George Burns presents CHRISTMAS CAROL II: THE SEQUEL!

AMC has been doing multiple broadcasts of A Christmas Carol, the 1984 television movie adaptation with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, for the past few nights. It's easily my favorite version of Charles Dickens' timeless potboiler (no really, he only wrote it to sell and pay some bills) although Patrick Stewart's one-man performance runs a very close second.

But have you ever wondered what happened after Scrooge changed his ways at the end of that story?

Well wonder no more! Back in 1985 there was a short-lived show called George Burns Comedy Week. It was a comedy anthology series hosted by Burns: sorta The Twilight Zone but all about the laughs. And just before that Christmas, Burns and company produced a follow-up to A Christmas Carol.

So without further ado, here is Roddy McDowall, Ed Begley Jr., Carolyn Seymour, Paul Benedict, and the one and only James Whitmore himself as Scrooge in... "Christmas Carol II: The Sequel"!

Part 1

Part 2

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He was just as God made him, sir! Paul Benedict has passed away

Sad news out of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts: veteran character actor Paul Benedict, who was perhaps best known as British neighbor Harry Bentley on the classic sitcom The Jeffersons, has died at the age of 70.

If you grew up in the late Seventies and into the Eighties, Benedict was just about everywhere. His portrayal of Mr. Bentley was the biggest reason why a lot of people tuned in to The Jeffersons every week... 'cuz Bentley was probably one of the funniest characters in television history.

Benedict also did quite a bit of film work. One of the earliest roles that I remember him from was Jeremiah Johnson, which was a drastic - and dramatic - departure from much of the rest of his resume. A lot of people will note that he was in This is Spinal Tap, where he uttered the immortal line "I am just as God made me, sir!" And he was also seen as a bizarre film professor in The Freshman.

But child of the Eighties that I am, I would be remiss if I did not mention what to many of my generation was Paul Benedict's greatest role: that of "The Mad Painter", the strange man who went all over New York City painting numbers - for reasons which were only clear to him - in a serious of classic short films that ran on Sesame Street. So in toasting the memory of a fine actor, let's see him paint "9" one more time...

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