Today, I want to know which TV riff on It’s a Wonderful Life was your favorite?
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
It’s Christmastime, so that means riffs on It’s a Wonderful Life! The classic Frank Capra film starred Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a man who felt he was a burden on everyone, and that the only thing he was good for was the life insurance policy he held in his name. However, an angel showed him what the world would have been like had George never been born, and it was MUCH worse off. He touched the lives of MANY people in a VERY positive way. He then realized that he did, in fact, have a wonderful life.
Okay, so this is often a hacky idea for a TV show, so a lot of them that do this riff are pretty bad. I’m saving last week’s Ghosts to watch on Christmas Eve, but I understand that IT has an It’s a Wonderful Life riff, as well. Maybe it will soon be my favorite!
NOTE THAT I AM SPECIFICALLY LOOKING FOR CHRISTMAS-THEMED EPISODES, so no “Tapestry” or “The Wish.”
For now, though, I’m going with Moonlighting‘s “It’s a Wonderful Job,” where Maddie is mad at her employees at the Blue Moon Detective Agency, and tells an angel (that she doesn’t know is an angel) that she wishes she never decided to keep it and run it (all the way back in the first episode of the series). The angel shows her that a lot of the people involved would have been seemingly just as well off without Blue Moon, except for Maddie.
However, even the people who seemed like they were well off, like David and Agnes, were a lot less LIGHTER than they were when they were with Blue Moon.
She is very happy when she returns to the real world, and she and David share a passionate kiss, and then turn to the camera and say, “And to all a good night!”
Good stuff.
Okay, that’s my pick. How about you?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@poprefs.com!
This one is easy for me. “It’s A Bundyful Life,” from season 4 (1989-1990) of “MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN.” It originally aired as an hour long special and has been edited into two episodes for syndication. Guest starring Sam Kinison (who had auditioned for the part of Al Bundy before Ed O’Neil got the role) and Ted McGinley (before he would join the show as Jefferson D’Arcy the following season, replacing David Garrison’s Steve Rhodes).
More than most riffs, it turns the “moral” on its head, especially at a time when most sitcoms didn’t do that. The angel, of course, shows that a world without Al Bundy is a happier one for everyone involved, especially his family. But that just inspires the quoteable finale. “Look at them all. They’re happy. Not a care in the world. You think I’m going to let that happen, after all the grief they put me through!? I WANT TO LIVE!”
Classic stuff.