All Episodes

🎄 It’s 1991, and Santa Claus is fighting with a talking dog over a park bench.  By some Christmas miracle, this obscure special was rediscovered over 30 years later. For years, people on the Internet tried to identify it on a TV in the background of an old family photo, until finally, thanks to the power of positivity, it was identified as “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light.”  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Jeff Somogyi join us as we meet the intergalactic Soulmates in what seems like a pilot that never got off the ground.  📺 You can watch “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” for free on YouTube, courtesy of the special’s creator, Gabrielle St. George.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original Tumblr post: “Can You Figure Out Who This Is?” by Sophie Campbell (2016)  Will Sloan’s tweet of the screenshot, September 2022.  CBC News: Canadian cartoon mystery finally solved after 6 years, thanks to the internet (2022)  “The Littles,” for comparison.  Today’s TV Trope: Mind-Control Eyes.  Soulmates Productions, Inc. defaulted in 2007.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Canadian Tire: Scrooge / Nintendo Action Set Commercial (1991)  Pop Tarts Commercial starring Dan and Dave (1990)  Remember That Show?  ****  “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” © 1991 Soulmates Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandma is surrounded by dancing chickens.  It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with some extremely bizarre adventures.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson from Pointless Nostalgia and Tim Lybarger from The Neighborhood Archive join us for the wacky adventures of a mysterious Music Man and A Very Young Dancer.  📺 You can watch “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” at MisterRogers.org.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” on The Neighborhood Archive.  “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History,” co-written by Tim.  Frances Bay (Mrs. Hamilton) in “The Karate Kid.”  Today’s TV Trope: Hollywood Giftwrap.  Mr. Rogers and François Clemmons sharing a wading pool.  Lesser-known Christmas hymns “The Friendly Beasts,” “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” and “My Sheep Were Grazing.”  Was Music Man Stan from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” inspired by the Music Man from this special?  “The Littlest Angel” (1969)  Chuck Ozeas (Andrew) is now a director of photography.  “A Very Young Dancer” and The Life That Followed (2011)  Stephanie Selby’s obituary (2022)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells Commercial (1989)  Dirt Cheap Liquors Chicken Commercial.  Closer to Christmas.  ****  “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” © 1977 Family Communications, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 After spending 3 months locked in a water tower, the Advent Calendar House has escaped in time for Christmas Podcast Day, a fake holiday originally made up for a hashtag back when social media was slightly less stupid.  It’s not Scrooge Sunday, but the theme for this year’s Christmas Podcast Day is “A Christmas Carol,” so I’m playing a long, but also cheating a little by covering both segments of a 1993 Christmas episode of “Animaniacs.”  🎙 Erin Evans and Joey O. join us for a totally insane-y Christmas Podcast Day-ny!  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Animanicast.  Animaniacs Wiki entry for this episode.  Sherri Stoner (Slappy Squirrel) was the live action reference model for Disney princesses Ariel and Belle.  “A Christmas Plotz: The Hip-Hop Musical.”  Jess Harnell (Wakko) sang the Taz-Mania theme.  Jess Harnell’s band, Rock Sugar.  Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  Today’s TV Tropes: Sensational Staircase Sequence and Scooby Stack.  Baby Jesus is in a thatched-roof cottage.  Kathryn Page’s gag credits.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Animaniacs McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys (1994)  Snow in Southtown.  ****  “Animaniacs,” “A Christmas Plotz,” and “Little Drummer Warners” © 1993 Warner Bros.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  “Christmas Podcast Day” song by Tim Babb from the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast. Parody of “Weasel Stomping Day” by “Weird Al” Yankovic.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we watched a cavemen take over Santa’s job after he fell off the roof in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  This time, our reunion tour of previously podcasted-about characters makes its final stop of the season in Bedrock, where Fred Flintstone is letting the lead role of “Ebonezer” Scrooge go to his head.  🎙️ “Ant-stony” Strand and “Mi-coal” May join us as we watch Wilma do the workload of I lost count of how many victims of the highly contagious Bedrock Bug. We also make the strongest case yet that this Modern Stone-Age Family does, indeed, know about who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “A Flintstone Family Christmas,” from a year before, was the last appearance of adult Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.  “The Flintstones & WWE: Stone-Age Smackdown!”  The latest we’ve waited to shop for our spouses.  A grown-up Philo Quartz from “The Flintstone Kids” appears here and then never again.  The Piltdown Man hoax.  How big is the stage, and how are the actors playing ghosts appearing translucent?  They added a “love scene” with Belle, and Maggie Magma is way too excited about it.  Brian Cummings (Ernie/The Ghost of Christmas Present) did a weird Kermit the Frog voice in a promo for “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.”  Other Dickens characters have headstones in the graveyard.  IMDb credits Rip Taylor as the voice of a Venus flytrap tuba in the orchestra pit.  (These show notes originally included a link to vote on which version of “A Christmas Carol” we’d cover for Christmas Eve! Here’s what won.)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cocoa Pebbles “Christmas Carol” commercial (1998)  “Dinner & a Movie” makes standing rib roast with “Rockshire” pudding (1996)  ****  “A Flintstones Christmas Carol” © 1994 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🦃 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we let the goofy alien puppet with the jokes toy with our emotions in “ALF’s Special Christmas.”  This time, ALF teaches us about Melmac’s version of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he’s already eaten the turkey, but there might still be some  sweet potato pie in the garage, with the homeless man.  🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us around the Fappiano table as we aim a spoonful of squash back to 1988 for a very special, 2-part Thanksgiving episode.  📺 Watch “Turkey in the Straw” Part 1 and Part 2 on ALF’s official YouTube channel.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ALF ruined Willie’s best belt to make his Thanksgiving pageant headdress.  Oh no, Tom brought up Gerbert.  Melmac’s version of Thanksgiving is named for Bob Fappiano, ALF’s assistant puppeteer.  ALF trying to eat wax fruit reminded me of Rizzo in “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”  I’m sad to report “Das Cornucopia, from Wagner Strauss’s ‘Der Feaster Famine,’” is not real.  Is turkey really an aphrodisiac?  What football game were the Alien Task Force agents watching?  Chad still has his ALF doll from Burger King.  ALF co-hosting the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Nobody Beats The Wiz Super Thanksgiving Sale (1985)  Fan Fix-tion.  ****  “ALF” and “Turkey in the Straw” © 1988 Alien Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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.  Ray Owens (Simeon) as the voice of Superbook, and Jesus in “The Flying House.”  Zero Mostel (Brutus) on “The Muppet Show.”  “Money Money Money” (not the song from “Mamma Mia!”)  How bad is Brutus compared to the other Rankin/Bass Christmas villains?  “Do You Hear What I Hear?” was written during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Our favorite recordings of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Copeland, the Mike Sammes Singers for Disneyland Records, and one by Spiraling that invokes The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Kodak XL Movie Camera: “One Christmas” (1976)  Holly Jolly X’masu, your podcast destination for Japanese Christmas music. ****  “The Little Drummer Boy, Book II” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Hanukkah on “Shalom Sesame,” and even uncovered the oddity, “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.”  This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas.  🎙 Becca Petunia and Anthony Strand from ToughPigs.com drop in to watch Elmo’s wish for Christmas Every Day cause economic and environmental disaster in a star-studded special narrated by Maya Angelou and featuring Harvey Fierstein as the Easter Bunny and “Doc Hopper,” himself, Charles Durning, as Santa.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Brats of the Lost Nebula.”  Early “proto-Elmo” appearances.  Miss Piggy’s cookbook has a recipe by Maya Angelou.  Baby Bear is Jewish.  14 Karat Soul sings “Down Below the Street.”  Cookie Monster disguised as Ernie.  A petition to remake “White Christmas” with Elmo and Rosita’s military veteran dads.  This special’s unique News Flash logo.  The soundtrack that’s not actually a soundtrack.  Big Bird sings “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but not THAT one.  Elmo as the ring bearer at Luis and Maria’s wedding.  Ranking all the jokes in “Elmo Says BOO!”  Bert and Ernie meet their “It’s a Wonderful Life” counterparts.  ****  📼 Commercials:  “Elmo Saves BOO!” (1997)  Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.  ****  “Elmo Saves Christmas” © 1996 Children’s Television Workshop.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we saved Punky Brewster’s Christmas spirit in “Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus.”  This time, join Punky in 1985 on an animated adventure in which Punky and pals visit Santa’s workshop and accidentally start Christmas too early.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us on an instantaneous trip to the North Pole courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Comparing the original sitcom’s theme song to the cartoon’s theme.  Galoob made a plush Glomer.  Adam’s VHS cover has a very off-model Glomer.  The Master Christmas Switch’s effect on time reminded me of the “Futurama” episode “Time Keeps on Slippin’.”  Punky taught Adam how to wink.  Santa drops off the kids on the roof again, just in like in “Frosty the Snowman.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Story of Phroomf commercial featuring baseball star Bob Boone (1986)  WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “It’s Punky Brewster” and “Christmas in July” © 1985 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎃 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we flew a sleigh made out of a dumpster into space with the California Raisins in “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”  This time, we’re reanimating a creepier creation of his from 1991 — a Halloween special that premiered in May for some reason.  🎙 Sammy Hain and Chad Young join us for “Claymation Comedy of Horrors,” starring the scheming Wilshire Pig on a quest to uncover the secret lab of Dr. Frankenswine.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  IMDb’s photo gallery from this special.  “The Adventures of Mark Twain.”  Todd Tolces’ website and YouTube résumé.  Michele Mariana (Wilshire) on “Sesame Street” as Cecile, the singing ball of clay.  Herb from Burger King.  Will Vinton wanted to build a theme park called Claymation Station with Wilshire Pig as its Mickey Mouse.  Raphael opened the floodgates for characters made for children saying curse words.  Sheldon the Snail bears a passing resemblance to The Noid.  A closer examination of the bathroom graffiti.  Today’s TV Trope: Removable Shell.  Does Famine’s business card say he’s from Limbo, Illinois?  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s Coke Float Commercial, 1991, aired during this special.  Another Zelda Podcast.  ****  “Claymation Comedy of Horrors” © 1991 Will Vinton Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we were Dreaming of a White Ranger with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.   This time, they’re away helping Santa, so Zordon surprises Alpha by teleporting in a bunch of children for a Christmas party.  🎙️ Andre Bennett and C.J. Belanger joins us for a very bonkers Power Rangers home video, plus a mini tribute to the late Jason David Frank, who’s seen as both the Green and White Ranger here because nobody cares about continuity during Christmas, I guess.  📺 You can watch “Alpha’s Magical Christmas” on YouTube, preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Chosen Sentai Jetman.”  “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always.”  Morphed: Cheryl Saban’s Journey from Beach Bunny to Philanthropist.  The real-life Command Center: The House of the Book at the American Jewish University.  Baby Groot and the bomb that will kill everyone.  Andre proves “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club Video (1994)  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Fan Club (1994)  The Magic of the Season.  ****  “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and “Alpha’s Magical Christmas” © 1994 Saban Entertainment, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, our hearts and golden harmonicas went out to “A Chipmunk Christmas.”  This time, it’s Scrooge Sunday, so get set to have some fun in this Dickens of an episode of “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”  🎙️ Tommy Coombs and Sean Sotka joins us in Hollywood — or at least a nearby cartoon suburb where Alvin turns his greed up to 11 and blames it on his lonely old neighbor who doesn’t know how to plant a garden.  📺 You can watch “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” on Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” on Munkapedia.  Pee-wee Herman’s breakfast machine.  “Paperboy,” the video game.  “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  Dads with trash bags on Christmas morning.  “A Chipmunk Reunion.”  A Seville family portrait featuring Dave’s abnormally large head.  Mickey Mouse’s 1980s Epcot spacesuit.  Today’s TV Trope: Sounding It Out.  Southern California’s Blizzard of 2023.  “Here Comes Christmas,” the TV version, and the album version.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Chipmunks are Coming to Target (1990)  Cool Kids Club.  ****  “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” © 1989 Bagdasarian Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🫓 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we helped our favorite talking babies stop a true meanie in “A Rugrats Chanukah.”  This time, we’re ignoring the rules of another long-standing tradition as “Rugrats” reimagines the story of Passover.  🎙️ Sarah Shay and Zach Gozlan join us as we witness grown men throwing temper tantrums and ending up locked in the attic.  📺 I found this special hiding in a 4-hour VHS recording of Nick on CBS from 2003.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Pilot House on “I Dream of Jeannie,” which would not be seen the night this premiered.  Fact-Checking “Fact-Checking A Rugrats Passover.”  As of this recording, the Sultan of Brunei in 1995 is still sultan.  “Noozles,” which co-starred Cheryl Chase (Angelica) and was not “The Adventures of the Little Koala.”  The 4 categories of Jewish holidays.  Melanie Chartoff (Didi, Minka) as the principal in “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.”  The controversy over Boris and Minka’s design.  “The Song That Doesn’t End” from “Lamb Chop’s Play Along.”  The Maxwell House Haggadah.  A Haggadah of Our Own.  “Bible Adventures.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Country Crock Spreadable Sticks (1994), featuring Jack Riley (Stu).  Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards (2003)  The Studio Demands It!  ****  “A Rugrats Passover” © 1995 Viacom International Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we witnessed goodness make the badness go away in “The Smurfs’ Christmas Special.”  This time, we’re taking a one giant puppy open sleigh ride back to 1987 to spend another Christmas with the Smurfs.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Donnie Storms join us to help the Smurfs save Christmas for a poor human toymaker and his gravely ill wife, while Brainy and Hefty get lost in medieval Crime Alley.  📺 You can watch “’Tis the Season to be Smurfy” for free on YouTube, or an upscaled version including the opening credits.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Look at the adjective…”  The crazy backstories of the Smurfs’ Puppy and Sassette.  The Great Cookie Thief.  New and improved Joker products!  Painter Smurf paints like “Duck Amuck.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Smurf-Berry Crunch Cereal (1983)  Bad Princess Movies.  ****  “’Tis the Season to be Smurfy” © 1987 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

💝 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we visited the Easter Bunny’s underground nightmare factory in “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise.”  This time, it’s 1982, and love and hockey are in the air we get all warm and fuzzy with the Bear Family’s Valentine’s Day capers.  🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas joins us as Brother Bear gets stalked by a secret admirer, and his Papa’s public displays of affection send him into orbit.  📺 You can watch “The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” for free on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Broad Street Bullies.  Totally Rad Christmas on Chuck E. Cheese.  Homer Simpson’s rabbit trap.  The bottom brick scene in ”Bloodsport.”  A set of clips from this special set to “Let’s Hear It for The Boy” by Deniece Williams.  ****  📼 Commercial:  McDonald’s Berenstain Bears Happy Meal Toys (1986)  ****  “The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” © 1982 Joseph Cates Co., Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s the Advent Calendar House’s 10th season, and to celebrate, every episode is revisiting familiar faces and places already covered on the podcast.  Previously, we spent Christmas with the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.” This time, we’re returning to the 1997 premiere of the redesigned, rebranded “New Batman Adventures.”  🎙️ Andre Bennett and Joey O. join us on a festive tour of Gotham City through the Joker’s hideously redrawn eyes.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Batman Adventures Holiday Special original comic.  “Welcome to Our OOL.”  Dark Night: A True Batman Story, by Paul Dini.  Arleen Sorkin on “America’s Funniest People,” a her appearance as a jester on “Days of Our Lives” that inspired her casting as Harley Quinn.  Kevin Conroy on being recognized while volunteering after 9/11.  “Finding Batman,” by Kevin Conroy, from DC’s Pride 2022.  Paul Dini’s original cel from Harley and Poison Ivy’s shopping spree.  Tim Drake’s animated debut, and a shocking Muppet tangent.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Batman and Alfred Diet Coke Commercial (1989)  Festive Foreign Film Fans.  ****  “The New Batman Adventures” and “Holiday Knights” © 1997 Warner Bros.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 2002, and we’re trapped in a horrifying world where Kermit the Frog doesn’t exist.  🎙 Lindy Kempe, Adam Jurotich, and Erik Johnson join us for a spectacular, spectacular Christmas Eve extravaganza starring Kermit in the George Bailey role of the Muppets’ perfectly silly take on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” also featuring Joan Cusack, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, the cast of “Scrubs,” and Whoopi Goldberg as God, Herself.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Muppet Wiki’s list of similarities between this special and 2011’s “The Muppets.”  Joe Snow.  Hoggle from “Labyrinth” at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  Director Kirk Thatcher as the punk on the bus in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and ”Picard.”  Jonathan Bruce, who’d later appear in “Elf.”  Deleted scenes include more of Carson Daly, Santa, and a lost cut scene with Snoop Dogg.  The giant Bossmen Muppets.  A scheduling conflict robbed this movie of actual Steve Irwin.  Fozzie as “that green guy who stole Christmas.”  Today’s TV Tropes: Celestial Bureaucracy, Laser Hallway, and Lampshade Wearing.  The Yoda Muppet has his own Muppet Wiki entry.  So does Amy, the Dancing Brick!  The World Trade Center in alternate timeline Piggy’s apartment window, and that’s not the worst part of that scene.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mastercard Priceless Getaway Sweepstakes Commercial starring The Muppets (2002)  Acid Washed Memories, a retro pop-culture celebration podcast starting January 9, 2023.  ****  “It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie” © 2002 The Jim Henson Company.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 2012, and I found a 60-year-old tangerine under a floorboard in my bedroom that’s the perfect size for a snowman’s nose… or is it?  🎙 Adam Parker Sibun from Merry Britsmas joins us for another walk in the air back to 2012 for the charming sequel to the British Christmas classic, “The Snowman,” by the now-late Raymond Briggs.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  I finally got a copy of the original Raymond Briggs book!  UK Christmas’s “The Snowman” TV listing history.  Raymond Briggs hails Christmas sequel to his Snowman classic (The Guardian, 2012)  Billy has a picture of Fungus the Bogeyman in his room.  The Snowman finds a 1960s toy Batmobile in the shed. Maybe it lost a wheel.  A newer version of Andy Burrows’s “Light the Night.”  An older version of Andy Burrows’s  “Hometown.”  “Funny Looking Angels,” a 2011 Christmas Album by Smith & Burrows.  ‘Walking In The Air’ composer told to send a demo tape for The Snowman sequel (NME, 2012)  London landmarks seen in the special.  Let’s start building more creative snowmen with orange slices for ears and asparagus spear mustaches.  The Snowdog Art Trails around the UK, including Snowdog sculptures displayed in Brighton.   ****  📼 Commercial:  IRN-BRU Snowman Advert, 2011.  ****  “The Snowman and The Snowdog” © 2012 Snowdog Enterprises Ltd.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🕎 It’s 1998, and we’re praying for a miracle after getting stuck in a snow bank on the side of a dark highway with only an eighth of a tank of gas.  🎙 April Ryley joins us on an enlightening revisit to the Flashy Girl from Flushing on her first Hanukkah as a married woman. Also, Ray Charles is here!  📺 You can watch “The Hanukkah Story” for free on Facebook.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  April visits the Sheffield residence, and so can you.  Fran Drescher in “UHF.”  Fran Drescher says she had to fight to let ‘The Nanny’ be Jewish (L.A. Times, 2020)  Benjamin Salisbury (Brighton) on “Teen Celebrity Jeopardy” in 1997.  Daniel Davis (Niles) on “The Fran Drescher Tawk Show” in 2010.  Max’s childhood memory of his dad at Christmas reminded me of Bruce Wayne’s long dining room table.  What to do if you’re stranded in a car during a winter storm.  Kenny Rogers Roasters still exists, but only in Asia.  ****  📼 Commercials:  3 Musketeers Commercial starring Fran Drescher (1998)  Hyrule Podcasters, an audio “Let’s Play” through The Legend of Zelda.  ****  “The Nanny” and “The Hanukkah Story” © 1998 Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co. Medien KG.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 Castle.”  Patton Oswalt on My Little Pony.  Patton Oswalt literally on My Little Pony.  “It’s a Pony Kind of Christmas,” featuring characters who don’t celebrate Christmas singing Christmas songs, so the show’s composer had to clarify it wasn’t canon.  The mysterious “Derpy,” a.k.a. Muffins.  A short tangent about “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” air fresheners.  Today’s TV Trope: And You Were There.  A scene was cut featuring Discord in the Jacob Marley role.  He’s not in this episode, but there’s a character named Cheese Sandwich who is literally “Weird Al” Yankovic as a pony.  Bin takes roll call at the Hearth’s Warming Eve party.  ****  📼 Commercials:  My Little Pony Dream Castle Commercial (1983)  The Hub Network: 12 Days of Ponies Promo (2014)  ****  “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” and “A Hearth’s Warming Tail” © 2016 Hasbro Studios.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1973, and a musical cricket is about to save the Christmas spirit during New York City’s quietest power failure.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni join us for a one-cat open sleigh ride into Chuck Jones’s beautifully animated sequel to “The Cricket in Times Square.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A very insightful Letterboxd review.  Name That Christmas Special’s screenshot gallery for this special.  Today’s TV Trope: Bully Bulldog.  Mel Blanc’s voice for the Alley Cat sounds his voice for Clarence the Cat in “Birds Anonymous.”  DiGio introduces me to Yorkshire pudding.  “Down by the Old Mill Stream.”  The similar “Joy to the World” segment from “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”  The final Classic Film Jerks movie, “Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers).”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mel Blanc American Express Card Commercial (1971)  Rediscover the 80s podcasts, including The 80s Weekly and Memory Jogger.  ****  “A Very Merry Cricket” © 1973 Chuck Jones Enterprises.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.