Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara 
CWC TV: Carol for Another Christmas (in 35mm)
- Thursday, November 20, 2025 / 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM (PST)
- Pollock Theater
- Screening Format: 35mm film projection (90 minutes)
- With Mark Quigley (John H. Mitchell Television Curator, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
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Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers
From The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, Carol for Another Christmas (1964) adapted Charles Dickens’s holiday classic A Christmas Carol for Cold War television audiences. In a time of growing anxiety over nuclear war, this made-for-television film was the first entry of an ABC series intended to build support for the United Nations’ efforts at fostering international cooperation and prevention of US isolationism. Funded by the Xerox Corporation, Carol features Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers leading an all-star ensemble, all of whom worked at a union rate in recognition of the salience of the project. Serling and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz infuse their adaptation with The Twilight Zone’s expressionistic aesthetics. The film presents a powerful postwar narrative invoking the horrors of Hiroshima and the pressing risk of Cold War atomic annihilation.
The Carsey-Wolf Center is thrilled to present Carol for Another Christmas in 35mm. Curator Mark Quigley of UCLA’s Film & Television Archive will join moderator Ross Melnick (interim director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) for a post-screening discussion of Carol for Another Christmas.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Laboratory services provided by The PHI Stoa Lab. Audio engineering services by Nicholas Bergh, Endpoint Audio Labs. Preservation funding provided by John H. Mitchell Television Preservation Endowment.
This event is free but a reservation is recommended in order to guarantee a seat.
Biographies
Mark Quigley (John H. Mitchell Television Curator, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Mark Quigley has been with the UCLA Film & Television Archive since 2001. For seventeen years, he served as an access archivist at UCLA, managing the Archive Research and Study Center on campus and developing digital access projects. Since 2018, he has served as the Archive’s John H. Mitchell Television Curator, overseeing acquisitions, preservation, digital projects, and public programming related to UCLA’s collection of over 170,000 television holdings. Since 2022, he has curated monthly series of archival television screenings at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum. Publications include the reference book Hallmark Hall of Fame: The First 50 Years. He holds an MFA from the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media.
Moderator Ross Melnick (Film and Media Studies, UCSB)
Ross Melnick is Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Interim Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center. He was named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Scholar and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for his book Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World (Columbia University Press, 2022). He is the author of American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry (CUP, 2012), co-editor of Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive (AFI/Routledge, 2018), and co-author of Cinema Treasures (MBI, 2004). His research has appeared in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film History, The Moving Image, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and in numerous other journals and edited collections.
This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center and the James Hayman (’75) fund for CWC Classics.
CWC TV
In recognition of the extraordinary accomplishments of the Center’s namesakes, Dick Wolf and Marcy Carsey, the Carsey-Wolf Center is committed to examining television as an institution, industry, and cultural form. In our post-network, multi-channel, multi-media environment, understanding television demands understanding its past as well as its future, through exploration of individual episodes, mini-series, and documentaries.
CWC Classics
The CWC Classics program celebrates cinema’s rich history, bringing classic films back to the big screen for critical viewing and discussion. These events feature filmmakers, academics, and professionals who can contextualize the production and historical impact of the films. The series occasionally presents classic films in their original 16 or 35 mm formats. CWC Classics events celebrate the history and significance of cinema’s enduring legacy.