Balladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon for 2013 continues! This time around I’m examining a 1965 production from California PBS station KCET. The title may not sound action-packed and appealing but Dr Frank Baxter was to the 1950’s and 1960’s what Carl Sagan and The Reduced Shakespeare Company were to later decades.
Just as The Reduced Shakespeare Company made the works of the Bard of Avon more accessible and therefore more popular among non-Shakespeare fans Dr Baxter’s Shakespeare on TV series inspired younger generations to take an interest in the works of the great Elizabethan playwright. And like Carl Sagan’s series Cosmos made him a virtual rockstar of the scientific field Dr Baxter’s entertaining and educational Bell Laboratory Science Series of film shorts made him enormously popular among teachers and students in every school that used those shorts as classroom aids. The Bell Laboratory Science Series educational shorts were so effective and beloved they were still being used in the 70’s and 80’s.
This black & white hour-long holiday special features Baxter at a podium giving a lively reading from a very condensed version of A Christmas Carol. Immediately this will put Carol fanatics like myself in mind of Patrick Stewart’s magnificent one-man stage performance of the Carol AND of the 1994 program Bah! Humbug! which featured James Earl Jones and Martin Sheen doing dramatic readings from the Dickens story in front of a live audience.
Baxter can’t match those thespians in terms of drama but his genial air makes the special enjoyable enough and his periodic explanatory comments to the audience work as well as his charming lessons on Shakespeare must have. Doc Baxter ad libs a few times which might infuriate Carol purists but at least to me these departures from the actual text weren’t very distressing. If you’re looking for something a little different in a Carol rendition then this little honey which continues Dickens’ own tradition of giving public readings from this story is pretty enjoyable.
FOR MORE VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL CLICK HERE:https://glitternight.com/category/a-christmas-carol-2/
Balladeer's Blog 
Awesome change of pace from the usual Christmas carol movies u do!
Thanks!
this made my morning
Thanks Jo! Hope you’re having a nice holiday season!
Hot !!!
I’ll bet!
Odd one but it sounds fun as a break from the movie versions.
Thanks
Another dead white male reading about another dead white male.
Another no-life loser trying to drag other people down into the same self-loathing that your many failures have forced you to wallow in year ’round.
Fuck all Christians!
I’m not a Christian, moron. I’m a non-believer. You and your folks at that site are complete fools. Bring on any attempt you pretentious asses want to try.
This one wasn’t as much fun as your other x-mas carol posts.
I appreciate the comment! Maybe you’ll like the next ones better!
Never heard of these guys but I did hear of Carl Sagan.
Thanks for commenting!
Greetings from Carolina! ur Chrismtas Carol blogs always cheer me up!
Thanks!
Boring shit.
What? Your sex life?
Who cares about some dead white dude who read a book?
You should try reading a book yourself sometime. You might not come across as such a dick.
Very Christmassy!
Thanks!
So many Christmas Carols!
You said it!
Happy Holidays! Loved these Xmas Carol posts.
Thanks! Same to you!
Fuck u! How come u dont mark muslim holidays?
Because Islam is the most homophobic and misogynistic religion in the entire world at this particular point in history, you gutless little worm.
This guy was old!
I see.