When ABC premiered the sitcom Webster in 1983, it was widely seen as a ripoff of NBC's long-running Diff'rent Strokes, as it also resolved around a wealthy white family that took in an orphaned Black child, played by a young actor who looked several years younger than he was. While critics might not have liked the show much, they were in agreement that the young lead actor, 12-year-old Emmanuel Lewis, was great. Like Diff'rent Strokes's Gary Coleman before him, he quickly had multiple opportunities to branch out. One such opportunity came only a year into his run on Webster, and ironically, it came for NBC, the network that was employing Coleman at the time, with another NBC star who had already appeared on an episode of Strokes.
A Christmas Dream pared Lewis with Mr. T, who had jumped to fame both because of his penchant for a mohawk haircut and numerous gold necklaces, and his work in the movie Rocky III and the hit action series The A-Team. Dream would be a change-of-pace role for T, who would play a charity Santa in the one-hour special.
This show, which doubled as a travelogue for New York City (complete with a cameo from then-mayor Ed Koch), has a storyline that had to be considered dodgy in 1984 and seems downright insane today. T's charity Santa, working outside Rockefeller Center, is approached by Lewis (who was 13 when the special was shot, but, like on Webster, is playing a child considerably younger) who is a Christmas cynical elementary school kid, wandering around the big city all by himself. "I don't have any family, just my parents", he sadly informs Santa T. T promptly invites this tiny little boy, again wandering around New York City all by himself, to join him on a trip to toy store FAO Schwartz, and then to a party at Radio City Music Hall to meet his friends. Why yes, this does sound like the start of a movie about the desperate search for Lewis by the police, but nope, this is all supposed to be heartwarming.
Most of the special consists of Lewis meeting T's friends, all of whom are played by famous names. Famed illusionist David Copperfield pops up at the toy store, to do an illusion involving a lit cigarette and a quarter, a trick that would be unthinkable today in a family special, and even in 1984 had to be accompanied by Lewis adamantly saying "No way!" when Copperfield asked if he smoked (Copperfield said he didn't either, right before he takes a couple of puffs). Ventriloquist Willie Tyler popped up a bit later as a Radio City Music Hall security guard, along with his dummy Lester, as well as a Mr. T dummy. Maureen McGovern, best known for singing Oscar-winning ballads in 70s disaster movies, comes the closest to playing herself, as the Music Hall's headliner attraction. Lewis, while watching the Rockettes rehearse, falls asleep and has the special's one literal dream, in which he is participating in the dancers' famed toy soldier routine. In addition, there's a skating performance by former Olympians Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia on the Rockefeller Center ice.
The plot, such as it is, has T and his friends trying to convince the reluctant Lewis that Christmas is worth celebrating while T is making secret phone calls and the like (it shouldn't come as too much a surprise at the end when it's revealed who he was calling). The action culminates at the aforementioned Christmas party, where Lewis, while not a great singer, does performing a charming song-and-dance to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". T then tells the Christmas story while the American Boys Choir performs several solos behind him, with McGovern singing "O Holy Night" and Lewis singing "Silent Night" before the obligatory happy ending.
Lewis would continue to pop up in various specials for the next few years (including the following year's Bob Hope special and Christmas in Washington, which were our first two entries this year), but his career would largely fizzle out after the end of Webster. These days, he lives in Georgia and works as a music producer while doing the occasional cameo as himself. T's career also declined after The A-Team, but he still continues to pop up fairly frequently in entertainment and currently serves as the spokesman for a rent-to-own appliance and furniture chain. While their days of headlining Christmas specials may be over, we will always have the time capsule of A Christmas Dream, which manages to be surprisingly charming in spite of its cheesiness.
Next time: That's a wrap for Christmas 2021. We'll be back the week after Thanksgiving next year for 12 new entries of Christmas specials, old and new. Until then, have a very Merry Christmas.
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