When NBC announced it was mounting a live production of “The Sound of Music” in December 2013, it was quite a diversion from the usual live broadcasts that had become the new normal — prime-time amateur-entertainment competitions, early morning “news” programs, and the weekly late-night skit comedy of “Saturday Night Live.”
The real-time “Sound of Music” broadcast was touted as a holiday event, as well as NBC’s first live prime-time entertainment special in 50 years. And it paid off, resulting in a surprise hit.
In fact, “The Sound of Music Live!” was so successful that NBC has followed each December since with “Peter Pan Live!” (2014), “The Wiz Live!” (2015), and earlier this month, “Hairspray Live!”
And Fox has thrown its hat in the ring with “Grease Live!” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show Event,” both performed this year.
But this isn’t really a new phenomenon, however NBC and Fox may be characterizing it.
In fact, in the early days of television, live programming was more the rule than the exception. That would change pretty quickly, of course, as filmed programs began to take over from the mid-1950s forward, but there was something special about all those live shows.
They were vibrant, electric, dynamic, bringing something akin to Broadway to the rest of the country. And if a flub occurred, whether from an actor or a technical error, the show continued as if it nothing unrehearsed had happened, adding to the live experience. And that was as true of the comedy as the drama, and also those musical specials that occasionally cropped up.
The one that comes to my mind each year at this time is NBC’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” which premiered on Christmas Eve 1951.
Well, actually I was only 3 when that one aired, but I caught up with it later, which was easy to do since another live production came around every December through 1962. And the adult primary cast members repeated their roles for each of those broadcasts over the entire 12-year period.
“Amahl and the Night Visitors” is a 45-minute opera written by Gian Carlo Menotti, the first opera commissioned specifically for television, marking the debut of the “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” and it remains a thoroughly enchanting tale set in biblical times.
The two central characters are Amahl (Chet Allen), a young disabled boy who uses a crutch and is given to telling tall tales, and his impoverished mother (Rosemary Kuhlmann), who is pretty much at the end of her rope.
On this night, after Amahl reports seeing a most unusual star in the sky, they are visited by three kings and their servant, and, after some drama that I won’t reveal here, they eventually ask Amahl to join them as they follow the eastern star to find the Christ child.
Though I was just a toddler when the original 1951 broadcast aired, that’s the one I think of because I’ve watched it so many times on YouTube and have practically worn out the soundtrack album.
There are several versions of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” online — and the 1955 production is available on DVD — but the 1951 version is the one I recommend because it marked the opera’s world premiere, so it’s fresh and new, and this production is lovingly introduced by Menotti himself.
Another reason this show is so dear to me is that, like a lot of my baby boomer peers, as a youth I participated in a school production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” or, more correctly, a few scenes from the show in an abbreviated version, as part of a larger Christmas program.
This was back in the days when people said “Merry Christmas” without worrying about whether “Happy Holidays” would be more politically correct, and when kids dressed up like shepherds, wise men or Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus, and when the schools that put on such programs didn’t balk at including references to faith, religion or, specifically, Christianity.
So, if you want something different after bingeing on “White Christmas,” “The Shop Around the Corner,” “The Bishop’s Wife,” “Christmas in Connecticut,” “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” “A Christmas Story” and “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” or whatever else your particular favorites are this time of year, go to YouTube and enjoy “Amahl and the Night Visitors.”
But I warn you, it’s quite addicting. You may not be able to binge during future Christmases without it.
Chris Hicks is the author of "Has Hollywood Lost Its Mind? A Parent’s Guide to Movie Ratings." He also writes at www.hicksflicks.com and can be contacted at hicks@deseretnews.com.