Happy Independence Weekend! As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (and wonder if this nation will make it another 250 minutes), this seems like the perfect time to talk Christmas specials!
As you might remember from December, I had 12 entries planned for the 2025 edition of A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas. Alas, time got away from me, and by the end of the holidays, I had only had a chance to write 8 of them. With four entries left, I decided not to hold them until Christmas 2026, but instead take advantage of the four Sundays in July to bring you a bonus A MarkInTexas Made-For TV Christmas in July over the next few Sundays.
Believe it or not, there was some genuine concern about a year and a half ago that Sesame Street might be coming to an end. HBO, which had been funding the show for a decade, had decided to not renew their contract, as part of the channel/streamer's general retreat from family programming. Of course, in this day of IP, it seemed pretty unlikely that no one would step up to save the most iconic children's program of all time, and in spring 2025, the announcement was made that Netflix would be taking over production of the show. Naturally, for the content-hungry streamer, that also included new specials, and they didn't waste time producing their first one, Elmo and Mark Rober's Merry Giftmas, which premiered in December.
It's Christmastime again on Sesame Street, and everyone is exchanging gifts (including a brief exchange of Hannukah and Kwanzaa gifts). Indeed, as Elmo and Abby explain, it's not just Christmas but Giftmas, in which you make a special gift for someone to let them know how much you love them (this being Sesame Street, this is of course accompanied by a song). Elmo and Abby picked themselves to exchange gifts with, as did Grover and Cookie Monster, but none of them are sure how to proceed. Enter Rober, a former NASA scientist and engineer who founded CrunchLabs, which is devoted to getting kids interested in STEM subjects. Rober takes Elmo to his secret lab underneath Sesame Street, where the other three all eventually join them, as do Big Bird and Oscar, who mostly act as the special's comic relief.
Like most Sesame Street productions, this is designed to be both entertaining and educational, and I found myself amused by the various Muppet antics, plus I genuinely learned some things (such as gingerbread for gingerbread houses--or, in this special, gingerbread rocket ships--need to actually be not that tasty in order to hold up).
The special also sends a nice message that it is OK to fail and mess up, because failing is how you learn. I'm not sure if that lesson needed to be in song form (with a song called "Failure is Awesome", which features Rober's less-than-impressive singing), but it's a good message nevertheless.
As someone who hasn't watched the parent show in years, I was a bit surprised that, other than Rober and a couple of his own scientists, no other humans appeared on camera. Apparently, there are still some human regulars on the show, but they've largely been pushed aside for more Muppet content. It's hard to blame them--after all, they know their audience, and a lot of people of my generation will likely recall Bert and Ernie (who only make a quick cameo appearance here) much faster than Gordon and Susan. Still, the lack of humans denies the show some grounding. It's also a bit surprising that Rober signed off on some of the more sci-fi elements of the episode, such as that gingerbread rocket actually being capable of taking Cookie Monster to space (don't worry, he's back home in time for the finale). Indeed, a show focusing on actual, doable science projects rather than the fantasy inventions of this episode might have been a better take, especially given this was probably watched a lot by bored kids on Christmas break.
But these are minor quibbles. Overall, Elmo and Mark Rober's Merry Giftmas is a fun half-hour. It's not groundbreaking, but it doesn't have to be. Based on this, Sesame Street is in pretty good hands with Netflix for the foreseeable future.
Next time: A pair of specials from one of the more prominent Christian stars turned pop stars of the 90s.
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