Monday, December 14, 2009

Ziggy's Gift

There are less than two weeks left to Christmas! It's time to wrap up your gift getting, literally and figuratively. You should finish your decorating as well. I'm still not finished getting gifts or decorating, which pains me greatly. But I know exactly what will cheer me up--this awesome special!

Ziggy's Gift first aired on ABC in December 1982, and it's a wonderful story that is one of my alltime favorites. The comic strip everyman becomes a streetcorner Santa and runs into some adventures involving a a thief, con man, and police officer trying to contain the silliness. It's a shame the special is never on TV, but it is readily available on DVD (which I purchased a couple of years ago). If you've never seen this special before, and chances are good you haven't, by all means enjoy it now. This belongs right up there with Charlie Brown and the Grinch. Thanks!



2 comments:

Shawn Robare said...

This was quite the weird Christmas Special. I have to admit that I'm not that much of a fan of the Ziggy comic strip (it filled with too many joke concepts with no executions/punchlines), but the animated special is really something else. The one bit that is kind of weird, and I'm sure based on what I've read of the Ziggy comics that this is part of the overall tone, is whether or not Ziggy is aware of his situation. I mean he's pulling money out of his donation bucket left and right and re-gifting it all over town. Does he realize it's magical/heaven sent bills he;s spending or does he not mind dipping into the charity bucket? Did he know the whole Santa gig was a scam? I guess it's a question for the ages...

Phillyradiogeek said...

I think Ziggy is unaware of the scam, but is aware of his magical ability (at least that's how I've understood it).

The DVD comes with a long series of cartoon shorts starring Ziggy, only about 30 seconds to a minute each, but I don't know what they were produced for, and the DVD doesn't seem to indicate. They look like they were intended for airing as interstititial items between programs. Unlike the Christmas special, Ziggy speaks in them.