Psychobabble’s 12 Days of X-Mas Episodes: Day 4

Does the mere idea of stepping into another mall, watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the zillionth time, or talking to your loved ones make you throw up? Then settle your bowlful of jelly into the La-Z-Boy® and deck your hall with today’s installment of Psychobabble’s 12 Days of X-Mas Episodes instead! Merry vegetating!

Series: Amazing Stories

Episode: “Santa 85”, in which the essential premise of this anthology series gets flipped as reality encroaches on fantasy instead of vice versa. In the mid-eighties, Santa Claus is arrested for breaking and entering, dumped in a police wagon with a bunch of other schmoes in red suits, and locked up. Fortunately, things brighten up before this episode becomes a full-on Miracle on 34^th Street/Oz cross over. Amazing Stories could get a bit saccharine, so it’s nice to see that their episode devoted to the most syrupy of holidays is fairly tough on St. Nick. Take that, Kringle! And Hingle. Pat Hingle’s in this one too.

31 TV Shows for 31 Days of Halloween Season: Day 29

Series: Amazing Stories

Episode: “Go to the Head of the Class”, in which the half-hour fantasy series makes a little extra head room for an hour-long episode in which Christopher Lloyd plays a sadistic teacher who ends up as the headless victim of a satanic spell cast by students Scott Coffey and Mary Stuart Masterson. Unfortunately, losing his head is not enough to put Teach out of commission, and he returns to put the kids into detention for the insubordination. Rich in Halloweeny atmosphere and a gloriously ham-bone performance from Lloyd, Amazing Stories didn’t get more amazing than “Go to the Head of the Class”. “Mr. Braaaaand!”