"The Sesame Street Storytime Calendar" (1982)

A new year always brings new calendars and 1982 was no exception, with that year's "Sesame Street" calendar featuring scenes from classic stories for each month, with the Muppets taking on the parts, as illustrated by Michael J. Smollin.

So, December wisely chose "A Christmas Carol":

Oscar the Grouch naturally takes on the Scrooge part, which anticipates 2006's "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," although in that special he was still himself as a Scrooge surrogate.

Bert is portraying Bob Cratchit and Ernie would be Peter, as he's wearing one of Bob's collars, which is a nice touch.

The calendar's cover points out that these are the "Sesame Street" Muppets, as opposed to "The Muppet Show" Muppets, who, of course, later featured in 1992's "The Muppet Christmas Carol."

So, a nice little vignette here!

As a bonus, let's go back ten years to 1972, for what I think was the first "Sesame Street" calendar (the show had premiered in 1969).

It interestingly features art by the legendary Jack Davis, best-known for his work in "MAD" magazine.

Here's the December page:

It never fails to amaze me how Jack Davis could do spot-on caricatures that still look like Jack Davis characters!

And a shout-out to the late Bob McGrath, who passed away at age 90 last month. Rest in peace.

"A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" (2006) - Part 2

Since "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," the 2006 direct-to-video special, actually has "A Christmas Carol" in the title, is it an actual adaptation of the classic story?

Well, no, not really. It's a takeoff on it, with Oscar the Grouch standing in for Scrooge, but it does follow the past/present/future structure and contains a few nods to the original.

This is by no means a Sesame Street version of "The Muppet Christmas Carol," despite what the title may imply.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Sesame Street productions are aimed at young kids, whereas the Muppet billed ones seem to seek more of a family audience. As such, I'm not really going to "review" this special, but just point out a few things.

This all got started because Tim Curry's the narrator here. He's only at the beginning and end, but sets a good tone, with Dickensian phrases like "to begin with" to give it flavor.

I have to admit that I'm a sucker for "fourth wall" type gags, so I think it's really funny how Oscar talks back to the narrator. It reminds me of how Boris Badenov, say, would interact with William Conrad's narrator on "Rocky and His Friends" and its later incarnations.

The story gets going with Oscar being visited by Joe Marley, who delivers Ghost-O-Grams. The Marley name is just used as an homage, as the character doesn't really seem to have a Marley-like connection to Oscar.

Oscar receives three Ghost-O-Grams, which summon the three spirits, who show Oscar some clips that appear to be from earlier Sesame Street episodes or specials.

In the Christmas Past sequence, the them is for Oscar to understand giving from the heart. The ghost here is Rhubarb, a legendary grouch from London of 1843. I get it! He came in an old baked beans can. The two grouches don't seem to learn too much, though!

The vintage Bert and Ernie "Gift of the Magi" segment is very good if predictable for adults familiar with that O. Henry story. You know this is older, as it features "Mr. Hooper," who had passed away in-universe after actor Will Lee died in 1982. Good to see him.

The next spirit comes in a jack-in-the-box and she's Christmas Carol, an anthropomorphic Christmas tree. She shows Oscar a few different holiday traditions to represent the present. I though the Hanukah and Kwanzaa segments were informative and the food in each looks awesome!

I enjoyed Kristin Chenoweth's voice characterization of Carol.

The spirit who shows what Christmas Future will look like is i-S.A.M., a robot operated with a  remote. His segment features a wacky animated take on the future.

When all is said and done, Oscar wakes up on Christmas morning and meets little Joey Dickens, who resembles Joe Marley, which seems to indicate the whole thing was a dream. He gives Joey a smelly old sneaker as a present, so I guess he learned something?

In any event, it's a cute little special aimed at kids and if looked at that way, it's not bad. It's 46 minutes long, which is a good running time for something like this.

One thing I always thought was interesting about Oscar the Grouch is that he wants to be miserable, but if he is miserable, then he's happy, which he doesn't like, so he's miserable again and so on. I remember an episode of "Sesame Street" addressing that conundrum when I was a kid and thought it was deep stuff!

"A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" (2006) - Part 1

"A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" (2006)
Director: Victor DiNapoli
Scrooge Surrogate: Oscar the Grouch

While talking about Tim Curry, I mentioned that he was the narrator of "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," a 2006 direct-to-video special. So, how is that?

Well, here's a trailer which tells you most of what you need to know:

Next, a bit of a breakdown...