Fri-Yay: The Disappearing Art of the Holiday Episode; The Simpsons Turns 30 Years Old with Specials on Fox and FXX

Friday, December 07, 2018

Fri-Yay: The Disappearing Art of the Holiday Episode; The Simpsons Turns 30 Years Old with Specials on Fox and FXX

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

Superstore

by Vincent

As sitcoms move more towards cable and streaming, one "art" that I fear is becoming a bit lost is holiday episodes. Truthfully, one of the more exciting aspects of a sitcom used to be how you could spend the entire year with your favorite characters. They would be with you as you celebrated Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and even through each season. This, of course, is when each sitcom would run for the whole year. Now that sitcoms are becoming more and more like the rest of TV, moving towards shorter, more contained seasons, the holiday episode has gone to the wayside in some respects.

Granted, some sitcoms - especially network sitcoms - still do holiday episodes each year, and do them well. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Halloween episodes are a staple. Superstore depicts the retail craziness of the holiday season brilliantly. However, there are so many great shows that we'll never really see a holiday episode of, or at least, not on an annual basis like we once did. It's just one of the many ways that sitcoms have changed as television itself has changed as a medium. Granted, many of these changes are for the positive, and in general I think it benefits TV to move towards this direction. However, I'll miss the traditions like holiday specials. Some shows have gotten around this - for example, BoJack Horseman dropped a surprise Christmas episode in the December after its first season. It'd be cool if more shows were able to do that - if not, then I guess it's just another TV tradition that will one day be of the past.

Simpsons Roasing on an Open Fire

FXX and Fox have joined forces to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Simpsons with two special events this month. On Sunday, December 16, FXX will air a 15-hour marathon featuring episodes specifically curated for this special programming event by executive producer Al Jean. The 30-episode marathon begins at 9 a.m. ET/PT and ends at midnight on FXX, cable's exclusive home for The Simpsons. One week later, Fox will air a special encore of The Simpsons first-ever full-length episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," on Sunday, December 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. In this encore of the 1989 Christmas special, Homer (Dan Castellaneta) tries to earn extra money to buy Christmas presents for the family, and everything he does goes wrong. Fortunately, he is rescued by Santa's Little Helper. All-new episodes from the 30th season of The Simpsons air Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Tuesday, January 25

Abbott Elementary - "Student Transfer" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
After a negative teacher review, Janine gets a confidence boost when a student gets transferred from Melissa’s class into hers, but it turns out the student proves to be too much to handle. While trying to forge a friendship with an uninterested Gregory, it is revealed that Jacob is constantly getting roasted by his students. The two bond after Gregory unintentionally gives Jacob the idea to incorporate the roasts in an educational way.

black-ish - "Hoop Dreams" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Jack gets a job as the locker room attendant for the Los Angeles Lakers, and Dre and Bow feel like they need to step in before letting the job get to his head. Meanwhile, Pops and Ruby realize their daily routine has gotten boring and heed advice from Junior and Olivia.

American Auto - "Commercial" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Katherine and the team reshoot a commercial to make it more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.

Grand Crew - "Wine & Pie" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Noah's dad is in a funk, so he asks Fay to make his favorite pie; Sherm teaches Anthony to play chess; Wyatt introduces the crew to his brother.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of January 24)

Tuesday, January 25

Kristen Bell (The Good Place) - Catch Kristen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Ike Barinholtz (The Afterparty/Bless the Harts/The Mindy Project) - Ike appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Nicole Byer (Grand Crew/Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Thomas Middleditch (B Positive/Silicon Valley) - Thomas will be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Jim Belushi (According to Jim) - Jim is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Mike Schur (The Office/Creator of Parks and Recreation/Brooklyn Nine-Nine/The Good Place/Rutherford Falls) - Mike appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. NBC's Today catches up with Mike in the 9am hour.
Francia Raisa (How I Met Your Father/growni-ish) - Francia appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Sherri Shepherd (Mr. Iglesias/Trial & Error/Sherri/Less Than Perfect) - Sherri guest hosts The Wendy Williams Show.
Jay Pharoah (White Famous) - Jay guest co-hosts The Real, so check your local listings.
Autumn Reeser (Complete Savages/Grounded for Life) - Autumn appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Marsai Martin (black-ish)- Marsai talks about her new Discovery+ series Remix My Space! on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Kevin James (The Crew/Kevin Can Wait/The King of Queens) - Kevin talks about Home Team on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
Ming-Na Wen (The Single Guy) - Ming-Na talks about The Book of Boba Fett on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.