Hurry up and put on your jammies and brush your teeth, and we’ll allow you to stay up for our chat about “The Littlest Angel” (1969) on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
Johnny Whitaker of “Family Affair,” “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” and “Tom Sawyer” fame teams up with always loveable Fred Gwynne, forever saddled with Herman Munster, to headline this Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday special based on the popular children’s book by Charles Tazewell.
Shades of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” (also about a shepherd boy who winds up offering Baby Jesus the humblest of gifts, only to find favor in the eyes of the Lord), “The Littlest Angel” proves a diverting mix of music and kitsch. There are “state-of-the-art” video tape chroma key studio effects (with plenty of bleed-through and visible wires galore) and a starry supporting cast that includes Cab Calloway, Tony Randall, Connie Stevens, John McGiver, George Rose, James Coco, and E.G. Marshall – one of the “12 Angry Men” (which explains a lot) – as God.
If you can suppress your cynicism, the songs do have an endearing quality. The music and lyrics are by Lan O’Kun, brother-in-law of Lamb Chop ventriloquist Shari Lewis, for whom he churned out hundreds of scripts (and won an Emmy). O’Kun also took several game cracks at the Broadway musical. Over the course of his long career, he also worked with Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Duke Ellington, and Peggy Lee.
Watching the show last night, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the splashier musical numbers, which reminded me of something out of Mel Brooks. Wouldn’t you know it, the end credits revealed that the arrangements and orchestrations were by Brooks’ longtime collaborator, John Morris.
We’ll explore all angles of “The Littlest Angel” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Devil’s food cake will be served in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:30 EST!
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What’s that? You haven’t seen the special in 50 years? Here it is!