It Happened One Christmas is a 1977

1977 in television

The year 1977 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1977.For the American TV schedule, see: 1977-78 American network television schedule.-Events:...

 made-for-television movie starring Marlo Thomas

Marlo Thomas

Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

 and Wayne Rogers

Wayne Rogers

William Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...

.

The film, a gender-reversal remake

Remake

A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...

 of the classic It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....

, centers on Mary Bailey Hatch, a young woman who dreams of seeing the world but is forced by circumstances to remain in her small hometown as head of the family's Building & Loan business. On one particular Christmas Eve, in a moment of financial crisis, a severely depressed Mary contemplates suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 but is rescued by her guardian angel

Guardian angel

A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...

, Clara Oddbody, (Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...

) who shows her the positive effect she's had on everyone she's met throughout her life.

Lionel Chetwynd

Lionel Chetwynd

Lionel Chetwynd is a London-born Canadian-American screenwriter, motion picture and television film director and producer.-Life and career:...

's teleplay, directed by Donald Wrye, varies little from the original screenplay, even using most of the original dialogue. The supporting cast includes Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

, Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...

, Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....

, Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest

Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...

, C. Thomas Howell

C. Thomas Howell

Christopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...

, Barney Martin, Richard Dysart

Richard Dysart

Richard A. Dysart is an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as Leland McKenzie on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law....

, Karen Carlson

Karen Carlson

- Career :Carlson was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She has appeared in many television series and a few films. Her film credits include Shame, Shame, Everybody Knows Her Name , The Candidate with Robert Redford and The Octagon with Chuck Norris...

, Cliff Norton

Cliff Norton

Clifford Charles "Cliff" Norton was an American character actor and radio announcer who had appeared in various movies and television series over a career that spanned over 40 years. He was probably best known as the announcer for Dave Garroway's radio program...

, and Archie Hahn

Archie Hahn

Charles Archibald "Archie" Hahn was a German-American athlete, and one of the best sprinters in the early 20th century....

.

Leachman received an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special.

Thomas served as executive producer for the project. The remake was first broadcast at a time when the original film rarely was aired on television and, as a result, many viewers were unfamiliar with its source. However, once the James Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

-Donna Reed

Donna Reed

Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...

 version returned to the airwaves on an annual basis, the remake slipped into obscurity.

The film had its premiere on Sunday, December 11, 1977, and was one of the very rare instances when the ABC Sunday Night Movie showcased a made-for-television film rather than one that had been shown in theatres. The reviews were mixed at best. After its initial airing, in a New York Times follow-up article, it was revealed that Frank Capra

Frank Capra

Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

, the director of the 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life, had denounced the remake as "plagiaristic." The ratings, however were very good—so good, in fact, that the telefilm was re-broadcast on ABC twice in 1978 and 1979. But, by that time, the original It's A Wonderful Life had begun its resurgence on television, and it eventually eclipsed It Happened One Christmas.

In this version, the gender reversal makes Mary Bailey Hatch rather anachronistic for the time setting. Revisions in the script include fleshing out and exploring some of the characters who are citizens of Bedford Falls to a greater extent than in the original. When George, Harry (Mary's brother), and the Hatchs' friends, Bert and Ernie, go off to fight in the Second World War, each sends letters to Mary describing their experiences. All four characters are shown in uniform, interspersed with actual war footage. Another brief scene depicts George attempting to readjust to civilian life after the war has ended. However, the characters of Ma Bailey (played by Doris Roberts), Violet Bick (played by Karen Carlson), and Sam Wainwright (played by an uncredited Jim Lovelett) are practically reduced to bit parts, in contrast to the more full-bodied performances interpreted by Beulah Bondi

Beulah Bondi

Beulah Bondi was an American actress.Bondi began her acting career as a young child in theater, and after establishing herself as a stage actress, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version...

, Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...

, and Frank Albertson

Frank Albertson

Frank Albertson was an American character actor who made his debut in a minor part in Hollywood at age 13....

, respectively, in the 1946 film. The musical score is by Stephen Lawrence, and the cinematography by Conrad L. Hall.

It Happened One Christmas is rarely shown today, and has not, as of 2009, been issued on DVD. It can be viewed at the Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television & Radio) in New York City and Beverly Hills, California.