He wound up at WOR in New York City three years later and remained a fixture there until 1977. Long before anyone was concerned about putting their eyes out, Shep cut his late-night teeth right here in Philadelphia on KYW from 1951 to 1953. Jerry Seinfeld has said that Shep “really formed my entire comedic sensibility.” Jerry probably grew up like me, listening to Shep dispense nightly wisdom on WOR radio in New York. I got home, poured myself a black Russian (sorry, Lebowski, dairy and alcohol just don’t mix), and thought about how Shep (who died in 1999 at the age of 78) was so much more than his contributions to the iconic 1983 movie, A Christmas Story.Īs an American humorist and storyteller, Shep is right up there with Will Rogers and Garrison Keillor. He’ll meet Ralphie and Randy, Flick and Schwartz, Grover Dill, Scut Farkus and Miss Shields.Īnd if he’s lucky, he’ll learn how they - and so many others - originated from the fertile mind of Jean Shepherd. He’ll find out why he shouldn’t lick a flagpole in winter. Another year, two at the most, and he’ll know all about that leg. “Beats me”? He clearly hasn’t learned yet, but he will. I let him give King Louie a small treat, said my goodbye, and trudged home. “No, I meant what’s the deal with the leg? What is it, some kind of Christmas decoration?” He’ll probably wind up working deep in the bowels of some monolithic government agency someday. This kid’s quite the conversationalist, I thought. Making things more confusing, when this film was released on home media and shown on television, it was renamed My Summer Story to make the links to A Christmas Story more obvious.“What, the leg?” I could tell from the tone of his voice that the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window left him completely unimpressed. But it didn’t grab the public’s attention. This film was based on the other stories found In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and follow the Parkers during the summer that follows the Christmas from A Christmas Story. The film was reviewed well. Called It Runs in the Family, the film doesn’t feature most of the original cast, with only Tedde Moore and Jean Shepherd remaining. In 1994, another sequel was released, but this one made it to theaters.

This was followed in 1988 by Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss, a made-for-TV film that tells the story of the Parker clan’s chaotic summer. The release of A Christmas Story in 1983 didn’t stop these made-for-TV movies the first follow-up to the film was 1985’s The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski, a made-for-TV movie broadcast as part of PBS’ American Playhouse series.

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