Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 53: Nickelodeon Holiday Specials

In the last episode of Casual Chats of 2015, (posted a few days late) Patricia and For Entertainment's Sake founders John and Douglass discuss about Nickelodeon Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa specials.

Check out John's links below
https://twitter.com/rugratmusic
http://rugrat7.bandcamp.com/

Check out Douglass' links down below
https://twitter.com/propheticG
http://prophetghostly.bandcamp.com/releases

The Weinerville Chanukah Special Discussion/Review

On December 15, 1995, Nickelodeon's first Hanukkah special debuted based off of the obscure 1993 variety show Weinerville. One year later, the Rugrats Hanukkah special came out and became an instant classic and left the former special in the dust pretty much forgotten. Now 20 years later, Patricia takes a look at the Weinerville Chanukah special and see how well it holds up today.

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: A Rugrats Chanukah

Happy last night of Hanukkah, everyone! It's time for our final review right before we go into Christmas! Tonight we're going to review the most well known Hanukkah special of Nickelodeon. The special that many people consider to be the greatest Hanukkah special of all time is A Rugrats Chanukah.

A Rugrats Chanukah was debuted in Nickelodeon on December 4, 1996, almost 1 year after Weinerville's Hanukkah Special. Since Arlene Klasky was Jewish, it made sense for her to conduct an idea for a Rugrats Hanukkah special. The Nickelodeon executives wanted to have this special released in 1992, but eventually, it was changed into The Rugrats Passover Special in 1995. After the success of that special, Klasky decided to revisit the idea of a Hanukkah special once again with the script written by David Weiss and J. David Stem, the storyboard writers of Rugrats. So does this special give us that warm, fuzzy Hanukkah feeling 16 years later or has the oil burned out long ago? This is A Rugrats Chanukah.

We start with Minka reading the origins of Hanukkah to the babies. We see it in their perspectives with them acting out as the characters from the story. Tommy, playing Judah the Macabee, is seeing the new king of Greece forcing the Jewish babies to do what he wants them to do by reading Plato instead of the Torah, wearing togas instead of robes, and worshiping a god that looks like Cynthia. Then afterwards Tommy puts together an army and fight against the evil king and his soldiers.

As time goes on, we then cut back into reality where the real plot begins. Boris is performing a play at the Jewish synagogue, but he's jealous of his old rival Schlomo when he makes it in the front page of the newspaper. Boris always felt that Schlomo was trying to outdo him with the fact that he chose a successful pants business over having a family and is constantly bragging about it. Meanwhile Tommy is confused to what is going on in the household: they're eating pancakes (latkes) at night, he wears a funny hat (yarmarkle), there's a weird candle holder on top of the TV (the menorah), and he gets a present every night. Angelica explains about Chanukkah to them, but not in a good way. She tells them that that's when all the good TV specials are on. She's eager to watch a Cynthia Christmas special, but unfortunately they leave for the play at the synagogue. Stu is working on a menorah for the play and Boris talks about what was the true meaning of Hanukkah. The babies confuse it for the "meanie" of Hanukkah. Chuckie explains about the time he dealt with a mean kid in daycare which ended up with them taking a nap. Tommy comes up with the idea of stopping the "meanie" of Hanukkah by putting him to sleep. 

When they get to the play, there's many vendors consisting of latkes and dreidels. Angelica eats and spits out the latke which ends with a man dressed as a dreidel slipping and falling. She tries to find a TV, but with no luck. The man in the dreidel costume finds her and puts her in a nursery as punishment for wrecking his costume.

The babies start to go after Shlomo after he shows up on stage, but eventually end up in the same nursery that Angelica's in. Angelica tricks the babies into trying to get the TV from the janitor's closet in order for her to watch her Christmas special. Meanwhile Boris and Shlomo begin to fight each other and Boris confesses of being jealous of Shlomo due to his successful business. Shlomo confesses to Boris that the business was all he had since his now deceased wife couldn't have any children and wanted some to pass on the heritage to them. Boris feels guilty and gives Shlomo's part as the evil king to an understudy. Back at the janitor's closet, Angelica and the babies finally work together to get the portable TV, but Angelica runs away with it. She bumps into Shlomo and the TV falls down. Angelica begins to cry, the babies sees her with Shlomo so they walk towards him. Boris sees Shlomo surrounded by the babies and tells Shlomo to read Tommy's book of the origins of Hanukkah that was shown in the beginning of the special. So now, the story continues.

After Tommy defeats the Greek king and his soldiers, it left their city, temple, and menorah in ruins. They only had enough oil to light it up for one night. However, it lasted for eight nights. The story concludes with the celebration that happens every year in honor of the events that occured in the temple and the miracle that happened. Stu comes in the giant menorah, it crashes, and the curtains fall to reveal Boris, Shlomo, and the babies. Boris and Shlomo explain about passing on the legacy to the babies, say the prayer, and sing a traditional Hanukkah song. Tommy and Chuckie are glad that Boris and Shlomo are friends claiming it to be a "mirable". 

When this special first aired, it was praised by many critics and viewers alike. A Rugrats Chanukah continues to air every December to this very day and with good reasoning. Not only because it's one of the few Hanukkah specials, but it's still really good. It teaches the origins of Hanukkah easy enough for kids to understand, it has a good plot on its own, it's humorous, sad, and heartwarming. Truly a holiday classic. I highly recommend checking it out!

That's all for now. Next time, we go into Christmas with my top 12 Christmas specials. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia 

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Weinerville Chanukkah Special

Happy first night of Hanukkah, everyone! What better way to celebrate this Jewish holiday than with a Nickelodeon Hanukkah special! When it comes to holiday specials on Nickelodeon, most of them are Christmas. We'll talk about Christmas another time. As far to my knowledge there are two Hanukkah specials on Nickelodeon, one that everyone knows about and one that nobody remembers. Today we're going to talk about the latter. That special is The Weinerville Hanukkah Special.

Released in Nickelodeon on December 14, 1995, it was the very first Hanukkah special to be shown on this network. Since Marc Weiner is Jewish, it makes sense that he would do a Hanukkah special. So does this Hanukkah special burn bright after 17 years later or has the lights burned out a long time ago? This is The Weinerville Chanukah Special.

We start off with Marc Summers telling a brief story about how the holiday first came to be. Then Boney comes along telling the story of Weinerville's Hanukkah story. We then shift off to the main story: It starts in outer space where potato latke aliens are being harrased by other aliens to be just like them. They stand up to them, but the leader named Dorkus, tell them that they'll be back.

Dottie lets Boney know about a big party happening at the Weinerville Ski Lodge. Boney gets excited as he and Socko head over to the Ski Lodge. All of a sudden, the potato latke aliens run out of oil, so they land on Earth to get some more. All of a sudden, Dorkus lands on Earth and threatens Dottie to tell her where a wise man named the Gonsah Knocker is, otherwise he'll ruin the party with his powerful remote. Meanwhile the potato latke aliens look for the Gonsah Knocker to get some knowledge and courage to defend themselves against the evil alien leader. He then explains that their problems are similar to what Jeremiah and his people went through thousands of years ago and the origins of Hanukkah in song thanks to Cocktail Frank, Socko, and Boney. 

After that, Dorkus makes his way to the location of the Gonsah Knocker and Socko and Boney devise a plan to steal his remote. Socko drives his snowmobile and grabs the remote, Boney pours oil on the floor to make them slip, Zip controls a giant dreidel and knocks them over, and the potato latke aliens help defeat the minions. Eventually Dorkus captures Socko and the remote and claims his victory, but Boney tells him that he forgot one thing: he got snow on the floor of the lodge which wasn't allowed. The clean up guy beats him up and the potato latke aliens capture everyone and bring them to their mothership to send them to jail. With that, their freedom is secure and they give a big thanks to Socko, Boney, Zip, and Pops. 

After they leave, Marc Weiner and the rest of the guests arrive at the lodge to set up for the party. Then afterwards, the special concludes with Cocktail Frank and the Weenies singing the song "Menorah Menorah" and everyone wishes the audience a Happy Hanukkah.

Overall, I have to say that The Weinerville Chanukah Special is one of the weirdest holiday specials I've ever seen in my life. I would even go far as to say it's even weirder than Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. Yeah, I said it. I never thought in a million years that a Hanukkah special would contain aliens, slapstick humor, musical numbers, puppets, and corny jokes, I kinda enjoyed it. It's Weinerville-style humor at its weirdest, but it's a lot of fun. If you're a Weinerville fan or in the mood for a strange Hanukkah special that isn't from Adam Sandler, check it out. If this doesn't sound like your think, then skip it. You have to be in the right mood to appreciate this special.

That's all for now. I'll be back for the last day of Hanukkah to talk about the Hanukkah special that everyone remembers fondly: The Rugrats Hanukkah Special.

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Happy Hanukkah!

-Patricia