Plagiarist Picks: What To Watch, Holiday Edition

In addition to all the advertisements, 'tis the season for the various networks to put forth various holiday-related dreck. And 'tis the season for me to be a sucka and watch as much of it as possible. So here's what I'll be watching this month - so far, anyway.

Regardless of whether you have TiVo, I'm using the Tivo Central Online links as a good way to find out when the program is playing.

Note: Yes, most of these are primarily Christmas-related, mainly because I have yet to see a good Hanukkah or Kwanzaa special.

The Christmas Special Christmas Special - Trio It doesn't get more meta than this. I watched this program last year and was fascinated. This special covers the numerous specials - the good, the bad and the ugly, from Charlie Brown to Pee Wee to South Park - how they came into existence, the controversies behind them, and why some became instant classics. There's some great dirt in there about Judy Garland being her typical drunk self, screwing up other specials and barely making it in time for her own. Highly recommended.

Great Things About The Holidays - Bravo This is likely to be a pretty fluffy 60 minute special (including commercials), but just like the VH-1 shows, I can't get enough.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - ABC Really? I have to explain why? No, I don't.

Denis Leary's Merry F**ing Christmas Special - Comedy Central Michele, this is for you, since you're probably not in the holiday mood yet and are upset that I've betrayed you by going to the dark side. I watched this one the other night. It has some high points: a really good Bush impersonator, a Charlie Brown parody that I imagine they're going to get sued for, and a catchy theme song, and some low points: Charlie Murphy, who isn't funny without Dave Chappelle, Barenaked Ladies, whose talents were completely wasted in this show, and a few of the Leary rants. Hey Denis, it's your special: memorize all your bits, because it's painfully obvious when you're reading from the Teleprompter, and just adding a few "Okay?"s after each sentence doesn't hide it. The memorized ones, however, are hysterical.

Celebrate! Christmas With Maya Angelou - Hallmark No, I'm not really going to watch this. But ASHFORD AND SIMPSON, people!! Come ON! SOLID!

The Secret Life Of Christmas - Food Network This seems right up DWS's alley: interesting facts and the origins of holiday food and traditions.

20 Merriest Christmas Videos - CMT Also up Mike's alley: country videos.

Various HGTV Specials - HGTV (These aren't all listed on TiVo yet, so links point to HGTV.com.) I just found out that HGTV has TONS of really ridiculous Christmas programming. Like All Out Christmas, which focuses on wackos like the guy in my last post who did that unbelievable light show. And Warm Weather, White Christmas, which focuses on Christmas decorations in warm locations. Really, everything on HGTV is for obsessives only.

More to come as I hear about it.