25 years of "A Christmas Story": Day 3
So, how long has this been going on?
We don't mean the movie -- that opened to OK reviews in '83, lasted a couple months in theatres and then got yanked. We mean how in hell did we wind up with millions of people walking around muttering "Bumpuses!' and "Frah-GEE-lay" all year long?
Because in 1997, TNT -- possibly rising to someone's triple-dog-dare -- decided that its own irregular airings starting in November, plus those on TCM and TBS, weren't serving the film, which was developing cult status largely due to scenes like this:
So, TNT got bold: Not one showing, but one showing after another after another, every two hours, starting Christmas Eve and ending Christmas night.
Good move: In 2002, about 38.5 million people -- nearly 1/6th of the U.S. -- watched the marathon at some point. And last year a new single-night viewing record was set: about 4.4 million people watched the 8 p.m. Christmas Eve showing.
As for the slightly smaller core cast -- the 8 main characters -- where are they now? A few updates:
Zack Ward: To this day, Ward says, people insist Scut Farkas really did have yellow eyes (he didn't), and that Ward himself has them (he doesn't). Now 38, the Toronto-born actor has been in Lost, Crossing Jordan and played The Legendary Red Dog in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous."
Scott Schwartz: Roughly a decade after young Schwartz's "Flick" got his tongue firmly and horribly ice-grafted to the school flagpole, older Schwartz got the rest of himself into porn -- straight, non-sexual roles, mind you, and he even won A Major Award! for one (AVN/Best Non-Sex Performance). He eventualy got unstuck from that too and now runs a memorabilia store in L.A.
(As for yesterday's Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ACS Edition: The second path connecting Bacon to Melinda Dillon: Dillon was in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything..." with the late Chris Penn, whose dance coach in "Footloose" was...right. Think Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) will be this easy? Guess again.)
-- Lauri Githens Hatch
