Your Christmas list of special programs
Christmas is nearly here and with it comes the last deluge of special programming:
NEW THIS YEAR There's fresh festivity on adventurous "Chuck" (Friday night at 8, NBC/4), the cool chat of "The Graham Norton Show" (Saturday at 10 p.m., BBC America), and this year's Christmas special of "Doctor Who" (Sunday at 9 p.m., BBC America), titled "The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe."
MARATHONS The Doctor's holidays run all weekend from midnight Friday night on BBC America, leading into Sunday night's new Christmas special (see bbcamerica.com/schedule). Other channels are mixing it up: vintage series like "Burns and Allen" and "The Flying Nun" on Antenna TV (Saturday 1 p.m.-Sunday night at 1 a.m.; click Schedule at antennatv.tv); Merrython laughs on TV Land (Saturday 8 p.m.-Sunday night at 1 a.m.; tvland.com/tv-schedule); Gen X sitcoms like "A Different World" and "Living Single" on TV One (Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; tvone.tv/schedule); and classic holiday animation on ABC Family (Saturday 10 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday 7 a.m.-1:30 p.m.; abcfamily.com/schedule).
COMEDY EPISODES Happy Festivus! Jerry Stiller celebrates his aluminum-pole airing of grievances on "Seinfeld" (Friday night at 11, WPIX/11; Tuesday at 7 p.m., TBS). Other faves: "The Red Dot" episode of "Seinfeld" (Friday night at 7, TBS), "Keeping Up Appearances" (Friday night at 9, WLIW/21; Saturday at 8 p.m., WNET/13), "The Odd Couple" (Saturday at 11 p.m., WPIX/11), "The Honeymooners" (Saturday at 11:30 p.m., Ch. 11), and guardian angel Sam Kinison on "Married With Children" (Sunday 10-11 p.m., Antenna). Settle in for some holiday multiple episiodes: "Scrubs" (Friday 10:25 a.m.-noon, Comedy Central; Saturday night at 3 a.m., WABC/7), "The King of Queens" (Friday and Sunday 6-7 p.m., WWOR/9; Saturday 11:30 p.m.-2 a.m., Sunday 11 p.m.-1 a.m., TV Land), "Frasier" (Friday night 8 p.m.-1 a.m., WE), "M*A*S*H" (Saturday 5:10-7 p.m., Sunday 4:40-7 p.m., TV Land), "Everybody Loves Raymond" (Saturday 9-11:30 p.m., Sunday 8:30-11 p.m., TV Land), and "Friends" (Saturday 11 p.m.-1 a.m., Nick at Nite).
DRAMA Celebrating several times each: "Monk" (Friday night 8-10, WWOR/9; Saturday 7-10 p.m., ion/31), Chrismukkah on "The OC" (Sunday 3-7 p.m., SOAPnet), "House" (Sunday 8-11 p.m., 3-6 a.m., Cloo).
MOVIES Only the biggies here: Chevy Chase in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (Friday night at 6, Sunday at 10 p.m., ABC Family), James Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" (Saturday 8-11 p.m., NBC/4), and 1947's original "Miracle on 34th Street" (Saturday at 8 p.m., TCM). Plus marathons with each film restarting every two hours: "A Christmas Story" (Saturday 8 p.m.-Sunday 8 p.m., TBS) and "Home Alone" (Sunday 6 a.m.-Monday 6 a.m., FMC).
FAMILY Animated faves include "Shrek the Halls" (Friday night at 8, ABC/7), "Olive the Other Reindeer" (Friday night at 8, CW/11), "The Cricket on the Hearth" (Saturday at 9 a.m., WLIW/21), "The Flintstones' Christmas Carol" (Sunday at 7:30 a.m., Cartoon), and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (Sunday at 8 p.m., ABC/7). There's also the "Nature" hour "Christmas in Yellowstone" (Saturday at 5 p.m., Ch. 13) and the Michael Caine movie "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Hub). And of course -- "The Yule Log" (Sunday morning 3-7 a.m., Antenna TV; 9 a.m.-1 p.m., WPIX/11).
MUSIC Seasonal sounds with "Christmas With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" (Friday night at 9, Saturday at 7 p.m., WNET/13; Saturday at 9 p.m., Sunday at 11 a.m., WLIW/21), "Andrea Bocelli & David Foster" (Friday night at 10 p.m., Ch. 13), and "The Lawrence Welk Show" (Saturday at 6 p.m., Ch. 21).
LET'S NOT FORGET HANUKKAH AND KWANZAA It's Hanukkah on "Burt Wolf: Taste of Freedom" (Saturday at 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., midnight, WLIW Create) and "Food Trip With Todd English" (Saturday at 6:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 12:30 a.m., WLIW Create) . . . It's Kwanzaa on "Burt Wolf: Taste of Freedom" (Saturday at 11:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m., WLIW Create; Monday at 7 p.m., WLIW/21).
