Adam Pope

🎄 We wrap up Christmas in July with an old-fashioned scary ghost story.  🎙️ Adam Pope and Donnie Storms join the trip aboard the Mystery Machine back to 1984 for Scooby-Doo’s very first Christmas special, in which the gang tries to save an orphanage with the power of pageantry, and stop the mysterious Ghost of Christmas Never.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries opening was riding the “Thriller” wave.  Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue.  Mr. Wizard and the Talking Head Illusion.  Our experience with Christmas pageants, including some unfortunate elementary school play featuring the song, “Santa Claus, Santa Claus, you are much too fat.”  The elf costumes look like Tingle.  The Mystery Sleigh!  Go-Gurt + Scooby-Doo = Ro-Gurt!  Today’s TV Trope: Read the Fine Print.  The Scooby-Doo Character Reference Guide.  “The PTA has disbanded!”  The Little Rascals (1994) boys crash the ballet.  Mr. Burns collapses on a sundial after being shot.  Scooby Apocalypse.  Adam’s stitched Scooby-Doo portrait.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Kodak Disc (1984)  Remember That Show?  ****  “The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries” and “The Nutcracker Scoob” © 1984 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s Christmas Eve 1986, and the only way Drew Barrymore can save her new friends is to believe in the magic of toys… and Cincinnati.  🎙 Molly Patton, Becca Petunia, and Adam Pope join us for a bonkers adaptation of “Babes in Toyland” from director Clive Donner and starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Richard Mulligan as a weird, evil guy who lives in a bowling ball.  📺 You can watch “Babes in Toyland” on Tubi, the 3-hour original broadcast with commercials, or the unofficial “Director’s Cut” without ads.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Misfits in Toyland (NSFW), an unrelated horror-comedy webcomic.  Keanu Reeves (Jack) on “Going Great” (1985)  Googy Gress (Georgie) in “Wayne’s World 2.”  Today’s TV Trope: And You Were There.  The Cookie Jar House of South Jersey.  The Undertaker’s entrance at WrestleMania IX, in the middle of the afternoon.  Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (and Tripping Daisy’s cover of theme song).  The Toymaster’s Santa coat looks like Belle’s from “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.”  Was It Great, or Were You 8?  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s: Recital (1986)  Give ’Em All a Little Pat of Butter (1986)  TGI Podcast  ****  “Babes in Toyland” © 1986 The Finnegan Company.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1992, and there’s no such thing as Buster Bunny.  🎙 Adam Pope, William Bruce West, and Chad Young help the Advent Calendar House wrap up Christmas in July with the unofficial series finale of “Tiny Toon Adventures,” when Buster wishes he’d never been on the show, and the horrors within Montana Max’s Biff Tannen Pleasure Palace or whatever.  📺 I found this special hiding in a 4-hour Christmas special compilation on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Meet the Tiny Toons” in the special edition magazine “Bugs Bunny: He’s 50, Folks” (1990).  “The Chipmunks Go to the Movies.”  Tony Pope (God) as Goofy in “Watch Out for Goofy” (the theme song for Adam’s 2 Goofs Podcast) and as the first voice heard in “Back to the Future.”  John Kassir (who voices Buster in this episode) as the Crypt-Keeper in RD’s Retro Detention Halloween Specials in 2019 and 2023.  Today’s TV Trope: Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.  Jacoby & Meyers and a 2-minute-long tangent about personal injury lawyer commercials.  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming role as Santa in “The Man with the Bag.”  American Express Commercials with Mel Blanc and Jim Davis.  Bugs Bunny may have been voiced by an uncredited Noel Blanc, Mel’s son, for a single line at the end.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Godzilla: The Series Promo (1998)  Toy Story: Holiday TV Spot (1995)  ****  “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special” © 1992 Warner Bros.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  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.

🎄 It’s 1984, and all we want for Christmas is our mom back.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us for a roller coaster of emotions from sad raindrop to beautiful snowflake as we turn around back to 1984 with Punky Brewster during her very special, very crucial first Christmas with her new family.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  I totally missed the 2021 “Punky Brewster” revival series on Peacock.  Ami Foster (Margaux) in “Wrinkles in Need of Cuddles.”  The Punky Brewster Wiki exists and is very helpful.  What do you mean, “Nobody would want A Bomb for Christmas?”  “Santa Claus Lives in Santa Cruz” is a very obscure single that may or may not have been written for this episode.  “I’ve Got the Sun in the Morning” from Annie Get Your Gun.  Today’s TV Trope: Santa’s Existence Clause.  ****  📼 Commercials:  NBC’s One to Grow On interstitial with Soleil Moon Frye, circa 1984.  Wizards! The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “Punky Brewster” and “Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus” © 1984 NBC Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1978, and we’re glued to the TV… whether we like it or not.  🎙 Molly Patton and Adam Pope join us as we catch the next reindeer flight to save Santa’s workshop from being taken over by a palette swapped Wile E. Coyote.  ****  “Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure” and The Greedy.  Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog, in example: “A Sheep in the Deep.”  The Gloopstik Corporation’s address on Google Maps.  Santa’s Reindeer species profile by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  The Star-On and Star-Off machines from “The Sneetches.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  1978 M&M’s Christmas Commercial.  A Cozy Christmas.  ****  “Raggedy Ann” and “Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper” © 1978 The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Hey, paisanos! Join us as we warp back to 1989 for a double dose of Christmas segments from “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.”  🎙 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 Power of Love” sped up.  “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons,” a live-in-studio spinoff show local to Los Angeles and hosted by King Koopa, performed at one point by Chris Latta, a.k.a. Christopher Collins.  Captain Lou Albano’s Wrestling Hotline 1-900 number.  We map out where Mario and Luigi lived in Brooklyn.  “Stunt Dawgs,” an obscure 1992 cartoon featuring Harvey Atkin playing another character with the same King Koopa voice.  “Teeter-totter” vs. “see-saw.”  How tall is Mario? Captain Lou was 5-foot-10, though other sources range from 5-foot-1 to 3-foot-8.  Preview of Super Nintendo World, coming to Universal theme parks.  Finally, I get to talk at length about The Legend of Zelda!  Adam’s SequelQuest episode on the Super Mario Bros. movie, featuring a parody of the Super Show theme song.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Pepsi Nintendo Holiday Game (1989), preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.  Nintendo Power Commercial (1990), preserved by RobertDigitalGames.  Christmas Clatter.  ****  “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” “Koopa Klaus,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush” © 1989 DiC Entertainment.  “Super Mario Bros.” © Nintendo Co. Ltd.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Season 3 of the Advent Calendar House kicks off with a new regular feature: Scrooge Sunday, celebrating the many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.”  🎙 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 Records LP called “Dickens’ Christmas Carol,” Alan Young’s first recording as the voice of Scrooge.  Mickey Mouse’s very detailed, fanmade family tree.  Siskel and Ebert’s 2 Thumbs Down review.  Goofy as Marley’s ghost at Disneyland.  Mickey’s Christmas Carol animatronic window displays in the Magic Kingdom.  We identify every Disney background character at Fezziwig’s party and lament the absence of Pluto from this entire thing.  Quick shout-outs to Totally Minnie and “Disney’s DTV Romancin’” Valentine special.  Willie the Giant as the Ghost of Christmas Present carefully wandering through the tiny streets of London calls back to the ending of “Fun and Fancy Free,” Disney’s 1947 package film featuring “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” which is also on Disney+.  Your now-annual reminder that Pete has been a cat this entire time.  ****  Mickey’s Christmas Carol ©1983 Disney.  Opening Music: “Christmas Was Better in the ’80s,” by The Futureheads, ©2010 Nul Records.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.