Picador66

I agree with many people here that this is one of the best dramatic adaptations of the holiday favorite. The musical score by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne is the very best set of songs ever to accompany the tale. Lionel Bart's take on Oliver Twist is the only better score written to a Dickens novel.

An earlier poster wondered whether the alteration in the order of ghostly visitors (Christmas Present arriving before Christmas Past) was an error in editing. I thought the same thing when I first saw this program. But the continuity in the animation shows that the change is clearly deliberate. My guess is that the scriptwriter altered the narrative specifically to showcase the wonderful songs to their best advantage.

The rousing "Big Group Number" sung by Cratchit's family needs to come first. Then, as the story matures, we get to hear to the two slower songs -- the heartbreaking duet sung by Scrooges Young and Old, followed by Belle's romantic ballad. (The lady who performed this did a fine job of singing in a style we miss hearing nowadays.) Having slowed the pace of the story with these two wistful tunes, the jaunty and morbidly comic number in the Death-bed scene is a welcome change of pace. It also provides a fun transition to the grim revelations of the Ghost of Christmas Future.

I think that Jim Backus has always been under-rated. He was a tremendously funny performer. This show is like a personal Christmas gift to his fans.