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A paper television camera with a red tally light faces a snowy Victorian stage inside a dark studio. Blue CRT screens, cables and a wreath sit to the right of a quiet acoustic wall.

Essential Christmas · 1988

Scrooged

89/100Festive FactorWhy it scores 89 ↓
UK certificate Parental Guidance101 min
Comedy · Fantasy

The angriest Carol and, when it lands, the funniest.

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Plan this film night ↓Can the kids watch? ↓
Explore this film 12 sections

The CineClaus Christmas score

Festive Factor

Christmas, right to its heart.

Two paper elves adjust a red-lit television camera aimed at an empty miniature Christmas stage. Blue monitors, a wreath and looping cables fill the warm workshop bench.

A little magic in the making.

Five ingredients make the Festive Factor.
Open an ingredient to find out more.

Christmas in the storyIt can't exist without Christmas.30/30

What we ask: Take Christmas out. Does the plot survive? Worth up to 30 of the 100 points.

A world dressed for ChristmasVisibly Christmas for effectively all of it.20/20

What we ask: How much of the running time is visibly Christmas? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

The little seasonal details7 of the 10 kinds of Christmas icon we count turn up on screen.11/15

What we ask: How many kinds of Christmas icon turn up on screen: trees, lights, snow, carols and the rest? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

A Christmas heartHow far the ending rests on goodwill, family and belief: entirely.20/20

What we ask: Does the ending depend on what Christmas means: goodwill, family, redemption, belief? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

A returning traditionA big December film (80,000+).8/15

What we ask: Is it actually watched at Christmas in the UK? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

62/100

Cosiness Rating Rating

How we score →
What do these scores mean?

Festive Factor measures how Christmassy a film is. Five ingredients add up to 100: story (30), setting (20), seasonal details (15), emotional heart (20) and returning tradition (15).

Cosiness is a separate score for warmth of tone, sense of safety, visual comfort, a reassuring ending and how easily you can settle into it.

How the Festive Factor works →
Your next film night

Where to watch

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Streaming changes constantly and we cannot promise it is still right - check the service before you settle in. Streaming availability information provided by Streaming Availability API by Movie of the Night (opens in a new tab). Sky and Rakuten TV data by JustWatch.

The story

About Scrooged

A ruthless television executive is running a gaudy live broadcast of Dickens's ghost story on Christmas Eve while treating everyone around him with contempt. Three spirits arrive to march him through his own past, present and likely future. Richard Donner's film plays the redemption arc as a broad, sour-edged network satire.

The CineClaus verdict

The angriest Carol and, when it lands, the funniest.

Murray plays contempt better than almost anyone and the network satire is sharper than the film gets credit for, but the tone lurches badly and the closing speech runs well past the point of comfort.

A 1988 film about television that accidentally became a film about the eighties. Worth it for the middle hour, which is genuinely vicious.

The family desk

Can the kids watch?

PG

Our take: a grown-ups' film despite the rating. Sour humour, some frightening imagery and a lot of adult nastiness. Twelve and up.

BBFC advice: Contains moderate language and violence.

Content advice & accessibility
Where the advice comes from
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
Our age guidance
Editorial, separate from the official PG certificate, and never looser than it.
A first look

Watch the trailer

Official trailer from Paramount Movies.

A red-lit television camera and blue CRT monitors frame an empty Victorian Christmas set inside a paper studio. Cables curl across the floor, and a yellow taxi is visible through a side window.

Trailer

Scrooged

Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play.
The people behind the film

Cast and crew

The faces in front of the camera, and the people who brought the story to life.

Main cast

In billing order
Close photograph of an older Bill Murray smiling, with grey swept hair, wearing a light blue vest over a grey zip-neck top, at night.Bill Murrayas Frank Cross
Smiling woman with long dark brown hair and a fringe, wearing a pendant necklace and an embroidered dark jacket, in front of a curtain.Karen Allenas Claire Phillips
Black and white studio portrait of a smiling dark-haired man in a light suit jacket, white shirt and dark tie.John Forsytheas Lew Hayward
Smiling man in a dark brimmed hat, black-framed glasses and a grey goatee, wearing a leather jacket over a plaid shirt, in front of a yellow-green backdrop.Bobcat Goldthwaitas Eliot Loudermilk
David Johansenas Ghost of Christmas Past
Portrait of a smiling woman with curly blonde hair pinned up, round dark-framed glasses and a long sparkling earring, wearing black, on a city street.Carol Kaneas Ghost of Christmas Present
Close-up photograph of a smiling woman with voluminous curly golden-brown hair and large gold hoop earrings, in a red and white patterned top.Alfre Woodardas Grace Cooley

Behind the camera

Directed by
Richard Donner
Original score
Danny Elfman speaking at a convention panel, wearing dark-framed tinted glasses and a dark top, with a microphone in front of him.Danny Elfman
Writing & production credits
Writers
Mitch Glazer
Michael O'Donoghue
Photo credits

Portraits via Wikimedia Commons, each under its own licence, approved for this page by a person. Sources and full photographer credits:

Bill Murray · Greg2600 · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

Karen Allen · Rob DiCaterino from Clifton, NJ, USA · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

John Forsythe · CBS Television · Source image (opens in a new tab) · Public domain.

Bobcat Goldthwait · Montclair Film Festival · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

Carol Kane · Greg2600 · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

Alfre Woodard · United States House of Representatives - Office of Terri Sewell · Source image (opens in a new tab) · Public domain.

Richard Donner · Alan Light · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

Danny Elfman · Danny_Elfman.jpg : The Kuhnster derivative work: Electroguv ( talk ) · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab).

Keep the Christmas feeling

Music & soundtrack

That tune you recognised. That score you loved. Take a little of the film into the rest of your Christmas.

Every track on the soundtrack album, in album order.

Behind the music. Danny Elfman composed the score.

Explore Danny Elfman →
About this music list

These are the songs and soundtrack we hold for the film, not a complete cue sheet, and they give no scene timings. Album track lists and durations come from MusicBrainz. Spotify and Apple Music links open the matched recordings; links marked Search open a search on that service.

AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab) Wikidata ↗ (opens in a new tab) MusicBrainz ↗ (opens in a new tab) MusicBrainz ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Step into the story

Filming locations

The real places behind Scrooged. Choose one to explore.

Find it on the mapSeagram Building, Park Avenue, Manhattan

© OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in a new tab)

Open larger map ↗ (OpenStreetMap, opens in a new tab)

Map shows the selected place. Drag to explore; use + and − to zoom.

Choose your next scene

Photographs of the real places

There’s more behind the film.
Explore the next place.

Photo credits & location sources

These are photographs of the places, not film stills. Dates vary; photographs do not show current conditions or guarantee access.

Seagram Building, Park Avenue, Manhattan · Ken OHYAMA from FUNABASHI, Japan · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · NYC in Film (opens in a new tab)

Central Park South, Manhattan · NYC in Film (opens in a new tab)

Paramount Pictures Studios, Hollywood · Wildhartlivie · Source image (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 3.0 (opens in a new tab) · NYC in Film (opens in a new tab)

Map pins mark the place, not a camera position or a route. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including any pin positions read from OpenStreetMap.

A little more Scrooged

Film facts &
behind the scenes

For the fans who stay after the credits.

Movie magic

A real Park Avenue tower, with offices built in Los Angeles

The outside of the fictional television network's headquarters is New York's Seagram Building, but the offices inside were sets built on the Paramount lot. Shooting began on 7 December 1987, so the cast and crew worked through the real run-up to Christmas.

Read the story
On your next watchThe lobby and street shots, then how the upstairs offices change in feel.

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab) · NYC in Film ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Music & sound

Jazz stars play the street musicians

The buskers outside are Miles Davis, Larry Carlton, David Sanborn and Paul Shaffer, who perform a carol together. The soundtrack also features Natalie Cole, Robert Goulet and Buster Poindexter, with Danny Elfman writing the score.

Read the story
On your next watchThe street-corner scene on a snowy Fifth Avenue block.

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Movie magic

An Oscar nomination for the makeup

The film's special makeup effects, created by Thomas R. Burman with Bari Dreiband-Burman supervising makeup, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup. Computer animation for the fake network shows came from Pacific Data Images.

Read the story
On your next watchThe ghosts, and the heavily made-up faces in the network's own programmes.

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

On set

A co-writer in a small part, and a crowd of real celebrities

Michael O'Donoghue, one of the two credited writers, turns up on screen as a priest. Mary Lou Retton, Lee Majors, John Houseman and Buddy Hackett also appear as themselves, and look-alikes were hired to fill out the network's world.

Read the story
On your next watchThe famous faces who drift through the network scenes playing themselves.

Source: AFI Catalog ↗ (opens in a new tab)

And at a glance

The Christmas in it
Carols and songs heard: We Three Kings, Silver Bells, The Christmas Song. A modern retelling of Dickens's A Christmas Carol set around a television network's Christmas Eve broadcast. Songs listed are those named in the AFI Catalog's music credits.
Releases and certificates
: In cinemas (US). Original US cinema release.
On television
: Channel 4. Afternoon showing in the run-up to Christmas.
Past showings, not tonight’s listings.
Awards
Nominated: Academy Awards 1989, Best Makeup.
Sources & a note on these facts

Each production story is linked to its source, in our own words. Ending details stay behind a spoiler reveal.

Gifts for film lovers · Scrooged

Something for the Scrooged fan

Little gifts for someone whose Christmas always includes Scrooged.

As an Amazon Associate, Cine Claus earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through a link helps pay for the site - it never changes a score.

More for the Scrooged fan

2 more ideas
For the fan who watches it every Christmas.Sold by the linked retailer
Good to know

Questions about Scrooged

Where was Scrooged filmed?

Outside shots were made in New York, including the Seagram Building on Park Avenue and Central Park South, while most of the film was shot on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.

Who directed Scrooged?

Richard Donner directed it, from a script by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. Danny Elfman wrote the score.

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