Guess Who's Coming to Christmas

It's Christmas Eve in Milwaukee and Mr. C has laid down the law. There'll be no friends or guests in the Cunningham home for the holidays. It'll just be the family. Trimming the tree, making popcorn and drinking warm apple cider by the fire. But on his way home from the hardware store, Richie beings to suspect that Fonzie is going to be all alone for Christmas. Sure, the Fonz puts up a cool front. He regales anyone who asks about the family celebration waiting for him in Waukesha. But the truth is, he has nowhere to go. And if you think that the Fonz ends up spending the holiday alone, it's possible that you've never seen a TV show before. "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas" aired during the second season of Happy Days, when the show's ratings were in decline and it was in danger of being cancelled. For the following season, the show was restructured and Fonzie became a much more prominent character. The show would go on to run for eleven seasons, spawning several spin-offs.

Rating: A Three in One Wrench%

Fun Fact: "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas" features the final appearance of Chuck Cunningham, Richie's older brother. I've only ever seen a couple of episodes of Happy Days that featured Chuck. He liked playing basketball and he wasn't very smart. I'm really not sure if there was more to him than that.

Enterprise S2E2 - "Carbon Creek"

T'Pol tells a crazy bedtime story for Archer and Trip about the one time her great-grandma and Two friends crashed on Earth in the 1950s and had to live like schlubs in small-town Pennsylvania. It's actually a pretty charming episode, though I bet it must be reviled among other Trek fans.

RATING: 78%

These Ghoulish Things

A Month Of Halloweenie Reviews #13

This compilation of horror novelty songs from the 50s and 60s is probably one of my favorite albums. Draculas, Frankensteins, and Wolfmans partying together, early rock/late doo wop music, yes please. Yeah, yeah, it's got "The Monster Mash," but the disc is chock full of obscure tunes like "Mummy's Ball" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Feast Of The Mau Mau." In conclusion, I will now be able to make the best Halloween party music mixes for the rest of my life.

RATING: 93%

Diner

Remember how great the 50s were? Everybody believed in true American values and the whole nation was in wonderful shape and there were no problems. Ha ha, just kidding, the 50s were full of social strife and the seeds of our disastrous military-economic complex were first planted, so we can basically blame the 50s for all our problems thanks assholes. But I guess there is a movie law that says if a movie takes place in the 50s it has to be wistful and make the 50s seem like a great time for all, and Diner is no different. Basically it is American Graffiti with more uses of the word "fuck" and more people sticking their genitals into popcorn boxes. I guess it's fun but it took me three weeks to watch it so I wasn't exactly enraptured, but if you want to see a young cast of hotshots including Kevin Bacon (duh), Paul Reiser (no), Daniel Stern (CHUD), Steve Guttenberg (why), and Mickey Rourke (who), then this might be your movie.

RATING: 57%