Two holiday favorites remind us of the power of song. They demonstrate how even a novelty holiday ditty can take on a life of its own.
Originally written for the 1942 musical “Holiday Inn,” the Irving Berlin tune “White Christmas” became a bestseller for Bing Crosby. Its emphasis on glistening treetops almost obscures the fact that its prologue indicates that it’s being sung from the sunny Southwest, where both the ever-present sun and the narrator seem out of sorts with the season.
None of this has much to do with the 1954 Technicolor musical “White Christmas” (9:15 p.m., AMC, TV-G) starring Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. A rather contrived tale of World War II veterans putting on a big musical show to raise funds for their old commander, it’s too shot through with razzle-dazzle to convey the original song’s theme of dislocation and longing. One half-expects Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney to put on their “Babes in Arms” routine and march through the proceedings. It’s a clear case of the conventions of a movie musical overpowering the music itself.
— As songs go, few had origins as commercial as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Commissioned in 1939 as a throwaway poem by the Montgomery Ward department store, it gained fame a decade later when singing cowboy Gene Autry made a recording of Johnny Marks’ musical variation on the tale. Few expected stratospheric sales. Apparently, Autry first thought it should have been on the “B” side of the record.
But “Rudolph” became a smash, followed up the next Easter with Autry’s 1950 hit “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” Rudolph’s legend made it into the rock ‘n’ roll era, when Chuck Berry released “Run Run Rudolph” in 1959.
But the tale’s greatest popularizer was the Rankin/Bass stop-motion 1964 musical, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-G), featuring the original song and a full soundtrack of numbers (including “There’s Always Tomorrow,” and “We’re a Couple of Misfits”) also written by Marks.
It has aired every Christmas since its debut, making it the longest continually running holiday favorite of them all, edging out “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965) and “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (1966) in longevity.
There’s really no arguing whether it ranks among the most beloved Christmas specials. The only room for controversy is wondering whether CBS abuses its franchise by airing this special too early in the season. It’s still November!
— What’s old is new again. And, because it’s a Baz Luhrmann production, it’s always larger than life — and for some, exhausting.
The director of “Elvis” and “Moulin Rouge” has turned his 2008 epic “Australia” into a six-episode series, complete with additional material. And it’s been retitled “Faraway Downs,” streaming on Hulu.
The adventure stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and is set in Australia (where else?) during World War II. Action includes the Japanese bombing of the city of Darwin, a wartime incident that looms large in the addictive Australian soap opera “A Place to Call Home,” streaming on Acorn.
As a film, “Australia” received mixed reviews, even Down Under. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Jim Schembri observed that “The film is fine, and never boring but, boy, is it overlong.” So breaking it into six installments could be an improvement.
— TCM puts the spotlight on documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski with her 2022 feature “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” (8 p.m.).
Few films announced a new era in cinema quite as emphatically as “Midnight Cowboy” did in 1969. It traded in remarkably adult themes (homelessness, desperation, emotionally disturbed male hustlers) that would have been unthinkable in a major motion picture just a few years before. The fact that it received the Best Picture Oscar announced a cultural shift that some could not understand or accept.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— The playoff round continues on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— The Vikings host the Bears in Monday Night Football action (8 p.m., ABC, ESPN).
— A student’s mad dash ends in death on “NCIS” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Jane Lynch hosts a holiday-themed “Weakest Link” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— “Secrets of Britain” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) examines the role of MI-6.
CULT CHOICE
Edmund Gwenn won the Academy Award for his performance as Kris Kringle in the 1947 holiday favorite “Miracle on 34th Street” (7 p.m., AMC, TV-G).
SERIES NOTES
“Kitchen Nightmares” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … “Let’s Make a Deal in Primetime” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … The season finale of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Rachel Maddow and Gracie Abrams visit “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Henrik Lundqvist and Kelly Clarkson on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC, r).
