Shows
Advent Calendar HouseVeggieTales - The Toy That Saved Christmas🎄 Fresh from 1996 comes a Christmas tale that’ll make you cry, but only because it’s being told by an onion. 🎙️ Anthony Strand hops along for the ride as we buzz back to the VeggieTales’ first Christmas special, in which the only children’s toy that comes with a working circular saw embarks on a quest to find the true reason for the season. 📺 You can watch the official version of “The Toy That Saved Christmas” for free on YouTube, or the original 1996 version on the Internet Archive. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Differences between the origina...
2025-12-201h 03
Advent Calendar HouseSonic Christmas Blast🎄 If you thought Christmas was fast approaching, hang onto something as we zip back to 1996 and do our best to keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog on a mission to save Christmas. 🎙️ Mike (Bitter Karella) and Ethan (The Hungry Reader) from A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight join the quest to rescue Santa from the evil Robotnik Claus, obtain the Secret to Ultimate Velocity, and find a gift for Sonic’s girlfriend from another universe. 📺 You can watch “Sonic Christmas Blast” for free on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: How Sonic scored two...
2025-12-061h 40
Advent Calendar HouseSantabear’s High Flying Adventure🎄 This episode is stuffed with surprises, so get your propeller spinning and take off back to 1987 to go barnstorming — or bearnstorming — above the South Pole with Santabear. 🎙️ Ethan “The Hungry Reader” is our co-pilot as we nosedive into a Midwestern Christmas tradition we wish found a place to land elsewhere. 📺 You can find “Santabear’s High Flying Adventure” on the Internet Archive, or a recording with the original commercials on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Mike on A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight, for “Poochie” and “The Hugga Bunch Movie.” “Santabear’...
2025-07-171h 05
Advent Calendar HouseJustice League - Comfort and Joy🎄 It’s 2003, and nothing puts me in a festive mood quite like a bar fight. 🎙 Joey O. and James Riley join us for Christmas break with the Justice League — well, most of it. Wonder Woman’s off doing something else, and Batman… you know, smells. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Mike talks “Comfort and Joy” on Tis the Podcast. Paul Dini’s notes on “Comfort and Joy,” including what where Wonder Woman and Batman were. The Shrine of the Silver Monkey from “Legends of the Hidden Temple.” The “Calvin and Hobbes” snowman gallery of ho...
2024-12-181h 07
Advent Calendar HouseCount Duckula - A Christmas Quacker🎄 It’s 1990, and Santa’s lost in my confusing network of chimneys. 🎙 Adam Parker Sibun from Merry Britsmas join us for a more silly than spooky Christmas special that takes us from Castle Duckula to a concussion-induced space adventure and back. 📺 You can find “A Christmas Quacker” on the Internet Archive (it’s mislabeled as another episode). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Count Duckula” on Nick Knacks. Count Duckula’s first appearance on “Danger Mouse.” UK Christmas TV, an extensive archive of Christmas TV listings for the UK’s main channels. Jack May (Igor...
2024-12-1457 min
Advent Calendar HouseYou Can’t Do That on Television - Christmas🎄 It’s 1984, and Santa’s in front of a firing squad because his executioner didn’t appreciate the socks he got last Christmas. 🎙 Shawn Robare and Steven join us as the slime is in an extra festive shade of green for a Christmas episode of the show that defined Nickelodeon’s early years, featuring an all-star cast of the 5 most featured kid actors of “You Can’t Do That on Television.” 📺 You can watch the episode “Christmas” on Facebook. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Shawn’s piece of the Prevert Family’s living room wallpaper. Nick Kna...
2024-12-041h 22
Advent Calendar HouseTales From the Crypt - And All Through the House🎄It’s 1989, and a killer in a Santa suit is making it really hard to hide my dead husband’s body. 🎙 Jamie Ray from Fave Five From Fans joins us to dig up the first filmed episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” a cozy Christmas nightmare directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring his then-wife and talented screamer, Mary Ellen Trainor, and the kid who gets her hoverboard stolen by Marty McFly. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Mike on Fave Five From Fans with my Fave Five Christmas TV Specials (already covered them all here). Fave Five Christm...
2023-12-1243 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Little Drummer Boy, Book II🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we went on an apocryphal adventure with the story of The Little Drummer Boy. This time, Rankin/Bass drums up an unnecessary sequel from 1976, its busiest year for holiday specials. 🎙️ Brandon Medley joins us on a side quest to retrieve the stolen silver bells from a troop of greedy Roman soldiers in the “Rogue One” of Christmas stories. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Allen Swift (Melchior) as Twinkie the Kid. Simeon the bellmaker is very loosely based on the Biblical Simeon, but his Song of Simeon is left out...
2023-07-1952 min
Advent Calendar HouseMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - A Hearth’s Warming Tail🎄 It’s 2016, and a Scrooge-like unicorn is brewing a potion to eliminate Hearth’s Warming Eve from the calendar. That’s how potions work, right? 🎙 Jon and Bin from Bin’s Toy Bin and Santa by the Minute join us for a Scrooge Sunday canter through a “Christmas Carol” adaptation set in Equestria, the world of “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.” 📺 You can watch “A Hearth’s Warming Tail” for free on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Mike on Santa by the Minute. The first My Little Pony special, from 1984: “Rescue at Midnight...
2022-12-181h 05
Advent Calendar HouseThe First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow🎄 It’s 1975, and a shepherd boy just lost his sight after staring directly at a lightning bolt. 🎙️ Mike Troxell joins us as we return to enchanted world of Rankin/Bass Christmas specials for an overlooked, underrated, and redundantly titled hidden gem about neither the first Christmas, nor the first Christmas snow. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Vox’s Emily St. James ranks all the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. A very brief history of the Christmas card. Was There Really Any Winter’s Snow at the Time of the Nativity in Bethlehem? Flas...
2022-12-1048 min
Advent Calendar HouseQ*bert - Thanksgiving for the Memories🦃 It’s 1983, and we’re spending Thanksgiving in July at the Saturday Supercade. 🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us as we take a cue from Q*bert and pals and try to stay on topic as they learn how to build a Q home in a Q land in a retelling of the first Thanksgiving as square as the wheels on the Q*horse and buggy Pilgrim Q*bert wants to win. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: We all tried to remember who brought up the Q*bert special last year while talking abou...
2022-07-211h 18
Advent Calendar HouseA Special Sesame Street Christmas🎄 It’s 1978, and celebrities pretending to be ghosts are gaslighting Oscar the Grouch into participating in Christmas. Also, Michael Jackson shows up.🎙 Alan Johnson and Donnie Storms join us for another Scrooge Sunday episode to witness the 2nd best “Sesame Street” Christmas special from 1978… out of 2. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Our episode on “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.” I thought Tough Pigs made up this special in 2001 to be funny, but nope, it’s real. Sesame Street lost an Emmy to Sesame Street. “A Special Sesame Street Christmas” on Muppet Wiki.
2021-12-121h 26
Advent Calendar HouseA Flintstone Christmas🎄 Santa falls off the roof, and a guy who acts like a caveman takes over his job. 🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas and Sean Sotka from the Christmas Podcasts Podcast join us as we close out another countdown to Christmas in July with a sleigh ride back to the Stone-Age Year of Our Lord 1977. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Our episode on the Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial. I found a Flintstones chronology on, of all places, Flickr. The Internet Archive’s VHS Vault. Domino Rally. I want to know more...
2021-07-231h 21
Advent Calendar HouseA Thanksgiving Tale🦃 We’re talking turkey as we dig up and dig in to a 1983 Thanksgiving special from puppeteer Paul Fusco, the creator of ALF. 🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us the follow a turkey’s dream of stardom that ends with dogs and cats living together. 📺 You can watch “A Thanksgiving Tale” on Youtube, with curated retro Thanksgiving commercials. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Imagicom Productions’ Holiday Specials Collection. Fred Travalena as the Joker in the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A November 16, 1983 TV listing in an archived New York Magazine.
2021-07-211h 14
Advent Calendar HouseDinosaurs - Refrigerator Day🦖 It’s the most wonderful time of 60 million years ago, so come in and buy paint. 🎙️ Lindy Kempe joins us with frying pan ready to celebrate Refrigerator Day with the Jim Henson Company’s “Dinosaurs,” which is somehow the Advent Calendar House’s first TGIF episode. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “The Simpsons” parodies “Dinosaurs.” We go from talking about the “Økėÿ Døkęÿ Køøkïñ” segment of “Muppets Now” to Netflix’s “Nailed It!” Sally Struthers (Charlene) for International Correspondence School. A brief history of the Christmas bonus, or “thirteenth salary.” Sam McMurray in the v...
2021-07-191h 10
Advent Calendar HousePhineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation🎄 I know what we’re going to podcast about today! 🎙 James Riley and Brandon Medley join us for a toboggan ride without even getting out of bed back to 2009 to watch Phineas and Ferb save their very nice town’s Christmas Vacation. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Ferb) in “Love Actually” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The time James accidentally knocked over Ben Stiller. The Sears Wish Book catalog. Today’s TV Trope: Look Both Ways. “What Does He Want?” was cut for time and restored later. Also, it s...
2021-07-171h 19
Advent Calendar HouseThe Adventures of Pete & Pete - O’ Christmas Pete🎄 Garbageman is here for your Christmas spirit. 🎙️ Tommy Coombs and Chad Young join us as we look happily deranged back to 1996 to follow Pete and Pete’s brother, Pete, on their mission to keep Christmas going for as long as possible, and keep their Christmas tree safe from the evil Garbageman. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Michael C. Maronna (Big Pete) in “Home Alone,” and in a series of Ameritrade commercials circa 1999. “Snow Day” was originally conceived as a Pete & Pete movie. The first Pete & Pete short, “What Would You Do for a Dollar?” The...
2021-07-151h 01
Advent Calendar HouseHalloween Is Grinch Night🎃 It’s a wonderful night for eyebrows and the wildest trip to the euphemism we’ve ever taken. 🎙️ James Riley and Ethan “The Hungry Reader” hitch a ride in our paraphernalia wagon as we wheel it back to 1977 for a Grinch Night we’ll never forget. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The worst, non-candy Halloween treats. “Carlton, Your Doorman.” Longtime Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo composed this special’s music. Hans Conried (The Grinch) was also the titular character in Dr. Seuss’s The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. I badly describe the plot of “Mi...
2021-07-131h 21
Advent Calendar HouseBack to the Future - Dickens of a Christmas🎄 Happy Back to the Future Day! Set your time circuits to 1845 by way of 1991 for a special Christmas in July episode of the “Back to the Future” Saturday morning cartoon featuring hologram clothes, the hoverboard equivalent to texting while driving, and Bill Nye the Science Guy.🎙 Joey O., along with Joseph Wade from Christmas Creeps and The O/S/T Party, are our partners in time for a “Dickens of a Christmas,” featuring Dan Castellaneta as the voice of the animated Doc, Thomas F. Wilson as Ebiffnezer Tannen, and Christmas movie all-star Mary Steenburger as Clara. **** ...
2021-07-1156 min
Advent Calendar HouseHow Murray Saved Christmas🎄 It’s 2014, but this special about a forgotten holiday mascot feels like it’s from the 1990s. Unfortunately, so do some of the jokes. 🎙 Michael DiGiovanni and Donnie Storms join us on a sleigh ride back through “How Murray Saved Christmas,” which follows Murray Weiner (rhymes with diner) from the hidden hometown of every holiday mascot… but mostly the American ones. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Former “Simpsons” showrunner Mike Reiss’s original books, “How Murray Saved Christmas” and “Santa Claustrophobia.” The trimmed half-hour cut of the special removes some bad jokes, but also Murray’s backstory. S...
2021-07-091h 23
Advent Calendar HouseThe Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise🐰 Who is Easter Bunny? OMG, Bear is Easter Bunny! How can that be? 🎙 Emily Rowley and Alan Johnson join us as we hop, hop, hop back to 1981 for our first trip to Bear Country, which it turns out was built on top of the Easter Bunny’s industrial nightmare factory. 📺 You can watch “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise” for free on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Yes, we all collectively mispronounced “Berenstain.” The VHS cover, for reference. “The Berenstain Bears: The Very First Easter,” being the story of the Passion and Resurrection of...
2021-07-0752 min
Advent Calendar HouseRubik, the Amazing Cube - Rubik’s First Christmas🎄 Tune in as we mysteriously float back to 1983 for an unseasonably warm Christmas adventure through Mexico with our cool grandma and a talking Rubik’s Cube with more powers than Superman. 🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas join us for a puzzling revisit to “Rubik, the Amazing Cube,” a Saturday morning cartoon that lasted an even shorter amount of time than the fad it tried to cash in on. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The History of Rubik’s Cube. The theme song by pre-Ricky Martin Menudo. Ángela Moya, the voice of the kids’ mother...
2021-07-0559 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Cosmic Christmas🎄 We’re teaching aliens about Christmas again, but this time, George Lucas is watching. 🎙 Jeff Fox from Name That Christmas Special is our special guest as we go on a domesticated goose chase back to 1977 through “A Cosmic Christmas,” the first fully animated feature by Canadian studio Nelvana. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Jeff’s collection of “A Cosmic Christmas” music and scanned promotional items. Joanna Wilson’s Christmas TV History. This special got George Lucas’s attention and led to Nelvana producing the animated segment of the “Star Wars Holiday Special.” “The Ne...
2021-07-031h 10
Advent Calendar HouseA Chipmunk Christmas🎄 It’s time for toys and time for cheer as the Advent Calendar House begins another 12-episode countdown to Christmas in July. 🎙 Sean Sotka and Steven join us as we rewind at twice the normal speed back to 1981 to revisit the Christmas special that helped kick off the revival of Alvin and the Chipmunks. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Steven’s story of accidentally erasing his VHS recording of this special, only to find another recording of the same broadcast years later. The History of the Chipmunks (RIP The Hourchive). “Witch Doctor.”
2021-07-011h 01
Advent Calendar HouseThe Smurfs’ Christmas Special🎄 It’s Christmas Eve in the Advent Calendar House as we walk through a ring of fire back to 1982 to dance with the Smurfs and watch goodness make the badness go away. 🎙 Thom Crowe from Tis the Podcast and Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas join us for a heaping help of Greedy Smurf’s cauldron of pink pudding. 📺 You can watch “The Smurfs’ Christmas Special” for free on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: My son thinks the king of Hyrule is Santa. I just now learned about Watergate salad. The Smurfs in...
2020-12-241h 09
Advent Calendar HouseOlive the Other Reindeer🎄 10 years after “The Simpsons” debuted, Matt Groening presented another Christmas special about another Santa’s little helper. 🎙 Erin Evans and Joey O. joins us on a 2-dimensional flight back to 1999 to revisit “Olive, the Other Reindeer,” a misheard but not forgotten doggie treat. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The Making of “Olive, the Other Reindeer.” “PaRappa the Rapper.” “Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride,” the first book by “Olive” creators Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold. “The Goonies II.” Jay Mohr in “Camp Wilder.” Famous mondegreens and the stupidest lyric I’ve ever...
2020-12-221h 05
Advent Calendar HouseDisney’s A Christmas Carol🎄 Take a hop, a skip, and a jump scare through the uncanny valley on a trip back to 2009 to rewatch Disney’s feature-length version of “A Christmas Carol.” 🎙 Matt Weiland joins us for Robert Zemeckis’s motion capture nightmare starring 4 Jim Carreys, 3 Gary Oldmans, 2 Robin Wrights, and a Cary Elwes in a pear shape. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Respect to a Disney movie that jumps from a storybook opening to a corpse’s face. Despite being the 5th highest grossing Christmas movie as of 2020, this is also one of history’s biggest box-office bombs. ...
2020-12-201h 27
Advent Calendar HouseDoug’s Christmas Story🎄 Doug uses weaponized cupcakes to break Porkchop out of doggie death row. 🎙 Gregiffer Stevens from the Pop Arena and Nick Knacks joins us as we skate on thin ice back to 1993 for a very educational trip to Bluffington that I forgot was a Christmas episode while I was watching it. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Disney’s “Doug” was fine, y’all. “Doug” creator Jim Jinkins worked on Nickelodeon’s first show, “Pinwheel.” Early versions of Doug in a bumper for USA Network and a PSA for Florida Grapefruit Juice narrated by Lorenzo Music.
2020-12-1857 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Little Drummer Boy🎄 Young Conan the Barbarian meets baby Jesus on this episode of the official holiday podcast for people who hate all humans — which, in 2020, is most of us. 🎙️ Brandon Medley and Michael May join the dance to the beat of our own drum back to 1968 and back into the Rankin/Bass universe for their stop-motion follow-up to “Rudolph.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This was Romeo Muller’s favorite Christmas special he wrote for Rankin/Bass. Also, that link on Rankin/Bass’s website is from 2003 and looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2003. Paul Frees voices of 8...
2020-12-1653 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Jack Benny Program - Jack Goes Christmas Shopping🎄 Wrapping, unwrapping, and rewrapping a bow on a comedy classic. 🎙 Guy Hutchinson joins us as we second-, third-, and fourth-guess ourselves back to 1960 to go Christmas shopping with Jack Benny, the last televised version of a longtime radio favorite. 🚨 Warning: In one scene, a character shoots himself offscreen. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The Television Academy Foundation on Jack Benny’s Christmas Shopping show, including a video interview with show writer George Balzer. The earliest “Christmas Shopping” recording I could find, from 1937. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, the progression of race relations, and his raceh...
2020-12-1453 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Christmas Raccoons🎄 We may all exist in the dreams of 2 kids and their dog. 🎙 Michael DiGiovanni and Christian Nielsen help us responsibly deforest our way back to 1980 to dig up the first appearance of early Disney Channel imports The Raccoons and the greedy Cyril Sneer. 📺 You can watch “The Christmas Raccoons” on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This special and an accompanying story album were narrated by Rich Little, a “Man of a Thousand Voices,” in his own, regular voice. Rupert Holmes (Forest Ranger Dan) is the singer/songwriter behind “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).”
2020-12-1257 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Weinerville Chanukah Special🕎 Marc Weiner and his puppets won’t stop screaming in Nickelodeon’s first Hanukkah special. 🎙 April Ryley joins us as we noisily snowmobile back to 1995 to try and figure out what everyone’s yelling about. 📺 You can watch “The Weinerville Chanukah Special” on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Weinerville.com is alive and well in 2020. Marc Weiner as Swiper the Fox and the Map in “Dora the Explorer.” Marc Summers on his OCD being “blown out of freakin’ proportion,” and why he dropped his given last name. Sour cream vs. applesauce for latke...
2020-12-1054 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Johnny Bravo Christmas🎄 A well-deserved punch in the face that’s a little bit rock ’n’ roll. 🎙 James Riley joins us on a last-minute flight to the North Pole to catch up with 2001’s “A Johnny Bravo Christmas,” a special that first aired less than 3 months after 9/11, on Pearl Harbor Day, and opens with Johnny unnecessarily calling the fire department to tell them he’s “the bomb.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “’Twas the Night,” a 1997 Johnny Bravo segment which this special accounts for in the show’s continuity… sort of. “Larry & Steve,” Seth MacFarlane’s proto-“Family Guy” short film before from befor...
2020-12-0854 min
Advent Calendar HouseBraveStarr - Tex’s Terrible Night🎄 Filmation’s space western gets a dickens of a backstory. 🎙 Joey O. and Sammy Hain saddle up for a Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House looking back at a 1987 Christmas episode of “BraveStarr.” 📺 You can watch “Tex’s Terrible Night” on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The Fisher-Price Western Town I used as a backdrop for the much larger Bravestarr action figure. Joey’s interview with Pat Fraley (Marshal BraveStarr). This episode uses flashback scenes from the movie “BraveStarr: The Legend,” which explains why the animation quality isn’t consistent. ...
2020-12-0647 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Christmas Toy🎄 Join us on a stroll down Jim Henson’s dark hall of nightmares to 1986 to rewatch “The Christmas Toy,” an idea no one has repeated since. 🎙 Beth Cieslik, Adam Jurotich, and Donnie Storms are the newest friends in the playroom who have to learn the horrors of getting caught out of place. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Kermit was cut from the DVD release, but he’s back in the version on Amazon Prime Video. Rugby crashing his skateboard into a block tower is the 1980s Muppet version of WWE’s Titus O’Neil tripping and slid...
2020-12-041h 26
Advent Calendar HouseChristmas Comes to Pacland🎄 Santa’s sleigh is grounded in the original video game crash. The Advent Calendar House kicks off another Christmas countdown by rewinding back to 1982, when Santa found himself stranded in Pac-Man’s neighborhood. 🎙 Lindy and Alicia join us for a stroll through “Christmas Comes to Pacland,” where no one knows about Christmas, but somehow the Ghost Monsters know the words to “Jingle Bells.” 🚨 Warning: Santa spoilers from 11:25 to 13:30. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Santa is flying with 8 reindeer, including Rudolph. Who got the night off? Why some reindeer actually have red noses.
2020-12-0250 min
Advent Calendar HouseGarfield’s Thanksgiving🦃 The Gaslighting of Dr. Liz Wilson. Join us as badly dancing back to 1989 to celebrate the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. 🎙️ Jeff Somogyi joins us to dig into “Garfield’s Thanksgiving,” the clear bronze medalist of Garfield’s holiday trilogy, thanks to Jon Arbuckle going from goofy pet owner to hopelessly inept creep. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Orson the Pig from “U.S. Acres” makes a cameo in Liz’s waiting room. The dumbest things we’ve done to get a date pale in comparison to Jon holding his breath until Liz conc...
2020-07-2356 min
Advent Calendar HouseG.I. Joe - Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town🎄 S-s-season’s greetings-s-s! You better watch out, because today we’re kindly rewinding back to a 1985 Christmas episode of “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero,”🎙️ Joey O. parachutes in for “Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town,” featuring the incredible shrinking Cobra troops and a giant parrot. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: We don’t even get 4 minutes into this before bringing up the U.S.S. Flagg. Then we get caught up in the Crossfire. A brief history of the G.I. Joe toy line, from “America’s Movable Fighting Man” to the Adventure Tea...
2020-07-2140 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Stingiest Man in Town🎄 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 and Michael May return to talk “The Stingiest Man in Town,” an animated remake of a made-for-TV musical, featuring the voices of Walter Matthau as Scrooge and Tom Bosley as our narrator, a literal talking Humbug. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on “The Alcoa Hour” starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. The original special on Sleigh Bell Cinema. Michael May’s...
2020-07-191h 02
Advent Calendar HouseThe Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold🎄 Sail back to 1981 as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special. 🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May stumble in to imbibe “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because Rankin/Bass had the rights to use the song “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the Jeopardy! guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, “The Astuter Computer Revue.” Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in “Mighty Morphin Power R...
2020-07-1751 min
Advent Calendar HouseSuper Mario Bros. Super Show - Koopa Klaus / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush🎄 Hey, paisanos! Join us as we warp back to 1989 for a double dose of Christmas segments from “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.” 🎙 Adam Pope joins us to watch Mario and Luigi save Santa in 2 different dimensions: 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. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Nintendo Power’s preview of “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.” I didn’t realize till recently the music in the “Back to the Future” Nintendo game is just “The...
2020-07-1552 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Halloween That Almost Wasn’t🎃 It’s the 13th of July, so it’s time for the Advent Calendar House to unearth one of our favorite Halloween haunts. 🎙️ Tommy Coombs flies in to talk 1979’s “The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t,” starring an exceptionally great Judd Hirsch as Count Dracula. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This was renamed for its VHS release as “The Night Dracula Saved the World,” except no, he doesn’t. Lyndhurst Mansion. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” was never in a Dracula movie. Wildwood, New Jersey’s Castle Dracula. Jack Riley (Warren...
2020-07-1347 min
Advent Calendar HouseInspector Gadget Saves Christmas🎄 Go-go Gadget podcast! It’s time to spring back to 1992 to take “Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas” in for questioning. 🎙 Chad Young accepts our assignment to investigate the time Dr. Claw took over Santa’s workshop for some reason. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Nick Knacks, a show-by-show video history of Nickelodeon. Halloween 1992 was the year of white kids dressing like Steve Urkel. Inspector Gadget’s run on Nickelodeon got me into “Get Smart” on Nick at Nite. The time Chad got a crew jacket from the set of the “Inspector Gadget” movie. ...
2020-07-1156 min
Advent Calendar HouseDeck the Halls with Wacky Walls🎄 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. 🎙️ Joey O. returns to talk “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! **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “The Dr. Fad Show.” Eight ’80s Xmas Specials You Might’ve Forgotten (Dinosaur Dracula, 2015) X-Entertainment’s preserved 2003 tribute to the Wacky WallWalker. This isn’t the right Apple Jacks commercial...
2020-07-0943 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Tale of the Bunny Picnic🐰 Hello, sunshine! Join us for a hop back to Easter 1986 to revisit the Jim Henson special, “The Tale of the Bunny Picnic.” 🎙 Emily Rowley hops into the guest chair for this special, which it turns out is about neither Easter, nor a bunny picnic… but it did introduce the world to Bean Bunny, the Muppets’ Nermal. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Jim Henson’s original intro to this special. “The Jim Henson Hour.” Bean Bunny in Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Bean was also a late-series addition to “Muppet...
2020-07-0751 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Real Ghostbusters - Xmas Marks the Spot🎄 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.”🎙 Tommy Coombs and Chad Young join the adventure after our heroes accidentally save Scrooge from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Hey, grown-ups! Remember getting lost while driving when we didn’t all have maps of the entire planet in our pockets? Scrooge pays the Ghostbusters a mint-condition shilling from 1837, so we looked up its actual value.
2020-07-0543 min
Advent Calendar HouseRudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July🎄 Mr. Snowman, I don’t feel so good. Rankin/Bass’s Avengers assemble in the studio’s longest holiday special ever. 🎙️ Brandon Medley returns to marvel at “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.” Frosty’s a dad! And Rudolph’s a fake uncle whose nose stops shining at the beginning of this story… but what happens to Frosty and his whole family is even worse. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: King Winterbolt’s genie of the ice scepter, allegedly Thurl Ravenscroft, is the stuff of nightmares. “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” may be the most metal Chr...
2020-07-031h 07
Advent Calendar HouseFrosty’s Winter Wonderland🎄 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,” the “Weird Science” of Christmas specials. 🎙️ Brandon Medley belly-whops in to salute this snowy sequel from 1976 starring a strange, tall goblin claiming to be Andy Griffith. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: A brief guide to finding obsure things on Disney+, like “Melody Time,” starring Dennis Day, (Parson Brown) as Johnny Appleseed. Barbara Jo Ewing voiced one of the kids in her only known credit, but somehow I...
2020-07-0144 min
Advent Calendar House30 Rock - Leap DayHow do you do, fellow holiday special enthusiasts? The Advent Calendar House has emerged from its slumber in the Mariana Trench a few months early to celebrate Leap Day! 🎙️ Joey O. joins the celebration of the “30 Rock” universe’s most important holiday. As such, nothing that happens in this episode counts, and we’re just your imaginary friends whom no one else can hear, because real life is for March. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Steve Buscemi, whose name I mispronounce right out of the gate, quotes himself at the 2020 Screen Actors’ Guild Awards. Steve Buscemi as Th...
2020-02-2952 min
Advent Calendar HouseRudolph’s Shiny New Year🎉 It’s a special, post-Christmas bonus episode for your oversized ears! 🎙 Joey O. and Brandon Medley help us turn back the years to 1976 and tip an oversized hat to “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year,” Rankin/Bass’s first sequel special, in which Rudolph has to save the Baby New Year from a big, angry bird. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Rudolph devolves into a younger-looking reindeer, because the original model may have been lost. But also he seems to forget he can fly. According to our narrator, Father Time (Red Skelton), this story begins “on that ve...
2019-12-3044 min
Advent Calendar HouseRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer🎄 It’s the 50th episode of the Advent Calendar House, so it’s time to address the spotted elephant in the room. 🎙 Joey O. and Brandon Medley fly in to tackle the 1964 Christmas special that put Rankin/Bass on the map and into our hearts. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Is Santa really this big of a jerk or just hangry? The History Channel on the creation of Rudolph. Mashable’s 12 ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ facts. Burger King and Hallmark’s Rodney Reindeer plushes, which at one point doubled as stockings.
2019-12-2457 min
Advent Calendar HouseShalom Sesame - Chanukah🕎 Kick off Hanukkah with the objectively better son from “Growing Pains” spinning bad puns like he made them out of clay. 🎙️Sarah Shay stops by as we shine a light on a 1990 episode of “Shalom Sesame,” an on-again, off-again co-production of “Sesame Street” and its counterpart in Israel, “Rechov Sumsum.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Shalom Sesame” on Muppet Wiki. 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...
2019-12-221h 00
Advent Calendar HouseChristmas in Tattertown🎄 Set your sentient clocks back to 1988 for a very wound-up and thrown out into a pile of junk in another dimension episode of the Advent Calendar House. 🎙 Chad Young joins us for a one-time-only trip to Tattertown, the holiday brain-child of Ralph Bakshi and Nickelodeon’s first-ever original animated TV program. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Christmas in Tattertown” sketches from Bakshi Productions. Nick Knacks on “Christmas in Tattertown.” Cameos by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Flip the Frog, and Popeye. Today’s TV Trope: The Up the Real Rabbit Hole. A shout...
2019-12-191h 05
Advent Calendar HouseSimpsons Roasting on an Open Fire🎄 Every unstoppable monster has a beginning. 🎙️ Erin Evans, Joey O., and Brandon Medley squeeze onto the couch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “The Simpsons” and its series premiere, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” or, as it was introduced to us in 1989, “The Simpsons’ Christmas Special.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The time I accidentally watched “The Tracey Ullman Show,” because I was too sick to get up and change the channel. We can’t talk about early Simpsons without mentioning Burger King toys, The Simpsons arcade game, and of course, “Do the Bartman.” Bart’s first...
2019-12-171h 07
Advent Calendar HouseMister Magoo’s Christmas Carol🎄 Of all the animated Christmas specials we have covered and will cover, this is the nearsighted granddaddy of them all. 🎙 Anthony Caruso and Julia Colburn from Tis the Podcast visit the Advent Calendar House for a very special Scrooge Sunday episode as we nearly-blindly fumble back to 1962 to celebrate “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” TV’s first ever animated Christmas special. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Jim Backus (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...
2019-12-1554 min
Advent Calendar HouseSealab 2021 - Feast of Alvis🎄 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. 🎙 Zac Shipley dives in as we feast on a very festive, very inappropriate 2002 episode of the Adult Swim cartoon “Sealab 2021.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Sealab 2020,” the very different, very boring original 1972 cartoon that serves as the butt of Sealab 2021’s joke. The usual Sealab theme song by Calamine is absent here to make room in the stable for the story of the birth of Alvis. The Ch...
2019-12-1340 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Glo Friends Save Christmas🎄 It’s Glo! Join Hasbro’s hive of bioluminescent bugs, the Glo Friends, in their own Christmas special from 1985. 🎙️ Erin Evans and Joey O. join forces as we learn how to selectively melt only certain ice we’re radiating near to save Santa (Carroll O’Connor), who’s been locked in an icicle cage by Blanche, the Wicked Witch of the North Pole (Sally Struthers), who’s jealous of Santa’s publicity. Take notes, Great Pumpkin… or, perhaps, don’t. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This was a pilot for an eventual series that aired alongside the original “My...
2019-12-1145 min
Advent Calendar HouseZiggy’s Gift🎄 Everyone’s after the little guy for no reason. 🎙️ Chad Young joins us for a short-statured trip back to 1982 to explore “Ziggy’s Gift,” a one-off TV Christmas special starring no one’s favorite funny papers hero and featuring a beautifully animated puddle of dog pee. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Ziggy’s Gift” on Dinosaur Dracula After Dark. “The Point,” a Harry Nilsson album turned into an animated movie. Ziggy’s toothpaste looks like Beetlejuice sandworms. Ziggy Theories: Is he adult Charlie Brown? A vegetarian? A guardian angel? The time Chad met Billy W...
2019-12-0951 min
Advent Calendar HouseCricket on the Hearth🎄 For its first Christmas special after the success of “Rudolph,” Rankin/Bass presented us with a Dickens of a story, but not that one. 🎙️ Brian Earl from Christmas Past podcast visits the Advent Calendar House to experience 1967’s “Cricket on the Hearth,” as told by Danny Thomas, featuring a bizarre, burlesque performance of a song about Fish ’n’ Chips, and a clearly implied, off-camera murder. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The history of legends about crickets on hearths bringing good luck. The full “Cricket on the Hearth” soundtrack is on YouTube. Christmas Past on Golden Age Chri...
2019-12-0747 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Wish for Wings That Work🎄 Opus the Penguin fails to take off in his own TV Christmas special from 1991. 🎙️ Erin Evans and Joey O. parachute in to rewatch “A Wish for Wings That Work,” starring Opus and Bill from the comic strip series “Bloom County” and “Outland.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This is based on a book version you can watch someone read to you on YouTube, if you’d like. “Bloom County” creator Berkeley Breathed was not happy with this special. He also confirmed the animators hid some naughty bits in the opening. Bill the Cat’s 1988 presidential ru...
2019-12-0553 min
Advent Calendar HousePinocchio’s Christmas🎄 The Advent Calendar House gets overrun by earworms strong enough to burrow into wood. 🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May drop in to help carve into a 1980 Rankin/Bass special starring that beloved Christmas icon… Pinocchio. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Two songs, “Dancin’” and “The Very Best Friend I Ever Had,” were cut from and later restored to TV broadcasts. “Starstuff,” a Philadelphia market, Saturday morning kids’ sci-fi TV series starring Todd Porter, the voice of Pinocchio. The most disappointing gifts we’ve ever received, including what Santa gave me after I allegedly misspelled “Alpha C...
2019-12-031h 04
Advent Calendar HouseMickey’s Christmas Carol🎄 Season 3 of the Advent Calendar House kicks off with a new regular feature: Scrooge Sunday, celebrating the many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.” 🎙 Lizzie Twachtman and Adam Pope drop in as we begin with Disney’s 1983 featurette marking the big-screen debut of Scrooge McDuck playing his namesake. 📺 You can watch “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” on Disney+. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Before Disney+, almost all of this film was hiding on Netflix at the end of “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. Adam’s well-preserved VHS copy. A 1974 Disneyland...
2019-12-011h 09
Advent Calendar HouseGarfield’s Halloween Adventure🎃 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 joins us to celebrate the special that turned a generation into scaredy cats. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Jim Davis wanted Garfield’s Halloween Adventure to “at least scare 4-year-olds” (The A.V. Club, 2014) 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. The first appearance of Binky the...
2019-10-101h 20
Advent Calendar HouseThe Muppets Valentine Show💝 Love and dynamite are in the air as I introduce 2 guests to an early pilot of what would eventually become “The Muppet Show,” guest-starring a pregnant Mia Farrow. 🎙️ Joey O. and Brian Arnold drop by as we fall head over heels for “The Muppets Valentine Show,” a 1974 TV special that misinformed me about where babies come from. 📺 You can find “The Muppets Valentine Show” on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “The Muppets Valentine Show” on Muppet Wiki. Jim Henson’s Red Book entry about getting this pilot green-lit by some guy at ABC named “Mike” Eisner. ...
2019-02-1348 min
Advent Calendar HouseChristmas Eve on Sesame Street🎄 It’s Christmas Eve, and we’re celebrating with the first Christmas special I ever remember watching, from 1978. 🎙️ Erin Evans and Joey O. help bring Advent to a close as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street,” in which Big Bird worries Santa’s unfit for skinny chimneys, Mr. Hooper spends his Hanukkah saving Christmas, and we get a possible clue into how to get to Sesame Street. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: My taped copy of this is interrupted in the middle by a WHYY telethon with Philadelphia TV legend Ed Cunningham.
2018-12-241h 04
Advent Calendar HouseALF’s Special Christmas🎄 Remember ALF? He’s back, in podcast form! 🎙️ Jeff Somogyi drops by 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. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The heartbreaking true story behind “ALF’s Special Christmas.” A study in human ignorance: Gordon Shumway has a name, which he’s told everyone, yet everyone still calls him HEY ALIEN! A study in wi...
2018-12-2357 min
Advent Calendar HouseTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - We Wish You a Turtle Christmas🎄 We unearthed a Christmas special so low-quality, it happens in a sewer. 🎙️ Shawn Robare from the Cult Film Club and Jonathan Zelenak from The Sewer Den drop in for a radically recollection of “We Wish You a Turtle Christmas,” a 1994 cash-grab video starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… or at least some version of them. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: About the Sewer Den, Jonathan’s massive TMNT collection, and his blog post about this special. The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour. The Turtles’ smiles look like they’re from Soundgarden’s “Black Hol...
2018-12-2255 min
Advent Calendar HousePee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special🎄 Tune in as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pee-wee Herman’s Christmas special the only way we know how: With lots of screaming, lots of fruitcake, and lots more screaming. 🎙️ Erin Evans, Lindy Kempe, and Joey O. call into the Podcast Phone to embrace the wackiest holiday party of 1988. 📺 The “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special” is available for free on YouTube. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 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...
2018-12-211h 22
Advent Calendar HouseMickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas🎄 In Part 2 of our Disney Christmas double feature, Mickey and the rest of the Fab Five — and Daisy, who’s somehow less important than the dog — enter the third-dimension. 🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive return for “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas,” the main mouse’s first 3D-animated special. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: If you haven’t been to a Disney theme park in the last year or two, Mickey has a different face now. The hippo and crocodile from “Fantasia” have names. Chuck McCann (Santa) was the Dreamfinder in the original J...
2018-12-201h 01
Advent Calendar HouseMickey’s Once Upon a Christmas🎄 Live from the Turducken Hunger Games comes Part 1 of a Disney Christmas double feature featuring Mickey Mouse and his pals. 🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive help me attempt to make sense of time, space, and the Disney fowl food chain as we watch Disney’s 1999 direct to video Christmas special. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Donald Duck’s comically enormous, fanmade family tree. Happy Duck to the Future Day! The “Quack Pack” intro will tell you everything you need to know about “Quack Pack.” Donald Jr., a tiny, semi-realistic du...
2018-12-1959 min
Advent Calendar HouseHe-Man/She-Ra: A Christmas Special🎄 By the power of Grayskull, the only holiday podcast with Battle Damage action is back to be nice, kind, and wonderful to 1985’s He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special, in which Skeletor’s heart grows three sizes. 🎙️ Brandon Medley and Chad Young are here to help me identify everyone at Eternia’s first ever Christmas party. And Brandon’s dog stops by because he heard us talking about the Beast Monster! **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 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.
2018-12-181h 25
Advent Calendar HouseA Pinky and the Brain Christmas🎄 Tonight in the Advent Calendar House, we’re doing the same thing we do every night… watchin’ a bunch of holiday specials! 🎙️ Joey O. and special guest Joey Letson from The Animanicast joins the mission to 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. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: This special won the 1996 Primetime Emmy award for outstanding animated program. Joey O. interviewed Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche. The Animanicast interview with Maurice LaMarche.
2018-12-1752 min
Advent Calendar HouseEmmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas🎄 Listen in as we gush over a 1977 Muppet Christmas special that probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves. 🎙️ Emily Rowley drops in to marvel at Kermit riding a bicycle, watch a drum roll out a door too many times to count, and rock out to the Riverbottom Nightmare Band. Pa would’ve loved this podcast. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Muppet Wiki has the lowdown of all 5 cuts of this. The official outtake reel and the one with the drum roll. Of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show. ...
2018-12-161h 07
Advent Calendar HouseSaved by the Bell - Home for Christmas🎄 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. 🎙️ Chad Young and Tommy Coombs drop in to watch Zack get way too shook upon learning the latest girl of his dreams is homeless. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Chad’s write-up on “Home for Christmas” from 2013. That time WWE’s Daniel Bryan got fired for choking out an announcer. Puppy Surprise, the dog that’s pregnant. Dustin Diamond’s terrible heel turn on “Celebrity Fit Club.” Homer Simpson bea...
2018-12-151h 03
Advent Calendar HouseBatman: The Animated Series - Christmas with the Joker🎄 Coming to you from Gotham City, it’s the podcast nobody wanted to see, but everyone will hear. 🎙️ Jay from the Purple Stuff Podcast and Joey O. drop in to spend Christmas with the Joker on a 1992 episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The crowdsourced origins of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells. More discussion on “Christmas with the Joker” on Batman: The Animated Podcast and The Arkham Sessions. Gotham City is in New Jersey. Mark Hamill’s original performance as Ferris Boyle in “Heart of Ice.” “Comic Book: The...
2018-12-1453 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Small One🎄 Part 2 of our Christmas donkey double feature presents a completely different origin story of the donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem. 🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Brandon Medley return to talk “The Small One,” Don Bluth’s last Disney project, released in front of the 1978 re-release of “Pinocchio.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The original book, “The Small One: A Story for Those Who Like Christmas and Small Donkeys.” “Dragon’s Lair.” The Land Before Time toys from Pizza Hut. Mouse in Transition: When Everyone Left Disney (Cartoon Brew, 2014) Don Bluth visited Walt Disney Animati...
2018-12-1341 min
Advent Calendar HouseNestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey🎄 Extend your ears as we revisit a lesser-known Rankin/Bass special from 1977 that unravels a new side quest to the Nativity story. 🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Brandon Medley droop in to salute “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey,” the first of a Christmas donkey double feature. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Roger Miller performing “Do Wacka Do” in 1966 with another guitarist, “Stubbs,” who’s wearing a Batman T-shirt. Roger Miller’s “Whistle Stop” in Disney’s “Robin Hood” is secretly the Hamster Dance. Tilly’s ascension back to heaven is strikingly similar to Poochie’s exit from “The Itchy and Scratch...
2018-12-1239 min
Advent Calendar HouseJingle Bell Rap🎄 We dug down like dogs to the bottom of the VHS bargain bin and found “Jingle Bell Rap,” an overlooked special from 1991 that had all the potential to become a Christmas classic, but none of the airtime. 🎙️ Chad Young drops in to introduce me to this special from Perennial Pictures, a studio that managed to spend the entire 1990s producing a whole slew of holiday specials I never knew about till now. 📺 You can watch “Jingle Bell Rap” in Tubi. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Jingle Bell Rap” on Perennial Pictures. Fruity Pebbles’ “Master Rapper...
2018-12-111h 03
Advent Calendar HouseMcDonald’s Holiday Commercials🎄 Lace up your ice skates for a look at 3 classic holiday commercials starring 3 different iterations of McDonald’s clown in charge: “Happy Holidays” (the ice skating one), “Star Wish,” and “Runaway.” 🎙 Joey O. swoops in just in time to convince me not to leave home and run away to McDonaldland, which is honestly tempting. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Grape jelly is good on Sausage McMuffins. Try it. McDonald’s Wiki, which exists, runs down all 7 versions of the ice skating commercial. Yes, there are 7, and they’re all on YouTube: 1982: the original, with King M...
2018-12-1042 min
Advent Calendar HouseChristmas at Walt Disney World (1978)🎄 It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s “Christmas at Walt Disney World.” 🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive drop in to watch 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. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents:
2018-12-091h 43
Advent Calendar HouseJohn Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together🎄 Merry Christmas, little Zachary. Enter the void as time, space, and reality blur around the 1979 TV special accompaniment to my favorite Christmas album of all time, “John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.”🎙️ Carlin Trammel and Bill Hanstock join the celebration of peace on Earth and good will to men, women, chickens, bears, Dizzy Gillespie, and Missy Piggy. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Bill’s Uncle Deadly tattoo. Pro-wrestler and “Muppets Most Wanted” cast member Hornswoggle’s Muppet tattoo. The Muppet Show Season 4 DVD promised at 2009’s D23 Expo, but which never came. M...
2018-12-081h 13
Advent Calendar HouseWill Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration🎄 In 1987, the California Raisins missed their bus, then made a sleigh out of garbage and flew it into space. 🎙️ The Advent Calendar House welcomes Erin Evans, Joey O., and Emily Rowley to join in the raisiny reindeer games that make up Will Vinton’s “Claymation Christmas Celebration,” the greatest holiday special out of all holiday specials hosted by clay dinosaurs. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: RIP Will Vinton (1947–2018), the creator of “capital-C” Claymation who may or may not have inspired Leap Day William, and who was still alive when we recorded this. Vinton also worked special e...
2018-12-0750 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Garfield Christmas Special🎄 Let’s have a good, old-fashioned Christmas down on the farm in 1987’s “A Garfield Christmas Special,” featuring the voices of Squiggy and Ursula. 🎙️ The Advent Calendar House welcomes Jeff Somogyi as we contemplate lasagna as a Christmas food, go long on the dinner prayer, and wonder how Binky, “The Clown Who Saved Christmas,” saved Christmas. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Joey O. interviews Gregg Berger, the voice of Odie. Dinosaur Dracula identifies all the presents in Garfield’s dream. Better “Weird Al” Yankovic Christmas song: “Christmas at Ground Zero” or “The Night Santa Went Crazy”?
2018-12-061h 15
Advent Calendar HouseThe Life and Adventures of Santa Claus🎄 From the author of “The Wizard of Oz” comes one of the craziest Santa origin stories ever. 🎙️ Brandon Medley and Paxton Holley stop by to witness Rankin/Bass go off the rails in its last-ever stop motion animated Christmas special, 1985’s “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, based on the 1902 book by L. Frank Baum, which explains a lot. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Santa Claus’s growth to manhood, from J.D. Roth to Mumm-ra, and the rest of the Thundercats are here, too! L. Frank Baum’s original book on the Internet Archive, in e...
2018-12-051h 08
Advent Calendar HouseLamb Chop’s Special Chanukah🕎 Hanukkah is here, so here’s a 1995 special starring sock puppets hanging out with Mr. Miyagi, the dad from Growing Pains, and the mayor of Gotham City. 🎙️ Sarah Shay returns to the Advent Calendar House to reintroduce me to “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah,” which miraculously brings together Pat Morita, Alan Thicke, and Lloyd Bochner as both dinner guests and computer-generated, one-dimensional superheroes. There’s now a better copy of “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah” on YouTube. The one we watched for this podcast was from some guy holding his iPad’s camera up to a TV. Check out Sarah...
2018-12-041h 21
Advent Calendar House’Twas the Night Before Christmas🎄🐭 It’s the one with the mouse. Turn back the clock till it goes kerplunk — or kerplooey — to make some time for Rankin/Bass’s 1974 retelling of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas from the perspective of the mouse and his know-it-all nerdy son. 🎙️ Joey O. is in the Advent Calendar House to do what’s necessary, ’cause even a miracle needs a hand. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The worst thing we’ve broken that ruined multiple peoples’ day. We prepared for this episode by listening to Green Day’s “Kerplunk!” South Park’s cover of “Even a Miracle Needs...
2018-12-0341 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Star Wars Holiday Special💫 Get ready to blast off for space church as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special! 🎙️ Lizzie Twacthman joins our exploration of the farthest point from the bright center of our favorite galaxy far, far away. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Some folks are in space for the benefit of nobody” (SB Nation, 2015) Our disappointment that Chewbacca’s family didn’t show up in Solo, but at least we got L3-37, who was great. High praise for the animated segment, marking our introduction to Boba Fett and the return of Luk...
2018-12-021h 02
Advent Calendar HouseHow the Grinch Stole Christmas🎄 It’s time once again to count down to Christmas Eve, starting with 3 versions of Dr. Seuss’s classic Christmas tale from 1966, 2000, and 2018. 🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May drop by as all 3 Mikes compare and contrast 3 very different Grinches. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.,” Dr. Seuss’s first — and last — feature film screenplay. DiGio discovers Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” was also Tony the Tiger. Grinchmas, the annual Christmas celebration at Universal Studios Hollywood and Islands of Adventure in Orlando. “How Murray Saved...
2018-12-011h 11
Advent Calendar HouseChristmas Podcast Network Crossover / Season 2 Teaser🎄 It’s time to dust off the cobwebs and get the Advent Calendar House ready for Season 2, featuring a new episode every day from December 1 through Christmas Eve, 2018. In between commercial teasers for all 24 episodes coming in Season 2 (though not necessarily in order) the members of the all-new Christmas Podcast Network share stories of Christmas music traditions: **** 🎙 Guests: Brian Earl (Christmas Past) Tim Babb (Can’t Wait for Christmas) Craig Kringle (Weird Christmas) Duane Bailey (Tinsel Tunes) Joseph Wade (Christmas Creeps), with Libby Cudmore Anthony Caruso, Julia Colburn, and...
2018-11-2234 min
Advent Calendar HouseWitch’s Night Out🎃 The Advent Calendar House presents a dazzling display of magical mischief. 🎙️ Chad Young creeps in to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Witch’s Night Out,” an often remembered, then forgotten, then re-remembered Halloween classic from 1978. 📺 You can watch “Witch’s Night Out” on Tubi. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: WitchsNightOut.com, the official website. Anytown Series, a planned sequel, and other holiday specials in development. Toys “R” Us TV commercial from 1980, featuring ”the Big Bird Halloween costume and the Yoda Halloween costume.” Ghostbusters Fright Features action figures. Whatever Happened t...
2018-09-241h 02
Advent Calendar HouseThe Adventures of the American Rabbit🎆 We’re back for a surprise summertime episode on the 1986 animated movie, “The Adventures of the American Rabbit.” 🎙️ Chad Young from the Horror Movie BBQ joins our cross-country adventure through a star-spangled box-office bomb from Fred Wolf Films and Toei Animation, starring the voices of Donatello, Garfield, Baby Piggy, and King Triton. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The late Stewart Moskowitz’s archived gallery and current website, operated by his family. Too-Loose, the Chocolate Moose. Ping Pong, the Gorilla who ate Garfield. **** “The Adventures of the American Rabbit” © 1985 Wolfki...
2018-07-031h 13
Advent Calendar HouseThe First Easter Rabbit🐰 We’re back! This surprise springtime episode covers the 1976 Rankin/Bass special, “The First Easter Rabbit,” which despite its name and main theme, still relies heavily on Christmas. 🎙️ Brandon Medley hops by to discuss this special’s very obvious and very uncredited connection to “The Velveteen Rabbit,” Easter Valley’s odd location next door to the North Pole, and Rankin/Bass’s habit of giving bad directions. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: They named the talking snowball “Br-r-ruce,” a joke I didn’t notice until just now! **** “The First Easter Rabbit” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, In...
2018-03-3053 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Christmas Carol Cast Draft🎄 In our Christmas Eve season finale, the Advent Calendar House is haunted by 3 spirited guests — Sue London, Jonathan MacFarlane, and Joey O. — as we each draft our own casts of “A Christmas Carol” from a pool of characters from Christmas past. **** 🎩 “A Christmas Carol” versions mentioned, in chronological order: 1951: Scrooge (starring Alastair Sim). 1954: Shower of Stars’ A Christmas Carol. 1962: Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. 1970: Scrooge (musical, starring Albert Finney). 1978: Rich Little’s Christmas Carol. 1979: Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol. 1983: Mickey’s Christmas Carol. 1984: A Christmas Carol (starring George C. Scott). 1986: T...
2017-12-241h 22
Advent Calendar HousePennsylvania Lottery Christmas Commercial🎄 Joey O. returns to the Advent Calendar House bearing the gift of his favorite regional holiday commercial. Join us as we spend 17 times the length of a 30-second lottery commercial talking about the spot that had a whole commonwealth singing “Five Cash Fives!” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The original Pennsylvania Lottery Christmas Commercial from 1992. The updated commercial from 2012, remade shot-for-shot like 1998’s Psycho. PA Lottery’s Holiday Ad Gets Makeover (CBS Philly, 2012) “Move Closer to Your World,” the greatest broadcast news theme song ever composed. Philadelphia Eagles fans’ longing for kelly g...
2017-12-2108 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Rugrats Chanukah🕎 In the Advent Calendar House’s first Hanukkah episode, we follow the Rugrats on their mission to stop the “Meanie of Chanukah” and make him take a nap. 🎙️ Sarah Shay joins the search and helps count all the misspoken “babyisms” along the way. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Sarah’s top 2 favorite spellings of “Hanukkah.” E.G. Daily (Tommy) as Dottie in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” A tale of 2 panics: Babies climbing up to open flames vs. babies trying to blow out Hanukkah candles. Stu’s giant, tacky menorah vs. the Miami Marlins’ home run cel...
2017-12-181h 03
Advent Calendar HouseFruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial🎄 Ho-ho-ho, I’m hu-hu-hungry! Fill your soul with season’s greetings and another batch of cereal commercials from Christmas past. 🎙️ Uh-oh, here comes Joey O. to revisit a collection of seasonal ads for Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, starring Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: The main attraction: This Fruity Pebbles Christmas commercial, circa 1986, and a redubbed version with Jim Cummings as Santa from the early ’90s. An older Fruity Pebbles Christmas commercial, dated 1980. A Newer Cocoa Pebbles “Christmas Carol” commercial. “I’m the Master Rapper and I’m here to say, I lo...
2017-12-1410 min
Advent Calendar HouseThe Gift of Winter🎄 Trudge back to 1974 as we dig up a rare gem, “The Gift of Winter,” which introduces a colorful cast of characters from Anytown, better known from its Halloween sequel, “Witch’s Night Out!” 🎙️ Chad Young from the Horror Movie BBQ joins the quest for an audience with Old Man Winter alongside pre-“Saturday Night Live” Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd. 📺 You can watch “The Gift of Winter” on Tubi. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Treatments for a whole Anytown Series, which includes sequel stories for Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day. Whenever Bazooey’s not on...
2017-12-1151 min
Advent Calendar HouseHoney Nut Cheerios Scrooge Commercial🎄 The taste of nuts and honey thaws Scrooge’s icy heart in this 30-second portrayal of Scrooge for a Christmastime cereal commercial. 🎙️ Joey O. stops by to share a sufficient helping of customary gruel as we squeeze every last drop of honey out of this commercial, officially titled “Ebenezer Scrooge Discovers Honey Nut Cheerios,” which ran from around 1987 through at least the end of the 20th century. Addendum: Thanks to Guy Hutchinson for identifying our Scrooge as actor Bill Gavin! **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: A tale of two Buzz Bees: “It’s Christmas,” vs. “It’s th...
2017-12-0708 min
Advent Calendar HouseA Muppet Family Christmas🎄 How many Muppets can fit inside a farmhouse? We took a head count. It’s a lot. 🎙️ Carlin Trammel from Nerd Lunch stops by the Advent Calendar House to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of “A Muppet Family Christmas,” the shredded wheat and cranberry sauce of TV specials. Together, we try and piece together the various home video cuts over music rights, and wrap around heads around the dizzying continuity issues surrounding the Muppet Babies. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Can you say “OshKosh B’gosh”? A milk PSA and the world’s most forward-thinking bullie...
2017-12-0458 min
Advent Calendar HouseFrosty the Snowman🎄 Happy birthday! Join us as we begin our salute to all holiday specials, but mostly the Christmas ones by attempting to answer questions no one asked about the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special, “Frosty the Snowman.” 🎙️ Brandon Medley joins the parade as we try to find out how hard it is to escape a locked greenhouse, when something you throw away stops legally being yours, and how long it would actually take to write, “I am very sorry for what I did to Frosty” a hundred zillion times. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Oatmeal is a perfectly adorable na...
2017-12-0136 min