Anthony Caruso

🎄 It’s 1996, and we’re holding our football-shaped heads high on a quest to find our neighbor’s long-lost daughter… but first, a pair of highly sought after Nancy Spumoni snow boots!  🎙 Anthony Caruso from Tis the Podcast and Matt Eurich from TGI Podcast join us for a very special Christmas episode that solidified “Hey Arnold!” as an unforgettable Nicktoon.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The story behind the iconic Vietnam Episode of ‘Hey Arnold!’ (NBC News, 2021)  Arnold’s Claymation origins: “Arnold Escapes from Church” (1988)  Arnold Uses His Imagination on “Sesame Street.”  Helga in “Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.”  The “Pollyanna,” Philadelphia’s hyper-local Secret Santa.  Mr. Hyunh’s banana wallpaper.  Mr. Hyunh’s flashback includes the iconic helicopter image from the Fall of Saigon.  One-Legged Bob, the Affable Railroad Tramp.  Hey, grown-ups, remember dot matrix printers?  Hiep Thi Le’s life could’ve been a movie; instead the refugee became a star playing someone else (Los Angeles Times, 2018)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Talkboy Voice Recorder from “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”  ****  “Hey Arnold!” and “Arnold’s Christmas” © 1996 Viacom International, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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.  Scrooge’s nephew is cut entirely to make room for a song about Broadway that sometimes also gets cut entirely.  The ghosts of Christmas Present and Past show up out of order for no clear reason, but an A.V. Club article from 2012 tried to find one.  Tiny Tim is an English-speaking Gerald McBoing-Boing.  This special invented a flavor! Razzleberry pie is now a thing that exists, made with raspberries and blackberries.  The Ghost of Christmas Past looks like Toon Link.  The last surviving member of the cast, Marie Matthews (Young Scrooge), was on a 2009 panel revisiting the special.  Is Belle’s hair supposed to look like an actual bell?  ****  “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol” © 1962 UPA Pictures, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 Thom Crowe (Tis the Podcast)  ****  Find us at adventcalendar.house.