30 Years of ‘A Christmas Story’: How a Little Movie Became a TV Christmas Classic

It’s been 30 years since the release of “A Christmas Story.” The 1983 Bob Clark-directed film featured leg lamps, pink bunny suits, Little Orphan Annie decoder pins, and that all-important Red Ryder carbine action BB gun, and was based on radio storyteller Jean Shepherd’s 1966 story collection “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.”

While the film wasn’t an instant hit back in 1983 (“A Christmas Story” was up against award-winning flicks like “Scarface” and “Terms of Endearment”), it has become a small screen classic thanks to heavy rotation on cable and annual 24-hour TV marathons on TBS.

It also it has some TV roots – and not just that revival of TBS.  In 1982, Matt Dillon starred in the PBS “American Playhouse” special, “The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters.” The low-budget TV special was based on Shepherd’s coming-of-age tales about a group of Indiana pals named Ralph, Flick, and Schwartz. Even little brother Randy and Ralph’s Old Man turned up in the PBS special.

See “The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters” here:  

Of course, Dillon looks nothing like Peter Billingsley, the child actor who played Ralphie Parker in the movie the following year. In fact, the film’s cast could have looked very different: Jack Nicholson was originally considered for the role of Old Man Parker, but Darren McGavin was hired instead.

Billingsley made a fine transition from child star to Hollywood producer (he exec produced “Iron Man,” directed “Couples Retreat,” and he even popped up in another Christmas flick—the Will Ferrell comedy, “Elf,” with a small role as one of the elves), and Academy Award nominated actress Melinda Dillon (“Absence of Malice,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) – who played Billingsley’s mom in the flick -- is still acting.

As for Yano Anaya, the kid who played school bully Grover Dill, Scut Farkus’s “crummy little toadie,” in the flick, his acting resume is pretty slim (he’s a personal trainer director now), but here’s a fun fact: Anaya played the young version of Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony in the band’s iconic "Hot For Teacher" video.

Speaking of Scut Farkus, actor Zack Ward doesn’t really have yellow eyes, but he does have a steady  acting rez that includes roles in everything from “Deadwood” to “Transformers.” But in 2012, the movie bully sued the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, claiming his image was used without permission in a board game based on the film.  Ward was paid just $5,000 for his performance in “A Christmas Story,” and was a member of a Canadian actor's union with a contract that did not provide future merchandising rights, according to ABC News.

“Christmas Story” creator Shepherd narrated the movie, but the late radio humorist also had a cameo. He played the angry gentleman who directed Ralphie to the end of the Santa Claus line in the department store scene. 

Snow in Cleveland? No problem. Except for in January, 1983, that is. Cleveland experienced a snow free-stretch that winter, so the movie "snow" (there was a lot of it) was made of firefighting foam.

“The snow you see in the movie is actually a mixture of manufactured snow from the ski resorts, potato flakes, snowflakes, firefighter foam,” Siedlecki told Kent State University’s WKSU. “Anything that kind of looked like snow that, once you pulled the cameras away, you couldn’t tell what it was. That’s one of the reasons they took the rest of the production to Canada. They didn’t have the money to continue to bring in that fake snow.”

“A Christmas Story” is said to have inspired another TV classic: the ABC coming of age comedy, “The Wonder Years.”  In a cool crossover, Dan Lauria, who played patriarch Jack Arnold in the 1980s series, narrated the stage version of “A Christmas Story" when it hit Broadway in 2012.  And how’s this for a perfect full circle moment? The Tony Award nominated musical (a leg lamp kickline, anyone?) was co-produced by the film's original Ralphie, Peter Billingsley.

 “A Christmas Story” will air for 24 consecutive hours beginning at 8 p.m. on Dec. 24 on TBS.