The Phantom of the Open Hearth

By the same creative genius who wrote Christmas Story, this is a hysterical sendup of Ralphie's life as a teenager.

James Broderick plays "the old man" in this episode. Haven't seen this since a PBS showing over 20 years ago. One scene that stands out follows: One of the Parker's neighbors orders an entire house by mail from Sears. It arrives in railroad boxcars on a siding in town. All the fathers go down with the premise of helping unload the house kit from the cars. The beer starts to flow and it becomes a drunken ballet of opening hundreds of crates of house parts. Then it begins to rain and the hapless home buyer is abandoned by his inebriated friends. If you can find a copy of it anywhere, watch it!!!

This is Shepherd's first full length American Playhouse film, and all the stops are pulled. The great James Broderick establishes the original Old Man, a performance to which the other Old Men strive to hit. Everyone loves Darren McGavin in A Christmas Story, but somehow Broderick best captures the ennui of the real character: life is hard and it happens, and it's best to look from a slight distance with awe and amusement. These films really are about the Old Man, as narrated by Ralphie, relating the fast and bewildering trip from childhood into adulthood with nostalgia and soft focus. There are more hard lessons and subtle narrative humor truer to Shep's radio programs in Open Hearth than the subsequent, but also glorious films. This one sets the bar, with a shoestring budget, Orpheum organ music, perfect narration, and loosely connected stories. It's much like the sleeker and loved films from the 80's, but with a freshness that the others can't beat. Meet the leg lamp, meet mom and the Old Man, meet nearly silent Randy, and of course the earnest rube Ralphie. This one is low budget joy, and because it is great, it gave birth to the rest. "It was alive, unparalleled glory..." Yes it was. See this. It's now full length on the infoweb.

This satirical, funny, but also rueful PBS film looks at teenage life in middle America in the 1950s and is well adapted by humorist Jean Shepherd from his own writings.

Really a series of episodes, without much of a plot, but lovely details, and pretty strong acting all around -- although the adults seem a touch exaggerated and the teens a touch underplayed in a way that makes me think the intent is to look at the adult world through the slight distortion of teenage eyes.

For me, this was stronger than the PBS produced follow up six years later 'The Great 4th of July and Other Disasters'. While that had a bit more wacky fun, this had more heart, and tartness to go with the sweet.

Everyone loves little Ralphie in A Christmas Story, wouldn't you like to see what he went through in high school? Wouldn't you like to see what his prom was like? This PBS movie predates Christmas Story, but is just as funny, if not more so, than the more famous later work. Jean Shepard again narrates his own story.

I've seen this once, way back in the winter of '76.... but it still remains as my favorite comedy... Why this is not screened more often or available to buy is beyond comprehension... the leg-shaped lamp, the afore-mentioned fiasco with the train full of boxed house parts... It is well-scripted, and funnier than anything else I've EVER seen... this is total brilliance... if anyone out there has a copy, PLEASE let me know...

If there's one film that will have you weeping with laughter until your gut muscles ache, this is it.... if you EVER get the chance to see this, do NOT pass it by.... you will remember moments in this film for the rest of your days...