Ethan “The Hungry Reader”

🎄 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.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

No porpoises were harmed during the making of this podcast. Guests: Gerry Davila, Ethan the Hungry Reader

Musical monsters squonk, burble, zorp, and thrinng their way into our hearts. Guests: Ethan the Hungry Reader, Sammy Hain, Tony Whitaker

Your lovable, huggable friends in the stuff of nightmares. Guest: Ethan the Hungry Reader

Buttons the Bear and Rusty the Fox get lost in the Big City in a special that has little to do with Christmas trees or trains. Guest: Ethan “The Hungry Reader.” Find show notes at https://adventcalendar.house

🎃 It’s a wonderful night for eyebrows as we pick up James Riley and Ethan “The Hungry Reader” 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.