Since “Rich Little’s Christmas Carol,” the 1978 HBO special, is actually a full-fledged adaptation of the story, so we need a breakdown of the plot elements.
There’s about fifty minutes to the show, some of which is taken up by musical numbers, such as the opening “The Merriest Christmas Yet,” but there’s still plenty of time for the story.
The musical numbers are OK but seem a bit tacked on. And the singing is so cheerfully sanitized, it makes the Ray Conniff singers seem edgy!
This is a reasonably faithful version, with the biggest change being in the nature of Scrooge’s business. It’s a “Boat and Bottle” business, in which Scrooge drinks the contents of the bottles and Bob Cratchit puts boats in them. It’s an odd concept, but tied to the running them of the Scrooge/W.C. Fields character having a fondness for the grape.
The rest of the introductory scenes are largely what you’d expect, although the story elements are mainly used as a structure upon which to hang the impressions and jokes. Clearly you're supposed to be already familiar with the basic story.
A small difference is that Scrooge and Cratchit argue over Bob wanting to burn wood to keep warm, rather than coal. The idea’s the same, though. Cratchit jumps around to stay warm and sings a bit of “Stayin’ Alive,” so the Brothers Gibb made some money on the deal!
Fred and the charity solicitors make their appearances with plenty of shtick.
Scrooge goes home and see Marley’s face in the knocker and an interesting little touch is that Scrooge’s nose glows bright red as he enters his house and goes up to his room.
Marley’s Ghost appears and warns Scrooge, with the Richard Nixon impression dominating the scene.
The Ghost of Christmas Past appears and takes Scrooge back to Fezziwig’s Boat and Bottle business for the Christmas Party. Fezziwig runs around a lot while participating in a musical number about office parties.
Dick Wilkins actually gets the type of dialogue that Fed would usually get, if Fred hadn’t have been too busy doing his monologue earlier. Scrooge and Dick do a duet. This implies that Scrooge was already miserly back then.
This is the only scene from the past, then Scrooge is back in bed, repeating “Money… money…” in his sleep, as did Jack Benny/Scrooge on Rich Little’s 1963 LP “Scrooge and the Stars.”
The Ghost of Christmas Present then comes along to take Scrooge to Bob Cratchit’s house, where they see the Cratchit family with their Christmas dinner. The meagerness of the feast is played up for comedy purposes.
This scene has actual kids playing the Cratchit kids and they speak a bit.
Since Tiny Tim is “played” by Truman Capote, the spirit mentions that Tim wants to be a writer, but will die if Scrooge doesn’t help.
That’s the only scene from the present, so the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is next. He talks in this version, which is mainly to make use of the “Inspector Clouseau” character.
They see the other businessmen talk about Scrooge then visit the cemetery. The slapstick is really played up here, as the clumsy spirit keeps falling in Scrooge’s open grave.
Scrooge promises to reform, and part of the deal is for him to give up alcohol.
Scrooge then winds up back in his room and talks to the kid out the window and gets him to buy the turkey to send to Bob Cratchit.
Scrooge goes out in the street and buys gifts during another musical number, then proceeds to Fred’s house.
Fred is doing another monologue, then welcomes Scrooge as there’s more singing and Scrooge drinks a glass of milk.
The next morning has Scrooge surprising Bob at the office, where he makes him his atoner and they have a buttermilk toast.
Scrooge being unable to drink the contents of the bottles would pose a problem to the business, but this is rectified by the new employee. We don’t this employee, but we hear him singing “Everybody Loves Somebody,” so we know the bottle emptying job will be in the capable hands of Dean Martin!
The end is very odd, as Rich Little as the various characters thank Rich Little. Huh?
Amusingly, though, the last shot is the graveyard, where we see the tombstone of Charles Dickens keel over!
One more thing I have to mention is the laugh track. I don’t like it. I’m not against laugh tracks unless they sound phony and this one does. Among other issues, there was obviously not an audience present as they taped this.
All in all, this is an interesting period piece that could be sued as a time capsule for those interested in late-1970s pop culture or those feeling nostalgic.
For average modern audiences, it would probably just seem weird.
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