Guy Hutchinson

🎄 What if Mr. Christmas was on the naughty list this entire time, thanks to a curse on his family for generations?  🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas and Guy Hutchinson from Pointless Nostalgia join us on a Christmas quest back to 1985 as Andy Williams leads a dozen “true believers” on a trip to Finland to find Santa and answer for his totally-not-made-up ancestor.  📺 You can watch “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa” on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The NBC Kids are: Soleil Moon Frye, Cherie Johnson, Ami Foster, and Casey Ellison from “Punky Brewster”; Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner from “The Cosby Show”; Alfonso Ribeiro from “Silver Spoons”; and Joey and Matthew Lawrence from “Gimme a Break!” But not Mindy Cohn from “The Facts of Life,” who shows up, sings half a line, and that’s it.  Guy visits New York City’s Christmas cinematic landmarks, including locations from “Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis in A Christmas Dream.”  Not Just Theo: Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Surprising Career.  Alfonso Ribeiro’s Pepsi Commercial with Michael Jackson (1984)  The painting supposedly featuring Lars Sven Olaf Williams, from 1863.  The Sàmi.  “Sea for Catwoman!”  Porvoo Cathedral (pronounced like “Borga”).  ****  📼 Commercials:  NBC “Let’s All Be There” ID with Santa (1985)  Polaroid: “Christmas – Santa Claus” (1985)  Tinsel Tunes - The Christmas Music Podcast.  ****  “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa” © 1985 Pierre Cossette / Barnaby Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 It’s 1982, and I’m trapped at sea while Mickey Rooney butts into everyone’s conversation.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson and William Bruce West join us as we embark on a Christmas cruise aboard the Pacific Princess for a very merry episode of “The Love Boat” featuring Maureen McCormick, Donny Osmond, and Mickey Rooney as an angel in disguise as your nosy neighbor.  📺 You can find “The Christmas Presence” on Paramount+, Pluto TV, and Facebook.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Sesame Street’s Love Boat parody and “Song of Ten.”  Guy on the history of the Lacoste Crocodile.  “Brady Bunch” references: Maureen McCormick can’t stop getting hit in the face , and Mrs. Brady gets her voice back.  What’s in Santa Stubing’s bag: Stadium Checkers, a Jeep Honcho model truck, and more.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Toys “R” Us featuring the E.T. Atari 2600 Game (1982)  Remember That Show?  ****  “The Love Boat” and “The Christmas Presence” © 1982 The Love Boat Company.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1977, and the cast of Broadway’s hottest new musical is taking drastic measures to convince 4 different unions keep the theater open for a Christmas party because they forgot to book a venue.  🎙️ Guy Hutchinson joins us to watch the original Broadway cast of “Annie” play somethings in between themselves and their characters in a unique TV Christmas special that may very well have been many TV viewers’ first exposure to the musical.  📺 You can watch “The Annie Christmas Show” on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original Broadway version of “Annie” ends on Christmas; the 1982 movie ends on the 4th of July.  Andrea McArdle in “Christmas at Walt Disney World.” (Full Episode)  Danielle Brisbois (Molly) in “All in the Family,” and she was a founding member of the band New Radicals.  “It’s Christmas” on the Annie 30th Anniversary Production Cast Recording, featuring multiple Annies and Miss Hannigans.  “I Don’t Care” in “In the Good Old Summertime” and “Back to the Future: The Game.”  “There’s a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway” in “Bullets Over Broadway.”  Today’s TV Trope: I Have a Family.  Ethel Merman sings “Tomorrow” in “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.” (Full Episode)  How The Twelve Days of Christmas’ days 9 through 12 got reordered.  Members of the cast reunited in 2019 to perform this Christmas special.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Kinney Shoes (1977)  Fotomat (1977)  Festive Foreign Film Fans.  ****  “The Annie Christmas Show” © 1977 Martin Charmin Productions / NBC Universal Network.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandma is surrounded by dancing chickens.  It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with some extremely bizarre adventures.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson from Pointless Nostalgia and Tim Lybarger from The Neighborhood Archive join us for the wacky adventures of a mysterious Music Man and A Very Young Dancer.  📺 You can watch “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” at MisterRogers.org.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” on The Neighborhood Archive.  “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History,” co-written by Tim.  Frances Bay (Mrs. Hamilton) in “The Karate Kid.”  Today’s TV Trope: Hollywood Giftwrap.  Mr. Rogers and François Clemmons sharing a wading pool.  Lesser-known Christmas hymns “The Friendly Beasts,” “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” and “My Sheep Were Grazing.”  Was Music Man Stan from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” inspired by the Music Man from this special?  “The Littlest Angel” (1969)  Chuck Ozeas (Andrew) is now a director of photography.  “A Very Young Dancer” and The Life That Followed (2011)  Stephanie Selby’s obituary (2022)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells Commercial (1989)  Dirt Cheap Liquors Chicken Commercial.  Closer to Christmas.  ****  “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” © 1977 Family Communications, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1979, and no one wants to go to Pat Boone’s lame Christmas party, but everyone’s here to dunk on him.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson extends an invitation to discover this bizarre but wholesome special featuring the Hudson Brothers, the stars of “The Ropers” as themselves but also still as the Ropers, and a criminally brief appearance by Yogi Bear and his Hanna-Barbera friends.  📺 You can watch the “Pat Boone and Family Christmas Special” on Tubi.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Pat Boone’s album of heavy metal covers from 1997.  TV Guide’s ad for the special, prominently featuring Yogi Bear and friends.  “The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show,” as seen in a “Family Guy” cutaway gag.  “The Seventh Python,” Brett Hudson’s 2008 documentary about frequent Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes.  “Largo al Factotum,” the “Figaro” song from “The Barber of Seville.”  Dinah Shore’s giant belt buckle.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Master Charge Christmas Commercial (1979)  Season’s Eatings.  ****  “Pat Boone and Family Christmas Special” © 1979 Cooga Mooga Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1984, and the most 1984 pair I can think of, Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis, are taking us on the most romantic date through New York City on the way to a Christmas party at Radio City Music Hall.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson joins us as we spoil David Copperfield’s magic tricks, leave our emergency contact information with Willie Tyler and Lester, share our favorite Christmas songs with Maureen McGovern, and fall asleep while watching the Rockettes rehearse.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  I Pity the Yule: Remembering A Christmas Dream, Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis’s Lost Holiday Special (Mental Floss, 2020)  “Be Somebody… or Be Somebody’s Fool.”  New York Mayor Ed Koch in “The Muppets Take Manhattan.”  David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear.  Sesame Street’s Don Music.  Willie Tyler and Lester on Letterman.  Vintage Christmas tree color wheels.  The other verses of “Silent Night” you’ve never heard.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Soft Scrub Cleaner.  The GE 2800 Dishwasher commercial that reminds me of the last scene of Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.  Masters of the Universe: The Fright Zone Play Set.  Behind the Bells.  Totally Rad Christmas.  ****  Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis in A Christmas Dream” © 1984 Radio City Music Hall Television Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Wrapping, unwrapping, and rewrapping a bow on a comedy classic.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson joins us as we second-, third-, and fourth-guess ourselves back to 1960 to go Christmas shopping with Jack Benny, the last televised version of a longtime radio favorite.  🚨 Warning: In one scene, a character shoots himself offscreen.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Television Academy Foundation on Jack Benny’s Christmas Shopping show, including a video interview with show writer George Balzer.  The earliest “Christmas Shopping” recording I could find, from 1937.  Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, the progression of race relations, and his racehorse.  Finally I get to talk about Mel Blanc, the real star of this show.  Adjusting the $1.98 and $40 wallets for inflation.  A 2002 message board post on JackBenny.org answering whether Jack was a practicing Jew.  A tribute to Frank “Yeees?” Nelson.  Dennis Day and the dying practice of actors legally changing their names to their most popular characters’.  Stupid “the customer is always right” stories.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Norelco Santa (circa 1961).  Weird Christmas.  ****  “The Jack Benny Program” and “Jack Goes Christmas Shopping” ©1960 J&M Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.