A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story is a 1983 MGM film based on the short stories of author Jean Shepherd. The film follows Ralphie (played by Peter Billingsley), a young boy growing up in 1940s Indiana, on his quest for the perfect Christmas gift, an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model BB rifle with a compass in the stock.
Over the years, A Christmas Story has become widely popular and is now a perennial Christmas movie. For the past several years, twelve consecutive airings of the film have comprised twenty-four hour long Christmas Day marathons on TNT and TBS.
The film has since spawned a Broadway musical adaptation in 2012, and three sequel films.
==References==
*In the opening sequence of It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, two Whatnot children are seen admiring a downtown Christmas window display. The characters, sets, and blocking of the scene mirror the opening sequence of A Christmas Story. Later in the production, a group of young frogs "triple frog dare" another frog to touch his tongue to a cold metal pole, at which point his tongue sticks to it. The scene is a parody of a now-famous scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie's friend Flick is "triple dog dared" to stick his tongue to a flagpole during recess and is left there alone when the bell rings. In the Muppet version, the "Flick" frog is similarly abandoned by his friends; even a depressed and hopeless Kermit walks by without helping. This frog is seen at the end of the movie, joining in the choir singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" while still attached to the street fixture. 
*In episode 14 of From the Balcony, Statler and Waldorf present a brief list of classic Christmas films. A Christmas Story is the second listed.
==Connections==
*Fred Armisen played the Higbee's Elf in A Christmas Story Live!
*David Alan Grier played Santa in A Christmas Story Live!
*Julie Hagerty played Mrs. Parker in A Christmas Story Christmas
*Ken Jeong played Restaurant Waiter in A Christmas Story Live!
*Jane Krakowski played Miss Shields in A Christmas Story Live!
*Reginald H. Morris served as director of photography for the 1983 film
*Benj Pasek wrote the music for A Christmas Story: The Musical
*Justin Paul wrote the lyrics for A Christmas Story: The Musical
*Ian Petrella played Randy Parker
*Maya Rudolph played Mother in A Christmas Story Live!
*Jean Shepherd wrote the original story, co-wrote the screenplay, and played the narrator and a man in the Santa Claus line
==External links==
* IMDb
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Category:Christmas References
Category:Movie References