TV is the New Reading

‘Yes, Virginia,’ there is

a new Christmas special

Friday premiered something on CBS I’m not certain I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. A new Christmas classic.

Most of the enduring Christmas specials -- the Grinch, Jack Frost, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -- were animated before I was born. And since that was a thousand years ago, we’re talking some old, old shows. Stop-motion animation in its infancy, trippy psychadelic snowfolk, Whos of all shapes and sizes -- it’s disheartening.

Oh, there’ve been attempts, but I don’t know that I’ve actually seen "Olive the Other Reindeer," or all of Adam Sandler’s "Eight Crazy Nights" or even the "Polar Express." I did see the Rugrats "Meanie of Hanukkah" on Nickelodeon, but again, not really the same.

I think what’s standing out to me is that this wasn’t tied to some larger franchise. The animation used in “Yes, Virginia” looked like nothing so much as the animation used in those Puffs Plus commercials, and the story was also the teeniest bit complex.

The heroine, Virginia, 8, creates a pop-up book featuring Santa, and her friends think it’s great. But Charlotte doesn’t. She’s such a mean-ol’ meanie. She’s 9½ and her mother is all about her behaving like a grown-up, so she takes it out on Virginia and her little friends.

Meanwhile, an out-of-work reporter is volunteering his days dressed as a scrawny Santa, raising money for the poor, even giving his own coat away to a young mother. Virginia and her little friend Ollie don’t think he’s really Santa, but he said he’s filling in for Santa, doing the things Santa would if he weren’t so busy. Virginia’s so impressed she buys him a new coat.

Scruffy’s old boss, Frank Church, the editor of the New York Sun, is a bit of a grump, but when Scruffy sees Charlotte making fun of Virginia’s belief in Santa, Scruffy is determined to get Church to print Virginia’s letter and affirm her belief in Santa. After all, as Virginia’s father said, “If you see it in the Sun, it’s so.”

And in a flourish of inspiration (and possibly eggnog), Church writes his half indulgent, half winking response. “Virginia, your little friends are wrong. Skeptics in a skeptical age. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love, devotion and generosity exist. How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.” Etc. etc.

The special cut regularly to something called a “Believe Meter,” which seemed to hang out at the low ebb for most of the show, right up until the end when Virginia read Frank’s editorial and believed! And a man in a red suit returned her pop-up book which she had earlier discarded, and it was a Christmas miracle.

As Christmas specials went it was a little floppy but it mostly pulled in one direction and was generally pleasant. And it didn’t bring in entirely unrelated problems like abominable snowmen and elves who were obsessed with dentisty because they have half an hour to fill and the song it’s based on barely lasts 90 seconds.

Wikipedia says yes, Terry, there have been animated "Yes Virginia" specials before now, dating back to 1974 and featuring Osmonds. But again, that’s still within my lifetime, fewer than 1,000 years old, and so the concept holds, and anyway, this did look way better than Kubla Kraus and Dommy.

Better Off Ted

ABC’s Christmas present to me was a new season of “Better Off Ted,” an office comedy with a twist. Research and development opens the door for so many funny, funny things to happen in the course of a half-hour show, like out-of-control moss or manufactured meat that tastes like despair, or a product that spontaneously grows hair on any surface, be it skin or desk.

Ted and Linda are still somehow finding flimsier and flimsier excuses not to be together. Meanwhile, Portia di Rossi as CEO Veronica continues to march around the office making ridiculous and impossible demands and driving every story right around the bend. It’s hilarious, I’m probably one of the only one who thinks so (I’m always happier with comedies without laughtracks than most viewers) and so it’s not likely to do really well, but I’m really glad ABC continues to take a chance on these characters. “Better Off Ted” follows “Scrubs” Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.

The Closer

Also enjoyable if a little bit low-energy was the fifth-season resume of “The Closer” this past Monday. Gang violence is the least interesting assignment to me of the Major Crimes Division, so when a boy is trying to join his brother’s gang -- one that their father is also in -- and stands guard while gang members sexually assault a young woman who turns up in a crisis center with a gun in her purse (they really ought to look in the purses), it was mostly anatomy of a crime. Brenda’s superior interrogation skills weren’t really all that front and center, so the writing seemed a bit tired.

That being said, Kyra Sedgwick always turns in a superior performance as Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and the show can have a breather episode from time to time where it’s mostly just her team following leads and solving a mystery. Loved the new kitten in her life and it’s so good to see Brenda and Fritz together. Their relationship is charming and covers a multitude of sins. “The Closer” airs Mondays at 9/8c on TNT.

Mostly I’m looking forward to January, and here’s why. There’s like a ton of really good shows returning in January. There’s new episodes planned for Leverage, Burn Notice, Psych, Damages, Chuck and 24, and a few new entries like Human Target with Mark Valley, a movie based on “Battlestar Galactica” called “Battlestar Galactica: The Plan,” highlighting the deployment of human-form Cylons infiltrating the human population, which seems like “V” from a different perspective, and that movie will touch off the prequel series “Caprica.” Generally, there’s a lot of good stuff to look forward to in the new year.

Until then, there’s certainly enough to hold our attention for the remainder of 2009. I’m not thinking specifically of the "Sing-Off" on NBC, which should be entertaining, but rather the holidays and new year themselves. Here’s hoping everyone is having a wonderful time.

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