Evening Viewing Stuffed With Movies
Thanksgiving evening has become a night for family viewing.
This year, the networks offer three movies to choose from, plus there’s a bunch on cable. Check listings for several daylong movie marathons on cable channels.
At 8:30, NBC has the blockbuster event, a repeat of 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” the special-effects masterpiece starring Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough.
FOX has an 8 o’clock screening of the undistinguished but family-safe “Miracle on 34th Street,” the 1994 remake of the holiday classic starring Dylan McDermott, Elizabeth Perkins and - it’s just a coincidence - Attenborough as Kris Kringle.
CBS’ “Unlikely Angel” at 9 stars Dolly Parton as a free-living country singer who dies in a car accident and meets St. Peter (Roddy McDowall) at heaven’s gate.
You guessed it: She’s sent back to Earth to perform a good deed that will allow her to earn her wings. Her mission is to save a widower (Brian Kerwin) and his two emotionally neglected kids.
She’s hired as a nanny and soon learns that the key to saving the family lies in getting the overworked dad to recognize a secret admirer who would make an excellent wife and mom.
Will she get them together before a Christmas deadline? Duh. Of course she will.
While the 1996 movie may not possess an original idea, it has a certain charm, and Miss Dolly is always an audiencepleaser.
For families who wish to spare their younger kids the carnage of “Jurassic Park,” you can’t go wrong with “Unlikely Angel.” Too bad it will end past many bedtimes on a very exhausting day.
Highlights
“Promised Land,” CBS at 8: The issue presented in this hour is one that many families face. Russell and Claire (Gerald McRaney, Wendy Phillips) visit Claire’s sister and husband (Kate McNeil, Michael Reilly Burke).
They find it hard to tell them about Claire’s pregnancy in light of their long, unsuccessful struggle to have a child. But they do not anticipate how antagonistic the husband becomes when he hears the news.
“Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,” ABC at 8: From last season, Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) has a fight with her cat Salem on Christmas Eve - which she regrets when he is subsequently kitty-napped.
“Hiller and Diller,” ABC at 9:30: Ted (Kevin Nealon) volunteers to prepare the Thanksgiving feast.
As is always the case in sitcoms, it’s a disaster, made worse when Katie (Jan Hooks) arrives with an “Entertainment Tonight” crew to do a feature on a “perfect” family dinner. Bob Goen of “ET” guest-stars.
Parents’ Pick
“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989), TBS at 3:05: The kids can’t resist this swell comedy about a hapless inventor (Rick Moranis) whose amazing shrinking machine goes off half-cocked. Imaginative special effects keep the kids in stitches - playing handily on their innate feelings of being “little” people in a grown-up world.
It’s followed at 5:05 by one of the season’s bright spots, “Dr. Seuss’ ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”’
Another great option is 1964’s delightful “Mary Poppins,” which airs on Disney at 8:20.
Cable Calls
“Beavis and Butt-Head Do Thanksgiving With Kurt Loder,” MTV at 6: This MTV special first airs at 11 a.m. and is repeated at 6 and 11 p.m. Beavis and Butt-Head and MTV news commentator Loder, left without Thanksgiving plans, meet up at MTV’s Times Square studio to celebrate Thanksgiving together and offer a few crass observations on how the day is celebrated.