Marlboro,marlboro wrote:Every Christmas special should have an extended go-go dancer scene.Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: 1) Run For Your Life - Time and a Half on Christmas Eve
Hey, if a run down joint on Christmas Eve was good enough for George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life it's good enough for Ben Gazzara and Ernie Borgnine.
Actually there's more truth about the human condition and grace or the lack of same in this gritty story of a poor slob cab driver(think a Marty gone to seed if Clara had left him and he lost the butcher shop) than in your typical Christmas episode. There's a lot going on here, such as, is the series star Paul, a highly intelligent attorney bemused by his driver, really any better off than Borgnine's shabby cabby when both wind up alone in a 3rd rate joint, with no loved ones in their lives?
Not forgetting of course Paul has only one year to live, but what choices did he make with that deadline in mind that none the less found him in such circumstances?
A scene near the very end suggests that while they both drew the same seemingly doomed hand, Paul is still in the game and hoping to improve his in the draw while
the cabby is just going to fold.
In the last few years this episode has caught on with many tv bloggers/historians and has garnered a lot of interest generally. Well worth catching.