DAVID BIANCULLI | Opinion Today's Christmas specials just can't compare to the '60s classics

When it comes to Christmas TV specials, they sure don't make them like they used to.
And most of the time, for various reasons, they're not even trying.
Last Thursday, The WB aired "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," a charming animated version of the Dr. Seuss tale, which was narrated by Boris Karloff and made in 1966.
Earlier this month, ABC presented twice "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a Charles M. Schulz special from 1965. The first telecast, in its opening half hour, beat four of the other five networks in overall audience levels and beat them with the advertiser-coveted 18- to 49-year-old viewers.
Earlier this month, the Cartoon Network revived a long-dormant family holiday cartoon, 1962's "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" and is repeating it at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
My column on its return to TV sparked a flurry of grateful e-mails, all talking about how they remembered watching the show when they were young and how they would share it with their children.
That's three terrific holiday specials, all made in the early 1960s.
Today's offerings
Is there anything comparable being made today? Are today's kids getting the opportunity to build their own TV memories of Christmas specials made for them? And if not, why not?
Forty years from now, will today's youngsters look back fondly to, say, the reindeer-testicle-eating holiday edition of "Fear Factor"? NBC liked last year's episode enough to repeat it this year as a Christmas special, with the reindeer parts being washed down by 100-year-old eggnog.
I'd root for NBC to get a lump of coal in its stocking this year, but the network probably would just make some "Fear Factor" contestant eat it.
There have been a few solid holiday shows in recent years, ones that are good bets to stand the test of time. Nickelodeon's "Rugrats" Hanukkah special from 1996 is a perennial, and 1999's "Olive, the Other Reindeer," first shown on Fox, is a sweet family story in the grand holiday tradition.
On the rude side, there's the entertaining impertinence of Comedy Central's "South Park" holiday episodes. Also, there's the occasional new holiday telemovie, like last Sunday's "Secret Santa" on NBC and the previous Sunday's "Undercover Christmas" on CBS.
TV Christmas specials
But the networks aren't making as many telemovies these days. Even great ones from previous years, like George C. Scott in the CBS version of "A Christmas Carol" from 1984, are hard, if not impossible, to find. Nor are variety shows and specials as plentiful as they were a generation or two ago. These days, instead of Andy Williams or Bob Hope holding court for the holidays, we get, courtesy of MTV, Ozzy Osbourne.
The truth is, they aren't making TV Christmas specials like they used to because, as families, we're not watching TV like we used to -- not in front of the same set, with everyone gathered around to watch Snoopy dance or Tiny Tim sing.
The way something becomes a TV tradition these days, like TNT's annual showing of the charming 1983 movie "A Christmas Story," is through saturation -- showing it nonstop for 24 hours, every year, until it finds and builds an audience.
Not that I'm asking for 24 hours of "Fear Factor" or Ozzy Osbourne. But nothing's come down the pike to equal "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," much less threaten to knock it out of the holiday rotation.
XBianculli writes for New York Daily News.