🎄 Podcast Episode: Christmas Comes to Willow Creek 🎄

In this episode of Retro Life 4 You, we’re diving into the 1987 holiday classic Christmas Comes to Willow Creek! Starring John Schneider and Tom Wopat from The Dukes of Hazzard, this heartwarming TV movie follows two estranged brothers on a snowy journey to deliver supplies to a struggling Alaskan town.

We’ll explore the movie’s themes of forgiveness, family, and the true spirit of Christmas, while breaking down its memorable performances and emotional moments. Whether you’re a fan of classic holiday dramas or nostalgic ’80s TV movies, this is a must-listen for your Christmas season!

🎧 Tune in as we revisit this underrated gem and discuss why Christmas Comes to Willow Creek still resonates with audiences today. Don’t forget to subscribe and share your favorite moments with us!

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Foreign.

Everybody.

And we are in the last stretch of our month of Christmas movies.

We've had previously, Travis, we've had what, Gremlins Christmas Vacation.

And last week it was Ernest Saves Christmas.

Saved Christmas.

So we've had a little bit of a.

I don't want to.

It's hard for me to call Gremlins horror, but people were asking for it at Halloween.

So, I mean, maybe a little tad.

A little bit of a funny, scary, maybe little tiny horror bit for Gremlins.

Like, it's like the Nightmare Before Christmas.

I think it works for both.

Yeah.

And then we had the.

The.

The funny movie of Christmas Vacation.

You know, the Griswolds are always funny.

Ernest says Christmas was.

That was my first time watching an earnest movie, as I told you last week.

And I, you know, it has its.

Has good points in it.

I mean, it has the good, you know, kind of like the good feel kind of thing at the end, you know, has.

I don't want to say lessons in it, like life lessons, but it has a meaning behind it, though.

Earnest movies, typically, from what I understand, each of the movies bring something different that is a meaningful thing for people, everything.

So I haven't seen the others, so I can't say that.

You could probably say it.

You.

You've seen the other movies, I believe, haven't you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they're all like that last movie we're doing is Christmas Comes to Willow Creek.

That's what we're doing today.

It's.

It's something that I've liked watching before, the first time Travis has seen it.

So it's a.

I've seen it several times.

It's not one that I've watched, you know, 500 times.

I don't watch it every year.

When Christmas comes Around.

It's not like Christmas Story for me or something like that, but if it's on TV and I've got nothing else going on, I would watch it or something.

Yeah.

And the reason why it's a thing for me is because I've always.

I grew up watching loving the Dukes of Hazard.

So the Borns that play the Duke boys, the Tom Wolpat and John Schneider, are starring in this movie as brothers.

And so they kind of took for me at that point, and I watched it and I, I kind of liked it.

It's got a little feel good thing, too.

It's like last year we did Prancer, and Prancer is one of Those kind of feel good kind of Christmas movies.

Yeah, it was time out earlier got squeezed on them Hallmark movies in there every now and then.

Yeah.

I told Travis I felt like I was a step away from starting to watch Hallmark movies now.

So make my mom proud.

I guess probably her and my sister will be like, hey, let's all get together and watch Hallmark this year.

Right?

That was how.

That's what I was saying too.

I watched this with my mom tonight and I mean we enjoyed it.

I wouldn't say it's a bad movie by any means.

It's not a bad movie.

I would say it's.

It's definitely good for a one time watch for sure.

If you just want to see something around this time of year that's kind of a little feel good kind of movie where you know it serves a purpose like they're going to take.

They're trying to make sure this small town in Alaska gets Christmas to it for the kids and everything.

And the town is holding out for like a Christmas miracle of some sort because the town is shutting down.

It's falling apart.

It's about to shut down basically.

So yeah, they can't.

It's just one of them kind of things.

So just to give you a.

A quick synopsis of it.

Not like I haven't said much about it already, but way it describes it, it says Christmas Comes to Willow Creek is a heartwarming holiday TV movie.

It was a made for TV movie that tells the story of two estranged brothers, Ray and Pete, who are forced to come together for a Christmas mission.

Tasked by their boss Al Bensinger to drive a truckload of supplies to the struggling Alaskan town of Willow Creek, the brothers embark on a snowy road trip and becomes a journey of reconciliation and rediscovery.

Ray, the rebellious brother, is joined by his pregnant girlfriend Jesse, while Pete, the more responsible sibling, struggles to reconnect with Rey after years of tension.

And we'll get to that in a minute.

While they have tension, as they navigate harsh weather and personal conflicts, they learn valuable lessons about family, forgiveness and the true remaining of Christmas.

And also along with the ride is one of them's kid.

That would be Pete's kid.

Yeah, Pete's kid.

Raised the one that has the pregnant girlfriend.

Pete's kid.

Speaking of rebellious handful, a lot of trouble, kind of a typical teenager who doesn't have what they consider to be like a lot of parental guidance at home will say the mom and I don't remember, did the mom run out on or did she die?

Do you remember?

I think she left because all they said was, she left.

Yeah, that's what it sounded like.

It sounded like she just picked up and left or something.

And when that happened, it kind of put a dagger between the two of them too, in a sense to where he found it hard to get along with his son because almost like his son resented him thinking that he was the reason why the mom left without.

Being a truck driver.

He was gone all the time and all that.

Right.

Always on the road even, especially at Christmas time, gone and on the road.

And this be the first year that he had not been on the road for Christmas.

He was going to stay home with him.

And that didn't quite work out because of this mission they got put on them by none other than Hoyt Axton, I believe I told you.

A few weeks ago we had this, a second movie coming up with hoytaxon in it twice a month.

I mean, how about that trucking business that they were.

So he was going to take the truck himself.

He's having heart problems, it looks like, and can't really make the trip.

So he enlists the help of them too, in hopes that the two of them can also patch up their differences while on the road pulling this little Christmas miracle off for the kids and everything.

So that's one part of the plot here, toward the end there, as far as what they hope to accomplish.

Anyway, being this is your first time watching it, Travis, would you kind of think about how things started out and the reason why the brothers weren't getting along and taking this road trip together?

That's kind of a weird deal, you know, I mean, as.

As bad off as they've been with each other, and they're going to make this long trip to Alaska.

Right.

And.

And especially concerning what it was.

So Pete had started dating Jesse, and then Jesse told him basically at one point that she didn't love him.

And then she went after.

Well, they say the whole thing is Ray stole Jesse from Pete, but she kind of went after Ray.

I mean, he was flirting with her, but she kind of went after him.

So then they fell in love and got married and all.

And then.

Yeah, so, I mean, that's a.

That's a wild one.

And right off the bat, like you said, gonna go ahead and make this big old trip together.

And they was fighting with each other.

Like it wasn't, you know, I don't know, it was a little bit.

A little bit weird.

But honestly, the parts with Tom Mopat and John Schneider, even though The.

The preface was weird.

I enjoyed it.

Like, I completely enjoyed their time on screen.

But when they have a good natural chemistry together.

Absolutely.

You need the story that what's going on with the town to make the movie make sense, to make the plot right.

But every time it.

Every time that I think where what got me was, every time that they weren't on screen, I lost interest in the movie.

And then the whole point of the movie, like you said, was getting to know, like the story of the town.

And it would flash, it would flash back over to the town and what was going on there.

Whether it be the kids seeing Santa Claus, the town Santa Claus, and tell them what they wanted, or whether it be the town council meeting talking about the upcoming death of the town, because there's nothing there to support them anymore as far as, you know, finances and income and everything.

And there was a cannery there that shut down and left.

And now there's nothing else there really.

They were trying to get a lumber yard to come in and then they, the mayor got the letter, the yumber, the lumber yard backed out of coming in.

Right.

And they were gonna have to announce that, you know, this was pretty much, you know, the end of the town at that point.

Now, I don't know what that means as far as people living there.

Could they still live there?

Would they have to move or what?

But I mean, right, if there's nothing.

It was a town out in south Alaska, but I mean, they're still in Alaska.

It was kind of cut off from the rest of the world, you know, especially when brothers come through and certain times of the year and whatnot.

And there's nothing coming through there, money wise, flowing through then, you know, no one's got money to buy things with.

So any of the local stores that were open there is not making any money because no one in town is coming there to shop.

And then the stores will go under and then next thing you know, they're closing down and moving out.

Then there's no reason to live there at that point anymore for sure.

So it's just, it's like a trickle down effect working, you know, starting with everybody, this leaving and this leave, this dot coming in, have to get this bad news.

And they're, they're.

But they're really hoping on something big happening.

And that's what the character that Hoyt Axton plays, I think is Al was his name.

Al was trying to send these two brothers up there to deliver this on time.

It has to be there on time by Christmas Day, very important.

And there's something in the very front of the truck of the trailer that's shut off that you can't see because of everything else that's in front being delivered there.

Anything is very important that you guys are the ones to take this.

So they have Tom Wolpat drive his truck instead of the other.

You know, the other one drive his.

Because, you know, ultimately at the end, you see why he drove his truck.

He's gonna leave and go back home.

You know, the other one ends up staying with his.

The girl with the girl and everything.

Some of the key plot points to the movie, you know, there's a mission involved, of course, Al Bensinger has sent them on the mission to.

To deliver these supplies desperately needed to a once thriving town that's now facing hard times.

You know, that's your kind of Christmas event right there.

They're having hard times, they're struggling, they need help.

And what better time of the year to give than Christmas?

And, you know, he's sending all these things there.

You got the sibling rivalry between the two brothers.

And this journey forces them to confront their issues.

And throughout the whole trip there, several times they come close to fighting, but really don't.

And they argue a lot.

But the role of which is Jesse's role.

Jesse provides the emotional balance to the brothers, which add stakes with her pregnancy because she's pregnant and they didn't know she was pregnant.

The last time she had talked to his character, she was basically.

She had some news for him, but she wouldn't tell him what it was.

And then, you know, they end up splitting up.

She leaves him basically and goes somewhere she doesn't want to talk to me anymore.

But.

Well, because.

Was it that she didn't tell him what it was or was it that he kind of ruined the moment?

He.

He ruined the moment.

He did.

He ruined everything.

Because she had something exciting to tell him.

He was like, oh, no, you're not pregnant, are you?

No, you can't be pregnant.

You know, it's like.

Because he didn't really want.

He had told her he didn't want kids.

He just wanted to be exactly.

Married to her.

He didn't want to have kids or anything.

And now this has happened.

And since he said all this and reinterrated all this to her, you know, she didn't.

He was like, well, you're going to tell me you're pregnant, right?

And she said, I never told you I was pregnant.

You just kind of assumed it, you know, and was.

She was going to tell him, though.

Well, he comes now.

He comes to find out she said.

Was, you better sit down.

And as soon as she told him, you better sit down, he flipped out.

Right.

Right.

And of course, this is nine months down the road now when all this is happening and she's.

She is pregnant.

And yes, it's his.

The town.

The plot about the town struggle, which is the.

Based upon the next point, which is the Christmas miracle.

The town is struggling.

It's in its last.

It's on its last breath.

It needs serious help.

And this Christmas miracle that Al has brought to them is gonna fix everything for them.

Which gives you the good ending, the little heartfelt ending that ties everything in with a nice little bow and everything.

Want to go over real quick some of the people that's in it?

We know we mentioned Schneider and Wolpat.

They are the right ones that played in the Dukes of Hazard, Bowen, Luke Duke.

Last week we kind of.

Well, it wasn't last week.

A few weeks ago we touched on Hoyt Axton.

Yeah.

A little bit of a country singer, writer, songwriter, Bails and Gremlins and a couple of other things over the years.

Some variety shows and such.

Kim Delaney plays the role of Jesse and I'm wondering if she's a sister to Dana Delaney.

Who is Dana?

I think Dana Delaney was in Tombstone or China beach, one of the two.

I forget how this goes.

I'm looking right now.

I just pulled her.

Her stuff up here and tells who her mom and dad is.

Let's see if it mentions any siblings or anything.

She is.

She has four brothers who are older.

Yeah.

It doesn't listen anything about his sister.

So.

I mean, apparently she did not have a sister named or I wonder if they're related in any way though, still.

Yeah, I don't know.

We don't have to start getting our.

We're going to start getting this little fact sheets together so we're not looking it up in the middle of the podcast.

So then we know.

Know seem like we seem like we're informed about stuff.

Half the fun is looking it up during the podcast.

All right.

It's like we're.

We're real time people, man.

We're real time, you know, day of kind of.

Because she's lazy, too lazy to look during the week kind of people.

I mean, that's what we are.

I would.

I'm thinking it's laziness.

I think it's just ain't got no time.

It could be that.

It could be some of that too.

It could definitely.

It could definitely be some of that.

Anyway, was she.

Was she in the.

Was this the girl that was in Tombstone?

Yes.

Kim Delaney?

Yes.

Are you sure?

Are you looking at it?

No, I'm not looking at it.

Positive she is.

Well, I definitely know it's one of the Delaney's, we'll say that for sure.

But if it is hers, it doesn't list her as being known for it, that's for sure.

All right, well, maybe it ain't hurting.

See, that's what you see now that you can't be for sure.

Now you make me have to look.

So you're supposed to know these things.

You're supposed to be the.

The rock of the show, man.

Sometimes.

Sometimes I am, but stuff like this one, I don't know her that.

But you know what?

This is the girl I was thinking of.

It's not China Beach I was thinking of.

It's Tour of Duty.

She was in Tour of Duty.

Okay.

I don't know if you remember that TV show or not.

From 89.

You were be.

Now you'd been nine years old.

Yeah, my dad, my dad used to love it.

Yeah.

So if you watched it, that'd be different.

She is not the person, however I can see.

Let me go.

Tombstone was what, 90s?

Yes.

Yeah, I'm not seeing her in Tombstone.

So she's a Mission to Mars.

If you were seen that and liked it.

Mission to Mars.

Mission to Mars.

Well, that satisfies my curiosity.

She was not in that movie anyway.

All right.

You guys pull that up for me, Jamie.

The rest of them I'm not going to talk much about because I don't know him anyway from anything else.

We had Zachary Ansley that played Michael.

He might have been the son.

I think that was him, Charlotte, which is the old lady from the town that he kept in touch with on a trip there, was played by Joey Coghill.

And Homer was indeed.

She was the one.

Tombstone.

Daniel Delaney was dying.

Indeed she was.

Josephine.

Right.

Indeed, indeed.

Dwight Cost plays the mayor.

And I really don't see anything else here, anybody else that sticks out to mention.

So I'm not going to go down into them.

If you have any more interest in anybody that played in the movie, just, you know, pull it up on IMDb where I'm looking to here, and you can see all of them listed, see their individual histories they have and all that good stuff.

So, yeah, I'm going to have a lot going on like I said too.

This is a made for TV movie too, so.

Yeah, so you kind of get.

I mean, career actors in a way.

It's not really a lot of stars.

It's not usually just the people that will.

That they've been in a few TV shows here and there consistently or something, or.

And then they get a big TV movie and then they go on to, once again, Hallmark or something.

Right.

Anywho.

So in your opinion, how does Christmas come to Willow Creek kind of stand out from other holiday movies?

The.

Probably the fact it had a little bit of the vibe as far as having the country boys running across America.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

The bar fight.

Like, I saw the bar fight coming a mile away.

Yeah.

I thought, we gotta have a bar fight.

I said it wouldn't be.

It wouldn't be a country boy movie without a bar fight.

There's a bar fight and can we step outside fight, too.

Yeah.

The rest had a little restaurant, I think.

I think for the time too.

It's not like Buddy.

Like, you know, you had the buddy cop stuff and the other things, but you know what I mean, like, the two men in the dynamic of the relationship between them, I think stands out a little bit.

You got two brothers and then the son, and then he's more like the uncle and getting along with the uncle, who's Ray.

And, you know, just a little bit of the dynamic and then playing on the.

Probably playing on a little bit of the Smokey and the Bandit success as far as driving a truck.

You know, we like trucker movies back then.

Bandit.

Smoking the Bandit was a.

I don't know about smoking the Bandit part, though, because that was like 10 years earlier.

Yeah.

Some bandit come out in 77.

Okay.

But I mean, when you get those two kind of guys in there, though, you still feel like that kind of feel, though, where you can see it.

You can see the Dukes of Hazard in it.

You could see some Smoking the Bandit possibly in it.

You could.

Anything that feels countryish because they've been given that label, actually.

Let me take.

Let me.

Let me change that.

What stood out to me the absolute most about this is I never thought in a million years that Magnum TA And Lingree would.

Would team up and do a movie.

Because I'm gonna tell you now, that mullet, dude.

That mustache and that mullet.

Yeah.

John Schneider looked just like Magnum TA And Tom Wapat looked just like Lee Greenwood.

Oh, Lee Greenwood.

With a little fro going of sorts.

And for those of you who don't know who Magnum TA Is, Just look up some old school NWA wrestling.

You'll.

You'll see who that was.

I could definitely see that.

That is.

That's hilarious.

For me.

What made, you know, as far as standing out from other holiday movies at the.

In 87.

I mean, we had a few good movies around that time and before, but it.

It stands out to me because.

Because of watching.

I'm sorry, I got distracted for a second.

I saw this thing pop up on the side of the screen.

It goes back.

Hold up, hold up.

The.

The thing.

I'm sorry.

The thing that stood out to me was because I'm used.

I was so used to watching Duke of Hazard growing up, watching those two people play different characters and still play something like family because they get that good vibe together.

Standing out in a movie on television for me was what made it different from a lot of other movies.

Most other movies that were big at the time, for Christmas or, you know, to the.

To the big screen, you know, I mean, not to the TV screen.

So, I mean, that's what most people talked about.

But this movie really had a good feel to it, a good story to it, and the acting wasn't bad in it.

You know, it's.

It didn't exactly have a lot of music involved in it.

There was like one country song, I think, that popped up in it, about babies and bar stools not going together or something like that.

Yeah.

And then I actually enjoyed that song a little bit there.

Now, I believe Travis has a screenshot he wants to put up.

It looks like.

Is that what I'm looking at?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hold on.

So we got Streamyard to where I can do it, but you got to do it now.

Yeah, we got these two guys right here.

That.

That's Magnum Ta on the left.

Yeah.

And Lee Greenwood.

Lee Greenwood with a little bit more hair on the right now.

Tell me he don't look like Le Greenwood, though.

Oh, my gosh.

That's.

That's.

That's.

You know.

But you know what looks more like Luke Duke then other one looks more.

Then the other one looks a lot less like Boduk now in that picture.

Yeah, that's very true.

It's the hair throwing him off big time, you know, And Luke Duke just looks the same, but he got a beard.

Yeah.

So that's.

That's crazy.

That is crazy.

I don't know why you weren't able to do that.

You're on here as a team member.

You should be able to have rights to everything else, too.

So I don't Want to figure that out?

Maybe I just didn't know how.

I don't know.

But we'll have to figure it out.

We'll do it.

No, I don't know if you can see the same screens.

Lastly, I'll ask you after the stream's over with.

We'll see what it looks like and compare it.

So I'm not, we're not going to go with this next question.

We basically answered this next question when we answered the first one, so that would be kind of silly.

What do you think about the relationship though, between Ray and Pete's characters?

It's big sibling rivalry.

Did it feel, did, did they do a good job for you in that movie, making it feel realistic?

I mean, they're.

To me it did because they, they had this like, this disdain for each other.

It seemed like the whole time until the baby was born and they finally seemed like they, they finally had a fight over it is what it comes down to.

And they're knocking each other around saying this is for this, this is for that, you know, and once the fight's over with, that's it.

They're, they're laughing, they're, they're, they're okay with each other, they're cool now.

They got it out of their system.

See, that just shows the values, man.

That just shows about sometimes, sometimes you need to just fight it out.

Sometimes you just need to do that.

That's one of the things that I think is wrong.

That's one of the things that I think is, is an incorrect way to handle things these days too.

How, you know, I mean, we're gonna put kids in jail for fighting, you know, like, nah, man, let people, let people throw hands, bro.

Let them work it out as long as it's throwing hands.

And see, that was part of, that was part of being a man back in the day too, you know, that's one.

When I, me growing up, you know, it's like one of the big things was, you know, we go out in the yard and fight about it and have a beer afterwards.

You know, you hear, you hear that all the time from Generation, right?

So.

But yeah, I think that made it real.

Real.

I don't think they made it believable.

And then at the same time it truly emphasized because as you go through the movie and you're watching the, the flashbacks and all, and then through the conversations with Ray and Michael, his nephew, you learn about their character and how they learn about it.

So even, even if you did, even if you couldn't grasp the, the characters personalities, they.

They laid it out for you in black and white pretty much.

And it really showcased Tom's maturity and the way he was, you know, like the bigger man or the better son or whatever.

And, you know, with her telling him that she didn't love him and then him just kind of accepting that, you know what I mean?

Like, and then he.

He unfortunately took a lot of it out on his son unintentionally through not treating him bad, but not really treating him good either.

More of a.

What would you call it, negligence type thing.

Like he just kind of.

Kind of ignored him and didn't really pay much attention to him other than to get on to him or whatever.

Yeah.

And then.

Yeah, but, yeah, I think they made.

I think they did well with it, especially because, you know, he tried to fight him like three times in the movie and he's like, I'm not fighting you.

I'm not fighting you.

And finally he did.

He didn't do much fighting at all.

I mean, even when it comes to the point in that.

In that little restaurant where the two truckers were.

Were kind of hounding the girls, trying to try to really.

That's what Michael taught him.

He said, you wouldn't have done that in a million years.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

He wasn't fighting.

That was another.

Just another moment in front of his son where like, he feels.

The son feels like he let him down because you didn't get up to help those women out.

You know, that would have been something.

You know, there's a heroic by the father for him to do because he's, he's defending people, you know, but he did, he had no part in that.

It was always.

Didn't.

Was the uncle again.

Now he stands out even better for him and everything.

Tv, holiday movies, I mean, how do you think they compare to.

I don't know if I want to say today's Christmas films or if I really want to say the theatrical release Christmas films because, well, made for TV movies have to be made differently for one thing, because you got commercial breaks and everything they're going to go through and it's not gonna.

There's certain things you just can't put on television, right.

What you can put on, you know, a movie going to the theater and everything.

But how do you feel about the made for TV holiday movies compared to Christmas films that go straight to the movie theaters?

Do you.

Would you.

Do you have a, like a.

A preference of one over the other?

Do you think it's not really worthwhile making those Christmas movies because it depends.

On what it is.

Like if Jingle all the Way had been put straight on tv, it wouldn't be the same mov.

But then again.

But you know what?

Hold on.

Jingle.

I don't know if that's a, A good example of one.

I know what you're getting at though, but Jingle all the Way, if you think about it, you could easily have made that a made for TV movie.

There's not a, there's, there's not a lot of cussing in it.

But where you gonna get the budget to pay for Arnold and Sinbad and all that, you know, they're not gonna do.

At the time, they weren't gonna do a made for TV movie.

Well, see, that's just saying that.

And that's up to them though, completely.

They would, they, they could have the opportunity to do it and they may want to do it.

And let's just say that they, for sake of argument, that they did it.

That the money for getting them to do it wasn't an option because they, they had nothing else going on at the time.

And we know that's wrong because in 87, Arnold was on fire.

He was doing all kind of good stuff.

That's the, that's it.

I think it's.

Your Predator came out too.

But let's just say some other time that when Jingle all the Way came out, I mean, like I said, salaries put aside, you got them on and you made a TV movie of that.

I think it would work out fine based on the storyline of what it's about.

And so what criteria are you, what criteria are you going off of then?

Because that's why.

Because like I said, if you, if that had a, if that movie, if that movie in particular, the way it was made with the people who were in it came out on tv, it wouldn't be the same.

But not you, if you, if you're talking about, you know, budgeting for special effects and stuff, well, that might be a different story.

Not really talking about budgeting for special effects.

It's just that if you had a preference, I guess, do you.

Would you just prefer to watch the big screen movies, the Christmas movies, or would you do you like some of these made for TV holiday movies?

I wouldn't have a preference at all.

Because like I said, you know, when you, when you get into the realm of that of, of made for TV versus theatrical releases, normally you may.

It's made for TV because of the smaller budget.

So no, not at all there.

That's what I was about to say was there's actually lots of Christmas movies that are made for TV that are phenomenal.

We made a joke about the Hallmark Channel, but there I watched, I've watched many movies from the Hallmark Channel with my wife that are phenomenal.

We loved, you know what I mean?

So.

And the caliber of the acting and the production and everything else looked different.

Fine.

But now, you know, look at, look at your Power Rangers movies versus your Power Rangers on tv.

You know what I mean?

There's a clear difference there.

Even the first one, not the new one, like the first one that actually had the Power Rangers from the TV on it like it was, the production value was higher.

So it made it different.

But as far as like story lines and how well the movie is made or whatever, no, I don't, I don't really have a preference.

If it's a good story, it's a good story.

I watch a lot of B movie, like fantasy, fantasy type movies and horror movies.

And you know, my daughter and I have sat watching horror movies before and been like, you know, if this had some money behind it, this would be an amazing movie.

So yeah, I think there's a lot of people out there though, they'll, they have this main preference that like they don't want to watch a made for TV movie because the field is not the same as the big screen blockbuster.

And it's kind of like what you're saying.

There's no money for special effects.

There's smaller budgets and everything.

A lot of the times the movies on TV with the smaller budgets have a more, I don't know, like a good time feel to them than they.

Do most of the time.

Yeah.

You know, of some high action packed blockbuster or something.

So I, as far as Christmas movies go, I guess I don't really have a real preference.

I kind of like them.

Both are the same.

I love this movie for what it is.

I like Prancer for what it was that we did last year.

But at the same time, you know, I also like, I think Christmas vacation is hilarious and you'll never.

That would not pass as a made for TV movie by any means.

It wouldn't.

But you could do it on cable.

Yeah, you could.

It would still work out.

Yeah.

And these days the way they do things, it would definitely be a made straight to stream movie for sure.

Oh for sure.

Read all that stuff.

But see if we can find us a good question here to toss at.

You see here.

Ah, you know what I Don't know that that might be too personal thing.

Hold on.

That's not a different one here.

No, that's.

I'm limited on questions.

Have you ever had a family conflict during the holidays that felt similar to Ray and Pete struggles?

And that doesn't mean you fought over a girl or something, but I mean it's like I, I guess like every year when you see that person when it's Christmas time again, the same old, same old argument always comes up or something.

Yeah, a lot of, A lot of families, right?

Yeah.

See my family, we, we did all that throughout the year and then like the holiday times was when we were peaceful.

We did the opposite.

We fought like cats and dogs.

The whole other part part of the year.

I wouldn't say we fought like cats and dogs, but I would always take every opportunity to aggravate my sister just because that's, that's, you know, that's what brothers and sisters do.

That's what I've always said.

That's the point I've always tried to make.

I'm not trying to be malicious or mean spirited or anything, but I would, I would tease and aggravated myself, but then she'd get mad all about and everything and stomp off to the other room or stomp off outside or whatever.

Then my mom would be like, look what you did.

Now that you did it again, you can't be doing stuff like that.

Like I was just being funny with her.

Come on.

You know.

So something like that I guess would be my big claim to fame as far as family stuff goes.

But a lot of family.

There are some families out there that do have these real struggles that are, they're, that are.

Well, I don't say struggles, but real life fights that they can't overcome when they get together.

Yeah, there's been.

Yeah, ruin.

You ruined Christmas.

And now they'll.

There's.

There are.

So I can't think of any of it happening on the holiday, but I do have extended family that have gotten into it so bad that they stopped showing up for holidays, you know.

Yeah.

If, if you could change anything about the movie, would you change something about it?

Is there a direction or maybe a theme or maybe another angle involved with.

It for some reason, like I said.

So when we did the, when we did the move over to the town, it kind of took me out of the moment.

It kind of took me out of the movie.

Even though it's, even though that part's important.

So I don't know.

I think I needed, I think I would have liked a little.

Maybe a little more set up with the town or something instead of just the mayor walking through with the band playing and then getting on.

You know what I mean?

Like it's.

Or either that or.

Or maybe it was just like you said, the fact that it's Bo and Luke Duke, they're the only people in the movie that you really care about.

So maybe that.

Maybe I would have.

Maybe I would have somehow did a better job of or tried to try.

To maybe a little bit less down.

A little more something with the town.

Maybe.

Maybe they gave it a little less town throughout the movie and a little bit more of it up front in the movie where.

Yeah, something like that.

You got.

You got most of your story of what's going on up front.

The.

The middle of the movie is involving nothing but them making the road trip.

And then at the end when they contact them and they come out to help them, and then when they're stuck in the snow drift, that could be more about the townspeople coming out, but maybe not flashing back and forth to the town so much throughout the middle of the movie too.

For this, you know, this just happened.

You know, this just breaking news for the town or something, because we already know the town's in danger of collapsing.

And what I wanted to know, me and my mom both, we looked at each other and was like.

My mom's exact words was, how did that little know they was going to go get him?

Get her?

Remember he ordered the.

He ordered the chicken sandwich with the crust cut off.

Right?

Right.

And he didn't know her.

They said anything about going to get her.

Right.

And he didn't know her.

Really did that because her and her and what's his name, Pete.

So Jesse and Pete was dating first.

And when he.

Remember when he first met her as the waitress, he told her he was raising a teenage son.

So he had dated her for a little while.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

That is great.

And then in that scene, when that first scene where Ray had first met her, the other waitress came out and said that she thought that whatever the chef's cook's name was, thought that cutting the crust off of it was insulting his manhood.

So that's where we pulled back like, okay, well.

But then what got us though is when he was ordering them, he ordered the chicken sandwiches without the crust, and his dad turned around and looked at him.

But that was hap.

That happened right before Pete decided he was gonna go on the bike to go to her house.

You know, knew that they were going to the house beforehand.

So theory about that then maybe they were.

When I keep getting the characters names mixed up, which one was the father?

Right?

Pete.

Pete's the father.

All right, so, so Ray is driving.

All right, so Ray is driving and he's having an argument with Pete about who were you calling back there a while ago?

He said, nobody, I was washing up.

He goes, yeah, well, you sure you want to talk on the phone to somebody?

And he's suspicious already that he's already trying to get in touch with Jesse because they're going to be going through Vancouver.

Right?

And but he, he finally says, oh, you think that because Jesse's in Vancouver that I'm trying to, I'm want to see her or something, I want to take her from you or something like that.

And the kids listening to all this.

So he already has acknowledged for beforehand that they're headed in that direction where she's at.

Maybe he bought them in hopes that they were gonna go ahead and stop by and get her and pick her up or something.

Right?

I don't, I don't know.

But I mean, maybe it could be something along those lines.

But yeah, that's, that is definitely a good question for it though.

Oh, man.

Which, if you, if you could say which character do you relate to the most?

Was that nerds being boozled and I just got dirty dishwater.

For those of you who can't.

For those of you who are not watching the video, somebody here is eating jelly beans, it looks like, and he got one of the bad tasting jelly beans.

Yeah, you got birthday cake and dirty dishwasher and they both look just a lot.

But he ain't stopping chewing on it though either.

So he must like, he must like some dirty dishwater.

The other one was birthday cake.

It wasn't too bad.

Did I answer your question though?

Ray 100, Ray 100.

That's who you relate to the most.

I, I guess being that I was always the good boy or something, I had to relate to the other.

I had to relate more to Pete.

I guess that and Bo Duke was my dude, man.

Bo Duke was growing up out of the Duke boys.

Duke.

Bo was my favorite when I was growing up.

Always the one driving.

Right?

Right?

Yeah, but no, the stuff, you know what I mean?

The stuff that he, the stuff that he did and he was the wild one and you know what I mean?

Supposedly the wild one.

That's what that made me laugh.

He said, you know, you were a good dude when you were a kid.

What Happened to you?

What happened to you?

Where'd you go to?

Where'd he go?

Oh, my gosh.

Did you.

Do you have any kind of favorite scenes from it?

Yeah, probably.

Probably the end right there in the snow drift in Alaska.

And my man Domingo, they try to figure out how they're going to get out of it.

And then my man taps on the window.

He's like, hey, Ray.

Ray goes, hey, Pete.

He's like, well, open the window.

So I opened it.

You're in Alaska in the bank of a snow drift.

Yeah.

And the mirrors are window down.

And you hear, hola, I am Domingo.

And it looks like you're in need of a midwife.

And it's like, what?

But he announces himself.

Remember, he announces himself as a shepherd.

Domingo, a shepherd.

I'm Domingo.

I am a shepherd.

It appears you were the need of a midwife.

The last thing I personally would expect to see in Alaska is a Mexican.

I was like, man, especially one that's a shepherd with sheep.

But there's a hidden.

There's a meaning behind all of this.

100.

So from that point, you know that.

Well, that.

That's the scene, that whole point right there where they went back with him.

And, you know, he.

He picked the boy to help him.

And then they got in the fight and everything.

And then, you know, I mean, it's a little.

It's not.

That's not like the end of the movie, but it's close to the end.

But then it wraps back around at the end to give you.

So it wraps back around at the end to.

To give you the closure from.

Or.

Or to give.

To let you know what everybody learned from that moment.

And the boy, Michael was.

It gave you the feeling that he was going to calm down in the future, you know?

Right.

He's like, you know, I helped bring him in.

He looked like when the baby was born, he looked at his dad.

It's like, I did that.

Yeah.

He never done anything.

He said he never done anything that meant something like that before.

Nothing.

That.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And suddenly this.

This.

This job was put into his hands by Domingo.

You're the one that I need.

You're gonna be the one to have to do this.

You know, you're.

It's like you're the only one.

And the other two.

Ethan's on their way.

Well, he sends them on the way to get their differences out of the way while Michael learns something some like responsibility from a job he's just done that was important.

And it's bringing the Life into the world.

It's not, you know, it's like a tough thing with a lot of responsibility.

He does his part in helping with it.

And of course, there's the whole meaning, you know, the, the shepherd, which this is gonna.

I'm gonna tell you something, just a second.

Just to give you a little reference back to Dukes of Hazard again.

But it's the.

The shepherd mining his sheep.

You know, if there's one sheep left behind, this shepherd will always go back for the one.

I'm sorry.

Travis is making the most God awful face right now from a jelly bean, everybody, if you get a chance.

I know, I know.

You might be listening to this on audio.

Go to the webpage www.retrolife, the number four, the letter u.com, click on the show notes and then look for the video in there.

Or go to YouTube at our YouTube channel and look for the video of this.

And watch this goober make this a short.

Watch this goober try to eat these jelly beans.

Ah.

Oh, my God.

I don't know.

That one had to be old bandage.

It's a new one.

Oh, that's gross.

Absolutely horrible.

All right, look, you just saw me spit it out.

Listen, it's bad enough.

Have you ever tried the.

The Harry Potter theme?

Bertie bots.

Every flavored beans, right?

That's kind of like bamboo.

Exactly.

It's.

That's what you're eating basically right now.

And if you look at the flavor of the jelly beans on the Bertie bot thing, you've got.

You got puke, you've got boogers, you've got.

You've got bobbit grass.

That's the worst one, dude.

That one is the worst.

What is it?

What is it?

Oh, dude.

Dude, it's so bad.

It's dead fish and it.

What do you think is fish oil?

Well, I was hoping for strawberry banana smoothie, y'all.

That's what they do.

They got two flavor beans that look identical or they look the same with different.

The spots and everything or the color.

And then one of them's good and one of them.

Something crazy.

We're gonna have to do an episode one night just with Travis eating different, different jelly beans to see if he gets the right one or not.

Yeah, so you can get.

You can get liver and onions or cappuccino.

You can get old bandage or pomegranate, which obviously I had old bandage, dirty dishwasher or birthday cake.

I had dishwasher.

It was horrible.

I ate it, though.

Then you got.

You got stink bug and toasted marshmallow oh, my God.

Barf and peach dead fish and strawberry banana smoothie.

And the dead fish is absolutely the worst one I've had out of any of them.

And I've ate these a bunch before, too.

Booger and juicy pear.

And to be quite honest, the booger ain't half bad.

Oh, God.

Super salty.

I could have gone without hearing that all night long.

Rotten egg and buttered popcorn.

And I think the buttered popcorn is disgusting anyway, so I'll probably be out of luck on both of them.

And then stinky socks or tutti frutti and then toothpaste or berry blue.

And that's.

That's just what's in here, though.

They got hundreds of flavors.

Yeah, that is.

That's something else.

I.

I think I will pass on that.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, but you know what, though?

Listen, listen.

There's you a podcast episode there.

One night right there on both ends here.

Each one of us.

Each one of us has.

Each one of us has a box of these things we're.

We're pulling one out of to see if we get a good one or not.

The people would like it.

That's got to be toothpaste.

That's delicious.

The people would like it.

I can't say that I would.

I really can't.

Oh, my God.

Where.

Where was I at, man?

Oh, let's get to the end of the movie.

Get the end of movie done.

So the end of the movie, they get rescued by the people in the town.

They come to where they are.

They have an idea where they were because they lost radio contact with them.

And the only place they would lose radio contact is this particular stretch of roads.

They go looking for them, and they find them in the snow drift.

They dig them out of the snow drift to get them out.

The girls had the baby already, and the doctor's there.

They're talking about how great a job it was in the baby.

But they said, well, we didn't do it.

It was Domingo.

They said.

Domingo said, yeah, he's a shepherd.

He has a house right over there in the in.

And there's no woods whatsoever anywhere.

Yeah, he said it could.

It couldn't be more than 50 yards that way.

And when it shows that way, it's just a barren mountain range, right?

And snow everywhere.

So they're like.

They're like.

It did happen that way, didn't the girl's like, yes, it happened exactly like that.

They were.

We were there.

So they.

They get back to town, and they finally get into the Back of the truck.

There's a surprise in the back of the truck.

And this is all Al's doing because he's been wanting Ray's character to do something with his life for a long time because he's been such a screw up.

And now this girl's had the baby, he's got responsibilities now.

He wants to be back with her.

He loves the kid after all, when he sees it.

But what are they gonna do?

Where are they gonna go?

Well, in the back of this truck.

And there's a tie in earlier with the movie of Pete.

I'm sorry.

Of Ray being a really good chili maker.

He's been runner up in the cross country chili cook offs two years in a row.

He makes some really good chili.

So in the back, or we should say, well, yeah, in the back of the trailer after you open it up, what's sectioned off by itself in a refrigerated area is a bunch of, basically a bunch of beef, a cooler full of meat cooler for the beaches hanging back there.

And there's enough, according to the woman who's one of the main people in of the town, she says there's enough meat in there and enough everything else to make a ton of chili with.

But why would he send that?

And then the kids like, well, wait a second, he makes great chili.

He won this thing like a couple years ago.

He's like, no, I was runner up.

He said.

But still, you know, he's like, it's great chili.

And the girl, the woman's like, wait a second.

Everybody wait a second.

Are you not understanding this?

It's like, you know, we got the makings of a lot of chili.

We have a cannery that's closed down, right?

We're gonna start making chili and he's going to show us how to do it.

And so that's basically saving the town.

Now the cannery is going to open back up.

It's going to go from what it was doing to canning chili instead.

He's going to make something out of himself because it's his recipe for the chili and he's gonna get his part of that and helping them make the chili, of course, and produce it and everything.

And because he, he talks to the girl about staying in Willow Creek for a little bit and they're going to try to make a home there for at least a few months to see how this gets going.

And you get the idea they may just end up living there for the long haul or something.

You know, you never know.

And then of Course, at that point, Pete's walking with his son and they're getting along together and they're starting to reconcile and of what maybe drove them apart.

Like when the.

When the wife left, the wife sl.

Mom left.

It kind of put like a dagger in between them or something.

And they were just too.

Too ornery and stupid to see it.

And now, you know, they both see they have something in common like that, and they're making up.

Then he goes and starts telling him all the bad stuff about him when he was in school so he can give him his laughs that his brother started to tell him.

And so you got kind of a little.

Little happy, feel good ending of it.

Everybody's gonna get what they want.

The kids got Christmas, the town gets saved.

The two brothers reconciled.

The one that was always a screw up is now going to make something out of himself.

He's going to be a father.

He's gonna, you know, he's already married.

He's gonna, you know, help in this town everything, do his part.

You assume the other two go back to where they were and make their life there and such.

And that's pretty much the end of the movie.

And it's just, like I said, it's one of those just feel good kind of Christmas flicks.

If you want to sit down and watch something like that before the New Year's over.

I don't.

People usually watch Christmas and we clear throughout the end of the year.

By the time this comes out, Christmas would have just passed by a day.

So it's not like you can watch it before Christmas.

But I think you'll love it if you watch it anyway.

It's on Amazon Prime.

You can watch it on there if you're a member.

There, see it for free.

It's on Tubi.

It's on Pluto.

It's on Freebie, I believe it is, and a couple of other places.

So you got plenty of places to go watch it at.

Streaming online if you want to watch it.

If you don't want no commercials, I suggest you go to Amazon, though.

No commercials there.

Looks like we're about at the point of wrapping it up.

Not going to go ahead and cover anything else in.

I think we pretty much hit everything we could hit on it.

So if you were first time listening to the podcast.

Oh, you know what?

Getting ahead of us.

I got one last thing to say, Travis.

One.

One last thing.

I told you I had a reference to the Dukes of Hazard.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got basically Bo and Luke Duke driving this big rig Right.

They got their, their CB radio in there.

Do you get the feeling that the shepherd found the lost sheep?

They might have.

Do you get what I'm saying that.

Do you remember Dukes of Hazard?

That was their radio bit.

They went back and forth with the shepherd.

The lost sheep.

Shepherd, Lost sheep.

Shepherd, the lost sheep.

So you had Uncle Jesse reaching out to the Dukes and everything.

And I'm watching this and I'm thinking, this is not ironic.

You got a shepherd, found him some lost sheep out there, he's about to help out.

I thought that's.

I wonder if that was.

Oh, I wonder if that was.

Yeah, like an Easter egg kind of thing.

That would be.

If it was, it'd be kind of cool.

Be the only one probably that I know of.

But it's still.

Anyway, back to what I was getting at.

If your first time listening tonight, please be sure and follow us on our social medias.

We're at Facebook, we're on Instagram at Retro Life for you.

It's number four.

Y ou on those.

The same thing on YouTube.

If you go to YouTube with the homepage there and you go to the search and you type at the top, I believe it's www.YouTube.com retro life for you.

It should take you to our homepage there and you can check out the videos we have.

Whenever we get a lot of videos of some of the previous shows.

All of our most recent from this year I think are up there.

It's the previous season that I was still working and getting things up on.

We've got somewhere around 70, 70 episodes up on the YouTube page.

I think you can choose from to watch or close to it.

But anyway, it's a fairly good s a good sized archive to get back into if you want some things to listen to and catch up on the show.

And here's some of our thoughts on the other ones.

We probably started out a little bit shaky, but I think, Travis, we've gotten a lot better as we go.

We have, we have.

If you have any questions or comments or anything.

RetroLife4 you Gmail.com is where you can reach us and you want to call and say what movie you would like to see us do or any thoughts on this particular movie or say that you think Travis should eat all the bad jelly beans at one time so we can see the look on his face when he chews them up.

I mean, that might be neat.

That might be something we can do.

So anyway, Travis, anything you want to add before we go today?

Or are we not prepared for any kind of.

Well, well, we did a Christmas joke last week.

I mean.

Yeah, that's what I say.

You know what?

I got a couple, man.

It says, like, you got.

Do you know how to tell a Santa Claus Is.

Is in your room?

Kids, you can just sense his presence.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

And you have another one, you said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what they call people?

Like, if you do find yourself in a room with Santa Claus and you get scared, there's a name for that.

What's that?

Claustrophobic.

Oh, my God.

I gotta get out of here.

It.