What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T2 WHATS UP! December 22 - 28, 2019 BY KYLA BREWER TV Media T he holiday favorite that never fails to warm viewers' hearts is back just in time for Christmas Eve. Oscar winner Jimmy Stew- art ("Mr. Smith Goes to Wash- ington," 1939) stars as George Bailey, a good man facing fi- nancial ruin in "It's a Wonder- ful Life," airing Tuesday, Dec. 24, on NBC. Directed by Frank Capra ("You Can't Take It With You," 1938), the film was released in 1946 and has since become a Yuletide classic. George has given up many of his own dreams to help the people in his hometown of Bedford Falls, but when his uncle misplaces $8,000 from the family building and loan business, the situation looks bleak. As a distraught George contemplates suicide and wishes he was never born, God sends a bumbling guard- ian angel-in-training named Clarence (Henry Travers, "Mrs. Miniver," 1942) to help him through. Clarence — who hopes the assignment will fi- nally earn him his wings — shows George what Bedford Falls would be like without him, and they visit the many people whose lives he has touched throughout the years, including his wife, Mary (Donna Reed, "From Here to Eternity," 1953). Karolyn Grimes ("The Bish- op's Wife," 1947), who played George and Mary's daughter Zuzu, is one of the film's few remaining living cast mem- bers. She's famous for the memorable line: "Look daddy. Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." In a 2016 Vanity Fair article commemorating the film's 70th anniversary, she shared her take on Capra's classic. "Capra was trying to make people realize that life was worth living, and that you can make a difference," she said. "We lose sight of that every once in a while. That's why I think people love to watch it." Maybe that's the secret to the film's enduring success. Released a year after the end of World War II, Capra's epic Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed star in "It's a Wonderful Life" Have a 'Wonderful' holiday continued on page T10 TV FEATURE