Ethan “The Hungry Reader”

🎄 If you thought Christmas was fast approaching, hang onto something as we zip back to 1996 and do our best to keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog on a mission to save Christmas.  🎙️ Mike (Bitter Karella) and Ethan (The Hungry Reader) from A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight join the quest to rescue Santa from the evil Robotnik Claus, obtain the Secret to Ultimate Velocity, and find a gift for Sonic’s girlfriend from another universe.  📺 You can watch “Sonic Christmas Blast” for free on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  How Sonic scored two different animated series at the same time (Polygon, 2020)  This specially was originally called “An X-tremely Sonic Christmas” to promote a Sega Saturn game that ended up getting canceled.  Jay Brazeau (Santa) as the referee in “Air Bud” who says the line.  The robot queen in “The Great Mouse Detective.”  “Let the Heartaches Begin” by Long John Baldry (Robotnik).  The original “Ugly Sonic” movie trailer.  Dr. Robotnik’s in-game design looks like both an Eggman and a walrus.  The other cartoon’s theme song.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Sonic & Knuckles Christmas Elves Commercial (1994)  ****  “Sonic Christmas Blast” © 1996 DIC Productions, L.P.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 This episode is stuffed with surprises, so get your propeller spinning and take off back to 1987 to go barnstorming — or bearnstorming — above the South Pole with Santabear.  🎙️ Ethan “The Hungry Reader” is our co-pilot as we nosedive into a Midwestern Christmas tradition we wish found a place to land elsewhere.  📺 You can find “Santabear’s High Flying Adventure” on the Internet Archive, or a recording with the original commercials on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Mike on A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight, for “Poochie” and “The Hugga Bunch Movie.”  “Santabear’s First Christmas,” the original book and the 1986 special.  IMDb claims Dennis Hopper is in this, but I didn’t hear him.  Antarctica’s Christmas Traditions, including a “Race Around the World.”  The Odd Case of Dennis the Menace.  Today’s TV Trope: Spot the Imposter.  What is the history behind the Dayton's Santa Bear? (WCCO-TV, 2022).  An official list of every Santa Bear made, 1985–2007 (WDIV-TV, 2023).  The Dayton’s Project’s 2024 Santa Bear.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cinnamon Toast Crunch Christmas Commercial and Santabear Sweepstakes (1987)  Oreos for Santa (1986)  Holiday M&M’s (1987)  Wild Puffalumps (1987)  Doublemint Gum (1987)  The Studio Demands It!  ****  “Santabear’s High Flying Adventure” © 1987 Dayton Hudson Corporation.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1970, and a couple of bear cubs have jumped through my window and are eating all my marshmallows.  🎙️ Gerry Davila and Ethan “The Hungry Reader” join us on a deeper than expected dive into a Christmas special by former Hanna-Barbera animator Tony Benedict that almost wasn’t released till the owner of a now-defunct Florida theme park swooped in and saved it.  🚨 No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about one of the 4 versions of this special.  📺 You can watch 4 different versions of “Santa and the Three Bears”:  “A Yellowstone Christmas” (Tony’s Version), the original cut.  The theatrical version with Hal Smith in the intro and added songs and sequences.  The Pirates World version with scenes from Ocean World Marine Park. This version was screened for Rifftrax.  The Modern Sound Pictures version with the songs but no live-action segments.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Unusual History of Santa and the Three Bears. (The Delbert Cartoon Report, 2021)  The soundtrack and some background info.  Hal Smith in “The Incredible, Indelible, Magical, Physical Mystery Trip.”  Bobby Riha (Chinook) in Hanna-Barbera’s “Jack and the Beanstalk.”  Yellowstone National Park’s Zone of Death.  Today’s TV Trope: Human Snowball.  CBS Storybreak’s “Grinny.”  Homer Simpson tries to catch a rabbit.  Iceman in X-Men #1.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hardee’s Gift Checks (1970s)  Totally Rad Christmas  ****  “Santa and the Three Bears” © 1970 Tony Benedict Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🦃 It’s 2015, and in my search for a noisy cryptid I accidentally freed 175 roided-up turkeys, but neither of those things is the real monster.  🎙 Sammy Hain, Tony Whitaker, Ethan “The Hungry Reader” join us as we rediscover a long lost Thanksgiving special concept Jim Henson dreamed up in the 1960s and meet the Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow.  📺 You can find “Turkey Hollow” on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ToughPigs.com Behind the Scenes of Turkey Hollow.  Muppet Wiki on this special, Jim Henson’s original concept, and the 2014 graphic novel.  Some prototype musical monsters: An early Grover, Snerf, and the Rock and Roll Monster.  Director Kirk Thatcher in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”  On-set interviews with Ludacris, Lisa Henson, and Alice Dinnean.  Hope you like Beets.  Today’s TV Tropes: When You Coming Home, Dad? and Hollywood Law.  Station from “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”  “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge.”  Jason Hopley’s (Zorp) IMDb profile picture is from “Goosebumps.”  Lewis, Target’s Halloween Ghoul.  Homer Simpson eating potato chips on the space shuttle.  ****  📼 Commercials:  AT&T “Turkey” Commercial (2008)  TGI Podcast.  ****  “Turkey Hollow” © 2015 The Jim Henson Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1988, the monsters under my bed are real, and they’re stealing Christmas.  🎙 Ethan “The Hungry Reader” follows us under the covers through a wormhole to the home of ’80s kids’ bedding sensation the Pillow People in a Christmas special so obscure, it’s not even listed on IMDb. But it’s real, and it’s ironically nightmarish.  📺 You can watch “Pillow People Save Christmas” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Pillow People on the toy collectors’ website Ghost of the Doll.  Toot Sweet Toys, or what’s left of it.  TV listing in New York magazine (November 1988)  Victor DiMattia (Billy) on filming “The Sandlot.”  Window Rattler as seen on “Full House.”  The Who Cares Bears.  Today’s TV Trope: Introdump, example: the worst Rob Liefeld drawing.  Cheryl Chase (Sweet Dreams) mentions working with Cree Summer (Rock-a-Bye Baby) on this special in a 2004 interview about the “Rugrats” spinoff “All Grown Up.”  The Far Side: “…He’s taking it with him!”  Nightmara looks like a cross between Mother Brain in “Captain N: The Game Master” and Madam Hecuba from the 1974 anime adaptation of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Pillow People: Pillow Valley Commercial (1988)  Holidays After Dark.  ****  “Pillow People Save Christmas” © 1988 TMS Entertainment, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1983, and a young bear and fox are lost in the Big City after accidentally riding the rails on the apparently famous Christmas Tree Train in an obscure special that has little to do with Christmas trees or trains.  🎙 Ethan “The Hungry Reader” climbs aboard as we explore the first holiday special starring Buttons and Rusty, known later as the Chucklewood Critters.  📺 You can watch “The Christmas Tree Train” on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Unofficial Chucklewood Critters Home Page, which looks like it was created in 2003, last updated in 2011, and is a perfect specimen of an early 2000s Internet fan page.  William Boyett (Ranger Jones) in “Last Clear Chance,” a 1959 driving safety film later featured on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”  Foxes actually hang out around bears in nature (Nature.org, 2021)  A random shout-out to mid-1990s Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe Bubsy the Bobcat.  A very difficult jump in a sewer level in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo game.  All the human characters in this special look like they’re related to Gargamel from The Smurfs.  RiffTrax Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Santa’s Village in Southern California, circa 1983 during an airing of “The Christmas Tree Train.”  North Pole Radio.  ****  “The Christmas Tree Train” © 1983 Encore Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎃 It’s a wonderful night for eyebrows and the wildest trip to the euphemism we’ve ever taken.  🎙️ James Riley and Ethan “The Hungry Reader” hitch a ride in our paraphernalia wagon as we wheel it back to 1977 for a Grinch Night we’ll never forget.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The worst, non-candy Halloween treats.  “Carlton, Your Doorman.”  Longtime Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo composed this special’s music.  Hans Conried (The Grinch) was also the titular character in Dr. Seuss’s The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.  I badly describe the plot of “Midnight Madness.”  The Hakken-Kraks in “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”  The Euphemism, and other words I thought Dr. Seuss made up.  “Dr. Seuss Goes to War,” and other creators of great works doing terrible things.  Bogleech’s gallery of the Grinch’s monsters, and our personal favorites.  The Vug under the Rug, the Jibboo, and the Birthday Bird.  “Danse macabre.”  Is this a prequel, and where does “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat” fit into it?  ****  📼 Commercials:  Franken Berry and Monster Cereals (1986), preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.  Holly Jolly X’masu.  ****  “Halloween is Grinch Night” © 1977 DePatie–Freleng Enterprises.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.