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No getting around the fact. This show was plain anti-German. The Germans here are depicted much the way German immigrants to the United States were shown in pre- WWI and WWII popular media : Stupid, clumsy, self-important. People such as this could never have carried out programs of genocide, or created a military that stood on the brink of world domination. Making Germans appear as utter idiots is an insult to those who lost their lives in both world wars, not to mention Germans who have contributed to civilization in many positive ways. The leering, sneering character of Hogan doesn't help much, and the entire premise of this show is ridiculous ( even for a sitcom) but the hateful elements are somewhat overlooked. Well, I hate this show!

If The Twilight Zone had ever chosen to air a cartoon, this would have been the one. The concept is clear, the moral obvious. The 1890s music, while skillfully rendered ("The Michigan Rag" is not contemporary with the other songs the frog performs but an original composition created for the cartoon) suggests something strangely paranormal: The frog is a ghost or a demon! This is emphasized by its reemergence at the end, where a futuristic construction worker finds the eerie, cakewalking being still singing period music!

Certain elements in the production are racist, such as the cakewalk, and "Hello Mah Baby" which was a "blackface" song when first released (ca.1902) This dates the cartoon badly. All this wouldn't matter if it wasn't hailed as a timeless classic.

At one time, before the advent of digital expansion television, every station in the Chicago area was showing this film-on one occasion, literally at the same time! This also had something to do with licensing: the copyright has been renewed, or whatever, and the airtime of "It's..." is somewhat more limited, but I've seen this beloved holiday classic enough for several lifetimes!

The plot is deeply flawed, something not quite apparent the first hundred viewings. (To provide more details would be including spoilers but suffice to say, the movie ends with nothing really resolved.) The premise- that having scores of friends makes life wonderful- won't appeal to everyone, and director Frank Capra's style of populism doesn't seem true anymore if it ever was. Indeed one man's life CAN make a difference if he happens to be white, affluent, and well-connected!

Saturday Night Live had a skit in which the people of Bedford Falls lynch Mr. Potter. THAT would've been a more satisfying ending!