One more favorite thing

From our Library Director, Ted Smith:

My favorite Christmas tale is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But I'm not being completely honest. Long before I ever read Dickens, I looked forward each Christmas to watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol on TV. Yep, I cut my teeth on Dickens through a 1962 cartoon starring Mr. Magoo. How’s that for sophistication and savoir faire.


Who can forget the voice of the irascible Jim Backus as the bumbling, nearsighted Ebenezer Scrooge? Many of you may be more familiar with him from his role as multimillionaire Thurston Howell, III on Gilligan’s Island, another highly sophisticated program that I routinely devoured.

What was it that entranced me about Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol? Why, the story, of course. The first time I saw this wonderful Christmas program I was taken in by the contrasts.
Magoo/Scrooge had everything he could ever need, but he was unhappy, mean, dispirited and without friends. Bob Cratchit, his son Tiny Tim and the whole Cratchit family were the exact opposite of Magoo. They had nothing. Magoo made poor Bob work in a cold, drafty space, AND he had to work Christmas Eve and even Christmas Day. In the midst of their poverty and mistreatment the Cratchit family was filled with peace, love and charity. They were happy to share what little they had. They didn’t return evil for evil, but practiced forgiveness; and even though Tim suffered from an unnamed disease that could/would be fatal – remember we’re dealing with time and dreams and spirits and all that good stuff here, so Tim could die and then not be dead – the family was able to find joy in the midst of their predicaments.

I was always touched – I confess, I often cried, even well into my teens, while watching this movie.

I can still sing some of the lyrics with Tiny Tim that speak of his desire to have “Razzleberry Dressing” for Christmas dinner. My kids think I’m insane because not one Christmas goes by that I don’t ask for Razzleberry Dressing. Even now, as I write this silly blog, I am warmed at the remembrance of times past with my brother and sister, snuggled up by an old black and white TV, watching Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

If you’ve never seen it, you’ll probably need to purchase a copy, because once you see it, you’ll want to watch it every year. (And as of this writing, the Newport Library does not have a copy.) Yeah, the animation techniques are old, and it’s not in 3D or HD or any of that other high tech, digital stuff. It’s just all about the story, man.

More Of Our Favorite Things

Feeling a bit Scroogish this Christmas? I've got a recommendation for you.

You may be one of the millions who never watched Veronica Mars. The television show had a Nancy Drewish premise - a teenage girl private investigator - and was canceled after not quite three seasons in 2004. But this was like Nancy Drew as written by Raymond Chandler. Set in a luridly pretty southern California high school, it was a cynical little show, and our heroine, an angry and bitter rape-survivor played by Kristen Bell, was sometimes more interested in wreaking vengeance than in discovering the truth.



The centerpiece of the first season of Veronica Mars is "An Echolls Family Christmas."

Logan Echolls is Veronica's nemesis, a rich, handsome boy whom she calls, in the pilot episode, a "psychotic jackass." In "An Echolls Family Christmas," we get a glimpse into Logan's home life. His parents, a washed-up movie star and his trophy wife (the perfectly-cast Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna) are throwing a Christmas party. Beneath the tacky decorations we soon find theft, adultery, blackmail, attempted murder, and a lot of people frantically pretending to be something they're not. The episode closes with fake snow being showered through the warm California night onto hired carolers.

If It's A Wonderful Life seems just a little too sweet this year, give Veronica Mars a try.