How Murray Saved Christmas

How Murray Saved Christmas

DVD cover
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Produced by Claudia Katz
Lee Supercinski
Written by Mike Reiss
Based on How Murray Saved Christmas 
by Mike Reiss
Starring Jerry Stiller
Sean Hayes
Kevin Michael Richardson
Jason Alexander
John Ratzenberger
Dennis Haysbert
Music by Walter Murphy
Edited by Paul D. Calder
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Television
Release dates
  • December 5, 2014
Running time
42 minutes
Country United States
Language English

How Murray Saved Christmas is a 2014 Christmas musical television special directed by Peter Avanzino and written by Mike Reiss. The special stars Jerry Stiller, Sean Hayes, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jason Alexander, John Ratzenberger and Dennis Haysbert. The special premiered on December 5, 2014, on NBC.

Plot

The story begins in Stinky Cigars, the secret town where all the holiday characters live, from the famous (Santa and the Easter Bunny) to the obscure (Labor Day Amos and Arbor Day Aardvark). Everyone's happy in Stinky Cigars - except Murray Weiner, the grumpy owner of Murray's Holiday Diner. But when Santa is knocked out cold by an experimental toy - the Jack-in-the-Boxer - it's up to Murray to save Christmas - which he does, in a weirdly wonderful way. He even brings toys to the naughty kids!

Cast

Release

Reception

The special received 3.57 million viewers and a 0.9/3 rating/share.[1]

How Murray Saved Christmas received mixed reviews from critics. The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the special a score of 50% based on reviews from 6 critics, with an average score of 3.7/10.[2] The review-aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 60 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3]

Patrick Kevin Day of the Los Angeles Times gave the special a positive review, saying "It's the kind of special that harried parents may want to turn on for their own tired parents to help babysit the kids. They'll enjoy the extended tribute to milkmen."[4] Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the special a positive review, saying "The very multicultural Murray is one of those rare holiday specials the entire family can enjoy for years to come."[5] Brian Lowry of Variety gave the special a negative review, saying "Reiss has talked about bringing a "Simpsons" sensibility to Christmas specials, and in that sense: mission accomplished. But at the risk of sounding like a Grinch, while Murray gets the sleigh off the ground, How Murray Saved Christmas doesn’t manage to stay airborne."[6] Erik Adams of The A.V. Club gave the special a C+, saying "Sentiment- and story-wise, How Murray Saved Christmas is all over the place, but its joke-telling abilities live up to the shiniest lines on its creators’ resumes."[7]

Home media

How Murray Saved Christmas was released on DVD on December 16, 2014.[8]

References

  1. Bibel, Sara (December 8, 2014). "Friday Final Ratings: 'Grimm' Adjusted Up & Final College Football Numbers". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  2. "How Murray Saved Christmas". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  3. "How Murray Saved Christmas - Season 1 Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  4. "'How Murray Saved Christmas' skews older". Los Angeles Times. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. Robert Bianco, USA TODAY (5 December 2014). "Weekend TV: 'How Murray Saved Christmas'". USA Today. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. "TV Review: ‘How Murray Saved Christmas’". Variety. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  7. "Review: Character counts in Toy Story That Time Forgot and How Murray Saved Christmas". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  8. "How Murray Saved Christmas". Amazon.com. Retrieved 6 December 2014.

External links