GENERAL MOTORS PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER: MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY (TV)

Summary

One in this anthology series of television versions of one-act plays.

On Christmas Eve a young woman named Linda nervously waits for her husband James during a heavy snowstorm. He enters and she berates him for being over two hours late, although he tries to tell her not to worry about him; he has been working as a jazz bassist and tells her he had hoped she could’ve gotten some rest before going to her job as a nurse at a hospital. They have an argument: Linda is upset that he broke his promise to come spend time with her, although James counters that he has a commitment to his job and feels as though she is insulting him. However, he feels guilty that he has been living off of her earnings for the past year, although Linda notes that before that he helped pay her way through medical school. James hopes that his new band may present new job opportunities, but his argument with Linda goes unresolved. They are to visit James’s family for Christmas dinner, although James is uneasy about attending due to his animosity towards Fred, his stepfather. James feels that Fred dislikes him due to his perceived similarity to his real father, who has been in jail since James was a young child. This leads him to decide not to go see his family for the holidays. Linda reveals that she got a present for James, making him furious since they promised each other not to purchase gifts for each other, and he has nothing to give her in return. He throws the gift at her without opening it, and she runs out the door.

Soon after Linda leaves, an old grizzled man arrives at the door, claiming to be James’s father. James believes that the man is a homeless stranger and tries to drive him off. However, the man proves his identity by producing a photograph of James as a little boy, recounting a Christmas they spent together with his uncle. James warns him not to come in and that it is “too late” for him to make up for his misdeeds. However, he allows him to come inside, and his father is grateful to be out of the cold. James confirms his identity again by asking him to rest on his couch; the man’s snoring matches his father’s distinct snore perfectly. He is bitter that his father has come back after twenty-five years and asks him why he came. His father notes that seeing James is his “Christmas present” and that he feels James needs his presence now. He admits that he made mistakes in the past and that he should have been there when his family needed him. James deduces that his father has not actually been in prison for the duration of his disappearance, but he says that he could not have returned during that time, saying only that it is “hard to explain.” James insists that Fred did not want to be a father to him, but his father assures him that Fred only disagrees with some of his life choices. He asserts that James needs him now, but James is disgusted by his presence and tells him that his father’s imprisonment made him a social outcast for years, even after his mother remarried.

James yells at his father to leave and he agrees, seemingly content that he got to see James, however briefly. He asks to be given the chance to read James’s palm, promising to leave immediately thereafter. However, he tricks James and produces a rope, using it to bind him up. James screams for help until his father threatens to tape his mouth shut. He claims that he has arrived to “make restitution” to James, and that he wants to warn him not to repeat the mistakes that he made. Despite James’s insistence to the contrary, his father warns him that he is a “carbon copy” of himself, and reveals that he overheard his argument with Linda earlier; he doesn’t want James to lose his wife. He also reveals that he heard James play at his club that night, and believes that James may be romantically interested in his band’s new female singer, as he spent time with her at her apartment before coming home to Linda. He also knows that James has been making illicit business deals, possibly involving drugs, in order to deal with his debt. When James protests he tapes his mouth shut and his father launches into a soliloquy about his life as a young man and his contemplations while imprisoned.

He begins by noting his lack of appreciation for James’s mother until he was imprisoned. He recalls taking James to his job at a factory when he was a boy, but says that the event only transpired in his mind, manifested by his longing for the life he left behind. He decides that he is finished and tries to leave, but stops long enough to remove the tape from James’s mouth. James convinces his father to untie him, and asks him what he did to his mother to make her pretend that he was dead. He has a vague memory of eating dinner with his mother while waiting for his father to come home from supposedly working late. He recounts that he woke up late that night to hear his parents arguing, and that he attacked his father for supposedly hurting his mother. James nearly attacks his father with a chair, but drops it and runs into his arms, crying. He tries to calm James and gives him a vague account of his own life, noting that he can never truly make up for the misery caused by abandoning his family.

James falls asleep and awakens that afternoon just as Linda returns. Linda announces that she is moving out and separating from him, although he protests. James opens Linda’s present and finds that it is a pacifier; he asks her if she is pregnant but she says it is no longer any of his business. James believes that his father somehow knew Linda was pregnant and asks her if she wants the child, but she says it is her decision alone to make. Linda is furious that James does not seem to appreciate the effort she made to make their small apartment into a home for them, and she says she was hurt deeply by his remarks about the emotional distance between them that morning. Linda claims that she has made up her mind and cannot be dissuaded, but James simply asks her to delay her departure by one day. James admits that he is afraid of becoming a failure and that he has changed too much from the person Linda fell in love with. He says he was wrong about his decisions and again asks her to remain with him for one day so that she can tell his mother and stepfather about the baby, although he asks her not to tell them that he is leaving. He notes that even if it is too late he will do everything in his power to keep her around, and seems to have a newfound appreciation for her and everything she does for him. They embrace, and James’s father appears and implies that he is already dead and somehow visited James from beyond the grave. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: A&E
• DATE: February 11, 1992 6:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:50:03
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 114530
• GENRE: Drama
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
• SERIES RUN: A&E - TV series, 1991-1993
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Gladys Nederlander … Executive Producer
• Stuart Goodman … Producer
• Vivian Matalon … Director
• Thomas Mitz … Writer
• Brian Keane … Music by
• Lauren Bacall … Host
• Robert Loggia … Cast, Father
• Patrick Dempsey … Cast, James
• Justine Bateman … Cast, Linda
• Sean Mitz … Cast, Young James
• Jesse Stovin … Cast, Young Father