Twilight Zone Christmas Classic

I am a huge fan of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone  One of my favourite episodes of the show is a 1960 Christmas episode called "The Night of the Meek." (Season 2, Episode 11, Air Date: December 23, 1960).  It stars Art Carney as Henry Corwin, an alcoholic department store Santa Claus who is dismissed from his seasonal job on Christmas Eve.  He arrives late at the store, and he is obviously intoxicated.  When customers complain, the manager fires Henry.

The derelict Santa explains that he drinks because he lives in a rooming house with the poor, for whom he is not able to perform his role as Santa Claus/  He states that if he had one wish fulfilled on Christmas Eve, he would "like to see the meek inherit the earth."

Still dressed in his Santa suit, Henry Corwin stumbles into an alley.  He hears the sound of sleigh bells.  A cat knocks over a burlap bag full of empty cans.  However, when Corwin trips over the mysterious bag, he discovers that it is filled with gift-wrapped packages.  An overjoyed Corwin hands out presents to children passing by and to homeless men attending a Christmas Eve service at a mission house.  He fulfills his wish of helping the less fortunate.

Art Carney passed away in 2003 at the age of 85.  He was a fine actor, and an Academy Award winner, but he is best remembered for his role as sewer worker Ed Norton in the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners. Carney was a great foil for Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden, a Brooklyn bus driver. They worked well together and Art reprised his Ed Norton character for the Honeymooners segments of Jackie's 1960s variety show.  

Carney as Ed Norton

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* Art Carney won an Oscar for his Best Actor for his 1974 performance in the film Harry and Tonto.  He played Harry Coombes, an elderly widower who decides to travel cross country with his pet cat, Tonto.  Carney's Academy Award win was impressive when one considers that the other nominees that year were actors of great acclaim, such as Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino.  The award was presented to Art at the 47th Academy Awards on April 8, 1975.

Carney also won a Golden Globe for his performance in Harry and Tonto, and he was the recipient of six Primetime Emmy Awards.

* It is interesting to note that Art himself struggled with alcoholism.  He was actually battling alcohol abuse when he played Ed Norton, as well as when he portrayed a drunken Santa on The Twilight Zone. His addiction apparently ran in the family.  He tried psychotherapy and Alcoholics Anonymous, but finally found success with Antabuse, a medication used to treat alcohol use disorders by causing unpleasant side effects and sensitivity to alcohol.  Due to Antabuse, Carney quit drinking during the filming of Harry and Tonto. 

* Carney provided the narrator's voice for The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, a 1981 Christmas t   elevision special.  The special was originally aired on the ABC network on December 23, 1981.

* Carney played Santa Claus in the The Night They Saved Christmas, a 1984 made-for-television movie.

- Joanne