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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1981)
page 8 monday, november30, 1981 daily nebraskan Christmas specials, not chestnuts, should roast By Casey McCabe As far as television entertainment goes, Thanksgiv ing doesn't have much to offer. A few early morning parades, some football games and there you have it. Network executives are understandably relieved when this pesky holiday is finally over with. It means there is only one month of precious airtime to dig out all the Christmas specials in hopes that St. Nielsen soon will be there. humor CBS lost no time this last weekend, putting the Bugs Bunny Christmas Special and Frosty The Snowman on the air back to back, capitalizing on the age group al ready tuned and waiting for The Dukes of Hazzard. The other networks will soon have all the holiday fav orites rolling out, with an understanding that anything appearing after Dec. 15 runs the risk of seeming anti climactic in this hectic season. Predictably, one can expect a Muppet special, a John Denver Christmas, a Tony Bennet Christmas and a parade of others with Johnny Mathis, Bob Hope, The Mandrell Sisters, Disney features, strange marionettes, cartoon and comic strip characters and animated adap tions of most any Christmas literature one could hope to find, including at least a dozen variations of Dick ens' Christmas Carol. Some, like The Grinch Who Stole Chritmas and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, manage to seem fresh year after year. But for the most part, all the heart warming TV viewing can get numbingly redundant, es pecially when every sit-com and dramatic series takes it upon itself to present "a powerful Christmas message." The Federal Communications Commission requires stations to provide access for opposing viewpoints. Considering there are a lot of skeptics and Scrooges out there we might someday expect to see the following Christmas specials: Candid Camera Christmas - With monitors set up at Macy's, the antics begin when host Allan Funt starts a brawl over half-priced crock pots among frantic last minute shoppers. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Wino - A touching por trait of a German immigrant who takes a job as a $20 a day department store Santa to support his Ripple hab it. He Knows If You e Been Bad Or Good - CIA di rector William Casey brings out the files on millions of private citizens to reveal who is and isn't deserving this holiday season. In Search of Santa - A National Geographic expe dition to the North Pole turns up no evidence, causing a team of scientists to theorize that St. Nick is merely a hoax perpetuated by the Mattel Toy Corporation. An Elvis Costello Christmas - The English New Wave rock star sings Christmas songs to depress and ali enate you, including "The Last Noel," "Gestapo Elves," and "Santa Claus is Splitting This Town." Guests Wendy 0. Wilhams and The Plasmatics perform unnatural acts with reindeer. Raiders of the Lost Galactian Star Empire Christ mas - It's Santa in outer space as our portly hero re trieves all the world's Christmas toys from Nazi space invaders who want to ruin everybody's fun. With nuclear-powered reindeer he blasts through the Death Screen, wipes out the foe with lasers and returns at light speed with no time to lose. This traditional Christmas fare should prove fun for the whole family. For The Person Who Has Everything - An hour of uninterrupted commercials providing cheap gift sugges tions for the .uninspired shopper, including great mo ments from K-Tel, Popeil and Ronco. The Little Drummer Boy - Filmed before his death, this features the Who's Keith Moon in the title role of this Christmas classic. The twist is that Moon's heart felt rendering of "My Generation" upsets the manger and the wise men have the upstart musician deported. Thus the Scrooges would have their say and the seemingly unending month of Christmas televison would at least be a bit more . . . unpredictable. Jett and the Blackhearts "Love Rock and Roll if L-, . iwN .. m l By Pat Higgins Photo courtesy of Jett Lag Productions Joan Jett Last spring Joan Jett and the Blackhearts put on one of the more memorable shows ever at the Drumstick. Nobody really knew what to expect from this ex-Runaway, but by the end of the night people were dancing on tables, hanging from the rafters, and in general going nuts. Jett's new album, Love Rock and Roll is one of the better suburban albums of the Yule season. Jett can be classified as a member of the arena-sized, big noise, school of rock. This is the kind of stuff that Z-92 thrives on and Jett should be on their playlist immediately. The perfect example of this music's popularity is a Foreigner album taking over Tattoo You as the No. 1 seller of this week, which indicates that there are a lot of people out there for whom "party" is a rallying cry. Some noise rock is fun - I have to admit that I am capable of listening to.Aerosmith at insane volume, but only if no one else is around. Love Rock and Roll is better than run-of-the-mill noise, because Jett is steeped in mid-1960s pop, which, as is well known, was the epitome of fun in our time. Included are covers of Tommy James "Crimson and Clover" and the ever fab Dave Clark Five's "Bits and Pieces," which Jett isn't overly reverent about, as -she plays them faster and louder than the originals. The songs that Jett writes range from a kind of defiant the man can't bust our music" style (which is kind of naive at this, date) to "Nag" and "You're Too Possessive" which are more in the range of today's modern independ ent woman who takes no crap. "Victim of Circumstance" is a bitter tale of anguish concerning the bad reputation Jett picked up from her old group the Runaways, who were savaged by the critics. Jett is legitimately bitter about the hype, because at heart she is a rock and roller. Jett is on Boardwalk Records, whose mastermind is Neil Bogart, a big Republican Party contributor, who led Kiss, Donna Summer and Parliament to multi-platinum status in the mid-1970s. Hopefully, he can do the same for Jett in 1982. "Little Drummer Boy" is the last song on here no doubt as a tribute to Christmas. "Little Drummer Boy" sounds like Bing Crosby singing from beyond the grave with the reformed Grand Funk It has to be heard to be believed. Quintet will perform tonight singing Schubert, Mozart I INI Shnn?"? J0-31'',? StUdeilt in UNL School of Music, will give a concert today at 8 pan. in Kimball Recital Hall. y The quintet's regular members and a guest "D?rn ihtnPH8ran Gan8 zum Liebchen," Der Abend and "Abendried" by Brahms- "H quintet from No. 7 "Die Zauberflote" and two by fchubert. gCS 3nd MLebenscht" Admission to the concert is free.