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My Summer Story

My Summer Story, originally released as It Runs in the Family, is a 1994 film that follows the further adventures of Ralphie Parker and his family from the holiday hit A Christmas Story. Like the previous film, it is based on semi-autobiographical stories by Jean Shepherd, primarily from his book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.

The opening of My Summer Story makes direct reference to the events of A Christmas Story, and the ending narration strongly parallels that of the earlier film. However, the sequel features an entirely different cast, with two exceptions. Both movies feature Tedde Moore as Ralphie's teacher, Miss Shields, and Jean Shepherd as the narrator, the voice of the adult Ralphie. Charles Grodin stars in My Summer Story as the Old Man (Ralphie's father), Mary Steenburgen plays Ralphie's mother, and Kieran Culkin plays Ralphie.

My Summer Story has several plotlines, one each for Ralphie, his father and his mother, followed by one involving Ralphie and his dad on a fishing trip. Ralphie's quest for most of the movie is to find a top tough enough to knock a bully's top out of a chalk circle in a game of "Kill." The Old Man has a series of skirmishes with his hillbilly neighbors the Bumpuses. Ralphie's mom would like to finally get something other than a Ronald Colman gravy boat on dish night at the local cinema.

Related works

PBS also made a series of TV movies based on the Parker family for American Playhouse, including Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, and The Phantom of the Open Hearth.