If you're really lucky, you might be able to find this episode of "Shower of Stars" in video stores. It is the most hysterically awful adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic ever. Despite appearances by Fredric March as a hook-nosed, Jewish-stereotype Scrooge, and the great Basil Rathbone as Marley, this production does not even do a good job of getting the story right. It kind of assumes we've all heard the story before, so instead it fills up the minutes with some of the most truly terrible songs ever composed ("What Shall I Give My Love for Christmas?" "Old Kris Kringle," "God Bless Us Everyone," just to name a few). "A Very Merry Christmas" has some of the most ingenious lyrics ever composed for the light opera: "A very, a merry, a very merry Christmas. A very, a merry, a very merry Christmas." Then the bridge: "Days may come and days may go, but this is the day of mistletoe." There is also a fantastic exchange between meek Bob Cratchit and the ultra-ebullient nephew Fred--Fred: "BOB!! How is that small child of yours?" Bob (timidly): "Very poor, I'm afraid. We don't know if he'll make it through the New Year." Fred: "Well, send him my best! And a MERRY Christmas to you, Bob! And may your days be happy, all year 'round!!" The show is only an hour long, and you get the feeling that the writers and actors made up the script as they went along. By the time they get to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, they realized they had only five minutes left, so they dropped the scene altogether and proceeded straight to Scrooge's redemption. This scene consists of Scrooge showing up at Bob's house and kind of freaking everybody out--he acts like the creepy Skeksis from "The Dark Crystal," and spaces out while Tiny Tim sings a three-minute long reprise of "God Bless Us Everyone." It has to be seen to be believed--I really wish the folks at MST3K would get a hold of this and butcher it.
