holiday TV

I’ve been making my list and checking it twice… And here it is: My annual Holiday Program Guide!

Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolph, Ralphie, the Grinch, Shrek, the Carpenters, Bing Crosby, Perry Como and your favorites are all in my list.

Since many of us will be celebrating Thanksgiving without large family gatherings due to COVID-19, here's my annual list of specials so you can spend time with your old TV friends.

Want to spend Christmas with your old TV friends?

Here's my guide to classic Christmas episodes with Ross, Rachel, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, Lucy, Seinfeld, Sheldon and Dr. Bob Hartley and Dr. Johnny Fever.

It's not even Halloween, but the Hallmark Channel is overflowing with Christmas greenery.

The Hallmark Channel, and its sister Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, will deliver 36 new holiday movies starting Saturday, Oct. 27.  

Nothing like seeing old friends at the holidays – Bob Hartley, Mary Richards, Laura Ingalls, Hawkeye Pierce, Ben Cartwright, Roseanne Conner, Ralph Kramden, Ray and Debra Barone, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

Fred and Ethel too.

Will we ever know if Cincinnati's Jessie Salzbrun won ABC's "Great American Baking Show?"

ABC pulled the holiday baking competition Wednesday, after just one episode, and fired judge Johnny Iuzzini.

For more than 50 years, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" (8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, Channel 12, CBS) has delivered a Holly, Jolly Christmas to millions of viewers, making plenty of silver and gold for CBS since its premiere in 1964.

I'm making my lists, and checking them twice. First comes the list of Thanksgiving and Christmas specials filling TV and radio airwaves this week, and then my huge annual Holiday Program Guide posts Nov. 26.

Two of my favorite Bing Crosby holiday films – and maybe yours – air Saturday night. At the same time.

I've seen "White Christmas" with Bing and Rosemary Clooney a zillion times, so I'm setting my DVR for "Going My Way," the feel good movie which won best picture and six more Academy Awards in 1944.

Downtown Covington plays a supporting role in NBC's new "Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love" Wednesday (9 p.m., Channel 5).

Covington portrays Sevierville, Tenn., in 1955, according to a story on the Covington News website. 

Here's my annual 2016 Holiday Program Guide, and it's bigger and better than ever. Here's the link to my 14-page 2016 Holiday Program Guide. It's also at the bottom of this page.

More shows, more listings, more info. (I've added the networks this year, in addition to the local channels, so people in other cities can find their holiday favorites too. If you have family or friends who have enjoyed my list in the past, please send them the link.)

The short answer is: Get an antenna.

Wonderful old Christmas TV specials with Perry Como, Johnny Cash, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Mac Davis, Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, Judy Garland and Danny Kaye and many others will air on the GET TV network, a digital subchannel on WSTR-TV, on over-the-air Channel 64.4.

"Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas," the beloved holiday cartoon which premiered in 1966, returns to TV for a 50th year without any celebrations on NBC, TBS or TNT.

You're a mean one, NBC! You're a foul one, TBS!

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” remains the best holiday TV special for all the reasons that CBS executives didn’t like 50 years ago.

The simplicity of the story. The absence of adult voices. Its anti-commercialism message. The terrific jazz sound track by Vince Guaraldi. Linus quoting the Bible. 

Here are 10 things you didn’t know about the iconic Christmas cartoon, which airs for the 50th year tonight (9 p.m., Channel 9) following ABC’s musical salute called “It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown (8 p.m.). I’ll be talking about Christmas TV specials on “Cincinnati Edition” at 1 p.m. today on 91.7 WVXU-FM.

Charlie Brown, Rudolph, The Grinch, Frosty, Prancer, White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “A Christmas Story”…. Yep, they’re all here.

Linus and Lucy, Lucy and Desi, and the “Little Drummer Boy” too.

My annual holiday programming guide below is back and bigger than ever -- since it includes Christmas and Hanukkah specials airing on public radio, here at the new home for my Media Beat blog.

Print it out. Post it on the fridge.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with every channel you turn.

“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the 1966 cartoon classic, tops my Thanksgiving week prime-time program guide below. (I list mostly prime-time shows; some may repeat during the day or overnight.) It’s a warm-up for my annual comprehensive holiday program guide coming to WVXU.org next Sunday.

But this week isn’t just about “The Grinch,” “Frosty the Snowman and “The Story of Santa Claus” cartoon voiced by Ed Asner and Betty White.

Fifty years? Good grief! “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” first broadcast reluctantly by CBS in 1965, will air twice on ABC before Christmas, along with a one-hour musical salute to the award-winning cartoon.

ABC also celebrates the 20th anniversary of “Toy Story,” with a one-hour tribute in December to Pixar Animation Studios which revolutionized computer-generated animation.

“It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown” airs 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30 (Channel 9, ABC), as the TV networks start filling their channels with holiday programming the four weeks leading up to Christmas. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” follows at 9 p.m. Nov. 30.