Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast

Season 3 of Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast is underway, and we're starting with two versions that came out in 1994: A Flintstones Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol from GoodTimes Entertainment.

It's Christmas in Bedrock (just go with it), and Fred is playing Scrooge in a local production of A Christmas Carol. Sadly, he's begun acting like Scrooge in his real life. Meanwhile, the Bedrock Bug is getting passed around town, and it's affecting actors in the play.

The 1994 version of A Christmas Carol is a direct-to-video version starring Garry Chalk as Scrooge. Can it stand out among the other '90s animated versions?

This season of the podcast is called Not Your Father's Ebenezer Scrooge, because we're looking at some wildly different Scrooges as we make our way through the '90s and into the 2000s.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ScroogeAChristmasCarolPodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=scrooge%3A%20a%20christmas%20carol%20podcast

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scroogepod.bsky.social

How does one continue the story of A Christmas Carol? It might seem a hard story to continue, but Salty Earth Pictures gave it a go in 2013. Scrooge (David Ruprecht) is transported into the future, where he must help a struggling diner owner who is fighting with a descendant of Bob Cratchit.

Hats Off Entertainment video where I first heard of this

Before there was film or TV, there were stage versions of A Christmas Carol, and the two I'm talking about today came out in 1844, just weeks after the book was first published. Clearly, this story was a hit right away. What did the very first adaptations of the story like?

Full text of plays

A Christmas Carol; Or, The Miser's Warning! by C.Z. Barnett

A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future, A Burletta in Three Staves by Edward Stirling

Audio version of the Barnett play

It's the second half of my Christmas Carol Hot Takes episode, and we've got some truly hilarious Letterboxd reviews this time around. In this one, I cover everythng from 1978-1992, as well as An American Carol. I struggle with vague metaphors, a truly shocking take on Bill Murray, and people who don't like the Muppets.Have Christmas Carol hot takes for a future episode? Feel free to leave them, and I'll cover them.

The poster and first trailer for Johnny Depp's Ebenezer dropped today, and a lot of people are wondering what I think. I decided to release an episode explaining how I will be approaching this, in light of the allegations against Johnny Depp. After that, I break down the trailer.

Content Warning: I talk about the allegations against Johnny Depp and how they affect my approach to talking about the film, but I do not talk abou them in detail.

On this episode of Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast, I'm going through Letterboxd reviews that go against the norm. I'll be reading 1/2-star and 1-star reviews of unpopular versions, and 4 1/2-star and 5-star reviews of unpopular version. Just a fun diversion from the standard show! In fact, there were so many reviews that this is simply part 1. Stick around until the end, where I talk a bit about what Season 3 of the show will look like.

Have Christmas Carol hot takes for a future episode? Feel free to leave them, and I'll cover them.

For nearly 20 years, Lionel Barrymore played Ebenezer Scrooge on the radio, and some of these broadcasts survive. I'm covering these two decades, while also reviewing the existing broadcasts. From Orson Welles to the Hallmark Hall of Fame, Barrymore played Scrooge on multiple networks in various time slots, and with various scripts.

Sources used in this episode:

Radio Hall of Fame blog

Comet Over Hollywood

Jim Ramsburg's Gold Time Radio

It's another episde about a non-Christian holiday. It was only a matter of time until beloved children's media franchise Veggie Tales did their own take on A Christmas Carol. However, 1) It's not about Christmas and 2) It came at a time when the frachise was going through major changes. Has it unfairly gone under the radar?

Video about the history of Veggie Tales

I'm wrapping up my series on the silent adaptations of A Christmas Carol with two adaptations from the 1920s (and a bit on a lost version from 1916). Plus, I wrap up this mini-series as a whole. I promise we'll be back with Christmas Carols with sound next month. The special effects continue to evolve here, with some quite impressive ghost effects.

Source:

A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations by Fred Guida

Last time, we looked at the very earliest versions of A Christmas Carol, from an incomplete silent version to a version we only know about in writing. This week, I'm looking at two complete versions from the 1910s, one of them starring Seymour Hicks, who would more famously play the part in 1935. We're still firmly rooted in the stage, but we do start to see these evolving as films.