A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story is a 1983 semi-biographical film based on the short stories of author Jean Shepherd collected in the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. more...

The film relates the tale of Ralphie Parker, who wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and will go to any lengths to get it despite adults' admonition "you'll shoot your eye out." It stars Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, and Peter Billingsley. The movie was written by Jean Shepherd and directed by Bob Clark. Shepherd appears in the film: Look for him in the department store, when he points Ralphie to the end of the line of kids waiting to see Santa. He also provides the voice of Santa himself.

Overlooked as a sleeper film when it was first released, A Christmas Story has become widely popular since and is now a perennial Christmas special. Turner Network Television owns the broadcast rights, and airs it 12 consecutive times over a 24 hour period every Christmas. It should be noted that the marathon was played on TBS in 2004 and 2005 instead of TNT.

Movie sequels involving Ralphie and his family are Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss and My Summer Story.

In the year 2000, an authorized stage play adaptation of "A Christmas Story" was written by Philip Grecian and is produced widely in the English-speaking world each Christmas season. In 2003, Broadway Books published the five Jean Shepherd short stories from which the movie and stage play were adapted in a single volume under the title "A Christmas Story," with stories including: "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid", "The Counterfeit Secret Circle Member Gets the Message, or The Asp Strikes Again," "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award that Heralded the Birth of Pop Art," "Grover Dill and the Tasmanian Devil," and "The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds."

The movie was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio, but in the movie the story took place in Hammond, Indiana, the scenes showing the school were filmed in the old Edison Elemenary building in Hammond.

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