Yep. Never seen Death Valley. Now I want to.

I thought Charles Grodin was terrible in My Summer Story. He's just not likeable at all. Darren McGavin was so perfect.

The thing that makes A Christmas Story so good that the others lack is the numerous subplots incorporated from other Shepard stories. They combined at least 15 short stories to make the movie, packing it with narrative interest and humor. Most films have 1 or 2 subplots aside from the main plot, A Christmas Story has 11. And every story is very craftily set up and then resolved, all of them intertwining and in some cases combined where they were wholly separate in the book. It's a very tight script and an excellent example for any writer in how to juggle numerous plot threads. If this sequel is an original script, I doubt it will attempt to juggle so many stories.