A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: Dave Foley's The True Meaning of Christmas Specials (2002)

As I've written before, Christmas specials are, far more often than not, ephemeral.  If they're lucky, they'll get repeated for a couple of years.  If they're really lucky, they'll get released on home media.  Only a tiny fraction becomes popular enough to rerun every year, even decades after their debuts.

Under normal circumstance, it's likely that Dave Foley's The True Meaning of Christmas Specials would have eventually succumbed to the same fate, despite the well-known host, the truly impressive list of guest stars, and a clever premise.  But this special was truly snakebit.  Produced in Canada (with numerous famous Canadian comedy stars) this was supposed to premiere on ABC Family in the US and CBC in Canada.  However, the Americans ended up pulling out, and no other American network picked it up.  Then, after its single showing in 2002 on the CBC, music rights prevented it from being shown again in subsequent years.  All this gave the special a bit of a "lost gem" reputation.

As the title implies, Dave Foley, a few years removed from the end of NewsRadio, hosted, as well as writing and directing.  Dave doesn't want to learn what Christmas is all about (dismissing a priest, played by Andy Richter, after pointing out the Bible verses he was quoting came directly from A Charlie Brown Christmas).  Rather, he wants to craft the perfect heartwarming Christmas special, the best location of which was not on a sunny beach with swimsuit-clad revelers, but rather a snowy country lodge in Canada.  But even there, something seems off.

As stated Foley recruited numerous superstars of Canadian comedy, including two SCTV vets (Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty), a fellow Kid in the Hall (Kevin McDonald), Tom Green, and Mike Myers.  He also brings in Jason Priestly (also Canadian) to play Santa, renowned Canadian singer Jann Arden, Canadian figure skater Elvis Stojko, and a few American ringers (in addition to Richter, the special also boasted renowned rock guitarist Dick Dale and musician Robert "El Vez" Lopez).  

Unfortunately, while there are numerous amusing moments (including Stojko rather obviously doubling for Foley during a figure skating routine, while Stojko is supposedly watching on the edge of the ice), the special never really gels into a collective whole.  Foley can't seem to decide if he wants to be a naïve innocent or a generic asshole, and while some of the guest stars are quite funny (Priestly, Thomas, Flaherty, surprisingly both Stojko and Arden), others (namely Myers and Green) fall rather flat.

Foley's post-NewsRadio career has been notoriously checkered, and its unfortunate that the fate of this special seemed to reflect that streak of bad luck.  While Dave Foley's The True Meaning of Christmas Specials is not a lost classic, I am glad it has re-emerged.  It may not be great, but it deserves to be seen.

Next time: Weihnachten in Deutschland