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| Love Christmas Variety Shows? Go Ahead, Take Another Helping | Love Christmas Variety Shows? Go Ahead, Take Another Helping |
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| If you weren’t wearing your glasses during “The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show,” you might have thought you were watching some sort of Cher retrospective. Musgraves, a Grammy-winning country star, was channeling the pop icon, from her shiny waterfall of black hair down to her many outfits including a feathered sheer bodysuit reminiscent of Cher’s renowned 1974 Bob Mackie number. It was no coincidence. | If you weren’t wearing your glasses during “The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show,” you might have thought you were watching some sort of Cher retrospective. Musgraves, a Grammy-winning country star, was channeling the pop icon, from her shiny waterfall of black hair down to her many outfits including a feathered sheer bodysuit reminiscent of Cher’s renowned 1974 Bob Mackie number. It was no coincidence. |
| Musgraves told The New York Times that her holiday special, which premiered on Amazon Prime last month, was indeed modeled after variety shows of decades past, namely Cher’s titular show from the ’70s and the Judy Garland Christmas special from the ’60s — “things that I love like that, but with a very fresh, modern take,” she said. | Musgraves told The New York Times that her holiday special, which premiered on Amazon Prime last month, was indeed modeled after variety shows of decades past, namely Cher’s titular show from the ’70s and the Judy Garland Christmas special from the ’60s — “things that I love like that, but with a very fresh, modern take,” she said. |
| In recent years, she is just one of a handful of celebrities to try to reinvigorate, but not necessarily reinvent, the classic TV tradition of Christmas variety shows. | In recent years, she is just one of a handful of celebrities to try to reinvigorate, but not necessarily reinvent, the classic TV tradition of Christmas variety shows. |
| This month, NBC aired “Holidays With the Houghs,” a new special from the brother-sister duo Derek and Julianne Hough, and reran John Legend and Chrissy Teigen’s “A Legendary Christmas With John and Chrissy” from 2018 as well as Gwen Stefani’s “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” from 2017. Bill Murray’s 2015 special, “A Very Murray Christmas” on Netflix, scored an Emmy nomination. | |
| All were star-studded affairs, with Musgraves’s a turnstile of A-listers. She duetted with James Corden, Lana Del Rey, Camila Cabello, Zooey Deschanel and Troye Sivan, among others. Kendall Jenner swung by for a skit. | All were star-studded affairs, with Musgraves’s a turnstile of A-listers. She duetted with James Corden, Lana Del Rey, Camila Cabello, Zooey Deschanel and Troye Sivan, among others. Kendall Jenner swung by for a skit. |
| “It started as a tiny idea over a year ago,” Musgraves said, to bring her album “A Very Kacey Christmas” to life. Her vision: “an old-school sort of TV special with comedy and visually stimulating sets, but making it about the music.” | “It started as a tiny idea over a year ago,” Musgraves said, to bring her album “A Very Kacey Christmas” to life. Her vision: “an old-school sort of TV special with comedy and visually stimulating sets, but making it about the music.” |
| Americans are in an era of peak nostalgia television, but when it comes to Christmas on TV, nostalgia isn’t a phase, it’s the bedrock. This month, the 1964 classic stop-motion animated film “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (CBS) won its time slot, with an audience of over seven million. That same week, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (NBC), from 1966, landed on top and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (ABC), which first aired in 1965, was in the top three, drawing about five million viewers each. | Americans are in an era of peak nostalgia television, but when it comes to Christmas on TV, nostalgia isn’t a phase, it’s the bedrock. This month, the 1964 classic stop-motion animated film “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (CBS) won its time slot, with an audience of over seven million. That same week, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (NBC), from 1966, landed on top and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (ABC), which first aired in 1965, was in the top three, drawing about five million viewers each. |
| “One of the properties of Christmas is nostalgia,” said Robert Thompson, the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a trustee professor of those subjects at Syracuse University. “All of a sudden at Christmastime, the old, the non-innovative, the old fashioned becomes an asset, not a liability,” he said. “Parody, tongue in cheek, elbow and rib, irony are all good for modern entertainment, but at Christmas, they become an irritant.” | “One of the properties of Christmas is nostalgia,” said Robert Thompson, the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a trustee professor of those subjects at Syracuse University. “All of a sudden at Christmastime, the old, the non-innovative, the old fashioned becomes an asset, not a liability,” he said. “Parody, tongue in cheek, elbow and rib, irony are all good for modern entertainment, but at Christmas, they become an irritant.” |
| Most Christmas variety shows play right into that sweet, earnest nostalgia but in a completely different way than the classic movies watched year after year. Variety specials shift and evolve — with different hosts and guests, for example. Their appeal instead hinges on an enduring formula: dances, sketches, jokes and, most important, familiar songs in the context of stories about giving to others, family and returning to the hearth. (The Musgraves and Legend specials both brought family members onto the shows.) | Most Christmas variety shows play right into that sweet, earnest nostalgia but in a completely different way than the classic movies watched year after year. Variety specials shift and evolve — with different hosts and guests, for example. Their appeal instead hinges on an enduring formula: dances, sketches, jokes and, most important, familiar songs in the context of stories about giving to others, family and returning to the hearth. (The Musgraves and Legend specials both brought family members onto the shows.) |
| “Variety is a format that goes back to the 19th century,” Thompson said. “Vaudeville was doing that as far back as 1880, and then radio picked up on that.” | “Variety is a format that goes back to the 19th century,” Thompson said. “Vaudeville was doing that as far back as 1880, and then radio picked up on that.” |
| Through the 1930s, ’40s and into the ’50s, radio broadcast musical variety shows. Within those shows were Christmas episodes, in which the star would sing Christmas songs and guests would come on and do Christmas sketches. | Through the 1930s, ’40s and into the ’50s, radio broadcast musical variety shows. Within those shows were Christmas episodes, in which the star would sing Christmas songs and guests would come on and do Christmas sketches. |
| When TV emerged, and it was still experimental, shows needed to be done cheaply, and variety shows were cheap — cameras could be mostly positioned in a single spot and the shots were interiors. | When TV emerged, and it was still experimental, shows needed to be done cheaply, and variety shows were cheap — cameras could be mostly positioned in a single spot and the shots were interiors. |
| By the time TV established itself in the late 1940s and early ’50s, some of the biggest hits were variety shows from Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle and Red Skelton. Variety television continued to prevail until the proliferation of rock in the 1960s. And while the 1970s offered up glitzy variety shows for a new era from standard-bearers like Carol Burnett, Flip Wilson, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Sonny and Cher, there were fewer of these programs and they usually had lower ratings than similar programs from the previous era. In 1976, “The Brady Bunch Hour,” for example, lasted only nine episodes. | By the time TV established itself in the late 1940s and early ’50s, some of the biggest hits were variety shows from Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle and Red Skelton. Variety television continued to prevail until the proliferation of rock in the 1960s. And while the 1970s offered up glitzy variety shows for a new era from standard-bearers like Carol Burnett, Flip Wilson, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Sonny and Cher, there were fewer of these programs and they usually had lower ratings than similar programs from the previous era. In 1976, “The Brady Bunch Hour,” for example, lasted only nine episodes. |
| “Rock ’n’ roll really delivered the writing on the wall for variety,” Thompson said, essentially killing off the everyday variety shows, deemed culturally irrelevant. The time machine that is Christmas though allowed the genre to come back. | “Rock ’n’ roll really delivered the writing on the wall for variety,” Thompson said, essentially killing off the everyday variety shows, deemed culturally irrelevant. The time machine that is Christmas though allowed the genre to come back. |
| And come that festive time of year, come back it did. Some of variety’s biggest stars like Burnett, Bob Hope, Perry Como, Andy Williams and Johnny Cash kept up the tradition of holiday-specific shows. There was even a “Star Wars Holiday Special” in 1978. | And come that festive time of year, come back it did. Some of variety’s biggest stars like Burnett, Bob Hope, Perry Como, Andy Williams and Johnny Cash kept up the tradition of holiday-specific shows. There was even a “Star Wars Holiday Special” in 1978. |
| In the 1980s and 1990s, some of the more tenacious old-schoolers were joined by new faces like Pee-wee Herman and Vanessa Williams, who hosted their own holiday specials. And this century, an oddball mix of stars tried their hands at it, including ’NSync, Britney Spears, Ozzy Osbourne, Kid Rock, Michael Bublé and Lady Gaga, who hosted two Thanksgiving specials in the style of Christmas variety. | In the 1980s and 1990s, some of the more tenacious old-schoolers were joined by new faces like Pee-wee Herman and Vanessa Williams, who hosted their own holiday specials. And this century, an oddball mix of stars tried their hands at it, including ’NSync, Britney Spears, Ozzy Osbourne, Kid Rock, Michael Bublé and Lady Gaga, who hosted two Thanksgiving specials in the style of Christmas variety. |
| But it is those ever-changing components of Christmas variety that might be to its detriment as far as integrating itself into America’s collective memory. “Nostalgia is like a barnacle; it needs something to latch onto,” Thompson said. The sameness of classic holiday films provides that with “an infrastructure that makes them even more powerful now than they were in the first place.” | But it is those ever-changing components of Christmas variety that might be to its detriment as far as integrating itself into America’s collective memory. “Nostalgia is like a barnacle; it needs something to latch onto,” Thompson said. The sameness of classic holiday films provides that with “an infrastructure that makes them even more powerful now than they were in the first place.” |
| Variety doesn’t have that. “That’s why Christmas variety shows are a lot harder to pull off from the nostalgic standpoint because you’re not getting the original stuff, you’re getting modern interpretations of that mode,” he said, pointing out that old Como, Bing Crosby and Andy Williams specials aren’t passed down like holiday films from those eras are. | Variety doesn’t have that. “That’s why Christmas variety shows are a lot harder to pull off from the nostalgic standpoint because you’re not getting the original stuff, you’re getting modern interpretations of that mode,” he said, pointing out that old Como, Bing Crosby and Andy Williams specials aren’t passed down like holiday films from those eras are. |
| That said, one indomitable annual variety program has defined the odds: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which kicks off the Christmas season. It has aired on television since 1948. | That said, one indomitable annual variety program has defined the odds: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which kicks off the Christmas season. It has aired on television since 1948. |
| This year, over 22 million viewers tuned in, scoring a 5.5 rating among adults 18 to 49 years old, the highest for any program since the Oscars in February. | This year, over 22 million viewers tuned in, scoring a 5.5 rating among adults 18 to 49 years old, the highest for any program since the Oscars in February. |
| How has it maintained its charm? By playing by the rules that made these programs appealing in the first place, which is that they’re incredibly sincere, Thompson said. “If you’re watching a Christmas special in the first place, you’re obviously looking for something else besides cutting edge, right? Never underestimate the power of cheese.” | How has it maintained its charm? By playing by the rules that made these programs appealing in the first place, which is that they’re incredibly sincere, Thompson said. “If you’re watching a Christmas special in the first place, you’re obviously looking for something else besides cutting edge, right? Never underestimate the power of cheese.” |