YMMV / A Special Sesame Street Christmas

• Quirky Work: Classic Sesame Street and hokey TV variety specials don't seem like they'd be a good match to begin with, but this special goes the extra mile into complete weirdness, with a messy script, a bizarre jumble of holiday songs and other fare (nothing says Christmas like Anne Murray's "You Needed Me", or Ethel Merman singing "Tomorrow"), and a wacky All-Star Cast. Mere descriptions of moments like Oscar playing an electric guitar and singing "Yakety Yak", Henry Fonda talking about wingnuts, and Michael Jackson talking about ghosts, sound like someone's fevered hallucinations. Similar to The Star Wars Holiday Special, a lot of kids who grew up in The '70s were convinced this special was some sort of dream or false memory they'd had, until the Internet and a commercial DVD release confirmed that it really did exist.
• Spiritual Successor: Nearly thirty years later Oscar would reprise his role of Scrooge in a different special, A Sesame Street Christmas Carol.

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