EBBIE (TV)
Summary
A television movie version of Charles Dickens’s novel “A Christmas Carol,” featuring a modern setting and gender-reversed versions of several characters.
Elizabeth “Ebbie” Scrooge, the uptight and seemingly heartless manager of a major department store, goes around berating her various employees for minor mistakes on Christmas Eve, as well as distributing meager Christmas bonuses. She encounters her niece Fran, who invites her to a Christmas open house hosted by herself and her husband Michael. Elizabeth refuses, as she is working on Christmas and has no sentimentality for the holiday, viewing it only as a retail opportunity. She then meets with a pair of representatives of a retailer’s organization who ask her to help contribute to a charity drive to aid the city’s poor. She callously rejects their proposal, and later asks her faithful secretary Roberta Cratchet to come in on Christmas Day to help her prepare for the post-holiday sales days. Roberta protests, as she had hoped to spend time with her family on Christmas. Elizabeth catches a shoplifter and has him brought away, and fires one of her security guards for failing to arrive in time to help.
Later, Elizabeth enters her apartment building and briefly believes that she sees Jake Marley, her deceased business partner, standing there to greet her, frightening her. Later he appears to speak to her via her television, and then somehow transports her into a strange ethereal version of her department store. He warns her to “change the priority” of her life, and to look at things beyond their material worth, all the while fending off his “boss” on his cell phone. Jake notes that he is kept constantly busy in the afterlife, and that he suffers because he didn’t care about other people while he was alive. Elizabeth doesn’t understand, and Jake tells her that she will have three “appointments” that night, and that she must be ready for them. Jake then disappears, warning Elizabeth not to suffer the same fate that he did. She dismisses the encounter as a nightmare, believing that she fell asleep in her office.
Suddenly Elizabeth encounters a pair of singing women emerging from the shadows, the first of her three “appointments.” They resemble two perfume saleswomen whom she treated poorly earlier that day. They claim they represent Christmas Past, and bring Elizabeth back to her old neighborhood from when she was a girl. Her father emerges and calls her inside; Elizabeth has found a stray cat, but her father threatens to kill it if she brings it inside. The young Elizabeth wanders the streets with the cat in her arms, and the ghosts bring the present-day Elizabeth along. Elizabeth watches her younger self, who promises herself that one day she will live in a nice house and that “everyone will love” her. Her older sister Francine finds her, and the present-day Elizabeth becomes emotional when she sees her. Francine reassures the young Elizabeth that their father doesn’t hate her, and offers to take care of the cat herself. The present-day Elizabeth asks to accompany them, but the ghosts tell her that she must go where they do, and that they are headed elsewhere.
They transport Elizabeth to another scene a few years later, where a now teenaged Elizabeth is showing off a dress to Francine, who is quite pregnant. Elizabeth is now working for the department store and is preparing to go to a Christmas party. They exchange gifts, and Elizabeth reluctantly leaves after Francine tells her not to be concerned about her condition. She arrives at the party and is greeted warmly by her bosses, who compliment her on her skills as an assistant buyer. At the party, she is approached by a stranger named Paul who seems attracted to her and asks her to dance. They hit it off for a while, and later Paul brings her home to see Francine. He says he would like to see her again, although she believes that her career keeps her too busy to have a relationship. She discovers that Francine was taken to the hospital after she was found bleeding and unconscious, and she and Paul rush to the hospital. Paul promises to wait for her as she runs inside, desperate to see Francine. However, when she gets there, she finds that Francine has already given birth and is dying of toxemia. With her dying words, Francine asks Elizabeth to help take care of her baby. Elizabeth becomes very emotional and asks the ghosts to take her away from this scene; she elaborates that she kept her promise and blames herself for Francine’s death.
The ghosts then take Elizabeth to her old apartment and express surprise at how homey and inviting it seems. It is three years after the previous scene and Paul is living with her, still in love with her. Paul asks Elizabeth to marry her, and she says she will once “the time is right.” He tries to convince her to take a vacation with him, but she feels compelled to focus on her career instead, blowing him off to close a major business deal. The present-day Elizabeth notes that her younger self is hurting Paul with her decision, but is unaware that she is doing so. Elizabeth is put in charge of a major project just as Paul enters, and she upbraids him for embarrassing her in front of her superiors. She tells him that she cannot go on vacation with him and he is frustrated that she has constantly ignored him in favor of focusing on her career. He breaks off their relationship and leaves; the present-day Elizabeth claims that she knew he would leave and that she had to learn to be self-sufficient. Jake arrives and expresses his confidence in Elizabeth, making her vice-president of the department store.
Eventually Jake and Elizabeth use underhanded tactics to sell off controlling interest in the department store, acquiring it themselves. Elizabeth is then shown the previous year’s Christmas, by which time she has divested herself of virtually all emotion concerning her work, and Jake’s health is beginning to fail. While sitting down for a drink Jake briefly questions Elizabeth’s motives for her money before he collapses, and she calls an ambulance. Elizabeth notes that this incident left her feeling empty and lonely. The ghosts disappear and she is greeted by another spirit, a gaudily dressed woman atop a heap of Christmas presents; she resembles Elizabeth’s underappreciated gift-wrapper. She identifies herself as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and transports her to the Cratchet family house, where Roberta is busy preparing Christmas dinner. Her daughter Martha expresses her hatred for Elizabeth for making Roberta go to work on Christmas, but Roberta tells Martha not to hate her, and that Elizabeth doesn’t mean to be cruel. Elizabeth also discovers that Roberta’s young son Tim is crippled, and is touched by the affection and love that Roberta gives to her children. Elizabeth is concerned for Tim, but the ghost uses her earlier comments about the poor to point out Elizabeth’s callousness.
Next, the ghost takes Elizabeth to Fran’s Christmas party. She takes note of how happy and joyful everyone seems, and feels as though she could never fit in with them. Fran gives a toast to her aunt, saying that in spite of her attitude and refusal to accept her Christmas wishes, her mother loved her and that makes her worthy of appreciation. When Elizabeth notices that Fran is not partaking in drinking alcohol, the ghost reveals that Fran is pregnant. The ghost then takes her to see Paul, who is happily married to another woman and has a family of his own. He remarks to his wife that he was just thinking about his breakup with Elizabeth years ago, and wishes her the best in spite of everything that happened. The ghost returns Elizabeth to the department store, where a pair of ragged children emerges from the ghost’s pile of presents. She identifies them as Ignorance and Poverty, and warns Elizabeth about their terrible effects. The ghost vanishes, leaving Elizabeth alone once again.
She immediately encounters a man in black resembling the security guard she fired earlier that day. He silently and somberly approaches her, and she deduces that he is the “Ghost of Christmases Yet to Come.” He brings her back to the Cratchet house, where Roberta and Martha mourn Tim’s death. Elizabeth is moved to tears by their sadness. The ghost also shows Elizabeth that her store is going out of business; she was forced out of ownership in the same manner in which she and Jake ousted the original owners. She witnesses herself walk out into the street and get run over by a car, seemingly on purpose. She also witnesses herself dying in the hospital, unvisited and barely noticed. Elizabeth realizes that while she has experienced financial success, she has prevented herself from forming relationships with others, and thus no one else cares about her. Elizabeth pleads with the ghost, believing that she could change her future if given another chance, and that she is a changed woman.
Suddenly Elizabeth awakens in her bed, happy to be alive. She notices that it is snowing and discovers that it is Christmas Day. Overjoyed, she sets about doing as much good as she can that day, starting by purchasing a huge turkey for the Cratchet family. She also gives generously to the poor, both on the street and via the charity drive she refused earlier. She encounters Rita and gives her a raise, and stops by the Cratchet home to visit the family. She tells Roberta that she no longer has to come in that day, and gives them a number of Christmas presents, as well as giving Roberta a promotion to executive vice president, gaining a higher salary and more health benefits to aid Tim. Roberta is overwhelmed by Elizabeth’s sudden outburst of kindness and compassion. She then leaves to attend Fran’s Christmas party, where she apologizes for refusing their invitations over the years and begs for forgiveness. Fran and the others enthusiastically welcome her in, and that night Elizabeth has Christmas dinner with the Cratchets. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: Lifetime
- DATE: December 4, 1995 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:58:47
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108071
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: Lifetime - TV, 1995
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Biolage shampoo
- TV – Commercials – Boost nutritional shake
- TV – Commercials – Burger King restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Club Sandwich restaurant
- TV – Commercials – Comtrex cold medicine
- TV – Commercials – Diamond walnuts
- TV – Commercials – Dimetapp antihistamine
- TV – Commercials – Dodge automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Edwards supermarkets
- TV – Commercials – Excedrin headache medicine
- TV – Commercials – French’s onions
- TV – Commercials – Fujifilm film
- TV – Commercials – Hartmann luggage
- TV – Commercials – Hewlett Packard printers
- TV – Commercials – Lexus automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Lysol cleaning fluid
- TV – Commercials – MCI phone service
- TV – Commercials – Mail Boxes Etc. delivery service
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Nardin Galleries art gallery
- TV – Commercials – Office Depot office supply stores
- TV – Commercials – Pepcid AC acid controller
- TV – Commercials – Pillsbury cinnamon rolls
- TV – Commercials – Purina pet food
- TV – Commercials – Riders clothing
- TV – Commercials – The Big Red Boat cruise line
- TV – Commercials – Tylenol pain relief
- TV – Commercials – Warehouse Outlets furniture
- TV – Commercials – Wayside of Milford furniture
- TV – Promos – “Ebbie”
- TV – Promos – “Home for Christmas”
- TV – Promos – “Sophie and the Moonhanger”
- TV – Promos – “The Commish”
CREDITS
- Jean Abounader … Executive Producer
- Frederick DeMann … Executive Producer
- Harold Tichenor … Producer
- Jayme Pfahl … Co-Producer
- George Kaczender … Director
- Paul Redford … Writer
- Ed Redlich … Writer
- Charles Dickens … Based on the novel by
- Lawrence Shragge … Music by
- Susan Lucci … Cast, Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge
- Wendy Crewson … Cast, Roberta Cratchet
- Ron Lea … Cast, Paul
- Molly Parker … Cast, Francine, Fran
- Lorena Gale … Cast, Rita, Ghost of Christmas Present
- Jennifer Clement … Cast, Ghost of Christmas Past #1
- Nicole Parker … Cast, Ghost of Christmas Past #2
- Susan Hogan … Cast, Mrs. Dobson
- Kevin McNulty … Cast, Mr. Dobson
- Taran Noah Smith … Cast, Tiny Tim
- Jeffrey DeMunn … Cast, Jake Marley
- Adrienne Carter … Cast, Little Ebbie
- Bill Croft … Cast, Luther, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
- Elan Ross Gibson … Cast, Homeless Woman
- Laura Harris … Cast, Martha
- Sarah Hayward … Cast, Nurse #2
- Maria Herrera … Cast, Nurse #1
- Gary Jones … Cast, Floor Manager
- Tamsin Kelsey … Cast, Mrs. Taylor
- Karin Konoval … Cast, Ebbie's Mother
- David Lovgren … Cast, Michael
- Tom McBeath … Cast, Van Munsen
- Hrothgar Mathews … Cast, Michael
- Larry Musser … Cast, Ebbie's Father
- Malcolm Stewart … Cast, Patterson