Merry Sitcom!

Featuring seven holiday-themed episodes from classic TV series, Merry Sitcom! compiles nearly three hours of festive programming from popular shows such as Father Knows Best (1954's “The Christmas Story”), The Donna Reed Show (1958's “A Very Merry Christmas,” guest starring Buster Keaton), McHale's Navy (1962's “The Day They Captured Santa Claus”), Bewitched (1964's “A Vision of Sugar Plums,” guest starring Lost in Space's Bill Mumy), and Window on Main Street (1961's never-before-released “Christmas Memory”). The collection also includes the 1966 That Girl episode “Christmas and the Hard Luck Kid,” which finds star Marlo Thomas working as a Santa's helper and reminiscing about a past Christmas she celebrated with a little boy whose busy parents couldn't pick him up from the boarding school where she worked (John Fieldler, longtime voice of Winnie the Pooh's Piglet, guest stars as a coworker). And in “Wailing in a Winter Wonderland”—a 1967 episode of The Flying Nun—Sally Field makes a wish for an ailing Puerto Rican nun and winds up using her flight skills to spread much-appreciated cash around the town. Sure to take viewers down memory lane, this bargain-priced disc is recommended. Aud: P. (J. Williams-Wood)