TV REVIEW | 'YULE LOG'

[7/4]

December 25, 2004

TV REVIEW | 'YULE LOG'

Once Again, Having Its 7 Minutes of Flame

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

The flames flicker too fast.

The Christmas morning yule log special on WPIX - a four-hour tape of a log blazing brightly in a fireplace - is not for the fainthearted. The unextinguishable electronic hearth is a beloved New York tradition, but it would be a stretch to call it soothing. Even with Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby crooning carols on the audio track, the pulsing flames mesmerize, but less like a snifter of brandy than like a double dose of methamphetamine.

In fact, staring at the yule log for an extended period may induce the kind of seizures that in December 1997 struck hundreds of Japanese children who watched a Pokémon cartoon with too many flashing lights and Pikachu. This year the yule log will also be shown in high-definition television on WPIX's digital channel, WPIX-DT (channel 12). The HDTV version provides "a very sharp image of flames," said Ted Faraone, a WPIX spokesman. Parental discretion advised.

Memory can be misleading, of course. Apparently, the fire has always burned fast and furiously. Mr. Faraone said the yule log had not been speeded up or tampered with when it was digitally remastered in 2001, the year WPIX brought it back after a 12-year hiatus. He insisted that the tape was the same one that was made in 1970, a loop that runs just under seven minutes.

That's the one most viewers remember, though surely back then the fire gave off a slower, more stately glow. The background music is no more menacing than "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," but visually, it begins to look a lot like the opening conflagration shot in the World War II documentary "The World at War."

The original, first shown in 1966, was a black-and-white 17-second loop that was filmed at Gracie Mansion when John Lindsay was mayor. That clip, though, was too short and needed to be redone. But after a film crew accidentally set fire to an Oriental rug by removing the safety grate for an unobstructed view of the flames, the station was not invited back for a reshoot. Eventually, a television studio with a working fireplace was found in California, and the station created the image that has allowed a generation of apartment-bound New Yorkers to re-enact "Christmas in Connecticut." (Or "Fahrenheit 451.")

For some, the yule log is an easy, pleasantly cheesy backdrop to tree trimming and gift-wrapping. But it is also a Dadaist joke: television as the hearth, not just metaphorically but literally.

Whatever the reasons, there is no question that the yule log is cherished by viewers. When WPIX decided to stop showing it in 1989, the station was flooded with complaints and a grass-roots lobbying campaign sprang up to bring it back. Ersatz and, at some level, deeply pathetic, the television yule log became one of those mourned New York landmarks that make up the city's shared nostalgia, like the Automat and Ebbets Field. (And someday, no doubt, the Naked Cowboy in Times Square.)

Connoisseurs trade as a trivia question the name of the man who brought the yule log to television (Fred Thrower, who was general manager of WPIX from 1953 to 1975, and died in 1999). The show's mystique grew during its dark period: each year since WPIX brought it back in 2001, the log has won its time period in the city's overnight Nielsen ratings. This year, viewers in cities like Chicago and Dallas can see what they have been missing when the log is shown early on Christmas Eve on Superstation WGN (like WPIX, a Tribune Company television station). And throughout the holiday season, anyone can start a quick fire on a laptop by linking to the log online (www.wb11.com), though it would probably be best not to download it in a crowded theater.

For all its hypnotic charm, the fireplace tableau still raises the question: why not reshoot and update it - a new log, different fire irons, daintier flames? It would not be sacrilege to try a new angle showing a little more brick, a little less log. Television is fearless about remaking classics. (In 1977 Marlo Thomas starred in "It Happened One Christmas," a gender-reversed version of "It's a Wonderful Life.") So it is a little odd that WPIX has never considered it. But sometimes it seems the business world learned a little too much from the lesson of New Coke.

Still, the old yule log is better than no yule log at all. And it may be unfair to judge it solely by the two-hour review tape distributed to critics. The real tape is an extravaganza twice as long. The abridged version could well represent a subjective part of the work, the director's cut.

[7/4]

The yule log, which has won its time slot in the Nielsen ratings each year since it was brought back in 2001, can also be seen in HDTV. (Illustration by The New York Times; photograph from WPIX-WB11)

[ghost of miles]

My wife grew up on Long Island and speaks w/great fondness of the Yule Log. Me, I'm a simple Midwesterner--"whatcha wanna watch a log burnin' on TV fer?" :rsmile:

[7/4]

I've never watched more than a few minutes of it. I did surf past it last night to an episode of Law & Order SUV.

[gdogus]

Law & Order SUV.

That's what we call it a t my house, too...

[vajerzy]

You know- if you stare at the picture for about 20 seconds-it starts looking like a snake or some sort of hideous monster........

I remember it as a kid on WPIX- my Dad had it on in my house since we were fireplaced challenged....

I remember a video selling on Ebay for $10.00.

I have my wood stove going this evening so that's our yule log......I should tape that....anyone want a copy??