Thursday, July 22, 2021

The Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis Christmas Special


Yes, there is such a thing as "The Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis Christmas Special." Technically the title is "A Christmas Dream" but no one calls it that.

I have watched it and, having watched it, this would usually be where I would review it and describe how crazy-go-nuts it was. But I'm not going to do that - it's not worth it. It's really just a cash grab: a major network created a cheap Christmas special to fill up airtime. 

There's little production, little plot, it's just very cheaply made. It has none of the bizarreness of The Star Wars Holiday Special but it is similar in that it's another inexplicable variety special. So there's singing, ice skating, close-up magic (David Copperfield), a ventriloquist, and lots more singing. The "plot" that glues together the variety elements is that a little boy (Lewis) doesn't like Christmas and T is intervening to give him the Christmas Spirit. You can watch it here.

A few interesting things about Emmanuel Lewis. First off, according to Wikipedia, Lewis has no known condition that explains his lack of growth. That's weird. Also, when he was in his heyday on Webster he was in his teens, he wasn't a 5 year old boy like I had always assumed. For instance, as of this special (1984) he's 13 years old. Another tidbit that surprised me is that he's still alive but has disappeared from public except for one appearance. He shows up in a Lil John music video "Don't Give a F" around the 30 second mark.

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