Erin Evans

🎄 “This just in: Santa Claus is dead… or he might as well be, because there’s an even fatter man who’s holding families at nice-point!”  ’Tis the Advent Calendar House’s 15th season, so this December’s dozen begins with a similarly titled episode of “The Simpsons” from 2003.  🎙️ Shane Keating from ToughPigs.com, Erin Evans, and Joey O. join the mission to stop being selfish and start being good.  📺 As of this recording, “’Tis the Fifteenth Season” (Season 15, Episode 7) is available on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This episode premiered the day after Saddam Hussein was caught.  Marge’s couch gag anime costume: Jun the Swan from “Gatchaman.”  “How Low Can DVD Players Go?” (New York Times, 2003)  Kathy from Personnel.  The Joe DiMaggio rookie card is real.  Today’s TV Trope: Art Shift — “Christmas with the California Prunes” and “The Year Santa Got Lost,” animated by the Chiodo Bros.  Animaniacs’ 50 State Capitals.  Of course I looked up the astrolabe’s coordinates.  Convoy, and the cover by Sifl & Olly.  Operation: The Simpsons Edition.  The first on-screen appearance of Nelson’s mom.  The end of “Treehouse of Horror IV.”  Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television — and America — Forever, by Alan Siegel.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991)  Butterfinger - The Power Cut (1993)  A Bomb for Christmas 2: Past, Present, and Future on the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Simpsons” and “’Tis the Fifteenth Season” © 2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🌴 In Part 2 of our “Futurama” Xmas double-header, we meet the only thing worse than an evil robot Santa… two evil robot Santas.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms return for 2001’s “A Tale of Two Santas.” ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Box Car Blues” (1930).  Santa’s Death Fortress sure looks like Elsa’s ice palace.  Coolio’s final acting role before his death was a return as the voice of Kwanzaa-bot.  An ode to Musicmatch Jukebox and our turn-of-the-century mp3 albums we’re still holding onto.  My favorite joke in all of “Futurama.”  “I’m Spartacus!”  ****  📼 Commercials:  America Online Keyword: eBay (2001).  A Bomb for Christmas: A made-for-podcast Christmas movie featuring your old pal, me.  ****  “Futurama” and “A Tale of Two Santas ” © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🌴 The Advent Calendar House has awoken from what feels like a thousand-year slumber and a lame April Fool’s joke. As a peace offering, here’s the first of two back-to-back episodes celebrating Xmas as imagined by “Futurama.”  🎙️ It’s extra crowded in the cryogenic chamber as Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms drop in for 1999’s “Xmas Story,” in which we’re introduced to the annual tradition of gift-giving and shelter-taking from a killer robot Santa Claus that awaits our descendants in the year 3000.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Fresh Hare” (1942).  Orange Cassidy sleeping through his own wrestling match.  “Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ Instead of ‘Ask,’ and Why Some Still Do” (NPR, 2013).  “Why is the number 1,729 hidden in Futurama episodes?” (BBC, 2013).  The classic dangling from a clock tower scenes from “Safety Last” and “Back to the Future.”  John Goodman’s other appearances as Santa.  Randy Johnson hits a bird with a fastball.  Corona Extra’s Christmas palm tree commercial.  The lyrics to “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” are sinister enough by themselves.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hess Truck 1999 Space Shuttle Toy.  Stick to Shorts: A Classic Cartoons Podcast.  ****  “Futurama” and “Xmas Story” © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1990… or 1962… and a quantum physicist forgot to powder his boss’s underwear.  🎙 Erin Evans and Joey O. join us for a Scrooge Sunday involving time travel of a different sort as we follow Dr. Sam Beckett on a mission to save a mission, and the soul of the man trying to tear it down.  🚨 Warning: This episode briefly discusses the death of actor Charles Rocket and the would-be death of his Scrooge-like character, Michael Blake.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Episode guide on Al’s Place.  A Christmas story from the Quantum Leap comic: “He Knows If You’ve Been Bad or Good.”  Charles Rocket drops an F-bomb on “Saturday Night Live.”  “Bringing in the Sheaves” on “The Simpsons” and “Batman” (1966).  Polish Christmas desserts piernik and makowiec.  Al’s Ghost of Christmas Future costume looks more like Jacob Marley mixed with the Ghost of Christmas Past from “Scrooged.”  Goldie Wilson III from “Back to the Future Part II.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Squarbles (circa 1987)  Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “Quantum Leap” and “A Little Miracle” © 1990 Universal City Studios, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

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.

🎄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.

🎄 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.

🎅 It’s the 100th episode of the Advent Calendar House, and what better day than Christmas Eve to return to the World of Rankin/Bass?  🎙 Erin Evans, Michael DiGiovanni, Michael May, Brandon Medley, and Joey O. join us as we put one foot in front of the other back to 1970 to revisit a Christmas classic that dares to answer children’s questions about Santa Claus while illegally opening his mail.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Both IMDb and Wikipedia had the premiere date wrong because of a typo in an old book. Rich Goldschmidt’s “The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and The Daydreamer” gets it right.  Former pro-wrestler Special Delivery Jones (no relation).  Burgermeister Meisterburger is a dead ringer for Mauser from “Police Academy 2.”  Hey, IMDb, I highly doubt the Greg Thomas voicing young Kris Kringle grew up to play the saxophone in Parliament Funkadelic.  For a while, Topper was renamed Waddles.  Kris’s weird face he makes after being caught by the Winter Warlock’s angry trees.  Save the Earth from Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.  Weddings on Christmas Day used to be popular.  The first known recording of the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and our favorite versions.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Folgers Coffee: Peter Comes Home for Christmas (1982)  ****  “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” © 1970 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 misheard.  Dan Castellaneta’s Postman voice sounds like his Robot Devil.  “You’re no Jack Kennedy.”  Bullwinkle tried to kidnap my baby.  R U Talkin’ R.E.M. Re: Me?, formerly U Talkin’ U2 to Me? and currently U Talkin’ Talking Heads 2 My Talking Head?  Michael Stipe on “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.”  The pope gets a Phillies hat.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Amazon.com Christmas Countdown Commercial (1999)  Santa by the Minute.  The Christmas Podcasts Podcast.  ****  “Olive, the Other Reindeer” © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 Butterfinger commercial.  Al Jean’s 5 favorite Simpsons episodes (The Wall Street Journal, 2014)  Animator Eric Stefani had already founded some band with his sister while working on this episode.  The crowdsourced origins of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” and the “like a light bulb!” interjections to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  Real, intentionally unfinished “Moth” tattoos.  The tattoo artist was retroactively named Mervin Monroe, Dr. Marvin’s younger brother.  Early, strange in hindsight prototypes of Springfield citizens, including a more competent Ralph Wiggum, a cockier Milhouse, and a Ned Flanders who says, “Happy holidays.”  The time Brandon cut down his own Christmas tree.  My guest appearance on the Two Bad Neighbors podcast for “Marge Be Not Proud.”  ****  “The Simpsons” and “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” ©1989 20th Century Fox Television.  Closing Music: The Simpsons Theme, performed by Green Day, ©2007 Reprise Records.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 Little Pony & Friends.”  A helpful guide to identifying every Glo Friend.  Nancy Cartwright was the voice of Baby Glo Worm in the series, but in this pilot, it’s Laurie O’Brien doing her Baby Piggy voice.  Joey interviews Pat Fraley (Glo Worm) on his later performance as Krang.  Glo Worm’s purple outfit here, as opposed to the original toy’s green outfit, was apparently a “source of controversy,” according to Wikipedia.  Can all antlered mammals fly if you go far enough north?  Lorenzo Music doing a weird, nervous lisp instead of his usual Resting Garfield Voice™.  Santa sings the least bluesy blues song ever while his reindeer do Rockettes kicks.  More of Mike’s thoughts on The Glo Friends Save Christmas on the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Glo Friends Save Christmas” ©1985 Hasbro, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 run, including the other candidates trying to translate the song “Louie Louie.”  Joey interviews Michael Bell (Opus).  “The Ant and the Aardvark” starring John Byner (Bill).  Surprise cameos by Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, who may or may not have walked over from the set of “Hook.”  Larry Walters has a flying lawn chair and a BB gun.  “Lost Horizon.”  “A Frog Thing,” a children’s book with a very similar plot, but less Christmassy.  Opus plushes with Santa hats are pretty easy to find on eBay.  ****  “A Wish for Wings That Work” ©1991 Universal Cartoon Studios, Inc. / Amblin Entertainment, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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.  The Count’s amazing ice-skating cape.  The wibbly-wobbly physics of Oscar’s trash can.  Olivia married the Predator.  A cameo by Mr. Macintosh.  If you want to go read about Northern Calloway (David) and his off-screen troubles and tragic death, proceed with caution.  The adorable 2-year-old girl too little for her own vocabulary trying to explain that Santa pushes a magic button to go down chimneys is now in her 40s.  “Don’t Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”  An oral history of Mr. Snuffleupagus’s revelation as not imaginary.  Oscar holds a broom like it’s Not His Broom.  Ernie’s pajamas look like the background of the “Trololo” video.  Joey makes my Christmas by assuring me I didn’t imagine “The Candy Apple News Company.”  ****  🏌️‍♂️ After This Episode:  Listen to my guest appearance on the Two Bad Neighbors podcast discussing my favorite Christmas-adjacent episode of The Simpsons, “Marge Be Not Proud.”  Then go relax or take a nap or something. Hope you enjoy your Christmas!  ****  “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” © 1978 Children’s Television Workshop.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 (but probably not) on Ice Cube’s “Good Day.”  One commercial break includes a bizarre Pringles commercial starring a young Brad Pitt.  “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.”  When did fruitcake become a punchline? Christmas Past has something of an answer. Or is fruitcake a byproduct of the Joys of Jell-O era? The working script and storyboards for this special.  Who mailed Grace Jones to the Reagan White House?  Pee-wee in “Back to the Beach.”  The King of Cartoons’ cartoon: 1936’s “Christmas Comes But Once a Year.”  My feelings about snow mirror this one, particular Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, published 5 days after this special aired.  The awkward moment when we realize the Dinosaur Family has a pet dinosaur.  ****  “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special” © 1988 Paul Reubens.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 effects on the EPCOT attraction “Captain EO.”  Johnny Counterfit, the voice of Rex (and not at all Johnny Arcade), wrote a JFK time-travel novel.  Rex and Herb’s original appearance in “Dinosaur,” which was later included in a “direct-to-video thing” starring Fred Savage.  Related: “I Just Realized Why We Are All Mean,” by Jon Bois.  “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven,” from “The Adventures of Mark Twain,” featuring Tim Conner (Herb) as a 3-headed alien in St. Peter’s Place at the wrong “Heaven.”  The California Raisins’ cancelled Nintendo game: “The Grape Escape.”  The California Prunes on “The Simpsons.”  This special ends with a reference to the grossly enormous Mr. Creosote from “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.”  ****  “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration” © 1987 Will Vinton Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.