Holiday Specials That Won't Induce Therapy

'Tis the season for holiday specials!

You've got all of the usual suspects--Rudolph and the Abominable Snowman and the Misfit Island peeps, Frosty and that dude who keeps chasing him for his hat, the Grinch and the Whos and the awesomest of all cartoon dogs, Max, and Charlie Brown and his poor little Christmas tree. These shows have been around for decades because they remain the best of the best. However, sometimes efforts to celebrate the season can go awry--the best example being The Star Wars Holiday Special. To this day, it elicits outrage amongst Star Wars fans and has become somewhat of an urban legend as it only aired once in the United States in 1978, and recordings of it are extremely hard to find. To those of you who have seen it and are now disturbed all over again by my mentioning it, I sincerely apologize. Word is that George Lucas himself despises it and is trying to get all remaining copies destroyed.

Two new specials are coming up in the near future that I thought some of you may be interested in... The first is clearly not going to be shown after this year, but may be fun for those of you who watched the series or are sick of reruns. It's Top Chef: The Holiday Special. They've got chefs from the first three seasons mixing up festive meals, and Padma is hosting it. It airs tomorrow at 9 PM EST.

The second may become another classic, as I've read many positive reviews for it already. So I have high hopes and am pretty excited for Shrek the Halls--it's got all of the main characters back and they're still voiced by the likes of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots rocks!!!). That one is next Tuesday the 11th at 8 PM EST.

Set your Tivos!

- e