Alright, I confess: I’m not the world’s most joyful person come Christmas time. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas. I do… well, sort of… kind of… I certainly like getting gifts… as long as they’re good gifts, that is. But, if I had my druthers, I would completely re-envision the whole Christmas scenario and eliminate the whole religion thing altogether.
Wait, I’m too late for that, aren’t I? Never you mind the whole Christian-holiday-stolen-from-the-Pagans bit, kids — Christmas is all about commercialism now, baby! Merchandising! Hot chicks in elf costumes subtly suggesting you’ll get more than a kiss under the mistletoe if you buy that brand new automobile! Creepy guys in Santa suits asking your children to come sit on their lap! Even creepier guys incessantly ringing those annoying bells outside of stores! (How do they keep from going nuts anyway? Oh, wait, that’s right — they are nuts.) Marking up the cost of goods at the beginning of the fourth quarter and then “slashing” the “regular” prices by 20% so consumers can think they’re saving money on all of the cheap plastic junk they buy on an annual basis! Yes, that’s what Christmas is all about — another triumph for capitalism! Hoorah!
Okay, okay, so I’m not expressing enough holiday cheer here, I know. But I’m a realist, folks, the type of guy who says, “Of course the glass is half empty… you just drank from it! If you had vomited into it instead, then it would be half full!” But that’s really a story for my therapy group. Do me a favor and forget everything I just said. Instead, let’s discuss that one priceless piece of history that not even those money-hungry, mass-merchandising corporations can take away from us — TV Christmas specials.
Now, I myself do not watch a lot of TV. There are currently about 13,972 channels airing entirely different versions of the same thing. Worse still, I have to pay for these channels, just so I can flip through them with the aide of a remote containing no less than 691 buttons and say, “Well, looks like there’s nothing on!”
Ah, but that’s where things have changed, kiddies, and your Uncle Luigi has the proof. It’s called TV Sets: Holiday Treats and it is a collection from CBS/Paramount containing eight classic episodes from eight of CBS’s most memorable sitcoms. Relive those moments of television’s past — without paying $69.99 a month; without flipping through the channels for hours at a time; and, most importantly, without the greedy hands of commercialism creeping in on you and urging you to buy, buy, buy!
All episodes are tightly packed onto one disc and include…
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