Why didn’t anyone tell me there was an All That Christmas Special?! I should have been watching it 1995 and not finding out about it on iTunes over a decade later! Also it’s only eighteen minutes and forty-five seconds long, so there is no excuse for not watching this. If you’re like “ahhh the holidays are driving me crazy! I have no time to be festive!” then I recommend you sit down right now and watch this very short children’s program. A lot of these are greatest hits (Super Dude, Cooking with Randy and Manny, Vital Information for your every day life). Do not let the short running time fool you into thinking there aren’t a lot of sketches. There are plenty of sketches. It’s just that some of them are like one minute long.
Anyway, the episode starts off with the meaning of Christmas: materialism. All of the kids tell Santa what they want for Christmas, including Josh who says he is Jewish but is awarded a new computer anyway. Kenan and Lori Beth are excluded because they are not on the nice list this year. Everyone else pretty much asks for the most 90’s stuff ever. I’m surprised someone didn’t request moon boots.
Things All That Kids Want for Christmas:
-Katrina wants a cordless phone
-Monique wants Denzel Washington
-Alisa wants rollerblades (and a lot of other stuff)
-Kel wants $50 cash immediately for a date (well I guess that’s something that has stood the test of time. Santa, if you do exist. Please bring me $50 immediately. I don’t have a date but I would like a little help on my groceries).
So basically this is just an All That episode but every sketch has a Christmas theme. Randy and Mandy’s cooking show is all about making chocolate meals (as usual) but they also include recipes for Chocolate Matzah Ball Soup and Chocolate Turkey Stuffing. Then they mix a chocolate milkshake in Kenan’s mouth and it feels like such a choking hazard that I wonder if this would be allowed today.
Then we get to see Superdude overcome his lactose intolerance and defeat the Milkman, who has kidnapped Santa. Did anyone else feel like Josh as “Milkman” in Super Dude was just doing his best Jim Carrey impression? Actually, maybe all of Josh’s characters are his impersonation of Jim Carrey.
This is only 19 minutes long! Where is the musical guest? Did the DVD cut it?
Anyway, French with Pierre Escargot is still the best part of this show.
Very Special Lesson: There was a severe lack of Lori Beth Denberg in this episode.
Vital information only had 2 lines and neither of them were great. Lori Beth was only been in this episode for 30 seconds total! I would like to send a message to the producers of All That and ask them to get into their space-time-machine and please re-write this episode to include her as an additional villain in the Super Dude sketch. We want to see the stakes raised in a holiday episode! And why have you squandered her talent?!
Very Special Fun Fact: Malcolm-Jamal Warner directed this episode. Also, apparently the episode was 24 minutes long and iTunes ripped me off. Run DMC performs “Christmas in Hollis” in the original performance and there is also a sketch called The Girls’ Christmas Carol.
Mr. Sheffield is not going to be home for Christmas. His kids even know that he uses a personal shopper to buy all of their gifts. Fran asks little Gracie, who is too cynical to believe is Santa, what she would ask of him for Christmas if she did believe. Gracie says that she would wish for her dad for Christmas. Well, I think we know where this episode is going.
So Mr. Sheffield decides to go out of town to raise money for a children’s charity instead of spending Christmas with his own children. She did, however, convince Mr. Sheffield to pick out the children’s gifts himself. What she didn’t realize, is that he also picked out a gift for her as well in lieu of a Christmas bonus. So she pawns the gorgeous vase he got her in order to pay for the gifts she had already charged on her credit card. But Mr. Sheffield gives her this beautiful speech as snow falls on him in the doorway (soon) about how he picked it out just for her and hopes she will cherish it, etc, etc.
So Fran rushes back to the pawn shop and pawns her grandmother’s watch (a family heirloom) in order to get the vase back. In a weird kind of not really gift-of-the-magi situation, Niles alerts Mr. Sheffield to the situation and he tracks down the watch at the pawn shop. But it isn’t her grandmother’s watch. It’s some random stranger’s watch. Then Mr. Sheffield accidentally sits on the vase and ends up in the hospital with chards of glass in his butt.
But hey they get to spend Christmas together and Gracie believes in Santa because her wish came true! Mr. Sheffield tells Gracie that it was his Christmas wish to spend time with them too. (Uh yeah okay but that didn’t stop you from scheduling a fundraiser on Christmas Day…)
Very Special Lesson: Sometimes it takes a Jewish Nanny to remind a WASP family of the true meaning of Christmas.
So great was my JTT fever that I begged my mom to get this movie on pay-per-view, which means I saw it in like the summer. And I loved JTT so much that I wasn’t even jealous that it wasn’t Christmas in my world. I haven’t seen this movie since that pay-per-viewing. But that’s all changed now. This is viewing 2.0.
So first off here are some things that were lost on me as a kid. I didn’t understand that they were in high school. It’s pretty obvious that they are boarding school kids, but when I was an elementary school kid, I thought that I was watching a movie about college students. And I’d like to assert that it was actually a fairly reasonable assumption on my part because JTT starts off this movie by buying tickets to Cabo San Lucas for he an his girlfriend (Jessica Biel) to spend Christmas. Even as a kid, I knew that romantic holiday getaways were reserved for legal adults. Or so I thought. But like apparently JTT is such a sneaky high schooler that he actually manages to secure those tickets and a three bedroom condo on the beach. It’s a Disney movie, so that must be why there are three bedrooms for two people.
Lately, I’ve been really feeling my inner 90’s kid. I think it has something to do with the fact that my brain is like “holy crap you’ve been around for a quarter of a century and what is happening in your life??” This has led to a large desire on my part to go back to kindergarten immediately. Clearly, that is not an option, so I’ve been embracing 90’s specific nostalgia extra hardcore lately.
So with all that in mind, I have to say. This movie is so 90’s. I cannot even handle it. I am 11.5 minutes in right now and I had to pause it to take a breather. So far the following things have happened:
JTT referred to the internet as “the net”
The cool kids talked about trying to sneak into The Viper Room
Jessica Biel has a Lisa Leslie jersey on her dorm room wall
JTT helps the cool kids cheat on their exams WITH BEEPERS
People have been using so many cordless landlines!!!
Robby from 7th Heaven is hitting on Mary from 7th Heaven but it is NOT okay because she is with JTT in this movie.
So Robby (for purpose of this film, Andy) so badly wants to get with Mary (for purposes of this film, Allie) that he goes full on sociopath and sabotages JTT’s beeper cheating scam, so that he can then rally the cool kid to kidnap JTT and strand him in the middle of the desert wearing a Santa suit. I mean it’s all fun and games until someone dies in the middle of the deserts all because of a beeper cheating scam. So anyway, the reason why it’s particularly awful that JTT is stuck in the middle of nowhere as Santa is that his dad has managed to discover the Cabo San Lucas tickets and bribed JTT with a 1957 porsche if he comes home for Christmas Dinner. Moreover, he has exchanged the tickets for two plane tickets to New York (since Allie got super mad at him for trying to sneak her away to Mexico when she just wants to go home to a snowy, family-filled holiday).
When JTT doesn’t show up to go to the airport with her, Allie gets all mad at him for being a slacker. She isn’t into Andy, but he offers her a ride home and she feels like she should take it. I mean hello there is a MISSING CHILD and no one calls a police officer? See why I thought they were all adults in this movie?! When JTT finally manages to call his dad to explain his circumstances, his dad thinks he’s just making up an excuse and dragging his feet about coming home.
So from here on out when cut in between JTT trying to get to New York (for both the porsche and his girlfriend) and Andy trying to seduce Allie. Allie in this movie really reminds me of Jo from The Facts of Life, but I believe that she really does love JTT and is not in a secret lesbian relationship with her roommate. But like anyway, it’s easy to see why Andy likes her.) Also, their road trip features this non-“Barbie Girl” song by Aqua. Yep. I mean holy crap the 90’s, am I right?
Stop the presses! JTT just said “Yeah, no duh” non-ironically! And he says this while trying to reunite a police officer with his scorned wife. Oh my! But now that I’ve interrupted the flow of this commentary, I would like to ask a simple question. How come all of these teenagers are driving themselves home for the holidays? When I was in college people still had to have their parents pick them up at end of the semester. Where did all of these people get cars? They obviously come from super wealthy families. But like their parents are just like no it’s cool, honey, you drive home cross-country with a mere acquaintance and stay in multiple hotels. And I’m not even talking the obvious hanky-panky. I mean like I actually cannot fathom staying in multiple hotels as a high school senior and driving from California to New York. I would have lost my freaking mind with stress, and also I don’t think anyone would have let me into a hotel room. I think they would have called the department of social services.
Okay wtf someone just rented them the honeymoon suite! Okay, now I’m concerned about the obvious hanky-panky. He has been so creepy this entire time and now she is forced into sharing a sex-room with him?! Disney, like who are you guys?! But like I guess he is kind of sweet because she makes him wear all of his clothes (including his mittens) to make sure that he has to behave himself, and he’s totally game put everything on including winter coat and mittens. He also sleeps on top of the sheets. But that actually may have been so that he did not die of heat stroke.
Okay, so JTT does a ton of obnoxious stuff in order to try to get home, but the most ridiculous (and the only one I feel super obligated to point out) is find a weird man who is about to eat some straight up raw meat and then passing that raw meat off as a liver that needs to be donated to Allie (at a hotel room) STAT. It’s pretty hard to keep all of this from Allie (the porsche, the fake liver, etc.) and she calls him a “butthole,” which in 90’s teen-speak I think means they broke up. But this gives way to Andy and JTT getting to ride the rest of the way home together and like it’s hilarious! Omg 90’s teen stars! (Also, why do all of these people live in New York and go to school in California? The have SO much money. Why aren’t they at NMH or Phillip’s? This is such a party boarding school, isn’t it. This is like the Faber College of boarding schools, isn’t it?) I got a little distracted and anyway JTT ends up in a Santa race. Why did I get distracted? I spilled water all over my untreated wood coffee table. Why do I have an untreated wood coffee table? Because it was free on the street.
Okay, so Wikipedia says that JTT participated in the Santa race because Andy decided that he was ultimately too jealous to be nice to him/give him a ride and then JTT had to enter this race because the prize was an airline ticket and he has to get home. But it turns out that the mayor always wins the race and gives the money to the less fortunate, so JTT gives him the winnings even though he won the race.
Then JTT’s kid sister takes pity on him and buys him a plane ticket with her life sayings. (Um what happened to must be 18 or older to call?) But JTT cannot get on the plane because he doesn’t have ID. So then he like stows away in the dog kennel area I think…and manages to survive that…only to be tossed off of a metronorth train (how did he get to metronorth form the airport?!?) and then he finally makes it home by holding onto the roof of a car. Oh wait just kidding! Not home yet! Nope, he has to use a sleigh stolen from a parade for that. Well, this kid is just straight up squandering his chances of getting into a good college. But hey! He does eventually get the girl. And then he intentionally shows up late to dinner, so that his family will know that the car was not the important thing!
*Oh and by the way Robby from7th Heaven is actually named Eddie in this movie, but I had already written 1000 words calling him Andy, so I figured it was just easier to make this note at the end of the post. Also, I didn’t know where to write about this earlier, but there’s a weird scene in which JTT removes Robby/Eddie/Andy’s towel in the hotel room in what I guess is supposed to be an inappropriate power play, but also isn’t showing your girlfriend some other guy’s naked body like probably not the best move?
Very Special Lesson: JTT just commands an audience man! He’s so fun to watch. Sorry he wanted to leave acting and like study and get degrees and stuff. But he’s probably a better person for it. We should all strive to be more like JTT. And I think also something like home is for the holidays and cars aren’t as important as people?
Also, shout out to *Nsync for providing the credits music. They made a great holiday album guys.
I feel like I just wrote an Opus. Did any of you make it this far?
This is a very special episode in which nothing happens. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. We have to learn a very important lesson and yet we see nothing at all about the consequence of our actions! Okay, wait let me back up.
Randy and Brad are canvassing the neighborhood in support of something that we only know as “the charity.” They are raising so much money for “the charity” that they realize how much stuff they could buy for themselves if they keep 50% of what they are supposed to be giving to “the charity.” Things go great and they end up buying a ton of stuff, while also getting their mom’s approval for working so hard to raise money for “the charity.” Not even when Jill finds the loot in Brad’s book bag do we learn the true name of “the charity.” Finally, when she and Tim confront Brad and Randy with they evidence, we learn they were supposed to be raising money to donate to the “Oak Lane Children’s Center” for children who have “next to nothing.”
Okay, so time to go down and meet some friendly orphans in order to learn the true meaning of Christmas, right? Nope. Brad and Randy come home from apologizing (off camera) and Randy is mad at Brad because Brad didn’t talk at all and Randy had to apologize for the both of them. But then Brad saves the day by pointing out some toys that he and Randy no longer play with and can donate to the center. Problem solved! In other news, Tim’s Christmas lights are blinding, and Al gets stuck in a fake chimney as Santa Claus while The Manhattan Transfer performs on Tool Time.
Very Special Christmas Lesson: If you steal money from charity, be sure to make up for it by giving the kids some of your old crappy toys for the holidays.
If you haven’t checked out The Art of Eating books, then you really owe it to yourself to read this awesome blog. What I love about this blog is that it makes the worlds of our favorite books more tangible. It seems like this blogger has found a unique way to participate in some classic stories. As I have previously mentioned on this blog, I don’t really enjoy cooking…but I definitely enjoy eating, so I feel like I’ve reached some kind of a compromise with the chore (sorry cooking fans, I know that sounds like blasphemy to you). Anyway, this most recent post on “The Art of Eating Books” really resonated with me in part because I’m going to embark on cooking my mom’s recipe beef stew this weekend. (I purchased pre-cut stew beef thanks to a tip from hemcfeely at Meta’s 1942 Meals).
Okay, so yeah maybe some of the titles leaned a little “very special.”
But I also really loved today’s post specifically because I loved those books so much as a kid. I originally read the mystery books, which my friend’s older brother would give me on occasion. I didn’t have any older siblings of my own, so this was one of those cherished moments when I got to imagine what it might be like to be a kid sister. And I didn’t get to imagine this with some awful older brother (like from The Wonder Years) but with a really awesome older brother, who would every so often lay out all of his Boxcar Children books on his bedroom floor. Then he would carefully consider all of the books, picking them up and giving them the once over one last time. Sometimes he would pull a couple out of the display and set them to the side. Those were the ones he wanted to keep. The ones that were so good he wanted to read them again. But really he wanted to read them all again. The ones so thoughtfully laid out before me were simply the ones he could bear to part with. And that was best part of all of this–that it was truly a gift.
I don’t remember this one. This one looks weird.
He wasn’t just trying to unload his old books on me. He genuinely loved all of them, but he knew that I loved them too. And like any good older brother, he wanted to share that love for books. The stipulation was that I could always pick out x number of books from the display. The number varied based upon the market value of his library (a.k.a. how many he super wanted to read again). So then I would carefully consider all of the titles and covers. He would tell me which ones he liked best, or which ones he though might most appeal to me. (At this point one or two more books might disappear from the display again.I would hope to get this back in the selection sometimes later on in the rotation.) Finally, I would make my selections. If I was particularly torn between two books, he usually gave me both of them. This was in part because he was (and is still) an incredibly nice person, but I also think it was because he loved the stories all so much that he found it somewhat unreasonable to ask anyone to decide between them.
I totally loved these mystery books. It wasn’t until about the second or third grade (after years of Boxcar books) that I actually read the first book. It isn’t a mystery, which was shocking and disappointing to me. I only felt this way because it wasn’t what I had expected and come to love. It is an adventurous tale though and I did come to like it. But mostly I felt anxious for these kids who had to run an entire household out of a boxcar. But hey, I’m just now tackling beef stew so they’re obviously way ahead of me.
I was getting ready to draft a post about another 21 Jump Street episode when I was like “hold up, someone needs to give a major shout out to Holly Robinson Peete for not only starring as the incomparable Officer Judy Hoffs, but also for singing this bitchin’ theme song.” Then I proceeded to stop what I was doing and rock out to that awesome theme song, featuring Peter Deluise and Johnny Depp on backup vocals. I didn’t draft that post and instead I’m writing this post about people who starred in and sang their show’s theme song. I’ve excluded the obvious like The Brady Bunch, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, etc.
21 Jump Street performed by Holly Robinson Peete (Office Judy Hoffs)
The Facts of Life, Season 1 performed by Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garett)
Fraiser performed by Kelsey Grammer
Green Acres by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor
Baywatch, closing credits, performed by David Haselhoff (that lead lifeguard, right? did they have characters?)
YouTube does not have the first part of this movie, but let me briefly summarize the first ten minutes of every Lifetime drama. There is a girl (Danica McKellar/Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years) who comes from a nice family but is bored with her home life. Aside from her strict parents, life is great. Then she dates some boy that they do not approve of. This “boy” looks (may actual be) twenty-five and her mom notes that he seems too old (probably because he is a creepy baby snatcher). This is a movie about a creepy baby snatcher.
Danica plays a really naïve girl. She dates a creepy dude who is all like I totally understand you and nothing bad will every happen with me, which of course means he is manipulating her and all of the bad things will happen. Danica seems to be a student of the fingertip-method. She’s constantly rubbing the creepers back and right now she seems to be playing with his chest hair, which I do not appreciate.
She gets pregnant almost immediately, which you should have expected because this movie is about cradles. And conspiracies. Kenny (that’s the baby snatcher’s name) tells her from the comfort of his trailer that he does not want her to have an abortion because he is personally opposed to it (so glad he has an opinion) and that he will take care of everything. (He kind of does if “taking care” means baby stealing).
On Danica’s seventeenth birthday her parents give her a prized family heirloom (one year ahead of schedule) and tell her that she’s the perfect child. This loving home environment creates an intense amount of pressure, and she runs away instead of confiding them. She brings a stuffed animal with her because she is still a child herself!
Kenny convinces her to give the baby up for adoption because the two of them are not ready to be parents. He then takes her to a very sketchy motel in Louisiana full of pregnant ladies just waiting to give their babies away. She even meets one lady who has no other place to go, so she stays at the motel and keeps having babies for the adoption agency via artificial insemination (which creepily reminds me of The Giver).
Danica’s parents eventually find out from her best friend that she has answered an ad in the newspaper. They manage to find the ad and contact the local authorities, who inform them that the adoption agency is fake and that they are really selling babies. They arrange a phone rendezvous, but Danica’s dad ruins the whole thing by telling her that Kenny is going to jail because he got some other girl pregnant and tried to steal her baby. Things get really weird when the baby snatchers straight up murder a girl who accused them of stealing her babies. Then Kenny tells Danica that they have to run away because she’s a runway and runaways go to jail for running away. She’s more naïve than I thought because she believes him completely. Luckily, the cops show up right as they flee the building.
Then Danica’s mom tries to make her keep the baby. (She’s overbearing in case you forgot). She even brings the kid that Danica wanted to put up for adoption into the hospital room to hang out for a while. I guess she wants her to think about her decision, but it kind of seems like she’s not respecting her decision. So it turns out that the reason her mom has been freaking out about keeping the baby is that she was also a teen mom and her parents made her give up the kid. She tells Danica that this horrible experience was what made it so important to her to give Danica a choice. But really it seems like she decided that she wanted a baby and kept being like hey let’s keep my grandchild, hey let’s bring my grandchild home, hey let me tell you this heart-wrenching story from my youth while I’m bottle feeding the baby you didn’t want to have.
The next day, Danica is okay with being a mom because she has to comfort her crying baby when no one else is at home to do so. Then Kenny shows up at the house and literally snatches the baby from her arms. And by literally snatches, I mean she hands the baby over to him because he is the dad. Ugh, look I get it at first, but this is ridiculous. You are such an idiot, Danica! The cops pull Kenny over for speeding and recover the baby. Then she gives him a mushy speech about family that obviously means nothing to him. She buys him off with a ring and he gives up custody.
Very Special Lesson: I think there are a few lessons we can all learn from this. Number one, don’t become impregnated by a sociopath and (if you do) do not follow said sociopath across state lines. Secondly, do not put undue expectations on your teenagers, though it’s probably a bit of an extreme reaction for them to become impregnated by sociopaths and cross state lines. Finally, do not live vicariously through your pregnant teen daughter to fill the void of the baby you lost, even though she seemed cool with keeping the kid after you already made her take it home.
I hope you guys liked my Saved by the Bell & Baby-Sitters Club mashup book covers. I liked it so much that I’ve decided to do it again with Boy Meets World and Sweet Valley High. I got the light box out for this and it turns out I’m realllllly bad at writing in the letterman style of the book covers. The first one was so painstaking that I gradually strayed from them until I ended up with the burn-book style cover for the last one. The covers are (in order) the stand off between Harley and Griff (Adam Scott), that time Shawn joins a cult, and that time that Topanga dated Jonathan Jackson.
So we all know how Zack is the perfect most caring, cool dude ever right? Wrong. Zack hates fat people.
Hard times have fallen on the Bayside Student Council and they do not have the money to pay for new cheerleading uniforms. If you doubted that 90’s fashion is back in full swing, then look no further because the dude who suggests that they have a fundraiser for cheerleading uniforms is dressed exactly like no less than fifteen men in my office at any given time.
Zack decides that a fundraiser is a great time to auction of people as dates because you know sex sells. But wait. It’s not creepy. Jessie says that it is creepy, but Kelly and Lisa say it is not creepy. And if there is one thing I’ve learned from Bayside, it’s that Kelly and Lisa make the rules.
At the date auction, no one bids on Slater. That’s because Jessie has threatened all of them.
But then Kelly feels bad for Slater and she pays $10 to put him out of his misery. So then Jessie blindly bids on the next person without even seeing him and it turns out to be Screech.
A girl whose name Zack couldn’t even remember when he tried to flirt with her at The Max bids $75 on him. Gross. But then our very special guest star (Wendy) pays $100 dollars and wins the date! Zack is such a jerk almost immediately, treating her as if being large is some kind of highly contagious form of Leprosy.
But wait! This is a two for the price of one very special episode!
Lisa buys a date with the guy who suggested the fundraiser, but he thinks she is an idiot and that hurts her feelings.
2 women. 1 scorned for her body. 1 scorned for her brain.
Lisa decides to totally change her personality à la Sandy from Grease, whereas Zack constantly ignores Wendy and lies in order to avoid hanging out with her. But Wendy catches him in the lie and decides to go to the dance alone.
So how does Zack learn to stop being such a shallow turd person? Well, he tells Jessie to stop whining about having to go to the dance with Screech because he is a nice person and she will hurt his feelings. Then Jessie is all like woah this is exactly like your situation with Wendy! And Zack is all like omg how have I been so awful?
Zack decides to reconnect with Wendy at the dance, but she won’t have anything to do with him. She’s not interested in dancing with him just so he can stop feeling guilty. (I love this girl.)
Lisa only realizes that her date is a jerk when he insults all of her friends. Agh, too real. But at least she figured it out after only one date.
Finally, Zack tells Wendy that he would really like to dance with her because he likes her. They agree to hang out at The Max after the dance and then we never see her again.
Very Special Lesson: Be nice to the uncool kid once to prove that you are not a jerk, but then you never have to talk to her again.
This episode starts off on Halloween morning with everyone chatting about how mopey Hilary has been ever since her fiancee died, and when will she just let it go? I know, right. Hilary is so unreasonable being bummed about the fact that she’s lost the person she’s supposed to spend the rest of her life with. It has been two whole months since Trevor died in a bungee jumping accident, so it is clearly time to move on. It is so like her to be melodramatic and whiney! Thankfully, hope is on the horizon because Hilary has a date! Everyone is so excited for her, until they find out that her date is with dead Trevor. It turns out that Hilary has paid for a seance so that she can talk to her dead lover, and she needs the family to go with her to help her conjure his spirit. Also, Carlton dresses up as his idol, Macaulay Culkin.
At the seance, lead by a medium played by Glenn Shadix of Heathers and Beetlejuice, Hilary decides that the most important thing to ask Trevor where she left her black suede purse. While the medium/Trevor attempts to answer her, Will decides the entire thing is ridiculous and breaks the spiritual chain. The medium tells them that they will have to comeback tomorrow if they want to speak to Trevor again, and Will calls him a fake.
Naturally, the medium curses him and the entire family. No one takes this curse seriously (duh, the guy is a fake) until Uncle Phil gets a phone call and learns that he has been suspended from the bench due to taking bribes. Now, Uncle Phil is an upstanding dude who would never take bribes, but they have proof. The curse strikes again when Carlton’s hair turns into a rainbow color (which could be a by-product of his Macaulay Culkin hair color) and Ashley is attacked by a malfunctioning Tennis ball machine. Oh and also Jeffrey the butler (whose last name is Butler) gets arrested for being an illegal immigrant. When Hilary is about to marry DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will realizes he needs to go back to the medium and set things right.
However, the medium’s house does not seem to be the same as it was before. In fact, the medium does not seem to be a medium either. He is just an average man who has never seen Will and assumes he is trying to rob him (you can take the Fresh Prince out of West Philly…) Then Will cries and shouts at him to “break the hex” only to wake up from a nightmare. Oh my gosh you guys, don’t worry. It is just a dream! Except that Will wakes up and he is reliving the same exact day/dream/what?? This is some kind of transcendental-metaphysical-Groundhog Day shit and Will cannot do anything to change the conversation! But I do appreciate that he names all of the members of New Edition in the exact order that Ralph Tresvant does during the rap portion of “Cool It Now.” Better luck next time Will.
Halloween Lesson: Do not anger the spirits. Whatever you do, do not anger the spirits.
So basically this is just an All That episode but every sketch has a Christmas theme. Randy and Mandy’s cooking show is all about making chocolate meals (as usual) but they also include recipes for Chocolate Matzah Ball Soup and Chocolate Turkey Stuffing. Then they mix a chocolate milkshake in Kenan’s mouth and it feels like such a choking hazard that I wonder if this would be allowed today.
Hard times have fallen on the Bayside Student Council and they do not have the money to pay for new cheerleading uniforms. If you doubted that 90’s fashion is back in full swing, then look no further because the dude who suggests that they have a fundraiser for cheerleading uniforms is dressed exactly like no less than fifteen men in my office at any given time.
The Very Special Blog 