Brace for TV treacle in the weeks ahead. In addition to the usual holiday fare, expect a live Broadway classic revival, animated specials and lots of cooking advice. Some of the standouts:
Nov. 23: Food Network does with celeb chefs answering viewer cooking questions. CBS launches the season with “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas” with John Goodman as the voice of Santa Claus.
Nov. 24: Always ripe for holiday screening, “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) gets back-to-back airings from TBS at 6 and 8:15 p.m.
Nov. 25: “Martha Speaks: Martha’s Thanksgiving” featuring the animated talking dog on PBS.
Nov. 28: NBC has the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” the 1973 animated special, is reprised on ABC.
Nov. 29: A night of music aimed at diverse demographics: “Garth Brooks Live from Las Vegas” on CBS goes head to head with “Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn” on PBS. Also, Disney Channel kicks off its annual “Fa-la-la-lidays.”
Throughout December: All month, blows out its schedule for 25 days of Christmas fare; Food Network keeps pace with a slew of holiday cooking/eating specials.
Dec. 4: NBC lights the tree in Rockefeller Center.
Dec. 5: will air on NBC with Carrie Underwood, Audra McDonald, Christian Borle and Stephen Moyer. It’s the original 1959 Broadway script, not the film version.
Dec. 9: The feature documentary “Six by Sondheim” on HBO (including newly discovered footage of Ethel Merman performing “Gypsy”).
Dec. 14 and 24: “It’s A Wonderful Life” will air on NBC.
Dec. 16: Fox has “Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas” and “Dreamworks Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury.”
Dec. 20: “Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown” on Fox.
Dec. 25: Christmas day heralds “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” on ABC Family.
Dec. 25-26: And finally, that irony-free holiday standby, the Hallmark Channel plans a 24-hour marathon of “The Twelve Gifts of Christmas” starting at 6 a.m. Dec. 25, of a dozen original holiday movies with limited commercial interruption.
