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Bill Murray's Netflix adventure "A Very Murray Christmas" is a playful reanimation of one of television's most easily mocked institutions: the light entertainment holiday special, with a star—preferably musical—and their showbiz mates pretending to celebrate Christmas together, just like the olden days. While often exceptionally cheesy, these specials were most commonly pitched somewhere between a sincere attempt at seasonal celebration and an entirely cynical move to dazzle sentimental fools with tinsel—just like Murray's offering. There's fake snow, fake sincerity, spontaneous get-togethers and singing, and a lack of irony, bickering, emotional reserve, and a sense of proportion. They are, in short, just like Christmas itself.
Here are 10 examples of the form for the uninitiated, from both American and British TV schedules past.
The Judy Garland Christmas Show
Every second of this is worth watching, and not just for the early song-and-dance appearance by a teenage Liza Minelli. This 1963 special, which makes a great show of depicting a comfortable family get-together, struggles to get past Judy's slight awkwardness as a host and the feeling that the kids were forced to take part. And yet it's clear everyone on camera is willing this thing to succeed. Still, the moment when Joey Luft (wearing a jacket that would look good on the Beatles a year later) yells "have a banana!" during "Consider Yourself" captures the alienating sensation of spending Christmas in someone else's home.
Johnny Cash & Family
In marked contrast to Judy's house of brittle family fun, Johnny Cash's TV shows never felt forced. His 1978 Christmas special could be about anything and it'd still work. He's Johnny Cash and he's more than capable of making a guest feel welcome. So he'll bring in some old friends—Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis—to do a party piece or two, start telling a few stories about old times, and end with a big sing-along, cups brimming over throughout. That's just a regular Saturday night at the Cash house.
Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank
In years to come, people will pore over the the hip banter between Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in this 1957 seasonal special in the same way the quips of Shakespeare's comedies are decoded and explained for bored schoolchildren. "You wanna grab the drape there, Leon? Get the skimmer?" is such an opaque way to ask someone to take your coat and hat; it's practically impenetrable from the other end of time's telescope.
The Carpenters at Christmas
For all that the music of the Carps has been annointed with retrospective gravitas, their TV shows do tend to linger in the shallow end of the emotional pool (as also occupied by critically unrestored Osmonds and John Denver). The cheese runs thickest whenever Karen is not singing—her hallowed voice seems lit from within even during the most nonsensical of lyrics—and the narrative of the 1977 special doesn't help. The plot: Karen plans a party and Richard decides not to go. Will big brother ruin Karen's Christmas? Of course not. He's not a monster.
Elvis (NBC Special)
The 1968 comeback special is not often considered to be a seasonal classic, mostly because there are no trees, carolers, scarves, snowmen, candy canes, gifts or sweaters, and all the proposed festive songs were taken out at the planning stage. As this footage proves, it's not about Christmas and presents, it's about charisma and presence. Elvis doesn't perform any daffy skits or duet awkwardly with a close personal showbiz friend, but that's partly because he did most of that kind of stuff in his movies, which makes this special less of a holiday reminiscence and more of a sensible New Year's resolution.
Andy Williams
The first clip in this collection of snippets from Andy Williams' many seasonal presentations captures all that is good (and strange) about the festive TV special: a crooner in a scarf and top hat walking around a Victorian ice-rink in a Christmas card, dispensing logs and magic glitter and singing. He then climbs up two rolled-in barrels and doesn't fall off or slip even once, despite the clear and present danger from all that ice. That's how good at Christmas Andy Williams was. He was a singin', swingin' Santa, and just like Santa, there's a definite air of your dad about him.
Dolly Parton Home For Christmas
Leaving aside the voice, the downhome back-story, and all the dressing up, Dolly's least appreciated skill in this 1990 special is how she appears to be entirely honest, even in the most staged of all possible situations. Her Christmas special opens in the true home of all festive celebrations—a shop—and it's not a dig at rampant consumerism either. She comes in talking ("Listen, I think I hear me singing!") and proceeds to chat and sing her way through the most expensive-looking modest Tennessee family reunion you ever did see.
Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas
Everyone knows the most Christmassy Christmas is a Victorian British Christmas, and so for Bing Crosby's 1977 festive spesh, he headed for London. Outside, the freezing sleet of punk rock drenched the streets with spit and scorn, but inside we were all toasty warm with Uncle Bing and his guests, including Ron Moody, Twiggy, and David Bowie. You may be familiar with this clip from such common cringes as "OMG THIS IS JUST THE WORST" and "and then Bowie blew it all by duetting with Bing Crosby" but guess what? It's actually pretty good (with occasional hot flashes of pure cheese), mainly because it is entirely free of Bowie's constant companions, the ironic quotation marks.
Kate Bush
Also irony-free, Kate Bush's festive TV special from 1979 is unhampered by the need to dress every set as if it's a living room with a roaring fire and put everyone in stifling woolen sweaters. Instead she puts two dancers into costume as anthropomorphized double basses (which must be even hotter), sings her own Christmas song, "December Will Be Magic Again", as if it's a sober autopsy of the festive season, and does not speak to her live studio audience once. Even her introduction to guest star Peter Gabriel is sung like a Christmas carol. Still, at least her song about Egypt is geographically close to the original nativity.
The Star Wars Holiday Special
It might be a long time ago (1978), and it might be a galaxy far away, but somehow the spirit of Christmas has managed to reach the Chewbacca family back home on Kashyyyk—Malla, Itchy and Chewie's abandoned son Lumpy—as they wait for their gargantuan space smuggler to return home to celebrate "Life Day". Along the way, we see a tabletop circus; a demonstration of Wookiee cooking; an early stab at virtual reality. There's a space cabaret (starring that cantina band and a strangely alive Greedo) and tiny cameos from all of your Star Wars favorites plus Jefferson Starship (because, y'know… starship), in what must be the strangest festive presentation of all time. (Watch the full thing here.)