I remember being a fan of Lizzie McGuire, but I have no memory of this episode. Maybe it’s because it was an Aaron Carter episode? I felt like he was a celebrity that was so heavily marketed to my demographic that I was just kinda not ever going to be a fan.
So Lizzie’s going to get into some super-secure music video shoot by using her school “press pass” where she plans to meet Aaron Carter and interview him for the “school webzine.” But you know, since it’s just some little piece of paper a middle school teacher printed up and laminated, her “press pass” doesn’t get them into the shoot. When the press pass doesn’t work, they decide to dress up as elves and sneak in as “extras” for the video shoot. That doesn’t work either, but Lizzie’s brother Matt gets in when he is mistaken for an Aaron Carter stand-in.
Lizzie and her friends finally make it into the shoot when they hide behind her Dad’s car as he drives through. He has a pass and was planning to take the kids with him to the set, but they don’t know that, so they now plan to hide from him for the entire time that they are there. Ugh. This is such a Disney plot. Hiding from your parents and being “rebels” while doing exactly nothing wrong.
In the midst of running from Lizzie’s dad and the one bumbling security guard on-set, they stumble into Aaron’s dressing room. Shortly thereafter, they’re discovered by Aaron’s manager who tells them in no uncertain terms to GTFO. But Lizzie asks if just one of them can meet Aaron because it’s Christmas and that’s a time of magical wish granting. Lizzie is such a good friend that she let’s her friend Miranda meet him, so that she can sing for him and get a music career or whatever. All of this happens off-screen.
But wait! Lizzie forgot her tape recorder in Aaron’s dressing room, so she goes back and knocks on the door to see if she can retrieve it. Aaron answers the door! And has the tape recorder in hand! Her name is on the tape recorder (thanks label makers of the early 2000s) so he says “Is this yours?” and she’s like “Yeah.” And he’s like “Merry Christmas, Lizzie McGuire.” Oh and BTW there is mistletoe over his door, so he just kisses her, which Lizzie thinks is romantic but like I dunno. It’s kinda weird to be kissing strangers without asking with or without a poisonous plant hanging over your heads.
As Lizzie rejoins her friends, the security guard shows up and is ready to take them to “detention” which is a weird room where he’s also holding both of Lizzie’s parents hostage. (Her mom showed up to get her after the security guard called her, but he didn’t know where Lizzie was and then locked her mother up when she tried to look for her because she “didn’t have a pass.” Sounds like a lawsuit to me…)
Luckily, the director shows up and wants to use them all as “stunt elves” in the music video because he was very impressed with their skills in dodging the security guard. So they head off to be in the music video which is OMG NOT EVEN A CHRISTMAS SONG. It’s just Aaron Carter’s cover of “I Want Candy” with a holiday themed set. And so much for being “stunt elves” cause they’re just chilling in the background wearing street clothes.
Very Special Holiday Lesson: I think this show basically says that trespassing is okay if you’re a really really good friend and an even bigger fan? But I dunno I’m pretty sure most of these people would have been arrested if this was real life.
But the best part is when Howard lets Fonzie take over all of the Christmas traditions. Fonzie wants to do EVERYTHING and Howard gladly passes the baton. He realizes how fortunate he is to have such a lovely family and he’s finally happy to share that with someone outside of it.
It is too cold in New England for Sabrina and she desperately hopes for a trip to a warmer climate. Instead of using magic to zap herself to the equator, she calls into a radio contest and has her Aunt Zelda answer a “science question.” I’m assuming they do use magic at some point though because Sabrina hangs up the phone before telling the DJ what her aunt’s name is.
So Sabrina tries a spell to change the weather. Unfortunately, she ends up changing herself into a snowman instead. And then she starts melting…and melting…and by the time her aunts come home, she’s nothing but a snowman’s head.
Anyway, Mr. Spacely (the Scrooge here) has poor George (presumably, the Bob Cratchet) working overtime on Christmas Eve. Interestingly enough, George is aware of A Christmas Carol and even says that Mr. Spacely is a “Scrooge,” who he wishes would be visited by some Christmas ghosts.
Spacely wakes up at his desk for a moment and then quickly falls asleep again, only to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas present. In the present he visits the Jetsons’s house, where poor Astro is near-death, having injured himself by chasing around his gift: “a robot cat.”
This show really creeped me out as a kid. But I also LOVED it. I think it was my first encounter of something so interesting and freaky that I couldn’t look away from it. But honesty, it’s an awesome show and it is not creepy at all. In fact, the things that “creeped” me out as a kid are things I appreciate about this show more as an adult.
The garbage man is a really scary looking dude, who loves to throw dried-up Christmas trees into the truck as a metaphorical destruction of Christmas. Yeah, this guy’s a real winner. In an attempt to teach his kid about the “real world,” his dad invites the garbage man to come back to the house and take the tree out in the middle of the night. But Little Pete is ready. He’s rigged an alarm on the tree and has a nutcracker setup to shoot a tranquilizer dart at the garbage man.
This pisses off all of the neighbors, who threaten Little Pete’s life if he doesn’t give up the Christmas tree. So Pete does the only reasonable thing anyone could do in this situation: He organizes a wrestling match between Santa Claus and any takers. Pete nominates Pit Stain (the school bully) from the crowd to be Santa’s first challenger. But Santa can melt even Pit Stain’s heart. He refuses to fight. As Pete says, “The Christmas Spirit lives!”
The twins and the E.L.F. crew head to Roger E. Bencoseeze’s house to confront him. He lives in a mansion with a butler and everything. This dude turns out to be a real Scrooge. He pretty much just hates Christmas. This leads the twins to sing another insufferably pitchy song to teach this kid about the spirit of Christmas. But the song messes this kid’s icy cold heart. He fixes the E.L.F. computer and wishes them all a Merry Christmas.
This is one of my FAVORITE Christmas episodes ever. I am SO glad you voted for it.
They arrive to a very long line of children waiting to see the big man. Cindy insists that she can wait in the line by herself. Since he needs to exchange Carol’s gift (which would have been a poorly timed voice recorder), Mike let’s her wait alone. He arrives to pick her up just as an elated Cindy hops off of Santa’s lap.
In the middle of the night, the four eldest Brady kids meet downstairs and decide to postpone Christmas because Carol is sick. Alice finds them in the midst of their discussion and says they might as well return the presents, take down the tree, and throw away the turkey. But that might be A MAJOR BUMMER since their parents planned this whole freaking Christmas for them. And then they’re like okay, just kidding.
Mark is signing The First Noel at church. He and the other kids have to wear robes with letters that spell out N-O-E-L. Mark is the N and he thinks his robe “looks geeky.” Meanwhile, Brad wants to skip-out on Christmas with his family, so he can go skiing with a friend from school. (Brad was always the shittiest kid in this family).
Uncle Jesse catches Michelle trying to burn her gift in the fireplace. Oh my gosh, danger on the Full House set! But she guilts him in to taking her to the store to buy a replacement gift, so she perks up pretty quickly. But Mickey Rooney owns the store that she bought the gift from and he gives her a hard time about not having her receipt.
Then Jesse forces Mickey Rooney to call his family because he’s a meddler. He’s just lucky that this doesn’t backfire horribly.
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