A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (2000)

When I was a kid, I horrified my parents by telling them that "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", a 1979 novelty song about, well, Grandma getting run over by a reindeer.  I've always had a taste for dark humor, and elementary school me found the comic horror of the situation hysterical.  Luckily, by middle school, I had moved on, and today, I recognize that the song is pretty awful.

Still, for whatever reason, it has endured, and 40 years into its existence, still gets airplay during the holidays.  It is reasonably catchy, and the dark humor can be rather appealing during this season where everything is merry and bright.  Again, that doesn't mean it's a good song, and it definitely doesn't justify an animated special, especially one that runs for an entire hour and is still shown annually on network television (admittedly, the CW, but still...).

To be fair, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, the special, is a bit better than its source material would suggest.  It's clear that this show had a budget, as the animation is bright and fluid.  We can probably attribute that to director Phil Roman, a longtime veteran in the animation business who directed numerous Peanuts and Garfield specials in the 70s through 90s, and whose company was responsible for animating The Simpsons and King of the Hill.  In short, the special looks good.  Unfortunately, strong animation can't cover up a really stupid script.

Grandma Spankenheimer (no one bothers giving her a first name) owns a popular store in the city of Townsville...er, the town of Citysville.  She's about the only independent store owner left, after everything else had been bought up by the megarich Austin Bucks, who is eager to get his hands on her store so he can tear it down and use the land to establish some sort of gift delivery system.  Understandably unimpressed with his desire to wipe out her life's work, she turns him down, to the chagrin of ultra-greedy Cousin Mel (Knots Landing vet Michelle Lee, who hopefully got a nice paycheck for this). 

Of course, Grandma does eventually get run over by a reindeer, as witnessed by her grandson, Jake, but unlike in the song, where she's clearly killed, here, she just disappears.  That's good news for Mel, who tricks Grampa (Elmo Shropshire, i.e. the guy who wrote and sang the song) into signing over control of the store and power of attorney to her, so she can sell the store to Austin Bucks.  The bulk of the rest of the special is devoted to solving the mystery of what happened to Grandma and stopping Mel from stealing the store and the money from the rest of the family (essentially moving into the plot of the lesser-known sequel song "Grampa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off Santa".  And yes, that is real). 

It's hard to get past the cynical nature of the special.  Other than Jake, Grandma, and Santa, every other character is rather a jerk.  Even Grandma's family seems to not care that much that she's disappeared, especially since the special wants to be kinder and less dark than the song.

I'm not sure that turning "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" could ever have made a good special, but maybe if it wasn't a very long hour, and they had emphasized the black humor of the song more, it might have worked.  The special is for megafans of the song.  If you're not that, you can probably safely skip it.

Next time: Celebrity variety specials aren't just for broadcast TV anymore