Cheers—Mickey’s
Wish (Season 9)
While fans never
warmed to Sam’s orphaned nephew Mickey, and the character was dropped at the
end of season 9, the little urchin was responsible for one classic episode.
Desperate to make Mickey’s first Christmas without his parents a good one, Sam
is stifled when Mickey announces that all he wants for Christmas is one more
day with his mom and dad. Sam asks Frasier and Rebecca to pose as his deceased
brother and sister-in-law, but due to a miscommunication Norm and Carla also show up Christmas morning disguised
as Mickey’s parents. To make matters worse, a jilted Cliff shows up with a
priest in tow, dead set on preforming an exorcism. BONUS FACT: Ted Danson
recently revealed that is was during the filming of this episode that he
decided the show had run its course.
Family Matters—Steven
Got Run Over by a Reindeer (Season 7)
With the
Winslow’s distracted waiting for the results of Carl’s biopsy, A lonesome Urkel
decides to get some attention by faking an injury he claims was caused by a
runaway reindeer. It doesn’t take long for Urkel’s story to make national news,
and Urkel realizes he’s in over his head when monster hunters eager to make a
name for themselves by bagging Santa flood the town and take over Rachel’s
Place as their headquarters. Fearful
that he’s ruined Christmas for everyone, Urkel sets out to make things right by
any means necessary. This episode features the first appearance of the short
lived catch phrase ‘It’s got blood on it!’ which, while never as successful as
‘Did I do that?’ was responsible for netting over 70 million dollars in t-shirt
sales in 1996.
ER—Tis the
Season (Season 4)
The ER is
overwhelmed when a mad bomber strikes a Santa Claus convention, injuring
hundreds of Santa’s. When the police receive a note claiming that the bomber
plans on finishing the job by attacking the ER next, the staff chooses to stay
and see to their patients, making celebrities of them all. At the end of the
episode Dr. Morgenstern reveals to Dr. Greene that he was behind the bombing
and the threat, all part of a scheme to raise the hospital’s profile, and Dr.
Greene decides to keep the whole thing secret, as Morgenstern’s heart was in
the right place.
Golden
Girls—It’s the Night Before Christmas (Season 6)
The girls are
confused as to Blanche’s bah humbug attitude towards the holiday, and a
well-intentioned Rose attempts to cheer her up by hiring a male stripper to
entertain at the girl’s annual Christmas Eve party. When the stripper (guest star Billy Baldwin)
suffers a psychotic break during his performance, the girls find themselves
facing Christmas morning his hostages. The episode culminates with Rose giving
her life to free the others and returning in ghost form, a twist rarely
mentioned and largely ignored in the episodes that followed.
The
Honeymooners—Gift of the Mad Guy (Season 2)
Too broke to
afford a nice present for Alice, Ralph attempts to make some extra dough
moonlighting as an enforcer for a local loan shark. Meanwhile, Alice takes out
a hefty loan to buy Ralph a new bowling ball. When she can’t make the vig,
Ralph is dispatched to teach her a lesson—but they both learn something about
love and the spirit of the season, instead. Unfortunately, this lesson is lost
on the loan shark, who murders them both (Season 2 episodes often ended with
Ralph and Alice being killed, an experiment on the part of producer Rod Serling. Serling left the series after season 2, and the episodes he oversaw rarely appear in syndication.)
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