In 1975, ABC broadcast Christmas in Disneyland, an oddball primetime special in which a grumpy old man tries to keep his grouchiness in the face of all the wonders Disneyland had to offer. It was, of course, an hour-long advertisement for the park, but the producers went all out, hiring recent Oscar winner Art Carney, as well as Sandy Duncan and Glen Campbell, to star in it.
Two years later, Disney decided to air a similar special set at their Florida project. In 1978, Walt Disney World was a very different place than it is now, with Epcot still nearly four years away from opening and Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom still just plans on easels somewhere. Still, it had become Florida's #1 tourist attraction. So America was treated to Christmas at Walt Disney World, with the headliners being that legendary comedy team Shield & Yarnell.
"Who?", you may be asking. The duo, a then-married couple, had a popular mime act at the time. And let's hope you like miming, because there is a lot of it in the show.
Their most popular characters were the Clinkers, a pair of married robots who moved in the herky-jerky style of robots and most amusement park animatronics of the era. The pair going on a trip to Disney World started the special off, and while watching it, one has to be impressed, but likely not amused, by how well they commit to their style. A logical outcome of this sketch would be the pair to meet their brethren at the park, at Pirates of the Caribbean or Carousel of Progress, for example. Instead, apparently Disney wanted to highlight the non-Magic Kingdom aspects of the resort, so instead the pair ended up at Fort Wilderness, watching people play golf before going fishing out on the lake and then enjoying a buffet while a patriotic parade passed by.
After that, we're treated to a number by Pablo Cruse, a rock band that had a couple of mild hits in 1978 before largely disappearing. They sing one of those songs, which sounds like about half the rock songs of the late 70s/early 80s era, before Shield & Yarnell come back, acting like babies. Yarnell was also a dancer, so we see her dance on Main Street USA, at least part of the time with Mickey.
Comedian Avery Schreiber pops up playing Geppetto, delivering a rather maudlin monologue about how kids grow up before singing a rather maudlin song (they needed to hire a comedian for this why?). We then cut to Shields playing Pinocchio, as he caused mayhem up and down Main Street. We then have a brief segment (under three minutes) of Phyllis Diller (arguably the person in the special most familiar with audiences in 2023) dressed as Cinderella, trading quips with a bored looking-and-sounding Danielle Fisher, who played Dee, the sarcastic sister on the sitcom What's Happening!!, after which we see neither again. Instead, it's now a ballet number with Yarnell.
For the show's final segment, set on a "snow"-covered street, Broadway star Andrea McArdle, who had rocketed to fame the year before when she played the title role in Annie, was joined by Schreiber, still playing Geppetto, and a whole host of costumed Disney characters to sing some carols, ending with a thank you and goodnight from Shield & Yarnell.
This was a rather strange special, to say the least. Other than the Christmas carols at the end, there wasn't really much Christmassy about it, as it seemed to be more of a showcase for the two stars than anything else. How much you like it, and how much it showed off Disney World, is debatable.
After this, Shields & Yarnell would continue to perform until their divorce in 1986. The next year, Yarnell would be the onscreen Dot Matrix in Spaceballs, probably what she is best known for. She would die in 2010. Shields owns a jewelry business and was at one point director of clowning for Ringling Brothers.
Christmas at Walt Disney World didn't really inspire me to book tickets to the resort, either the current version or the 1978 version. It also didn't do much to make me appreciate miming. However, it does remain an interesting artifact of the late 70s.
Next time: Santa vs. the aliens.
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