All Episodes

🎄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.  🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas, Matt Spaulding from North Pole Radio, and Jeff Loftin from the Lost Christmas Podcast 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.  📺 You can watch “Jack Frost” on Tubi.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Toei Animation’s “The Little Mermaid” (1975)  Gilbert Gottfried on his favorite death scene: Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello in “Bud and Lou.”  Today’s TV Trope: Inevitable Waterfall.  The Christmas tradition of “dream presents” is like the dinner scene from “Hook.”  February 2 is Candlemas, the 40th day of Christmas.  ****  📼 Commercials:  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.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #1970s #rankinbass

Let’s all go to the taco show!  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.  🎙 Erin Evans and Joey O. get dressed up in buttons and boys to look into 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Kelsey Grammer in “Mr. St. Nick” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve.”  Our adventures on the mid-1990s internet, when it was All About the Pentiums.  “Frasier” episodes ranked on Variety, Frasier Online, and Thrillist.  “When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold” from “The Pirates of Penzance,” in which Leap Day becomes a plot point.  Oleg Cassini and the worst title card gag.    KACL is a real radio station, but not in Seattle.  “Rigoletto” and the aria “Ella mi fu rapita / Parmi veder le lagrime.”  Kelsey Grammer sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Philadelphia.    “Buttons and Bows,” as sung by Bob Hope in “The Paleface” and by Leap Day baby Dinah Shore.  Adam “Edge” Copeland talks “Money Plane” on Hey! (EW).  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s “Morning Break” Commercial starring Kelsey Grammer (1995)  Remember That Show?  ****  “Frasier” and “Look Before You Leap” © 1996 Paramount Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #1990s #leapday

🎄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! 🎙 Erin Evans, Joey O., and Anthony Strand join us for a Dickens of a celebration with 1984’s TV movie adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” starring George S. Scott, along with the 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”  George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.  Wikipedia and NO ONE ELSE names one Cratchit child “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.  Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Return of the Jedi.”  “It’s Corn,” and My favorite “Futurama” joke.  Scrooge’s grave, allegedly a real, reinscribed headstone, at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.  Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.  ****  📼 Commercials:  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).  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  “Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #scroogesunday

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  🎙 Bill Hanstock 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.  📖 Check out Bill’s book, “We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This special opens with a typo: The sign reads “Yellystone Park.”  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.  Hanna-Barbera’s Christmas Sing-A-Long album, featuring songs from this special.  Yogi was in “Casper’s First Christmas” in 1979, so this isn’t really Yogi’s First Christmas.  Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial episode (2017)  The Wonkamobile.  ClickHole: “Which One of My Garbage Sons Are You?” Clickhole, 2014.  Eddie the Eagle.  Mickey Mouse’s shirtless (and hatless) Steamboat Willie winter look at Disneyland.  “Mean, Sour, Crafty, and Cruel” in “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” and “Smurfs.”  The Zone of Death in the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho.  “Christmas Is Here” in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cocoa Krispies Snagglepuss “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Commercial, circa 1963.  Bad Princess Movies.  ****  “Yogi’s First Christmas” © 1980 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #hannabarbera

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.  🎙️ Tori Schmidt and Tony Whitaker 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Great Santa Claus Switch” on Muppet Wiki.  ToughPigs.com’s transcript of the special (2004)    Jim Henson, Thog, and Lothar on “The Dick Cavett Show” (1971)  Taminella Grinderfall in “Tales of the Tinkerdee.”  Jim Henson’s Red Book entries on the special’s casting and debut.  Tony’s art of the Two-Headed Monster as the Miser Brothers.  So Many Muppets Are Named Fred.  Daniel Seagren as Spider-Man on “The Electric Company.”  Richard Hunt as Elmo.  Snarl, the Frackle who would become Gonzo.  My Emmet Otter’s Teenage Mutant Jug-Band Christmas T-shirt.  We have dubbed the green Frackle who looks like Thig with a beak and horns “Theg.”  “This Is Halloween” in a Sesame Place parade.  “8 Balls of Fur.”  Stop calling them “Muppeteers.”  ****  📼 Commercial Break:  FritoLay Holiday Party Display Commercial (1970)  “Noëlco” Razor Santa Commercial (1970)  Merry Britsmas.  ****  “The Great Santa Claus Switch” © 1970 Sullivan Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1970s #muppets

🎄It’s 1983, and the Worst Kids in the World are taking over the church Nativity play, smoking in the ladies’ room, and helping themselves to the sacramental grape juice.  🎙 Scott Leopold from Holly Jolly X’masu and Bob Baker from Festive Foreign Film Fans join us as we meet the Herdmans in a classic Christmas story turned TV movie starring Loretta Swit from “M*A*S*H” and a young Fairuza Balk in her on-screen debut.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Today’s TV Tropes: It’s the Best Whatever, Ever and Title Drop.  Author Barbara Robinson wrote 2 sequels: “The Best School Year Ever” (1994) and “The Best Halloween Ever” (2004).  Fairuza Balk (Beth) in “The Waterboy.”  Loretta Swit (Grace) interview: “Meanest kids in town make the best pageant,” AP via The Free Lance-Star, 1983.  Jason Michas (Leroy) as Johnny Arcade in “The Power Team” animated segment from Season 1 of “Video Power.”  Antony Holland (Reverend Hopkins) as Dr. Light — er, “Wright” — in “Captain N: The Game Master.”  Ocean Hellman (Alice) in “Danger Bay,” which keeps coming up this season.  ****  📼 Commercial:  Duracell “No Longer Under the Christmas Tree” Commercial (1983)  Festive Foreign Film Fans.  ****  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” © 1983 Comworld Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #nativity

🎄It’s 1994, and the Jeffersons are poisoning Metropolis with greed spray from toy atomic space rats.  🎙 Gerry Davila, Paxton Holley, and Jeeg join us on an unpredictable flight through the first Christmas episode of “Lois and Clark,” written by Dean Cain and starring Sherman Hemsley as the Toyman and Isabel Sanford as his reluctant assistant, plus Denise Richards, Dick Van Patten, Doug Llewellyn, and terrible special effects.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  C.T. brings up this episode and Jeeg seals his fate on Nerd Lunch’s “Nerdstradamus 2013 Redux.”  Winslow Schott’s plan to dump his greed toxin into Metropolis’s water supply is similar to Scarecrow’s plan in “Batman Begins.”  Progressive Insurance “Barbie” Commercial.  Denise Richards (Angela) in “Tammy and the T-Rex.”  Eddie Jones (Jonathan Kent) in “A League of Their Own.”  Christmas at Graceland.  Totally Rad Christmas on “It’s Gary Shandling’s Christmas Show” featuring Dom Irrera (Hecklebaum).  Homer Simpson licking poisonous toads.  Today’s TV Trope: Anticipatory Breath Spray.  “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by The Pretenders.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Burger King Holiday Disney Glasses Commercial (1994)  Children First “Read a Book” PSA featuring Brett Butler (1994)  Totally Rad Christmas. ****  “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and “Season’s Greedings” © 1994 Warner Bros. Television.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1990s #dc #comics #warnerbros

🎄It’s 2001, and a magical partridge is sending me on a coat drive for some kind of Karate Kid-style Santa training.  🎙️ Andre Bennett and Tim Babb join us for a ride in our light blue ’54 convertible as we take a joyride through the very last and most overlooked Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a mostly black cast starring Patti LaBelle, Gregory Hines, and a criminally underused Eartha Kitt as a talking cat.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This special was co-written by Suzanne Collins, who went on to write “The Hunger Games.”  The other co-writer, Peter Bakalian, also has a book series. It’s called “The F.A.R.T. Diaries.”  Patti LaBelle in Philadelphia’s “Get to Know Us” tourism campaign, 1985.  Patti LaBelle on “Sesame Street” singing “How I Miss My X.”  IMDb’s photo gallery for “Santa, Baby!” is full of high-quality promotional images.  RankinBass.com’s first look at “Santa, Baby!” from December 2001.  Gregory Hines in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Running Scared.”  Rankin/Bass finally includes “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” in a Christmas special.  Natalie Toro (Samson) lists “Santa Baby!” on her bio page.  Andre’s uncle co-wrote K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s “Wake Up” Breakfast Commercial featuring Patti LaBelle (1990)  Can’t Wait for Christmas.  ****  “Santa, Baby” © 2001 Perisphere Pictures, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #2000s #rankinbass

🎄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 Christmas Horror Movies.  The Vault of Horror No. 35 (1954) “And All Through the House” segment of the 1972 “Tales from the Crypt” movie.  HBO Feature Presentation opening (1983)  John Kassir (The Crypt-Keeper) in a commercial for The Legend of Zelda (1987)  Mary Ellen Trainor (Elizabeth) and Lyndsey Whitney Barry (Carrie Ann) in “Back to the Future Part II.”  Today’s TV Trope: Tempting Fate.  Elizabeth calls the operator because 9-1-1 was only available in about half the U.S. by 1989.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Crypt-Keeper’s Ghoulish Guide to the Howlidays on Kids’ WB (2001)  Holidays After Dark.  ****  “Tales From the Crypt” and “And All Through the House” © 1989 Tales From the Crypt Venture.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s

🎄 It’s 1979, by way of 1933 — or the other way around — and the human from Fraggle Rock has broken into my garage with a haunted choir of singing children.  🎙️ Scott Leopold from Holly Jolly X’masu and Tommy Coombs join us as we turn the dial on our haunted time-traveling radio to find Henry Winkler at the height of his fame as the Fonz hiding under multiple layers of makeup as a Scrooge figure in Depression-era New England.  📺 You can watch “An American Christmas Carol” for free on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Henry Winkler interview on being asked to play a Scrooge figure.  The Ford Model TT truck.  Dorian Harewood (Matt Reeves/Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) filling in for James Avery as Shredder.  Today’s TV Trope: Recursive Fiction — and “The Identical.”  Robin Williams on “Sesame Street” showing Elmo different ways to play with a stick.  “Sister Kenny,” based on the true story of an Australian nurse.  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s Gift Certificates Christmas Commercial (1979)  Holly Jolly X’masu, your podcast destination for Japanese Christmas music.  ****  “An American Christmas Carol” © 1979 Scrooge Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1970s #scroogesunday

🕎 It’s 2003, and a team of Hebrew school basketball players think they’ve found the ghost of Judah Maccabee in a random guy living in a van.  🎙️ April Ryley and J.W. Friedman join us for a Disney Channel Original Hanukkah Movie very, very loosely based on the true story of former college basketball star Lamont Carr and a yeshiva’s struggling team looking for a leader.  📺 “Full-Court Miracle” is available on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Lamont Carr’s obituary in Virginia Magazine (2017)  Psychocandy, an experimental pop duo of Cassie Steele (Julie) and Jase Blankfort (Stick).  UVA’s Athletics website circa 2003.  Alex’s prized Dr. J basketball card isn’t even a rookie card and isn’t that valuable.  “Jewball,” a novel featuring the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association basketball team.    Sadly, the only upload I could find of the hip-hop cover of the Dreidel song is a smartphone recording of a TV playing this movie.  This basketball movie’s NBA star cameo is provided by Jerome Williams.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Microsoft Encarta Commercial (1995)  Returning Student.  ****  “Full-Court Miracle” © 2003 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #2000s #hanukkah #disney

🎄 It’s 1987, and someone stole Santa Claus in the middle of his hot dog break.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Emily Rowley join us as we follow a renowned novelist who may or may not be a teenager and her animated mouse writing partner on a quest find out who kidnapped a department store Santa, while we solve the mystery of how anyone remembers this Christmas special that only aired once.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Dick Van Patten’s shout-out in “Wayne’s World” and cameo in “Robin Hood: Men In Tights.”  Darcy Marta (Jill) on Totally Rad Christmas.  Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse dancing in “Anchors Aweigh.”  Jill’s Miami Mice poster — no relation to the “Sesame Street” parody of the same name.  Donald O’Connor (Alex) in “Singin’ in the Rain.”  Helen Hughes (whoever the woman who answers Jill’s door is supposed to be) in “Billy Madison.”  Today’s TV Trope: 555.  Francis Dambeger’s (Jerry) 1991 film “Solitaire,” and its solitaire review on IMDb.  The realistic looking toy gun predates the same federal law that forced Nintendo to recolor its Zapper orange.  ****  📼 Commercials:  7up Christmas Commercial (1986–1987)  Wild Puffalumps Commercial (1987)  The Magic of the Season.  ****  “A Mouse, A Mystery, and Me” © 1987 Ruby-Spears Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1987 #rubyspears

🎄 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.  #s11 #1990s

🎄 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.  #s11 #1970s

🎄 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.  #s10 #1990s #scroogesunday #warnerbros #nativity

🎄 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.  #s10 #1990s #scroogesunday #hannabarbera #flintstones

🦃 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.  #s10 #1980s #thanksgiving #alf #puppets

🎄 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.  #s10 #1970s #rankinbass #nativity

🎄 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.  #s10 #1990s #muppets #christmaseveryday

🎄 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.  #s10 #1980s #rubyspears