🎄It’s 1992, and there’s no such thing as Buster Bunny.  

The Advent Calendar House wraps up Christmas in July with the unofficial series finale of “Tiny Toon Adventures,” when Buster wishes he’d never been on the show, and the horrors within Montana Max’s Biff Tannen Pleasure Palace or whatever.  

****  

Adam Pope (Geekster, YouTube, Remember That Show?)  

William Bruce West (West Week Ever, Remember That Show?)  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ)  

****  

1. I found this special hiding in a 4-hour Christmas special compilation on the Internet Archive.  

2. “Meet the Tiny Toons” in the special edition magazine “Bugs Bunny: He’s 50, Folks” (1990).  

3. “The Chipmunks Go to the Movies.”  

4. Tony Pope (God) as Goofy in “Watch Out for Goofy” (the theme song for Adam’s 2 Goofs Podcast) and as the first voice heard in “Back to the Future.”  

5. John Kassir (who voices Buster in this episode) as the Crypt-Keeper in RD’s Retro Detention Halloween Specials in 2019 and 2023.  

6. Today’s TV Trope: Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.  

7. Jacoby & Meyers and a 2-minute-long tangent about personal injury lawyer commercials.  

8. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming role as Santa in “The Man with the Bag.”  

9. American Express Commercials with Mel Blanc and Jim Davis.  

10. Bugs Bunny may have been voiced by an uncredited Noel Blanc, Mel’s son, for a single line at the end.  

****  

Godzilla: The Series Promo (1998)  

Toy Story: Holiday TV Spot (1995)  

****  

“Tiny Toon Adventures” and “It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special” © 1992 Warner Bros.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1990… or 1962… and a quantum physicist forgot to powder his boss’s underwear.  

This Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House involves time travel of a different sort as we follow Dr. Sam Beckett on a mission to save a mission, and the soul of the man trying to tear it down.  

* CONTENT WARNING: This episode briefly discusses the death of actor Charles Rocket and the would-be death of his Scrooge-like character, Michael Blake.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

****  

1. Episode guide on Al’s Place.  

2. A Christmas story from the Quantum Leap comic: “He Knows If You’ve Been Bad or Good.”  

3. Charles Rocket drops an F-bomb on “Saturday Night Live.”  

4. “Bringing in the Sheaves” on “The Simpsons” and “Batman” (1966).  

5. Polish Christmas desserts piernik and makowiec.  

6. Al’s Ghost of Christmas Future costume looks more like Jacob Marley mixed with the Ghost of Christmas Past from “Scrooged.”  

7. Goldie Wilson III from “Back to the Future Part II.”  

****  

Squarbles (circa 1987).  

Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  

****  

“Quantum Leap” and “A Little Miracle” © 1990 Universal City Studios, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1979, and an evil king is having abandonment issues after his entire kingdom left, so he made an army of robots instead of going to therapy.  

The Advent Calendar House has once again emerged from hibernation after declaring 4 more months of winter to pretend it’s still winter. Join us as we encounter what might be the least Christmassy Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a friendlier version of Jack Frost, a groundhog dressed like a pro wrestling manager, and the wintry weather neighbors of those angels your grandmother told you were bowling whenever there was a thunderstorm.  

****  

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)  

Matt Spaulding (North Pole Radio)  

Jeff Loftin (Lost Christmas)  

****  

1. Watch “Jack Frost” on YouTube.   

2. Toei Animation’s “The Little Mermaid” (1975).  

3. Gilbert Gottfried on his favorite death scene: Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello in “Bud and Lou.”  

4. Today’s TV Trope: Inevitable Waterfall.  

5. The Christmas tradition of “dream presents” is like the dinner scene from “Hook.”  

6. February 2 is Candlemas, the 40th day of Christmas.  

****  

Pennsylvania Lottery: Like Holiday Morning, starring Gus, the 2nd most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania (2018)  

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Hedgehog Day (1992)  

****  

“Jack Frost” © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 On another Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we fly back in time to 1978 to revisit Rankin/Bass’s turn at A Christmas Carol.  

****  

Michael DiGiovanni (Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit, @theatomicgeeks).  

Michael May (MichaelMay.online, Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, AfterLUNCH, @michaelmaycomix).  

****  

1. This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on The Alcoa Hour starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. Rankin/Bass uses most of the songs from that special.  

2. The original Stingiest Man in Town on Sleigh Bell Cinema.  

3. Michael May’s annual coverage of scenes from this and other Christmas Carol adaptations.  

4. Sonny Melendrez (Bob Cratchit) in You and Me, Kid.  

5. This has my all-time favorite, super creepy version of Marley’s face appearing on Scrooge’s door knocker.  

6. This special gets older Belle completely wrong.  

7. Tiny Tim has skinny robot legs.  

8. The eldest Cratchit sibling, Martha, is Debbie Clinger of the Clinger Sisters, a.k.a. Superchick from the Krofft Supershow host band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.  

9. Rankin/Bass should have made a south seas-themed special called Christmas Island. (Hi from the future! We ended up exploring this idea on AfterLUNCH.)  

10. Scrooge’s grave morphing into a giant devil face is a reminder in hindsight that this special was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the predecessor to Studio Ghibli.  

****  

Glad Trash Bags Commercial starring Tom Bosley, 1981.  

****  

“The Stingiest Man in Town” © 1978 Rankin/Bass Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Sail back to 1981 with us as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special ever, which may or may not only exist because they had the rights to use Christmas in Killarney and needed someplace to put it.  

****  

Michael DiGiovanni (Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit, @theatomicgeeks).  

Michael May (MichaelMay.online, Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, AfterLUNCH, @michaelmaycomix).  

****  

1. Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the Jeopardy! guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, The Astuter Computer Revue.  

2. Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in the opening of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  

3. Blarney Kilakilarney and his wife are a poster Irish couple and the reason everyone’s advice at your wedding is: “Never go to bed angry.”  

4. This special keeps adding new rules about how both banshees and rainbows work, like they’re Mogwai.  

5. The Leprechauns’ “phantom island of Tralee” shares a name with an actual mainland town in Ireland, but is closer to Dursey Island, population (as of 2016): 4.  

6. The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.  

7. According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.  

8. Jack O’Lantern, from Rankin/Bass’s Festival of Family Classics TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.  

****  

Gremlins Gizmo Plush Pet, 1984.  

****  

“The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” © 1981 Rankin/Bass Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Hey, paisanos! Join us as we warp back to 1989 for a double dose of Christmas segments from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show — the live-action Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush, featuring Santa losing his “transportation” in Brooklyn; and the animated Koopa Klaus, featuring a plot to… freeze the North Pole.  

****  

Adam Pope (Retro-Daze, Retro Detention, The Retro Network, @hojukoolander).  

****  

1. Nintendo Power’s Preview of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, as tweeted by Adam, and preserved on the Internet Archive (for now) (it’s on page 93).  

2. I didn’t realize till recently the music in the Back to the Future Nintendo game is a sped up version of The Power of Love.  

3. King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons, a live-in-studio spinoff show local to Los Angeles and hosted by King Koopa, performed at one point by Christopher Collins, a.k.a. Chris Latta, the voice of Cobra Commander.  

4. Captain Lou Albano’s Wrestling Hotline 1-900 number.  

5. We map out where Mario and Luigi lived in Brooklyn.  

6. Stunt Dawgs, an obscure 1992 cartoon featuring Harvey Atkin playing another character with the same King Koopa voice.  

7. A brief discussion on the term “teeter-totter,” used by Mario here, versus “see-saw.”  

8. How tall is Mario? Captain Lou was 5-foot-10, though other sources range from 5-foot-1 to 3-foot-8.  

9. Preview of Super Nintendo World, coming to Universal theme parks.  

10. Finally, I get to talk at length about The Legend of Zelda!  

11. Adam’s SequelQuest episode on the Super Mario Bros. movie, featuring a parody of the Super Show theme song.  

****  

Pepsi Nintendo Holiday Game, 1989, preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.  

Nintendo Power Commercial, 1990, preserved by RobertDigitalGames.  

****  

“The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” “Koopa Klaus,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush” © 1989 DiC Entertainment.  
“Super Mario Bros.” © Nintendo Co. Ltd.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎃 It’s the 13th of July, so it’s time for the Advent Calendar House to unearth one of our favorite Halloween haunts, 1979’s The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, starring an exceptionally great Judd Hirsch as Count Dracula.  

****  

Tom Coombs (TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @ClassicTomedy).  

****  

1. This was renamed for its VHS release as The Night Dracula Saved the World, except no, he doesn’t.  

2. Lyndhurst Mansion plays the role of both Dracula’s castle and the Witch’s castle. It’s located in New York state, not far from Sleepy Hollow.  

3. The opening music, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, was never in a Dracula movie. Its first uses in sound film were in 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and 1934’s The Black Cat, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.  

4. My association of the music to Dracula probably stems from its use on Castle Dracula, a haunted boat ride on the Wildwood, New Jersey boardwalk that burned down in 2002.  

5. Jack Riley (Warren the Werewolf) was also the voice of Stu Pickles on Rugrats, and did a bunch of Country Crock spread commercials.  

6. Judd Hirsch as Dracula exaggeratedly disco dancing in a white Saturday Night Fever jumpsuit is the greatest way to end anything ever.

****  

McDonald’s Scared Silly Halloween commercial, starring Ronald McDonald and the Chicken McNuggets, circa 1986.  

****  

“The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” © 1979 Concepts Unlimited.

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Go-go Gadget podcast! It’s time to spring back to 1992 to take Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas in for questioning.  

****  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. Nick Knacks, a show-by-show video history of Nickelodeon.  

2. Halloween 1992 was the year of white kids dressing like Steve Urkel.  

3. Inspector Gadget’s run on Nickelodeon got me into Get Smart on Nick at Nite.  

4. The time Chad got an crew jacket from the set of the Inspector Gadget movie.  

5. The action figure that revealed Dr. Claw’s goofy face.  

6. The Inspector Gadget Super Nintendo game, featuring the same alternate theme song as this special.  

7. The Mount Rushmore of Frank Welker Voices.  

8. Maurice LaMarche subbing for Don Adams for Gadget’s weird version of the 12 Days of Christmas is similar to Jim Cummings finishing Be Prepared for Jeremy Irons in The Lion King.  

9. Where’s the camera Penny’s Not Apple Watch uses to see Brain?  

10. Jerry “The King” Lawler entering the 1997 Royal Rumble Match in the middle of saying something, then finishing the sentence after being eliminated in 4 seconds.  

11. Disney’s Christmas All-Time Favorites.  

****  

Cookie Crisp Cereal Christmas Commercial, 1992.  

****  

“Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas” © 1992 DiC Entertainment.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Join us as we slowly slink sideways back to 1983 to celebrate the time someone literally threw an idea at the wall to see if it would stick. It’s Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls, an animated Christmas special about Wacky WallWalkers. But first, we need to talk about the man behind the WallWalkers, Dr. Fad.  

****  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words With Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. The Dr. Fad Show.  

2. Eight ’80s Xmas Specials You Might’ve Forgotten, from Dinosaur Dracula.  

3. X-Entertainment’s preserved 2003 tribute to the Wacky WallWalker.  

4. This isn’t the right Apple Jacks commercial, but I can’t not mention young Julia Stiles scoffing that it doesn’t taste like apples.  

5. Writer Mark Evanier’s blog.  

6. The WallWalkers’ home planet looks like an M.C. Escher painting.  

7. Darryl is voiced by Scott Menville, best known now as Robin on Teen Titans, in one of his earliest roles.  

8. Darryl’s friend, Kenzo, is named after one of Dr. Fad’s sons. His other son married comedian Ali Wong.  

9. The most expensive things we’ve asked for from our parents for Christmas, which pale in comparison to a $1,000 toy car — which, of course, we then look up its adjustment for inflation.  

10. Waxing nostalgic about popcorn garland on Christmas trees.  

****  

Corn Pops Cereal with free Wacky WallWalker inside, 1984.  

****  

“Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls” © 1983 NBC Productions.  
“The Dr. Fad Show” © 1988 Tradex Corp.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🐰 

Hello, sunshine! Join us for a hop back to Easter 1986 to revisit the Jim Henson special, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic — which is about neither Easter, nor a bunny picnic — but it did introduce the world to Bean Bunny, the Muppets’ Nermal.  

****  

Emily Rowley (@mlerowley).  

****  

1. Jim Henson’s original introduction to The Tale of the Bunny Picnic.  

2. The Jim Henson Hour.  

3. Bean Bunny is still around at Muppet*Vision 3D in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  

4. Bean was also a late-series addition to Muppet Babies, and his picture is on the playroom wall in Disney’s new Muppet Babies.  

5. The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and its grotesque, full-size Muppet bad guys.  

6. Sweetums in Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.  

7. Bean trying to tell the other bunnies to quiet down or the dog will hear them is also the plot of the first act of Trolls.  

8. Every Easter Bunny costume is terrifying.  

9. Y’all remember Puffalumps? You do now.  

10. The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta is home to several Muppets from this special, including both Bean and his Dragon Bunny form from his dream sequence.  

11. Carlin Trammel’s Video Tour of the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Jim Henson exhibit.  

****  

McDonald’s Muppet Babies Holiday Huggables, 1988.  

****  

“The Tale of the Bunny Picnic” © 1986 Henson Associates.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s another Scrooge Sunday in the Advent Calendar House as we’re swept through a rip in the space-time continuum back to 1986 for a Christmas Carol-themed episode of The Real Ghostbusters, who accidentally save Scrooge from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.  

****  

Tom Coombs (@ClassicTomedy, TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny).  

Chad “Ecto” Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, TPIF, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. Hey, grown-ups! Remember getting lost while driving when we didn’t all have maps of the entire planet in our pockets?  

2. Scrooge pays the Ghostbusters a mint-condition shilling from 1837, so we looked up its actual value.  

3. You can actually buy Christmas Carol View Master reels from the 1950s online.  

4. Rick and Morty talking about Bill Murray and Lorenzo Music comes up and goes… somewhere.  

5. Egon entering the ghost containment unit looks like the warp tunnel on Space Mountain.  

6. The other ghosts in the containment unit are callbacks to previous episodes, including Sandman, who bears a passing resemblance to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  

7. Santa should not laugh like Megatron.  

****  

The Real Ghostbusters Firehouse Playset, Tombstone Tackle, and X-Cop, 1986.  

****  

“The Real Ghostbusters” and “Xmas Marks the Spot” © 1986 Columbia Pictures Television.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Rankin/Bass’s Avengers assemble in 1979’s Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July. The studio’s longest holiday special ever opens with the shine on Rudolph’s nose blipping out of existence, and what happens to Frosty and his whole family is worse.  

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek, Star Weirdos).  

****  

1. Frosty’s a dad! And Rudolph’s a fake uncle!  

2. King Winterbolt’s genie of the ice scepter, allegedly Thurl Ravenscroft, is the stuff of nightmares.  

3. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus may be the most metal Christmas special, but this is a contender.  

4. Rudolph’s entire story gets retconned into a long play to stop Winterbolt’s foggy Christmas Eve from grounding Santa.  

5. Ethel Merman on The Muppet Show.  

6. Scratcher is a great evil reindeer, but we’d like it better if he was Fireball.  

7. A couple of songs were cut for time from TV, including: Chicken Today, Feathers Tomorrow and I See Rainbows When I Look at You.

8. Walt Disney World’s Candlelight Processional.  

****  

Commercial Break: Atari Christmas Commercial, aired during a 1981 ABC Movie Special airing of Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, preserved by the Museum of Classic Chicago Television.  

****  

“Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July” © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions.

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Happy birthday! The Advent Calendar House kicks off a countdown to Christmas in July by setting the table for Rankin/Bass’s eventual epic crossover, starting with Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, a snowy sequel from 1976 starring a strange, tall goblin claiming to be Andy Griffith.

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek, Star Weirdos).  

****  

1. A brief guide to finding obsure things on Disney+, like Melody Time, starring Dennis Day, (the voice of Parson Brown) as Johnny Appleseed.  

2. Barbara Jo Ewing voiced one of the kids in her only known credit, but somehow IMDb knows her height.  

3. We do the math to figure out how far the wind carried a newspaper from Frosty’s hometown to the North Pole.  

4. Frosty beat The Santa Clause 2 to the “gotta get a wife” plot point by more than 2 decades.  

5. Frosty’s “specifications” for his ideal woman are the same as Sir Mix-a-Lot’s.  

6. Are snow people self-aware before coming to life and stuck in a comatose state?  

7. Jack Frost’s “winter that almost didn’t end” foreshadowed the real-life Blizzard of 1977 by less than 2 weeks.  

****  

Freezy Freakies, 1984.  

****  

“Frosty’s Winter Wonderland” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

The Advent Calendar House has awoken early from its long winter’s nap to take the Leap Year challenge as prescribed by Dr. Frasier Crane on one unseasonably warm February morning in 1996. On the way we look up the “Frasier” cast’s Christmas connections, explore the world of complicated opera solos and bad Western ballads, and call in to a PBS pledge drive to try and talk to Big Bird.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

****  

1. Kelsey Grammer in “Mr. St. Nick” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve.”  

2. Our adventures on the mid-1990s internet, when it was All About the Pentiums.  

3. “Frasier” episodes ranked on Variety, Frasier Online, and Thrillist.  

4. “When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold” from “The Pirates of Penzance,” in which Leap Day becomes a plot point.  

5. Oleg Cassini and the worst title card gag.   

6. KACL is a real radio station, but not in Seattle.  

7. “Rigoletto” and the aria “Ella mi fu rapita / Parmi veder le lagrime.”  

8. Kelsey Grammer sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Philadelphia.   

9. “Buttons and Bows,” as sung by Bob Hope in “The Paleface” and by Leap Day baby Dinah Shore.  

10. Adam “Edge” Copeland talks “Money Plane” on Hey! (EW).  

****  

McDonald’s “Morning Break” Commercial starring Kelsey Grammer, 1995.  

Remember That Show?, a podcast journey to explore obscure and forgotten TV series.  

****  

“Frasier” and “Look Before You Leap” © 1996 Paramount Productions.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

How do you do, fellow holiday special enthusiasts? The Advent Calendar House has emerged from its slumber in the Mariana Trench a few months early for an important visit to the 30 Rock universe and its celebration of Leap Day. As such, nothing that happens in this episode counts, and we’re just your imaginary friends whom no one else can hear.  

****  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Steve Buscemi, whose name I mispronounce right out of the gate, quotes himself at the 2020 Screen Actors’ Guild Awards.  

2. Steve Buscemi as The Madder Hatter on Saturday Night Live in 1998.  

3. Film School Rejects’ ranking of every 30 Rock episode.  

4. Jane Krakowski as the Ghost of Christmas Past to Kelsey Grammer’s Scrooge in the 2004 adaptation of A Christmas Carol: The Musical.  

5. I get excited that Zack Ward from A Christmas Story followed @adventcalhouse on Twitter.  

6. James Cameron is one of a very, very small group of people who have reached the deepest point in the ocean, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.  

7. A very unscientific look into how many times it would take to order everything on the Benihana menu to use an entire $50,000 gift card.  

8. Of course there’s a Getty Image of Tina Fey posing with the Ewok behind glass.  

9. Thad Warmald, the poor man’s Artie Ziff.  

10. Both human leads from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie are in this episode.  

11. Kevin Brown’s Wikipedia entry calls him “Kevin ‘Dot Com’ Brown” right at the beginning.  

12. Guest star Karolína Kurková was almost a Leap Day baby; she was born February 28, 1984.  

13. Tracy’s word association game that gets to “soup kitcken,” but keeps going before looping back around again reminds us of a similar bit from the 1966 Batman movie.  

14. A very, very quick look at the Irish Leap Day tradition of women proposing to men, as seen in the 2010 Amy Adams movie Leap Year, which couldn’t even be bothered coming out on a leap year.  

15. As an extra bonus mini-episode at the end of this one, Joey quickly sums up the Leap Day episode of Frasier from 1996, Look Before You Leap.  

****  

“30 Rock” ©2006 and “Leap Day” ©2012 NBCUniversal Media, LLC.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎉 It’s a special, post-Christmas bonus episode of the Advent Calendar House as we turn back the years to 1976 and tip our oversized hat hiding our oversized ears to Rankin/Bass’s first sequel special, in which Rudolph has to save the Baby New Year from a  big, angry bird.  

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Rudolph devolves into a younger-looking reindeer, because the original model may have been lost. But also he seems to forget he can fly.  

2. According to our narrator, Father Time (Red Skelton), this story begins “on that very same foggy night.” As in Christmas Eve. When Santa’s kind of busy.  

3. I learned who Red Skelton was from a joke in a Tex Avery cartoon.  

4. The Phantom Tollbooth.  

5. Tik-Tok from Return to Oz.  

6. Creepier song about time: The Moving Finger Writes from this, or Older by They Might Be Giants?  

7. Ralph Archibold, Philadelphia’s longtime Ben Franklin impersonator.  

8. Billy Corgan rides a roller coaster.

****  

“Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s the 50th episode of the Advent Calendar House, so it’s time to address the spotted elephant in the room and tackle the 1964 Christmas special that put Rankin/Bass on the map and into our hearts.  

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Is Santa really this big of a jerk or just hangry?  

2. The History Channel on the creation of Rudolph.  

3. Mashable’s 12 ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ facts.  

4. Burger King and Hallmark’s Rodney Reindeer plushes, which at one point doubled as stockings.  

5. Rudolph almost had huge, glowing eyes instead of a red nose, and all I can think of is the terrifying original version of Mr. Snuffleupagus.  

6. The rare and expensive Santa’s Castle play set, which includes Santa and Mr. Claus’s maybe queen-size bed.  

7. A lot of voices in this cast were later part of the 1960s Spider-Man and Marvel Super Heroes animated series.  

8. The first mention of Santa having a wife was in a short story by Philadelphia missionary James Rees in 1849.  

9. The mystery of the head elf’s suddenly changing voice: Wikipedia claims it’s intentional, but we’re not buying it.  

10. Carl Banas, the voice of the head elf, was also the original voice of Sweetums in Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.  

11. Fame and Fortune, a song that replaced We’re a Couple of Misfits as Rudolph and Hermey’s duet from 1965 to 1997. 

12. You can meet characters from this version of Rudolph at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Sesame Place.  

13. Arthur Rankin Jr. explains why Dolly’s on the Island of Misfit Toys on NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.  

14. Santa’s still “skinny” on Christmas Eve, but fattens up by that night. What did he eat?  

15. The original ending included Yukon Corneilius finding a peppermint mine, later replaced by popular demand with the scene of Santa stopping to pick up the misfit toys.  

16. The Enchanged World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio.  

17. Original figures of Rudolph and Santa were found in an attic and appraised on Antiques Roadshow in 2005. They were later sold and restored.  

****  

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” ©1964 Rankin/Bass Productions.  
Closing music: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by the California Raisins, from Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🕎 To kick off Hanukkah, we’re shining a light on a 1990 episode of Shalom Sesame, an on-again, off-again co-production of Sesame Street and its Israeli counterpart, Rechov Sumsum, featuring the objectively better son from Growing Pains. 

 ****  

Sarah Shay (SarayShay.com, Bandcamp, Pilot House Podcast, @thesarahshay).  

****  

1. A brief history of Shalom Sesame, provided by the ever-thorough Muppet Wiki.  

2. Israel’s Big Bird stand-in, Kippi Ben Kippod, is mistranslated as a porcupine despite clearly being a hedgehog. A similar but unclothed costume was used in Spain’s Barrio Sésamo for Espinete, who’s identified as a hedgehog.  

3. Jeremy Miller, as Linus, sings The Vigil in Snoopy! The Musical.  

4. Yoav Tzafir’s other credits include the Hebrew-dubbed voices of Ninja Turtle Michaelangelo and Super Mario. Later he directed the Israeli version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?  

5. The real, actual, annual Hanukkah Torch Relay.  

6. Moishe Oofnik, Israel’s counterpart to Oscar, looks less like a grouch and more like a standard Muppet monster. Probably because he has a nose.  

7. Despite Sarah’s guess that Telly Monster is Sesame Street’s Jewish resident, this video of Baby Bear teaching Telly how to play dreidel suggests otherwise.  

8. A supposed folktale listed on the Wikipedia entry for sufganiyah that God fed them to Adam and Eve to cheer them up after kicking them out of the Garden of Eden may or may not be full of something that’s not jelly.  

9. Sarah met the head puppeteer from Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah while on tour.  

10. Apparently some kids put sugar in their latkes.  

11. Nell Carter was a Jewish convert who appeared on other episodes of Shalom Sesame as herself.  

****  

“Shalom Sesame” © 1990 Children’s Television Workshop.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 On a very wound-up and thrown out into a pile of junk in another dimension episode of the Advent Calendar House, we set our sentient clocks back to 1988 for a one-time-only trip to Tattertown, the holiday brain-child Ralph Bakshi and Nickelodeon’s first-ever original animated TV program.  

****  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. Christmas in Tattertown info and sketches from Bakshi Productions.  

2. Christmas in Tattertown review on Nick Knacks, a show-by-show Nickelodeon retrospective.  

3. Muffet initially appears to be the victim, much like the other guy, actually named Guy, in Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.  

4. Cameos by early Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Flip the Frog, and later Popeye.  

5. Today’s TV Trope: The “real world.”  

6. A shout-out to the dearly departed Hollywood Video for staying open on Christmas Day for idiots like me who forgot to ask for required accessories like the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak.  

7. Wawa’s Holiday Gobbler hoagie.  

8. Another cameo by Bosko and Honey turns into a tangent about the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, Fields of Honey.  

9. A brief introduction to “snoap,” Florida’s fake snow.  

****  

“Christmas in Tattertown” ©1988 Bakshi Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Every unstoppable monster has a beginning. Squeeze onto the couch as a perfectly cromulent panel of Advent Calendar House regulars celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Simpsons and its series premiere, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, or as it was advertised to us in 1989, “The Simpsons’ Christmas Special.”

CONTENT WARNING: We briefly discuss Mall Santas and 10-year-olds’ feelings on Mall Santas.  

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek).  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Remembering the buildup and promos for “The Simpsons’ Christmas Special” in 1989, and the time I accidentally watched The Tracey Ullman Show, because I was too sick to get up and change the channel.  

2. We can’t talk about early Simpsons without mentioning Burger King toys, The Simpsons arcade game, and of course, Do the Bartman.  

3. Bart’s first Butterfinger commercial predates the show by a year.  

4. Al Jean’s 5 favorite Simpsons episodes, as told to The Wall Street Journal.  

5. Among the animators who worked on this first episode was Eric Stefani, who had already founded some band with his sister.  

6. The crowdsourced origins of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells,” (research by Rob Weir, 2006) and the “like a light bulb!” interjections to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (research by Azizi Powell, 2017).  

7. Feel free to Google image search “simpsons moth tattoo” for a gallery of real, intentionally unfinished tattoos.  

8. The tattoo artist is retroactively identified as Mervin Monroe, the younger brother of Dr. Marvin Monroe.  

9. Early, strange in hindsight prototypes of Springfield citizens, including a more competent Ralph Wiggum, a cockier Milhouse, and a Ned Flanders who says, “Happy holidays.”  

10. NED FLANDERS SAYS, “HAPPY HOLIDAYS.”

11. The time Brandon cut down his own Christmas tree.  

12. My guest appearance on the Two Bad Neighbors podcast to discuss the Simpsons’ next Christmas episode, Marge Be Not Proud.  

****  

“The Simpsons” and “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” ©1989 20th Century Fox Television.  
Closing Music: The Simpsons Theme, performed by Green Day, ©2007 Reprise Records.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s a very special Scrooge Sunday episode as we nearly-blindly fumble back to 1962 to celebrate TV’s first ever animated Christmas special.  

****  

Anthony Caruso (@acaruso929) and Julia Colburn from Tis the Podcast.  

****  

1. Jim Backus, the voice of Mister Magoo, based his portrayal of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island on another character he played on a radio show hosted by another famous future Scrooge, Alan Young.  

2. Nephew Fred is cut entirely to make room for a song about Broadway that sometimes also gets cut entirely.  

3. The ghosts of Christmas Present and Past show up out of order for no clear reason, but an A.V. Club article from 2012 tried to find one.  

4. Tiny Tim is an English-speaking Gerald McBoing-Boing.  

5. This special invented a flavor! Razzleberry pie is now a thing that exists, made with raspberries and blackberries.  

6. The Ghost of Christmas Past looks like Toon Link from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.  

7. Marie Matthews, the voice of Young Scrooge, was on a 2009 panel revisiting the special. She’s now the last surviving member of the cast.  

8. Is Belle’s hair supposed to look like an actual bell?  

9. How is a mouse in the future the only one who can see Scrooge with any of the ghosts?  

****  

“Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol” © 1962 UPA Pictures, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Content Warning: If you usually let your children listen to your podcast feed with you, you may want to get the kids out of the pool for this one as we dive into a very festive, very inappropriate 2002 episode of the Adult Swim cartoon Sealab 2021 to wage war on the Feast of Alvis.  

****  

Zac Shipley (@zacshipley).  

****  

1. Sealab 2020, the very different, very boring original 1972 cartoon that serves as the butt of Sealab 2021’s joke.  

2. The usual Sealab theme song by Calamine is absent here to make room in the stable for the story of the birth of Alvis.  

3. The Church of Alvis, a blog last updated in 2007 with a cliffhanger, but the faithful still await that day with patience. 

4. Alvisism as explained by Sealab Wiki, which also exists.  

5. A series of quotes from this episode made into animated gif icons and posted on LiveJournal. This show is a very specific sort of old.  

****  

“Sealab 2021” and “Feast of Alvis” ©2002 Cartoon Network.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s Glo! We learn how to selectively melt only certain ice we’re radiating near with Hasbro’s hive of bioluminescent bugs, the Glo Friends, in their 1985 Christmas special starring Carroll O’Connor as Santa and Sally Struthers as Blanche, the Wicked Witch of the North Pole, who exists and is jealous of Santa’s publicity. Take notes, Great Pumpkin… or, perhaps, don’t.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Joey O. (@ImGonnaDJ24, Y-Not Radio, Words With Nerds).  

****  

1. Like many Christmas specials, this is a pilot for an eventual series that aired alongside the original My Little Pony animated series.  

2. A helpful guide to identifying every Glo Friend.  

3. Nancy Cartwright was the voice of Baby Glo Worm in the series, but in this pilot, it’s Laurie O’Brien doing her Baby Piggy voice.  

4. Joey interviews Pat Fraley, the voice of Glo Worm here, on his portrayal of Krang.  

5. Glo Worm’s purple outfit here, as opposed to the original toy’s green outfit, was apparently a “source of controversy,” according to Wikipedia.  

6. Can all antlered mammals fly if you go far enough north?  

7. Lorenzo Music doing a weird, nervous lisp instead of his usual Resting Garfield Voice™.  

8. Santa sings the least bluesy blues song ever while his reindeer do Rockettes kicks.  

9. More of Mike’s thoughts on The Glo Friends Save Christmas on Tim Babb’s Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  

****  

“The Glo Friends Save Christmas” ©1985 Hasbro, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Take a short-statured trip back to 1982 to explore   one-off TV Christmas special starring no one’s favorite funny papers hero, Ziggy, and featuring a beautifully animated puddle of dog pee.  

****  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. Ziggy’s Gift on Dinosaur Dracula After Dark.  

2. The Point, a Harry Nilsson album turned into an animated movie.  

3. Ziggy’s toothpaste looks like Beetlejuice sandworms.  

4. Ziggy Theories: Is he adult Charlie Brown? A vegetarian? A guardian angel?  

5. The time Chad met Billy West, who stood on a chair because he thought Chad was too tall.  

6. The time I inquired about a job opportunity that wasn’t what I expected.  

7. The terrifying robot Santa window display reminded me a little too much of the equally terrifying Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.  

8. Frank Welker voiced 25 characters in this special if you count each individual turkey.  

9. Ziggy’s kettle has the Glow from The Last Dragon.  

10. We compare the “Linus moment” trope of remembering the true meaning of Christmas to the newly named “Skeletor face turn” of becoming filled with Christmas spirit.  

****  

“Ziggy’s Gift” ©1982 Universal Press Syndicate.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.  

This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode. To celebrate, I let listeners vote for which “Christmas Carol” to cover, and the winner is the 1984 TV movie starring George S. Scott, along with original “Equalizer” Edward Woodward as a sassy Ghost of Christmas Present, and we even spotted our favorite Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Gough, as a not-so-portly gentleman.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along, @durwoodclapper.bsky.social).  

****  

1. David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”  

2. George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  

3. “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.  

4. Wikipedia and NO ONE ELSE names one Cratchit child “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.  

5. Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Return of the Jedi.”  

6. “It’s Corn,” and My favorite “Futurama” joke.  

7. Scrooge’s grave, allegedly a real, reinscribed headstone, at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.  

8. Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.  

****  

IBM Sponsored Commercial Break from the original airing of “A Christmas Carol.”  

George C. Scott “Read More About It” PSA.  

The Christmas Podcast Network All-Star Comedy Christmas Show!  

****  

“A Christmas Carol” © 1984 Travenol Laboratories Limited.  

In memory of Jason Gross (1976–2023).  

“Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Experience Rankin/Bass’s first festive follow-up to Rudolph through our eyes as we explore a 1967 TV special based on Charles Dickens’s other Christmas story.  

****  

Brian Earl (Christmas Past, @XmasPastPodcast).  

****  

1. The history of legends about crickets on hearths bringing good luck.  

2. The Cricket on the Hearth soundtrack.  

3. Brian’s Christmas Past episode on Golden Age Christmas TV Cartoons.  

4. Christmas TV History’s Joanna Wilson on Rankin/Bass Voice Actors.  

5. This special takes a bizarre, hard left turn into a song about Fish ’n’ Chips.  

6. A clearly implied, off-camera murder in the Christmas show for families, right before cutting to commercial.

****  

“Cricket on the Hearth” ©1967 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Grab an emergency parachute as we dive in to a 1991 TV Christmas special starring Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat from the comic strip series Bloom County and Outland.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. This is based on a book version you can watch someone read to you on YouTube, if you’d like.  

2. Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed was not happy with this special. He also confirmed the animators hid some naughty bits in the opening.  

3. Bill the Cat’s presidential run in 1988, including the candidates’ interpretations of the song Louie Louie.  

4. Joey interviews Michael Bell, the voice of Opus.  

5. The Ant and the Aardvark, starring John Byner, the voice of Bill.  

6. Surprise cameos by Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, who may or may not have walked over from the set of Hook to record their lines.  

7. Opus’s flight attempt is reminiscent Larry Walters’s real-life flight using over 40 weather balloons tied to a lawn chair.  

8. Opus’ nightmare is from Lost Horizon, a 1937 movie by future It’s a Wonderful Life director Frank Capra.  

9. A Frog Thing, a children’s book with a very similar plot, but less Christmassy.  

10. Opus plushes with Santa hats are pretty easy to find on eBay.  

****  

“A Wish for Wings That Work” ©1991 Universal Cartoon Studios, Inc. / Amblin Entertainment, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 The Advent Calendar House gets overrun by earworms strong enough to burrow into wood as we carve into the 1980 Rankin/Bass Christmas special starring Pinocchio.  

****  

Michael DiGiovanni (@theatomicgeeks, The Atomic Geeks, Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit).  

Michael May (@michaelmaycomix, MichaelMay.online, Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, Nerd Lunch Fourth Chair Army Invasion, and I think that might be it… FOR NOW).  

****  

1. Two songs, Dancin’ and The Very Best Friend I Ever Had, were cut from and later restored to TV broadcasts.  

2. Starstuff, a Philadelphia market, Saturday morning kids’ sci-fi TV series starring Todd Porter, the voice of Pinocchio.  

3. The most disappointing gifts we’ve ever received, including what Santa gave me after I allegedly misspelled “Alpha Critters.”  

4. We question the less-than-clear laws that govern Pinocchio’s lie-detecting nose, which appear to grant him a mulligan here.  

5. Those classic Christmas puppet show characters, Don Quixote and an alligator.  

6. The strange flash-forward to the rest of Pinocchio’s better-known adventures, even though Rankin/Bass already made a Pinocchio TV series, its first ever stop-motion animation project.  

****  

“Pinocchio’s Christmas” ©1980 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Season 3 of the Advent Calendar House kicks off with a new regular feature: Scrooge Sunday, celebrating the many adaptations of A Christmas Carol. We begin with Disney’s 1983 featurette, marking the big-screen debut of Scrooge McDuck playing his namesake.  

****  

Lizzie Twachtman (@thelizzietea, Moorage Thrift House, Random Chatter).  

Adam Pope (@hojukoolander, SequelQuest, 2 Goofs, Retro-Daze, Retro Detention).  

****  

1. Mickey’s Christmas Carol on Disney+.  

2. Almost all of this film is hiding at the end of Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.  

3. Adam’s well-preserved VHS copy.  

4. A 1974 Disneyland Records LP called Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Alan Young’s first recording as the voice of Scrooge.  

5. Mickey Mouse’s very detailed, fanmade family tree.  

6. Siskel and Ebert’s 2 Thumbs Down review.  

7. Goofy as Marley’s ghost at Disneyland.  

8. Mickey’s Christmas Carol animatronic window displays in the Magic Kingdom.  

9. We identify every Disney background character at Fezziwig’s party and lament the absence of Pluto from this entire thing.  

10. Quick shout-outs to Totally Minnie and Disney’s DTV Romancin’ Valentine special.

11. Willie the Giant as the Ghost of Christmas Present carefully wandering through the tiny streets of London calls back to the ending scene of Fun and Fancy Free, Disney’s 1947 package film featuring Mickey and the Beanstalk, which is also on Disney+.  

12. Your now-annual reminder that Pete has been a cat this entire time.  

****  

Mickey’s Christmas Carol ©1983 Disney.  
Opening Music: Christmas Was Better in the ’80s, by The Futureheads, ©2010 Nul Records.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎃 Put out the oars and surrender yourself to the mercy of the rivers of time as they take us back to Garfield’s terrifying 1985 Halloween special.  

****  

Jeff Somogyi (@sommerjam, Talkin’ Chopp).  

****  

1. Jim Davis wanted ‘Garfield’s Halloween Adventure’ to ‘at least scare 4-year-olds’ (The A.V. Club, 2014).  

2. Samples of the comic book adaptation, Garfield in Disguise, from Rotten Ink and Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks, including even creepier drawings of the old man and pirate ghosts.  

3. The first appearance of Binky the Clown!  

4. Jon’s head going through the bottom of a falling jack-o’-lantern could have killed him at worst and concussed him at best.  

5. How many kids in the history of trick-or-treating got suckered into getting double the candy for their siblings?  

6. The time a raccoon broke into Jeff’s attic and left a hornet’s nest inside a Nativity scene shepherd.  

7. Speaking of attics, the Pink Panther advertising Owens Corning fiberglass insulation.  

8. The Roy Ogle of the very random passing reference “Roy Ogle’s roots” was a plant breeder at Clemson University. They’re sweet potatoes.  

9. The black cat pajamas may be a callback to the killer panther from 1984’s Garfield in the Rough, another good special to put on if you want to give your kids nightmares.  

10. If ghosts are real, as this special establishes, was the ghost of Jon’s grandfather watching all the Christmas festivities in that special?  

11. C. Lindsay Workman, the voice of the old man, and also Garfield’s grandfather in Garfield on the Town, and God in Garfield: His 9 Lives.  

12. The “double burn” glowing effect used on the ghosts reminds us of the Night on Bald Mountain sequence of Fantasia.  

13. We had to ask: Did Garfield an Odie really survive the night, or is everything thereafter really Garfield Minus Garfield?  

****  

McDonald’s Halloween Pumpkin Pails!  

****  

“Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” ©1985 United Feature Syndicate, Inc./Anderson Digital.  
Closing Music: Witch’s Night Out, by Razoreater, written by Peter Rochon.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Love and dynamite are in the air as I introduce 2 guests to an early pilot of what would eventually become The Muppet Show from 1974, guest-starring a pregnant Mia Farrow.  

****  

Brian Arnold (@phillyradiogeek, Me and You and a Blog Named Boo).  

Joey O. (@ImGonnaDJ24, Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds).  

****  

1. The Muppets Valentine Show on YouTube.  

2. Muppet Wiki on The Muppets Valentine Show.  

3. Jim Henson’s Red Book entry about getting this pilot green-lit by some guy at ABC named “Mike” Eisner.  

4. We quickly touch on Crazy Harry’s original incarnation as “Crazy Donald” and then immediately drop it.  

5. Before Miss Piggy, Kermit loved Miss Mousey. Corporate foreshadowing!  

6. George the Janitor is simultaneously UHF’s Stanley Spadowski and WWE’s Perry Saturn.  

7. George and Mildred in The Muppet Show “At the Dance” sketch.  

8. Droop in the Cosby Show episode, Cliff’s Nightmare.  

9. The first appearance of Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle.  

10. “You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket.”  

11. Mia Farrow sings Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, which I remember better from the recurring Looney Tunes musical bomb gag.  

12. The first time I remember hearing the word “sex.”  

13. Brian on The Candy Apple News Company.  

****  

“The Muppets Valentine Show” © 1974 The Jim Henson Company.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

It’s Christmas Eve! Tune in as we bring Advent to a close with the first Christmas special I ever remember watching, from 1978.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. My taped copy of this is interrupted in the middle by a WHYY telethon with Philadelphia TV legend Ed Cunningham.  

2. The Count’s amazing ice-skating cape.  

3. The wibbly-wobbly physics of Oscar’s trash can.  

4. Olivia married the Predator.  

5. An actual clue into how to get to Sesame Street.  

6. A cameo by the seldom remembered Mr. Macintosh.  

7. If you want to go read about Northern Calloway (David) and his off-screen troubles and tragic death, go right ahead.  

8. The adorable 2-year-old girl too little for her own vocabulary trying to explain that Santa pushes a magic button to go down chimneys is now in her 40s.  

9. Don’t Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

10. An oral history of Mr. Snuffleupagus’s revelation as not imaginary.  

11. Oscar holds a broom like it’s Not His Broom.  

12. Ernie’s pajamas look like the background of the “Trololo” video.  

13. Joey makes my Christmas by assuring me I didn’t imagine The Candy Apple News Company.  

****  

Listen to my guest appearance on the Two Bad Neighbors podcast discussing my favorite Christmas-adjacent episode of The Simpsons, Marge Be Not Proud.  

Then go relax or take a nap or something. Hope you enjoy your Christmas!  

****  

“Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” © 1978 Children’s Television Workshop.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Remember ALF? He’s back, in podcast form! Tune in as we salute ALF’s two-part Christmas special from 1987, the single most depressing special starring a wisecracking alien puppet of all time.  

Content Warning: In this Christmas special, the goofy alien with the jokes meets a terminally ill child and a man contemplating suicide.  

****  

Jeff Somogyi (Talkin’ Chopp, Down the Rabbit Hole, @sommerjam).  

****  

1. The heartbreaking true story behind ALF’s Special Christmas.  

2. A study in human ignorance: Gordon Shumway has a name, which he’s told everyone, yet everyone still calls him HEY ALIEN!  

3. A study in willful alien ignorance: ALF opens everyone else’s Christmas gifts and succeeds in convincing me it’s because he doesn’t know how any of this works.  

4. Talking ALF: The Storytelling Alien.  

5. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  

****  

“ALF’s Special Christmas” © 1987 Alien Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Tune in as we unearth a 1994 cash-grab video starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — or at least some version of them — a special so low-quality, it happens in a sewer.  

****  

Shawn Robare (Branded in the ’80s, Cult Film Club, @ShawnRobare).  

Jonathan Zelenak (@TheSewerDen).  

****  

1. About the Sewer Den, Jonathan’s massive TMNT collection, and his blog post about We Wish You a Turtle Christmas.  

2. Of course we touch on the Turtles’ Coming Out of Their Shells Tour.  

3. The Turtles’ smiles look like they’re from Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun music video.  

4. Cash-grab video releases like this anime version of The Little Mermaid from 1975, which had a not-at-all-coincidental resurgence around 1990.  

5. Writer Tish Rabe also produced Big Bird in China and 3-2-1 Contact, created The Cat in the Hat Learning Library after Dr. Seuss’s death, and has written over 160 children’s books.  

6. Y’all want to watch 43 minutes of the Ninja Turtles on Oprah?  

7. That time a warehouse that housed the Rock-afire Explosion actually exploded.  

8. The resurgence of Rollerblades is right around the corner.  

9. The only pizza place willing to appear in this special is Sbarro, which has come a long way since the Fat Boys’ All You Can Eat.  

10. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Cookbook is a real book you should own.  

11. The cheapest gifts we’ve ever gotten our parents from our elementary school Christmas bazaar.  

12. Fun game: Sneak the Wrap Rap on a playlist in the middle of New Kids on the Block’s Christmas album and see if anyone notices.  

****  

“We Wish You a Turtle Christmas” © 1994 Christopher Films, Inc. / Mirage Studios.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Tune in as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special the only way we know how: With lots of screaming, lots of fruitcake, and lots more screaming.  

****  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Lindy Kempe (@ieatvideogames).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Magic Johnson recorded his segment hours before playing in — and winning — a Lakers game. We don’t know the precise date, but one win was against the SuperSonics, possibly (but probably not) on Ice Cube’s “Good Day.”  

2. One commercial break includes a bizarre Pringles commercial starring a young Brad Pitt.  

3. Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.  

4. When did fruitcake become a punchline? Christmas Past has something of an answer. Or is fruitcake a byproduct of the Joys of Jell-O era?  

5. A mini ode to the Picture Phone, a giant, stationary Skype machine.  

6. The working script and storyboards for this special.  

7. Who mailed Grace Jones to the Reagan White House?  

8. Pee-wee performing Surfin’ Bird in Back to the Beach.  

9. The King of Cartoons’ cartoon: 1936’s Christmas Comes But Once a Year.  

10. My feelings about snow mirror this one, particular Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, published 5 days after this special aired.  

12. The awkward moment when we realize the Dinosaur Family has a pet dinosaur.  

****  

“Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special” © 1988 Paul Reubens.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  

Join us we fail upward through middle to upper hotel management featuring a simultaneously very mature and very immature conversation about cartoon bears discovering mistletoe. What could be the Jellystone Winter Lodge’s final Christmas carnival manages to wake up Yogi Bear, who hibernates directly underneath it but somehow never knew about it before now.  

****  

Bill Hanstock (@sundownmotel, “We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History”)  

****  

1. This special opens with a typo: The sign reads “Yellystone Park.”  

2. Daws Butler’s Snagglepuss voice was a Bert Lahr impression that was so spot on, Lahr threatened to sue when Snagglepuss started endorsing Kellogg’s cereal.  

3. Hanna-Barbera’s Christmas Sing-A-Long album, featuring songs from this special.  

4. Yogi was in “Casper’s First Christmas” in 1979, so this isn’t really Yogi’s First Christmas.  

5. Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial episode, 2017.  

6. The Wonkamobile.  

7. ClickHole: “Which One of My Garbage Sons Are You?” Clickhole, 2014.  

8. Eddie the Eagle.  

9. Mickey Mouse’s shirtless (and hatless) Steamboat Willie winter look at Disneyland.  

10. “Mean, Sour, Crafty, and Cruel” in “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” and “Smurfs.”  

11. The Zone of Death in the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho.  

12. “Christmas Is Here” in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  

****  

Cocoa Krispies Snagglepuss “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Commercial, circa 1963.  

Bad Princess Movies, a catalogue of terrible movies about princesses and princesses-to-be.  

****  

“Yogi’s First Christmas” © 1980 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Mickey Mouse drags his pals into third dimension in this 2004 direct-to-DVD Disney Christmas special.  

****  

Drew Crowley (@pizzanautgo) and John Dedeke (@johndedeke) from The Hourchive.  

****  

1. If you haven’t been to a Disney theme park in the last year or two, Mickey has a different face now.  

2. The hippo and crocodile from “Fantasia” have names.  

3. Chuck McCann, the voice of Santa, was the Dreamfinder in the original Journey Into Imagination.  

4. A quick lesson on how time zones work.  

5. Putting someone’s name on Santa’s list makes it as absolute as the Goblet of Fire.  

6. The Grumpy Dog who keeps showing up only to get beverages spilled on him is the Stan Lee of the Mickey Mouse universe, which I only mention because we recorded this the day after Stan died.  

7. Between the Goofys and the Plutos of this universe, there are talking reindeer who can own pets.  

8. The Hidden Mickeys Podcast.  

****  

“Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Tune in as we attempt to make sense of time, space, and the Disney fowl food chain as we watch Disney’s 1999 direct to video Christmas special.  

****  

Drew Crowley (@pizzanautgo) and John Dedeke (@johndedeke) from The Hourchive.  

****  

1. Donald Duck’s comically enormous, fanmade family tree.  

2. Happy Duck to the Future Day!  

3. The Quack Pack intro will tell you everything you need to know about Quack Pack.  

4. Does Donald’s Christmas cabin exist in a turducken thunderdome?  

5. Donald Jr., a tiny, semi-realistic duck introduced in “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”  

6. The Fab Five supposedly live in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, on the Pacific coast.  

7. Pete has been a cat this entire time!  

8. Pete smokes a cigar, something since reportedly banned from Disney movies, despite still showing up in Disney movies.  

9. Recycled animation alert: Mickey’s wacky, tongue-waggling dance first appeared in 1942’s Mickey’s Birthday Party.  

****  

“Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas” © 1999 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

We are not nice, not kind, and not wonderful to 1985’s He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special, in which Skeletor’s heart grows three sizes.  

****  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed are the Geek).  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. He-Man and She-Ra are between 18 and 21 years old and gave children unreasonable expectations of what they’d look like when they grow up.  

2. Thank goodness Chad is here to identify everyone at Eternia’s Christmas party.  

3. Greyskull Wiki has an entire section of Queen Marlena’s entry dedicated to speculating about her religion.  

4. Brandon’s dog is back because he heard us talking about the Beast Monster!  

5. The Monstroids exist because the makers of He-Man toys want you to believe giant robots that can transform are evil.  

6. Skeletor and Hordak are basically Miracle Max and his wife from The Princess Bride.  

7. This may have been the first time I’d ever seen someone yank off Santa’s beard.  

****  

“He-Man/She-Ra: A Christmas Special” © 1985 Mattel, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Tune in as we apply North Pole to Pinky and the Brain’s 1996 Christmas special, probably the closest the lab mouse duo ever got to actually taking over the world.  

****  

Joey Letson (The Animanicast, @Animanicast).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. This special won the 1996 Primetime Emmy award for outstanding animated program.  

2. Joey O.’s interviews with Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche.  

3. The Animanicast’s interview with Maurice LaMarche.  

4. Powerhouse: Warner Bros.’ go-to “assembly line” music.  

5. io9 ranked this episode dead last among the Brain’s plans to take over the world.  

*****  

“A Pinky and the Brain Christmas” © 1996 Warner Bros.  

You can visit the Advent Calendar House on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and on the Christmas Podcast Network.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Join us as we gush about the Riverbottom Nightmare Band and Kermit riding a bicycle in this episode about the 1977 Jim Henson special, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. Pa would’ve loved this podcast.  

****  

Emily Rowley (@mlerowley).  

****  

1. Muppet Wiki has the lowdown of all 5 cuts of this.  

2. The official outtake reel.  

3. The drum roll outtake reel.  

4. Of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show.  

5. The Christmas Price Index.  

6. The “ass sliding” scene from Rad.  

7. Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold sing When the River Meets the Sea at Jim Henson’s memorial service.  

8. The Can’t Wait for Christmas podcast on Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.  

****  

“Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas” © 1977 The Jim Henson Company.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Hang on to your creepy mistletoe hat as we hit the Bayside Mall for a 2-part Saved by the Bell Christmas special from 1991, in which Zack gets shook upon learning the latest girl of his dreams is homeless.  

****  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @horrormoviebbq).  

Tom Coombs (@ClassicTomedy).  

****  

1. Chad’s 2013 write-up on Home for Christmas.

2. That time WWE’s Daniel Bryan got fired for choking out an announcer.  

3. Puppy Surprise, the dog that’s pregnant!  

4. Dustin Diamond’s terrible heel turn on Celebrity Fit Club.

5. Simpsons did it: Homer beat Screech to the “What’s the number for 911?” joke by a year in Bart vs. Thanksgiving.  

6. Who waits until Christmas Eve to buy a tree?  

7. The Evolution of the Zack Morris phone.  

8. Funny or Die: The Time Zack Morris Gave Himself A Homeless Girl For Christmas.  

****  

“Saved by the Bell” and “Home for Christmas” © 1991 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Tune in as we trace the origins of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, in the 1992 Christmas episode of Batman, the Animated Series.  

****  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

Jay Ryan (Sludge Central, the Purple Stuff Podcast, @SludgeCentral).  

****  

1. The crowdsourced origins of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells.  

2. More discussion on Christmas with the Joker on Batman, the Animated Podcast’s Batman, the Animated Podcast and The Arkham Sessions.  

3. Gotham City is in New Jersey.  

4. Mark Hamill’s original performance as Ferris Boyle in Heart of Ice.  

5. Comic Book: The Movie.  

6. Mark Hamill’s longtime obsession with David Letterman.  

7. Charles Manson apparently spent this Christmas at Arkham Asylum before spending a later Christmas in Nebraska on South Park.  

8. Joker’s “Laffy” hand puppet reminds us of Señor Wences.  

9. His upside-down mouth puppet is even weirder.  

10. Betty Blooper looks like Toot from Drawn Together.  

11. Of course the Joker is hiding out at the Laffco Toy Factory. Look at it!  

****  

“Batman, the Animated Series” and “Christmas with the Joker” © 1992 Warner Bros.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Part 2 of our Christmas donkey double feature takes a deep dive into Don Bluth’s last Disney project, a short film released in front of the 1978 re-release of Pinocchio.

****  

Lindy Kempe (@ieatvideogames).  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed are the Geek).  

****  

1. Like so many Disney movies, it’s based on a book — The Small One: A Story for Those Who Like Christmas and Small Donkeys.  

2. Dragon’s Lair.  

3. The Land Before Time toys from Pizza Hut.  

4. Mouse in Transition: When Everyone Left Disney, detailing Don Bluth’s exit from Disney.  

5. Don Bluth visited Walt Disney Animation Studios 40 years later.  

6. Assistant director Richard Rich went on to direct all 8 Swan Princess movies. I’m sorry to have just informed you that there are 8 Swan Princess movies.  

7. Wikipedia’s entry for The Small One includes a very strange line about the other donkeys.  

8. One piece of silver, adjusted for inflation.  

9. Edits for home video include the Merchants’ song, and the Star of Bethlehem getting extra rays of light to look less cross-shaped. To avoid too much foreshadowing, I guess.  

10. Gordon Jump, the voice of Joseph, was on a very special episode of Diff’rent Strokes. Yeah. Sorry.  

****  

“The Small One” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

We try to make more accurate donkeys in Nativity displays catch on like a certain elf on a certain shelf by revisiting the 1977 Rankin/Bass special, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey.  

****  

Lindy Kempe (@ieatvideogames).  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed are the Geek).  

****  

1. Roger Miller performing Do Wacka Do in 1966 with another guitarist, “Stubbs,” who’s wearing a Batman T-shirt.  

2. Roger Miller’s Whistle Stop intro to Disney’s Robin Hood is secretly the Hamster Dance.  

3. Tilly’s ascension back to heaven is strikingly similar to Poochie’s exit from The Itchy and Scratchy Show.  

4. Mary has “the Glow” from The Last Dragon.  

5. Annalee Santa dolls.  

****  

“Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey” © 1977 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

We dig down like dogs to the bottom of the VHS bargain bin for an overlooked special from 1991 that had all the potential to become a Christmas classic, but none of the airtime.  

You can watch Jingle Bell Rap on Amazon Prime.  

****  

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @horrormoviebbq).  

****  

1. Perennial Pictures’ webpage for Jingle Bell Rap.  

2. Chad’s on, so of course we talk about Roy Rogers.  

3. Fetch and Uncle Jesse are the “wise cowboy” archetype that replaced the wise janitor in the ’90s.  

4. It’s an early-’90s special with a rap in it, so here’s the comparison to that one Fruity Pebbles commercial.  

5. Shout-out to the Cult Film Club and “Plot in 60 Seconds.”  

6. In Rollover’s flashback, his dad looks like angry Homer Simpson.  

7. Ralph Wiggum’s heart breaks in slow motion.  

8. New Kids on the Block perform Funky Funky Xmas on Arsenio Hall.  

****  

“Jingle Bell Rap” © 1991 Perennial Pictures.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.  

Join us as we venture through the tunnels under Santa’s workshop to uncover Jim Henson’s first ever TV holiday special, presented by The Ed Sullivan Show and featuring the first Muppet performances by Richard Hunt, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol, and John Lovelady, as well as the first appearances of Thog and a familiar-looking Frackle who’d later be reworked into the Great Gonzo.  

****  

Tori Schmidt (Muppets No Context, The Muppetwt Awards)  

Tony Whitaker (@muppetdude, Muppet Wiki)  

****  

1. “The Great Santa Claus Switch” on Muppet Wiki.  

2. ToughPigs.com’s transcript of the special, 2004.   

3. Jim Henson, Thog, and Lothar on “The Dick Cavett Show,” 1971.  

4. Taminella Grinderfall in “Tales of the Tinkerdee.”  

5. Jim Henson’s Red Book entries on the special’s casting and debut.  

6. Tony’s art of the Two-Headed Monster as the Miser Brothers.  

7. So Many Muppets Are Named Fred.  

8. Daniel Seagren as Spider-Man on “The Electric Company.”  

9. Richard Hunt as Elmo.  

10. Snarl, the Frackle who would become Gonzo.  

11. My Emmet Otter’s Teenage Mutant Jug-Band Christmas T-shirt.  

12. We have dubbed the green Frackle who looks like Thig with a beak and horns “Theg.”  

13. “This Is Halloween” in a Sesame Place parade.  

14. “8 Balls of Fur.”  

15. Stop calling them “Muppeteers.”  

****  

FritoLay Holiday Party Display Commercial, 1970.  

“Noëlco” Razor Santa Commercial, 1970.  

Merry Britsmas, all things Christmas from a British perspective.  

****  

“The Great Santa Claus Switch” © 1970 Sullivan Productions, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

Lace up your ice skates for a look at 3 classic holiday commercials starring McDonald’s clown in charge:  

1. Happy Holidays (the ice skating one).  

2. Star Wish.  

3. Runaway.

****  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

****  

1. Grape jelly is good on Sausage McMuffins.  

2. McDonald’s Wiki, which exists, runs down all 7 versions of the ice skating commercial. Yes, there are seven different edits, and they’re all on YouTube:  

1982: the original, with King Moody as Ronald and the “You Deserve a Break Today” jingle variant.  

1983: with the “McDonald’s and You” jingle variant.  

1984: with the “It’s a Good Time for the Great Taste” jingle variant.  

1986: with Squire Fridell as Ronald, the version I remember most.  

1988: with Fridell and the original jingle.  

1990: with Fridell and the “Food, Folks and Fun” jingle variant.  

1991: with Jack Doepke as Ronald, bad lighting, and “The Wish that Changed Christmas.”  

3. King Booker.  

4. Squire Fridell as Ronald McDonald in Mac and Me.  

5. Paul Rudd’s ongoing Mac and Me prank on Conan.  

6. Grimace’s last appearance was at Dodger Stadium, though as we know, nothing can kill the Grimace.  

7. The “World’s Largest Entertainment McDonald’s” in Orlando, home to an animatronic Mac Tonight that hangs from the ceiling.  

****  

“Happy Holidays,” “Star Wish,” and “Runaway” © McDonald’s.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s Christmas at Walt Disney World, featuring Shields and Yarnell as the most 1978 couple imaginable, Pablo Cruise and their indifference to help a screaming woman escape from pirates, Phyllis Diller in the world’s poofiest princess dress, the Doritos guy as a wildly off-model Geppetto, Dee from What’s Happening as an ungrateful passenger in a magical pumpkin coach, and Broadway’s original Annie singing Christmas carols with surprisingly reverent Disney villains.  

****  

Drew Crowley (@pizzanautgo) and John Dedeke (@johndedeke) from The Hourchive.  

****  

1. A map of what Walt Disney World looked like in 1978.  

2. Vault Disney.  

3. Mystery solved: How My Favorite Things became a Christmas song.  

4. The opening music, The Great Gate of Kiev, part of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and the entrance theme for Jerry “The King” Lawler.  

5. Dick Clark interviews Shields and Yarnell on American Bandstand in 1976.  

6. Drew eating a gigantic spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  

7. Photos from the long-abandoned Discovery Island in 2009.  

8. Disney’s short-lived plans of reopening Discovery Island as an attraction based on Myst.  

9. The History (and Mystery) Behind Discovery Island (MSN).  

10. One-day admission to the Magic Kingdom plus a book of attraction tickets in 1978 cost $13, according to this Ticket Price Guide.  

11. Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain.  

12. I miss Winnie-the-Pooh with the honey pot on his head.  

13. Giant, smoking cigars in a theme park parade for children.  

14. The (1970s) Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World.  

15. That time Kraft saluted Walt Disney World’s 10th anniversary.  

16. The Hourchive on Walt Disney World: Part 1 and Part 2.  

****  

“Christmas at Walt Disney World” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

We blur the lines of reality, time, and space and practice peace on Earth and good will to men, women, chickens, bears, and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1979 TV special, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.  

****  

Bill Hanstock (SBNation, IMDb, Progressive Boink, @sundownmotel).  

Carlin Trammel (Nerd Lunch, Dragonfly Ripple, @nerdlunch).  

****  

1. Bill’s Uncle Deadly tattoo.  

2. Pro-wrestler and Muppets Most Wanted cast member Hornswoggle’s tattoo tribute to the Muppets.  

3. The Muppet Show Season 4 DVD promised at Disney’s 2009 D23 Expo, but which never came.  

4. Miss Piggy makes a sex joke, lest we forget the Muppet Show pilot opened with “Sex and Violence.”  

5. John Denver’s linear notes for the album’s 1996 re-release cite the Muppets as an inspiration for writing Alfie, the Christmas Tree.  

6. A Baby Just Like You is one endpoint of the John Denver Christmas song emotional spectrum. The other is Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas).  

7. A brief examination of the logistics behind Rowlf’s piano playing.  

8. I Will Wait for You in Futurama.  

9. Jesus Christ has His own entry on Muppet Wiki.  

10. John’s son, Zachary: In the audience during Silent Night, and and at his father’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2014.  

11. Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold singing When the River Meets the Sea at Jim Henson’s memorial service.  

12. Bill remembers Jim Henson on Scientific Podcast Goes Boink.  

****  

“John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together” © 1979 John Jer Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.