The Kid Who Loved Christmas is a 1990 Made-for-TV Movie co-produced by Eddie Murphy Productions and Paramount for CBS.
The main storyline focuses on Tony and Lynette Parks; a Chicago couple seeking to adopt foster child Reggie, with all seemingly going well with Lynette's job as well as Tony's career as a saxophone player in a jazz band. Then; tragedy strikes when Lynette is killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver. Soon; Tony faces a string of hurdles from the adoption agency who refused to let Tony adopt Reggie due to his choosing to becoming a full-time musician prior to the events of the plot; resulting in Reggie being fostered out to a string of foster homes, while a friend attempts to convince Tony to move to New Orleans to play in a jazz band there. Will Tony give up on his dreams of adopting Reggie or will a Christmas miracle reunite the two as father and son.
The movie would feature a "Who's Who" of black entertainers of the time period including Michael Warren; former Miss America Vanessa Williams; Eddie Murphy's brother Charlie Murphy; Ben Vereen; Ken Page; Esther Rolle; Cicely Tyson; Della Reese; Ray Parker Jr.; Gilbert Lewis; Trent Cameron (as Reggie) and Sammy Davis Jr. in his final role; with brief appearances by Jason Weaver and Irma P. Hall
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Amazing Freaking Grace: Alicia Slater sings "Amazing Grace" during the funeral service for Lynette.
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: Sideman tells a story about a little boy who, after discovering that a goose he had become attached to was Christmas dinner and not a present as first assumed, let the goose free and got a pretty serious spanking as a result; and when Reggie asks if he made it up, Sideman says that he had the scars to prove it.
- Catapult Nightmare: Reggie shooting up in bed after we see Lynette looking away as the collision between her and a drunk driver is imminent appears to be this, only for Tony to receive a phone call confirming that the fatal car crash was very much real.
- Christmas Miracle: A variant in that it's implied at the end that Tony succeeds in adopting Reggie.
- Drunk Driver: The driver of the car that caused the accident that kills Lynette is first seen coming out of a bar having clearly had way too much to drink.
- Mall Santa: Reggie runs into a few trying to find the real Santa.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Esther Clayton's primary role.
- Product Delivery Ordeal: Sideman's piano gets taken away by a collections agency, but a neighbor of his is willing to lend him another; all he needs is help moving it. Tony thinks it'll be a cinch and rhetorically asks everyone, "If we all pitch in, how hard could it be to move an itty-bitty piano up a couple flights of stairs?" Gilligan Cut to Tony and his friends stuck on the staircase and mightily struggling to move the piano. When Tony wonders how they're gonna fit the piano through the door, even if they could carry it up the stairs, Reggie comes up with the suggestion of taking down the door (of note is that Sideman himself doesn't give much weight on the struggles Tony and the other guys have for moving such an upright piano up a flight of stairs to his apartment, because he only tells them not to scratch up the piano in the process). Another Jump Cut later, and the door is being put back in its frame and the piano is finally in Sideman's apartment.
- Santa Ambiguity: In addition to the prevalent Mall Santas; a cab driver who looks very much like Old St. Nick makes a key appearance late in the film; though it's never explicitly stated if it is indeed Santa or not.
- Skewed Priorities: The scene introducing Sideman has him telling Tony and the other guys struggling to move an upright piano up a flight of stairs to his apartment not to scratch up the piano.
