Maya Rudolph Will Musically Deny Ralphie a BB Gun in Fox’s Live ‘A Christmas Story’

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The announcement of a televised live musical now almost sounds like a warning: this thing you love will be regurgitated to you as a cheapened nostalgia spectacle! But with the legitimately cool thrill of getting to watch people perform it in real time! That simultaneity will surely be on display as people continue to hear about Fox’s previously announced upcoming live musical version of A Christmas Story, a filmed version taking from the 2012 musical — itself based on the beloved 1983 film about a boy who just…desperately wants a BB gun. (Ralphie is The Problem.) Did they need to put that film — a perfectly good version of itself — onstage? Did they then need to put the stage version of the film back onscreen? Either way, that film-to-stage-to-TV thing The event, which will allegedly run for three hours (yippee!), will star Rudolph (actual, non-sarcastic yippee!) as the mother of protagonist Ralphie Parker. It’s airing on December 17 at 7 p.m. Eastern.

This isn’t the first Christmas TV special in which Rudolph has partaken; you may recall her presence in Sofia Coppola’s A Very Murray Christmas. And if you don’t, here she is, singing “I Saw the Light (Only You)” with Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, David Johansen, and Murray: