’m not sold on his Ollie. I think Stan’s easier to do. The hair bugs me, as it's just Rich Little's 1970s hairdo with bowlers plopped on.
They use a rare split screen effect for L & H.
Marley’s Ghost is played by another Rich Little specialty, one Richard M. Nixon, the (fairly) recently disgraced president. He’s the only character to be in modern dress (a business suit) and his “chains” are reels of tapes. At the time audiences would know that meant the Watergate tapes, especially after he mentioned that the interval between the first and second ghosts would be 18 ½ minutes!
The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Humphrey Bogart, another long deceased (1957) star. He was (and is) still well-known at the time and Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam” movie had come out a few years before in 1972. Hey, even Peter Brady imitated Bogie while saying, “pork chops and applesauce!”
This Bogart seems mainly to be "Sam Spade" from “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), but his introduction quotes “Casablanca” (1942) and he also throws in a “Fred C. Dobbs” reference from “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948). Rich Little does a good Bogart.
The Christmas Past sequence features Groucho Marx as Fezziwig. Groucho had passed away the year before this special was made, but this is the younger, movie Groucho (hairdo not withstanding). I don’t think Rich Little nails it, though. I’m a huge Groucho fan and I think he’s easy to imitate, but hard to really nail.
Dick Wilkins gets perhaps his most screen time in any adaptation and he’s represented by Jimmy Stewart, another long-standing Rich Little staple. He and Scrooge even sing a duet! There does not appear to be any attempt to make Rich look like Jimmy Stewart, but the impersonation is excellent.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is next up and he’s the TV character "Columbo," as played by Peter Falk, That’s to say it’s a Columbo impression, not Peter Falk per se. Rich is spot-on with his imitation, using that passive-aggressive overly solicitous Columbo thing.
At the Cratchit house things get really wacky, as Mrs. Cratchit is "Edith Bunker," the character portrayed by Jean Stapleton on the “All in the Family” TV Show. I don’t think it’s a good imitation, but it’s so wacky that it’s funny.
Even wackier, but in a disturbing way, is Tiny Tim, who’s represented by Truman Capote. What’s weird is that when Bob Cratchit is carrying him home, it’s an actual kid on Rich Little’s shoulder, but then Rich in the close-ups. Creepy and not funny.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come also wears a trench coat like the other spirits, this time because he’s Inspector Clouseau, the clumsy French detective payed by Peter Sellers in “The Pink Panther” series of films, which were still being made at that time. I don’t think this is a strong impression either and goes overboard on the slapstick. We do hear Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther Theme” to sell it, though!
The three businessmen talking about Scrooge in the future are three of Rich’s strongest impersonations: John Wayne, George Burns and James Mason. All three had been featured on his earlier “Scrooge and the Stars” LP from 1963.
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| Who wore it better? |
I would have expected the George Burns character to look like the then-current version of Burns from “The Sunshine Boys” (1975) and “Oh, God!” (1977) with big, round glasses and all. He looks more like the early TV Burns, which was so not relevant in 1978.
James Mason had just been in the smash movie “Heaven Can Wait” (1978), so that impression was still viable. Rich had made his American TV debut on “The Judy Garland Show” in 1964. As I understand it, Judy approved the hiring because she liked his James Mason impression, as she had co-starred with Mason in 1954’s “A Star Is Born.”
There's no attempt to make Rich Little look like James Mason and I don't think he's particularly well-known these days, so that's a tough one for the uninitiated to guess.
The final celebrity to be impersonated is Jack Benny as the window boy. Rich always did a good Benny and had used him as Scrooge on his 1963 LP. Jack had passed away in 1974 but was still well-known in 1978.
The Benny character plays "Love in Bloom" on his violin and wears a beanie and appears to be "shrunken" to make him look like a kid.
Of note, the only "stars" to get billing in the opening are W.C. Fields, Paul Lynde, Richard Nixon, "Edith Bunker" and John Wayne. Why? Who knows!
So, it’s an interesting mix of celebrities being impersonated, some current, some past.
If nothing else, it’s time capsule of what audiences were expected to recognize in 1978.
One thing with Rich Little playing all the main roles (there are extras) is that he needs to interact with himself, so there must have been a ton of editing involved.
We mostly get close-ups with quick cuts, but here and there some split screen shots are used. Sometimes, though, they rely on the technique of using a body double where you see the back and can't quite see the face.
This always makes me think of "The Patty Duke Show" in which Patty played "cousins... identical cousins" and you often saw one from behind while she talked to the other. This always looks fake to me as you never see that shot on shows otherwise. Like you didn't see only Chip's back when he was talking to Robbie on "My Three Sons," say.
You can also say they're "Fake Shemps," as used in the Three Stooges shorts pieced together after Shemp Howard passed away. That's when there's a stand-in used who never quite gets in the picture.
Whatever the case, the techniques generally work here, with the glaring exception of an actual child standing in for Tiny Tim/Truman Capote. Creepy!
Next, what about the plot?
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