In the first half of the show, Hollywood tour guide Stephen Schochet discussed little known facts about favorite holiday movies and specials including It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The film It's a Wonderful Life did poor box office when it first came out, and it was a surprise to the filmmakers' when it turned out to be a perennial holiday favorite, he noted. The trailers for it didn't highlight the supernatural or Christmas themes of the movie-- they were trying to pass it off as a romantic comedy, he added. Further, It's a Wonderful Life, which was released in 1946, was accused by some of being pro-communist because it made a negative statement about a banker.
Twentieth Century Fox initially resisted the idea for Miracle on 34th Street because they didn't buy the idea of Santa in a courtroom, Schochet detailed. Charles Schultz and Doctor Seuss were protective of their characters, Peanuts and the Grinch, respectively, when it came to developing TV specials around them. Seuss had an earlier bad experience with Hollywood and was particularly apprehensive about how Chuck Jones was putting the special together, including having Boris Karloff voice the Grinch, though he was relieved when it was a big hit, Schochet recounted. Interestingly, both Grinch and Charlie Brown presented anti-commercial Christmas themes.
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In the latter half, student of the Urantia Revelation for 37 years, noted author, editor and publisher Byron Belitsos shared details about the life of Jesus that are not depicted in the Bible. The 2,000 page Urantia Book (UB), said to be authored by celestial beings, describes a cosmology of seven great rotating galaxy clusters that contain trillions of planets inhabited by human-like beings. The UB also provides detailed information about the everyday life of Jesus, far more than what is presented in the New Testament, he said.
According to the UB, after Jesus' father died when he was just a teen, he had to make a living to help feed and clothe a large family (he had seven brothers and sisters), so during this time he worked hard as a carpenter, blacksmith and at other occupations. In contrast to certain hypotheses, the UB says that Jesus did not have a wife, or children-- to pass on his bloodline would not make any sense for an incarnating deity, Belitsos explained. The UB affirms Jesus' miracles, but notes that he had a mandate to downplay them. However, in one instance, according to the UB, when 1,000 people all showed up for a healing at the same time, he instantaneously healed 683 of them.
News segment guests: John R. Lott, Catherine Austin Fitts