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The 70s were a time when television would seem to try anything at least once. Science Fiction was one of the main genres where this was very true. Thanks to the success of series like Star Trek, and Lost in Space there was a deluge of, off beat and actually good genre TV (as we explored on last week’s Land of the Lost episode). Typically it was with some sort of toy tie-in or angle to get children to watch and/or buy something. And just wait until Star Wars happened.

But, the early 70s would find a new kind of hero to grab the hearts and minds of kids across the country and he’d bring with him some of the coolest toys around. Because, he was literally made up of metal and plastic himself.

The Six Million Dollar Man would jump into television history with a premise that was brilliant,...

In January of 1972, ABC first aired the made for television movie The Night Stalker. It was based on Jeff Rice’s unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers, which was adapted for tv by Richard Matheson. In The Night Stalker, newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak is investigating a series of murders in Las Vegas in which women are discovered dead and drained of blood, strange puncture marks evident on their necks. Kolchak eventually discovers that the killer is a vampire.

At the time, The Night Stalker was the highest rated television movie of all time, and Matheson won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay. A sequel tv movie called The Night Strangler aired in 1973, followed by the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which aired on ABC from 1974 – 1975. In the series, Kolchak investigated cases of a paranormal/supernatural nature, involving werewolves, aliens and even Jack the Ripper.

William Katt took a telekinetic date to the prom in Carrie, moved into a hellish home with a mind of its own in House, and flew into a billboard and lived to tell the tale in The Greatest American Hero. In an acting career spanning six decades, there's no doubt that William Katt has played memorable characters on both the stage and screen, but for his latest role, he's breathing new life into an iconic character by narrating the audiobook release of Jeff Rice's Kolchak: The Night Stalker novel, a seminal piece of initially unpublished fiction that became the basis for The Night Stalker, a made-for-tv movie starring Darren McGavin that thrilled and chilled enough viewers in 1972 to convince ABC to conjure up another TV film, The Night Strangler, before eventually leading to the short-lived yet beloved Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series that ran from 1974–75.

Following resourceful reporter...

The must-watch made-for-tv movies, the cult ’70s series, and the endearing performances by Darren McGavin as he investigated all manner of paranormal predicaments: anything and everything that had to do with Kolchak: The Night Stalker all started with Jeff Rice's unpublished novel, which is being resurrected on February 11th by James Aquilone's Monstrous Books, who have teamed up with Blackstone Audio to release an audiobook version that will be narrated by legendary actor William Katt!

Read on for additional details on the Kolchak: The Night Stalker audiobook (including Katt's excitement to step into the world of Kolchak), and to learn more this new release of Rice's novel, read our previous Q&a with James Aquilone and visit Monstrous Books' official website!

In 1972 Kolchak: The Night Stalker transfixed audiences. The movie became the highest-rated TV movie in U.S. history and spawned the cult TV series starring Darren McGavin.

One of Adam Sandler's most underrated and divisive comedies is finally returning to streaming this February. Sandler's run of comedies from 1995 to 2008 is nothing short of legendary. Within that time, the actor and writer released Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Punch-Drunk-Love, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (this writer's personal favorite). But, the film that kicked it all off was Billy Madison, and it's finally coming back to streaming.

Billy Madison arrives on Hulu on Feb. 1; it was directed by Tamra Davis, and co-written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy (Happy Gilmore) and is one of Sandler's most underrated comedies. Released in 1995, the film follows 27-year-old Billy Madison (Sandler) who is set to take over his father's hotel empire. However, his father (Darren McGavin) has one demand before he inherits the fortune: for his son to go back and finish school.

It may only have a 40% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but Adam Sandler’s 1995 movie, Billy Madison, has become a classic among audiences since it was released 30 years ago. The film boasts a 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and hits Hulu on Feb. 1.

Billy Madison stars Sandler as the titular man-child, Billy Madison, who, to inherit his father’s hotel empire, must repeat first through twelfth grade again. His father, Brian, is played by the late Darren McGavin, of A Christmas Story fame. In the process of going through school again, Billy is hindered by his rival, Eric Gordon, played by Emmy-winner Bradley Whitford (The West Wing).

Although Billy Madison wasn’t a box office hit, grossing just $26.4 million against a budget of $10 million, it is considered to be one of Sandler’s funniest movies and one of the first starring the Saturday Night Live alum. Before Billy Madison, Sandler...

There’s still plenty of time to fully get in the Christmas spirit. Whether this be through holiday favorite films like Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas or with newer hits like The Holiday and Last Christmas, many options — cable and streaming — exist to watch festive films and TV shows.

Below find a list of classic Christmas movie titles by alphabetical order and where they are streaming or airing on cable this season. Further down, a list of holiday-themed television show episodes is outlined, and various networks’ offerings for Christmas will be sprinkled throughout.

Where To Watch Christmas Movies:

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas is available to stream via Apple TV+.

Related: Deadline’s 50 Classic Holiday Movies Gallery: From ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ And ‘A Christmas Story’ To ‘Die Hard’ And ‘The Holiday’

A Christmas Story & A Christmas Story Christmas

Bob Clark’s hit film starring Peter Billingsley,...

It’s a dark and rainy Monday night in December, and as you slowly drive northwest up a slanted street, a festive mustard-yellow house at the corner gradually comes into view. Cheerful holiday lights line the porch roof, while a warm, yellow-orange glow illuminates the upper floors. As you get closer, the real star of the house becomes visible in the green-trimmed front window: a shapely leg lamp. A major award. Electric sex gleaming in the window.

This scene doesn’t take place on good old Cleveland Street in the years preceding World War II — but on West 11th Street in modern-day Tremont, a historic neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. In a case of life imitating art, the house with the fishnet-clad leg lamp is the very same residence bespectacled Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) and his family occupy in the 1983 film A Christmas Story. The beloved holiday season staple follows Ralphie as he dodges bullies,...

A long-lost Marvel movie has finally been found. While the MCU has now brought the likes of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America to a much wider audience, these were far from the first efforts to bring these beloved characters to the screen in live-action. After several made-for-tv movies, director Albert Pyun was given the reins to Captain America in 1990 but, sadly, the movie was mauled by those who saw it, and currently stands at just 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the Marvel outing has since garnered something of a cult following, and now, various reports on social media have revealed that a myth surrounding the movie is indeed true: a director’s cut exists, and it has been found.

Directed by Albert Pyun, the late filmmaker known for low-budget, high-concept genre fare, and written by Stephen Tolkin, 1990’s Captain America stars Matt Salinger in the title role alongside Ronny Cox,...

Some Christmas stories are timeless classics. Ebenezer Scrooge learns the meaning of the holiday by way of ghastly visitors. The Grinch goes from Christmas thief to hero of Whoville. Buddy the Elf spreads Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear. And Ralphie Parker yearns for an official Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. Yes, the 1983 movie A Christmas Story is an essential entry in the Christmastime cinematic canon. It’s also a holiday tradition, especially because TNT and TBS have shown the movie in 24-hour marathons regularly on Christmas Eve for years — with millions of TV viewers rooting for Ralphie (Peter Billingsley), younger brother Randy (Ian Petrella), and parents Mrs. Parker (Melinda Dillon) and “Old Man” Parker (Darren McGavin). But you might be surprised to know that A Christmas Story wasn’t the first time that Ralphie was seen onscreen, and it certainly wasn’t...

James Wan is one of the most highly respectable names in the horror genre, and for good reason. The Australian filmmaker has made some of the most memorable horror movies as a writer, director, and producer. Over the years, his spine-chilling narratives have beautifully captured audiences’ attention. The Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring movie series are some of his famous works. His entire filmography has done business north of $2 billion at the global box office.

James Wan At A Convention | Via Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore

Wan recently put up his Halloween watch list with a selection of some of his favorite vampire movies.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula A Scene From Bram Stoker’s Dracula | Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures

This movie, released in 1992, is an adaptation of author Bram Stroker’s novel of the same title. Directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola, the film steers a tad away from the...

A few days ago, it was announced that Happy Gilmore would be getting a new 4K Blu-ray release from the Kino Lorber video label. The ultra-high-definition transfer of the Adam Sandler comedy is due to hit retailers sometime early next year, presumably to coincide with the release of the Netflix sequel. It has now been announced, per Blu-ray.com, that Sandler’s previous breakout film, Billy Madison, will also be getting a 4K release from Kino Lorber that is scheduled to become available to consumers also early next year.

Billy Madison stars Adam Sandler, Darren McGavin, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Bradley Whitford, and Josh Mostel. The description reads, “Man-child Billy Madison has been a spoiled rich kid all his life, and spends his days drinking and partying. When his father, hotel magnate Brian, becomes fed up with his son’s irresponsible ways, he issues an ultimatum. Since Billy passed all his schooling...

"In 1972 Kolchak: The Night Stalker transfixed audiences. The movie became the highest-rated TV movie in U.S. history and spawned the cult TV series starring Darren McGavin. The TV movie’s iconic screenplay was written by horror legend and novelist Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and was based on an unpublished novel by Jeff Rice, which was released the following year. Now Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and writer James Aquilone and Monstrous Books have acquired the print rights to Kolchak and will be releasing a limited edition of Jeff Rice’s original, cult novel."

The Monstrous Books deluxe hardcover edition of Kolchak: The Night Stalker just went live on Kickstarter, with a limited print run of 1973 copies. Ahead of today's campaign launch, I caught up with James Aquilone to talk about this new edition, his love of all things Kolchak, and what's next:

You're starting by printing the original Jeff Rice "Night Stalker" novel,...

David Duchovny made his film directorial debut with House of D in 2004. While he has helmed multiple television series episodes, including The X-Files, Bones, Californication, and Aquarius, Duchovny has spent more of the last twenty years writing novels than helming projects. His sophomore film effort behind the camera is Reverse The Curse, based on Duchovny’s novel Bucking F*ing Dent. Bringing together friends in the industry for supporting roles and casting Logan Marshall-Green and Stephanie Beatriz alongside himself, this is an emotional comedy-drama with a sports theme.

Reverse The Curse follows Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) who works as a peanut slinger at Yankee Stadium. Having a terse relationship with his father, Marty (David Duchovny), Ted returns home to learn his dad is dying of cancer. At the suggestion of Marty’s nurse Mariana (Stephanie Beatriz), Ted learns about his father’s past and what led to their distance from one another.

In 1972, Kolchak: The Night Stalker transfixed audiences. The movie became the highest-rated TV movie in U.S. history and spawned the cult TV series starring Darren McGavin. The TV movie was written by horror legend and novelist Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and based on an unpublished novel by Jeff Rice, which ended up being published the following year.

Now, Bloody Disgusting has learned that Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and writer James Aquilone and Monstrous Books have acquired the print rights to Kolchak and will be releasing a limited edition of Jeff Rice’s original, cult novel. The new, deluxe hardcover edition will feature a new foreword by writer and actor David Dastmalchian (Count Crowley; Late Night with the Devil), an all-new afterword by writer and producer Rodney Barnes (Killadelphia), and a cover and spot illustrations by Russ Braun (The Boys).

The Monstrous Books deluxe hardcover edition of Kolchak: The Night Stalker...

Arnold Schwarzenegger made a whole slew of classic 80s action movies. Still, one remains totally obscure despite being released smack dab in the middle of his amazing The Terminator to Predator run of movies from 1984-87. That film in 1986’s Raw Deal. A formulaic 80s action flick, it’s the most modestly mounted Schwarzenegger action epic of the era, with Arnie coerced into starring in it to complete a long-standing contract he had with producer Dino De Laurentiis following Conan The Barbarian.

In it, Schwarzenegger is somewhat unconvincingly cast as a small-town sheriff named Kaminski, who used to be an FBI agent but was forced out of the bureau after roughing up a suspect. He’s recruited by his old mentor (The Night Stalker’s legendary Darren McGavin) whose son was killed by the Chicago mob. He wants Kaminski to go undercover in the mob and tear them apart from the inside.

A Christmas Story Christmas recast the character of Mother Parker, played by the late Melinda Dillon in the original, with Julie Hagerty. Melinda Dillon retired from acting in 2007 and was unable to reprise her role in the sequel. Julie Hagerty, known for her roles in Airplane! and Marriage Story, did a good job in the sequel but her performance was not as memorable as Dillon's in the original.

HBO Max’s A Christmas Story Christmas saw many familiar faces return to Cleveland Street, but surprisingly, the movie recast Ralphie Parker’s mom. In the original A Christmas Story, "Mother Parker," a.k.a. "Mrs. Parker," was played by the late Melinda Dillon, starring alongside Peter Billingsley as Ralphie and Darren McGavin as The Old Man. While Ralphie’s father’s death removed that character from A Christmas Story Christmas, Mother Parker is still a very significant presence in the sequel,...

The episode of The Black Sheep covering The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Brandon Nally, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

I’ve been on a bit of a TV kick lately. You’ll see it coming up in one of the adaptation videos but also in what I’ve been watching. The 2023 season of Creepshow has been a lot of fun and Mike Flanagan’s “Succession mixed with a Giallo” in Fall of the House of Usher has been one of my favorite pieces of media this year. It reminded me a lot of growing up watching the second coming of TV horror movies in the 90s. I hesitate to call it the golden age because I think the 70s still holds that title but the 90s had all manner from Stephen King adaptations,...

A Christmas Story was initially overlooked upon its release but has since become a national treasure and a top 100 film in American Cinematic History. Zack Ward, who played bully Scut Farkus in the film, faced challenges with people starting fights with him after its release. Recent interactions with fans have been positive, with people recognizing Ward and bringing him joy by mentioning his character's defeat in the movie.

A Christmas Story is one of the most beloved holiday films of all time, and November 18th marked the 40-year anniversary of the movie hitting theaters. While it may be an iconic Christmas film today, such wasn't always the case, and Zack Ward, who played notorious bully Scut Farkus in the production, took to X to reflect on the success of A Christmas Story.

Released in theaters on November 18, 1983, A Christmas Story was directed by Bob Clark, who up until that time...

From yellow-eyed bully to blue-clad police officer, Scut Farkus made one miraculous turnaround since we were first introduced to him in 1983’s A Christmas Story. Now, the actor who portrayed him, Zack Ward, is spreading Christmas (Story) cheer by commemorating the film’s 40th anniversary.

Taking to X over the weekend, Zack Ward noted the special anniversary and how wild the size of the legacy the movie developed over the years is. “40 years ago today “A Christmas Story” was released and honestly, nobody cared. Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the top 100 most Important films of American Cinematic History from the 20th Century and in the Smithsonian as a national treasure. Wow.” Don’t forget the annual 24-hour marathons, either, Farkus!

40 years ago today "A Christmas Story" was released and honestly, nobody cared.

Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the...

Lara Parker, who found the role of a lifetime at just 28 years old when she was cast by Dark Shadows producer Dan Curtis as the beautiful, vengeful and altogether evil witch Angelique Bouchard Collins, died October 12 in her sleep in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer. She was 84.

Her death was announced by producer Jim Pierson of Dan Curtis Productions, on behalf of Parker’s family.

“I’m heartbroken, as all of us are who knew and loved her,” said her Dark Shadows co-star and longtime friend Kathryn Leigh Scott in a statement. “She graced our lives with her beauty, talent and friendship, and we are all richer for having had her in our lives.”

Parker, who also authored four popular Dark Shadows-related novels from 1998-2016, arrived on the supernatural soap opera in 1967, not long after Canadian actor Jonathan Frid had been cast as vampire Barnabas Collins. Frid...

The X-Files helped define television in the early 1990s. It gave the Fox network one of its early hits and turned David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson into stars overnight. Its labyrinthine meta-plot ultimately got out of hand, but it left an indelible stamp on the medium, as well as spawning a pair of feature films. Like any creative endeavor, it uses earlier works as the basis for its own storytelling.

For an excellent case in point. Dana Scully clearly draws inspiration from The Silence of the Lambs' heroine Clarice Starling, released two years before The X-Files series premiere. For her partner Fox Mulder, the showrunners dove deeper into pop culture history. Kolchak: The Night Stalker -- which ran for just a single season on ABC from 1974-1975 -- developed a cult following over the years, including The X-Files creator Chris Carter. He cites the series and its titular hero, Carl Kolchak,...

I miss the 80s: big hair, parachute pants, collectible toys, and amazingly nostalgic kid-friendly movies. I could watch the best 80s movies from my childhood over and over. And I sometimes do.

Be honest. How many of you poured water on something hoping it would multiply like Gremlins? And did you try attaching a milk crate to the front of your bike like Elliot in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?“

How many of us are still hooked on Baby Ruth (“Goonies“) and Reese’s Pieces (also “E.T.“) thanks to excellent product placement? I still won’t go near the TV at night if it has ants racing.

Related: 10 Best Movies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

Picking the ten best kid-friendly movies from the 80s can be tricky and highly subjective. We tried to be objective by using IMDb as our ranking source. And we stuck to movies with child and teen-related themes targeted at broad audiences.

The film world is still reeling from the recent loss of actor Rick Dalton, whose passing was first announced on May 19th, 2023 by The Video Archives Podcast's official Twitter account. Dalton, who passed away at his Honolulu, Hawaii home (shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday in April), is survived by his wife, one-time Italian starlet Francesca Cappucci.

The Video Archives Podcast, created and hosted by filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, aired an episode on May 22nd that is apparently part one of a multi-episode run that revolves around the directors' memories of Dalton and his work.

While other friends and fans of the actor such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have yet to make any official statements or remembrances, Tarantino has made sure that Dalton's name isn't fading into the ether like so many stars of yesteryear. The "Pulp Fiction" director made sure to include a tribute to...

Bill Butler, the self-taught, Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose work on the landmark 1975 horror film Jaws unleashed a wave of anxiety for beachgoers that lasts to this day, has died. He would have turned 102 on Friday.

Butler died Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, according to the American Society of Cinematographers. He is survived by five daughters and his wife, Iris.

During his five-decade career, Butler also shot Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People (1969) and The Conversation (1974); Peter Hyams’ Capricorn One (1977); Randal Kleiser’s hit musical Grease (1978); and Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982) and Rocky IV (1985), all written and directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone.

On another noteworthy 1975 release, Butler replaced the fired Haskell Wexler midway through production on Milos Forman‘s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Both shared an Oscar cinematography nomination for their work.

Butler also had replaced Wexler on The Conversation after creative differences forced Wexler off that production early on.

Billy Madison contains a maniacal performance by Bradley Whitford that feels oddly precinct of business indiscretions we see in the news today. Fearing that Billy (Adam Sandler) is too incompetent to take over the company in his place, Billy's father Brian (Darren McGavin) decides to appoint his scheming Vice President Eric Gordon (Whitford) in Billy’s place. Billy doesn’t know much about management, but he does know how cruel Eric can be, and begs his father to reconsider. Eric attempts to make one last bid for the power chair by finding the loophole within the business guidelines. Billy has to complete ninth grade in order to qualify, as his father used his connections to goad teachers into falsifying his dim-witted son’s grade, despite Eric's attempts at sabotage. Has there ever been an Adam Sandler movie villain whose been so casually cruel?...

Melinda Dillon of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "A Christmas Story" fame passed away early last month at the age of 83. Her family made the announcement that she passed on January 9, 2023.

Dillon had a wonderful and eclectic career on the stage and screen and worked with some of the best directors of her era, including Hal Ashby, Steven Spielberg, Bob Clark, George Roy Hill, Sydney Pollack, and more recently Paul Thomas Anderson and Mike Binder. She originated the role of Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1963, a performance that would earn her a Tony nomination before she took a break from performing citing mental health reasons.

In a 1976 interview with The New York Times, Dillon candidly discussed the pressure of the constant schedule of New York theater and the birth of her son after a series of miscarriages that lead to her seeking treatment at a mental health facility,...

Melinda Dillon, a two-time Oscar nominee for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice who also played Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story, has died. She was 83. Her family said she died January 9 in Los Angeles but did not give other details.

Dillon and Richard Dreyfuss in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ 1977

Dillon probably is best known for playing a mother whose young son is abducted by the aliens in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She and Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) inexplicably are drawn to Devils Tower in Wyoming as they struggle to make sense of what has happened to them. She earned a Supporting Actress Oscar nom for the role.

She also played the mother of the young lead Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story, memorably warning the boy who wants a Bb rifle that, “You’ll shoot your eye out!

Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83.

Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Later, the Arkansas native played two characters opposite David Carradine — Woody Guthrie’s first wife, Mary, and a dark-haired folk singer named Memphis Sue — in the biopic Bound for Glory (1976), directed by Hal Ashby; was a lesbian hockey wife in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977); and portrayed John Lithgow’s wife in the family film Harry and the Hendersons (1987).

Her big-screen résumé also included Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), as...

It’s time for a new episode of the Revisited video series, and with this one we’re looking back at a TV movie that started a franchise, 1972’s The Night Stalker ((pick up a copy Here)! The Night Stalker was followed by a sequel called The Night Strangler, and then a twenty episode season of a TV series called Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A show that served as inspiration for The X-Files and received a short-lived remake series called Night Stalker in the early 2000s. To find out all about The Night Stalker, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey from a teleplay by Richard Matheson, which was based on a novel by Jeff Rice, The Night Stalker has the following synopsis:

After several high-profile newspapers fire him for his difficult attitude, investigative journalist Carl Kolchak finds a job following the police beat for a small Las Vegas publication.

Find out where to watch A Christmas Story, one of the most popular holiday movies ever made.

There are few Christmas movies that are so universally known to viewers as the 1983 comedic classic directed by Bob Clark. A Christmas Story tells a nostalgic tale of Ralphie Parker, a nine-year-old living in 1940s suburban Indiana. Narrated by Jean Shepherd, whose writings inspired the film's script, audiences are treated to a whimsical and entirely relatable account of one Christmas season where Ralphie, played by Peter Billingsley, is obsessed with receiving a particular present. Bob Clark conceived of the idea behind A Christmas Story in the late 1960s after hearing Shepherd recount tales on a radio program of him growing up in Indiana around the same time period that the movie takes place. It was not until shortly after his box office hit, Porky's, in 1981, that Clark convinced a studio to produce the holiday flick,...

Bob Clark’s 1983 holiday classic, A Christmas Story, is one of the most beloved family films of all time. While not a blockbuster upon its initial release, the film immediately became a cult classic thanks to cable, and close to forty years later, it is so well-regarded that it still airs 24 hours a day on Christmas Eve on TBS. But what happened to the cast of A Christmas Story? Recently, fans had the chance to see many of them in the sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas, with some exceptions.

In this episode of Wtf Happened to this Celebrity, we take a look at what happened to the film’s talented cast. Notably, star Peter Billingsley, who was one of the most immediately recognizable kid actors of the eighties, and went on to significant success as a director and producer, being an executive producer on Iron Man and having directed Couples Retreat and more.

There’s no denying that A Christmas Story has become a holiday tradition for many families around the world. First released in 1983, the film starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie; a young boy who wants nothing more than a Red Ryder Bb Gun for Christmas.

Between the captivating storytelling, quirky characters, and overall filming style, A Christmas Story has stood out compared to several other similarly-styled Christmas movies. Much like other movies that are regarded as classics, A Christmas Story has a lot of fascinating trivia behind the movie that many people might not be aware of.

Updated on December 12th, 2022 by Colin McCormick: Every year around this time, countless fans revisit A Christmas Story as one of the classic holiday movie favorites. This year, there is even more reason to watch the original as a long-awaited sequel A Christmas Story Christmas sees the return of Ralphie and many of the beloved characters.

Although "A Christmas Story" was not a big hit when it first released in theaters in 1983, it's long since become one of the most famous holiday movies of all time. We can credit the TNT channel for this; in 1997 they started airing 24-hour Christmas marathons of the movie, and throughout the whole month of December "A Christmas Story" still plays on the channel seemingly every day. The TNT executives decided that everyone was going to learn to love this movie, whether they wanted to or not.

Of course, the movie would never have caught on as well as it has if it wasn't legitimately good. As /Film's own Demetra Nikolakakis put it, the reason it's so great is because it "chooses nostalgic realism over rose-tinted glasses." The movie is about an adult Ralphie reflecting on his childhood, and it never sugarcoats just how terrible so many parts of childhood are.

What do you want for Christmas this year? Is it a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle? Is it a fuzzy pink bunny costume? A very sexy leg lamp for your window? Heck, you may even have The Old Man's leg lamp in your own home already. But maybe you'd like all of that and more inside the actual house from the 1983 film "A Christmas Story." If so, we have good news. The Parker household -- now a museum centered around the classic holiday film -- is up for sale, according to Variety. Don't celebrate just yet, though. There are a lot of conditions, and you'll probably have to sell all your other presents to afford it. 

If you don't watch "A Christmas Story" several times each holiday season as I do, the modern classic is set at Christmas in 1940s Indiana. Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) wants nothing...

The holiday season is in full swing! To help you get into the festive spirit, Et Canada has rounded up a list of holiday films, from beloved classics to new releases, available to stream in Canada.

“Falling for Christmas” (2022)

In this recently released holiday film, Lindsay Lohan returns to the screen as “a newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress” who gets into a skiing accident and suffers from total amnesia. She “finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner and his precocious daughter in the days leading up to Christmas.” Stream “Falling for Christmas” on Netflix.

“The Noel Diary” (2022)

This upcoming festive rom-com stars Justin Hartley as a best-selling author who returns home at Christmas “to settle his estranged mother’s estate.” While there, he discovers a diary that may hold secrets to his past as well as that of “an intriguing young woman on a mission of her own,...

Ralphie actor Peter Billingsley explains western sequence callbacks in A Christmas Story Christmas. Officially titled A Christmas Story Christmas, the sequel to 1983's holiday classic sees Billingsley return to the screen nearly 40 years later as the beloved Ralphie Clark. Set in the 1940s and starring Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin as Ralphie's parents, A Christmas Story follows the mischievous 9-year-old as he tries to convince them and Santa Claus that the perfect gift for Christmas is a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot Bb gun. Hoping to be a real cowboy someday, Ralphie often fantasizes about himself in western movies, dreaming of protecting his family, "Black Bart." As it turns out, the sequel includes a new sequence, showing an updated version of the classic 40s western.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, A Christmas Story sequel's western sequence callbacks are explained by Ralphie actor Peter Billingsley. Billingsley, who also serves as a producer on the film,...

Warning: The following contains Spoilers for A Christmas Story Christmas.2022's A Christmas Story Christmas proves to be far more than a common sequel, delivering a touching ending that is a worthy continuation of the Parker family saga. Set 33 years after the 1983 holiday classic, A Christmas Story Christmas centers around a grown-up Ralph Parker as he returns to his hometown of Hohman, Indiana for the holidays. It is far from a festive homecoming, however, as Ralph is in mourning for his father and feeling the pressure to plan the perfect Christmas for his family while trying to fulfill his dreams of becoming a published author.

Hilarity ensues as Ralph struggles with one disaster after another, ranging from unexpected injuries to the theft of the family's presents while they are visiting the local hospital. While a surprise encounter with his childhood bully Scut Farkus goes far better than he ever expected,...

Peter Billingsley returns to lead the A Christmas Story Christmas cast, which is filled with returning characters and new faces. The original A Christmas Story was released in 1983 and followed Ralphie Parker as he attempted to get a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle from Santa. The film quickly became an iconic Christmas movie, but Warner Bros. found a way to return to the characters decades later with A Christmas Story Christmas. The sequel provides a glimpse at Ralph's life as an adult as he learns about the difficulties that can come with trying to pull off the perfect Christmas.

The A Christmas Story sequel cast unsurprisingly features a mixture of actors that audiences know from the original movie and several new additions. Since it has been nearly 40 years since the original movie, not every person could return. The passing of Darren McGavin, who played Ralphie's Old Man,...

Over the last forty years, director Albert Pyun has built an awesome career. He started off with the appropriately titled sword and sorcery classic The Sword and the Sorcerer and since then has directed such films as Cyborg, Captain America (1990), Kickboxer 2, Kickboxer 4, Arcade, Nemesis, Dollman, Mean Gun, Infection, and many more. So many more, he has around fifty feature directing credits to his name. Sadly, Pyun was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis several years ago… and it seems he is now in his final days. His wife Cynthia Curnan took to Facebook to ask fans to send in personal messages so she can read them to him. Curnan’s request for messages was then given a signal boost by a Sam Peckinpah fan page.

Curnan’s Facebook post can be found Here. She said, “Albert took another downturn. I could tell he feared going down again. He was working too feverishly.

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It’s hard to imagine now, but A Christmas Story wasn’t exactly a hit when it opened in theaters in 1983. It’s mainly due to the film’s constant rotation on cable television during the holiday season that it achieved its current status as a beloved Yuletide classic. So it makes perfect sense in the current streaming era that its long-belated, awkwardly titled sequel A Christmas Story Christmas should make its debut on HBO Max. (Yes, there was 1994’s My Summer Story and 2012’s direct-to-video sequel A Christmas Story 2. But this film ignores them, and so should you.)

Taking place in 1973, more than thirty years after the original, the film once again stars the now middle-aged Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker, who’s all grown up and lives in Chicago with his wife Sandy (Erinn Hayes) and young kids Mark (River Drosche...

Plot: Follows the now-adult Ralphie as he returns to the house on Cleveland Street to give his kids a magical Christmas like the one he had as a child, reconnecting with childhood friends and reconciling the passing of his Old Man.

Review: Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story has gone from an obscure 1980s cult classic to a stalwart of cable marathons and quotable moments in the thirty-nine years since it premiered. Despite two feature film sequels, a half dozen made-for-television movies featuring the Parker family, and much despised live broadcast musical special, nothing has lived up to the nostalgia and wholesomeness of the original. With HBO Max serving as the perfect platform for such a sequel, Ralphie Parker is back for the first direct sequel to the 1983 original. A Christmas Story Christmas, featuring the return of Peter Billingsley as Ralphie and many of the first movie’s cast, is...

(from left) Julianna Layne as Julie, River Drosche as Mark, and Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker in A Christmas Story Christmas. Photo: © 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. In the franchise-dominated era of filmmaking, we’ve moved into a phase in which no legacyquel is surprising anymore, so when HBO Max announced...

It's been almost 40 years since the holiday classic "A Christmas Story" followed young Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) as he pined for the ultimate Christmas gift back in the glory days of the 1940s: an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. The original 1983 holiday comedy has become a fierce favorite around the holidays, so much so that it's earned a now-traditional 24-hour marathon every single year, stretching from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. 

Now Peter Billingsley has returned for "A Christmas Story Christmas," which seeks to give fans a legacy-quel that follows an adult Ralphie as he attempts to give his own family a Christmas they'll never forget. Not only is Billingsley back as Ralphie in front of the camera, with his brilliant and occasionally mischievous blue eyes still shining bright behind rounded spectacles, but...

Peter Billingsley, the blond moppet from “A Christmas Story,” was 11 years old when he starred in that 1983 holiday-sleeper-that-became-a-classic (though it depends who you ask — I’ve always been something of a Scrooge about it). The image of Billingsley from “A Christmas Story” — goggle-ish glasses, beaming gopher grin — became, in its way, as iconic a movie signifier of raucous kiddie-culture spirits as Macaulay Culkin’s cheeky gaze of frozen horror in “Home Alone.” But that was 40 years ago. Billingsley is now 51, and he’s the dad in “A Christmas Story Christmas,” a latter-day sequel to the movie that a lot of people (maybe too many) think of as their all-time favorite Yuletide TV bliss-out.

In “A Christmas Story Christmas,” Billingsley, as the grown-up version of Ralphie Parker, is still a likable actor, but he’s lost any trace of that rascally Bb-gun exuberance. He now resembles the former NBC News anchor...

If you grew up with cable in the ‘90s, you’ve tuned into TBS’ 24 Hours of A Christmas Story marathon at least once. A Christmas Story is a 1983 Christmas comedy directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd’s semi-fictional book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash from 1966. The film stars Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, and Zack Ward. The tale of a kid trying to swindle his way into an “official Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle” has become a holiday classic thanks to the yearly airings. It was an independent film with very little notoriety until the early ’90s when Turner Broadcasting began airing the film across TCM, TNT, and TBS during the holidays. It aired over those three channels six times from Christmas Eve to December 26th in 1995. It was so popular that the following year had eight separate airings,...

The first clip from HBO Max's upcoming A Christmas Story sequel shows the first look at its triple dog dare scene. Titled A Christmas Story Christmas, the sequel will see Peter Billingsley reprise his role as Ralphie Parker, who returns to his childhood home with his wife (Erinn Hayes) and two children (River Drosche and Julianna Layne). The film is also planned to be a legacy sequel to the original A Christmas Story, which will re-tread many sequences that made the first film so special and reunite the original cast with some newer additions.

Now, HBO Max has released the sequel's first exclusive clip, in which Flick (Scott Schwartz) triple dog dares Schwartz (R.D. Robb) into sliding down on an icy, and closed-down waterslide. In the original film, Schwartz triple dog dared Flick on sticking his tongue on a frozen flagpole, which inevitably saw him getting his tongue stuck,...

Sad tidings begin A Christmas Story Christmas, a follow-up film to the 1983 holiday classic. Ralphie Parker, now grown and an aspiring novelist, gets a dreaded phone call from his loving mother (Julie Hagerty) during Christmas 1973. Peter Billingsley in 1983’s A Christmas Story (Credit: Everett Colleciton) “It’s the passing of Ralphie’s father [Darren McGavin, who died in 2006] that calls him home,” says Billingsley, now 51. To honor his old man, Ralphie brings his own wife (Erinn Hayes) and their two kids to Hohman, Indiana, to have a magical holiday just like the ones he recalls. Look for more familiar faces from the 1940-set original, like tongue-stuck-to-flagpole Flick (Scott Schwartz) and bully Scut Farkus (Zack Ward). And not much has changed for Ralphie himself, reports Billingsley: “He’s an eternal dreamer. He’s always fantasizing things.” A Christmas Story Christmas, Movie Premiere, Thursday, November 17, HBO Max...

There are several A Christmas Story returning characters in the 2022 sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas. Originally released in 1983, Bob Clark's movie is heralded as one of the best Christmas movies ever made. Starring Peter Billingsley as Ralphie, A Christmas Story followed one fateful holiday for the Parker family when Ralphie was 9 years old and wanted a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle from Santa. Despite the film's iconic status, A Christmas Story Christmas represents a chance to return to the story nearly 40 years later. The film is an HBO Max original and releases on the streaming service on November 17, 2022.

As a sequel to A Christmas Story, the movie obviously features a handful of characters from the original film. The first A Christmas Story Christmas trailer provided a look at the returning characters and their roles in Ralphie's next Christmas adventure. While the sequel includes several cast...

Streaming on HBO Max November 17 is A Christmas Story Christmas.

From Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Max comes the long-awaited follow-up to annual holiday favorite, “A Christmas Story.” This time, Ralphie is all grown up and must deal with Christmas and all that comes with it…as a dad. Peter Billingsley returns to the role that has made kids of all ages anticipate Christmas morning like no other.

In the original 1983 film, set in the 1940s and showed annually for 24 hours on TBS & TNT, little Ralphie tries to convince his parents to get him a Red Ryder range-model Bb gun for Christmas, only to hear, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” TNT began the Christmas Story marathon in 1997, and TBS took it over in 2004 when TNT shifted to drama programming.

Peter Billingsley plays Ralphie, a boy who desperately wants a Bb gun for Christmas. Melinda Dillon plays his mother and Darren McGavin his father.