Joey O.

How do you do, fellow holiday special enthusiasts? The Advent Calendar House has emerged from its slumber in the Mariana Trench a few months early to celebrate Leap Day!  🎙️ Joey O. joins the celebration of  the “30 Rock” universe’s most important holiday. As such, nothing that happens in this episode counts, and we’re just your imaginary friends whom no one else can hear, because real life is for March.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Steve Buscemi, whose name I mispronounce right out of the gate, quotes himself at the 2020 Screen Actors’ Guild Awards.  Steve Buscemi as The Madder Hatter on “Saturday Night Live” in 1998.  Film School Rejects’ ranking of every 30 Rock episode.  Jane Krakowski as the Ghost of Christmas Past to Kelsey Grammer’s Scrooge in 2004’s “A Christmas Carol: The Musical.”  James Cameron is one of a very, very small group of people who have reached the deepest point in the ocean, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.  A very unscientific look into how many times it would take to order everything on the Benihana menu to use an entire $50,000 gift card.  Of course there’s a Getty Image of Tina Fey posing with the Ewok behind glass.  Thad Warmald, the poor man’s Artie Ziff.  Both human leads from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie are in this episode!  Kevin Brown’s Wikipedia entry calls him “Kevin ‘Dot Com’ Brown” right at the beginning.  Guest star Karolína Kurková was almost a Leap Day baby; she was born February 28, 1984.  Tracy’s word association game that gets to “soup kitcken,” but keeps going before looping back around again reminds us of a similar bit from the 1966 Batman movie.  A very, very quick look at the Irish Leap Day tradition of women proposing to men, as seen in the 2010 Amy Adams movie “Leap Year,” which couldn’t even be bothered coming out on a leap year.  As an extra bonus mini-episode at the end of this one, Joey quickly sums up the Leap Day episode of “Frasier” from 1996, “Look Before You Leap.”  ****  “30 Rock” and “Leap Day” ©2012 NBCUniversal Media, LLC.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎉 It’s a special, post-Christmas bonus episode for your oversized ears!  🎙 Joey O. and Brandon Medley help us turn back the years to 1976 and tip an oversized hat to “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year,” Rankin/Bass’s first sequel special, in which Rudolph has to save the Baby New Year from a big, angry bird.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Rudolph devolves into a younger-looking reindeer, because the original model may have been lost. But also he seems to forget he can fly.  According to our narrator, Father Time (Red Skelton), this story begins “on that very same foggy night.” As in Christmas Eve. When Santa’s kind of busy.  I learned who Red Skelton was from a joke in a Tex Avery cartoon.  “The Phantom Tollbooth.”  Tik-Tok from “Return to Oz.”  Creepier song about time: “The Moving Finger Writes” from this, or “Older” by They Might Be Giants?  Ralph Archibold, Philadelphia’s longtime Ben Franklin impersonator.  Billy Corgan rides a roller coaster.  ****  “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s the 50th episode of the Advent Calendar House, so it’s time to address the spotted elephant in the room.  🎙 Joey O. and Brandon Medley fly in to tackle the 1964 Christmas special that put Rankin/Bass on the map and into our hearts.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Is Santa really this big of a jerk or just hangry?  The History Channel on the creation of Rudolph.  Mashable’s 12 ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ facts.  Burger King and Hallmark’s Rodney Reindeer plushes, which at one point doubled as stockings.  Rudolph almost had huge, glowing eyes instead of a red nose, and all I can think of is the terrifying original version of Mr. Snuffleupagus.  The rare and expensive Santa’s Castle play set, which includes Santa and Mr. Claus’s tiny bed.  A lot of voices in this cast were later part of the 1960s “Spider-Man” and “Marvel Super Heroes” animated series.  The first mention of Santa having a wife was in a short story by Philadelphia missionary James Rees in 1849.  The mystery of the head elf’s suddenly changing voice: Wikipedia claims it’s intentional, but we’re not buying it.  Carl Banas (Head Elf) was also the original voice of Sweetums in “Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.”  “Fame and Fortune,” a song that replaced “We’re a Couple of Misfits” as Rudolph and Hermey’s duet from 1965 to 1997.  You can meet characters from this version of Rudolph at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Sesame Place.  Arthur Rankin Jr. explains why Dolly’s on the Island of Misfit Toys on NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.”  The original ending included Yukon Corneilius finding a peppermint mine.  “The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio.”  Original figures of Rudolph and Santa were found in an attic and appraised on Antiques Roadshow in 2005. They were later sold and restored.  ****  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” ©1964 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Closing music: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by the California Raisins, from “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”  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.

💝 Love and dynamite are in the air as I introduce 2 guests to an early pilot of what would eventually become “The Muppet Show,” guest-starring a pregnant Mia Farrow.  🎙️ Joey O. and Brian Arnold drop by as we fall head over heels for “The Muppets Valentine Show,” a 1974 TV special that misinformed me about where babies come from.  📺 You can find “The Muppets Valentine Show” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Muppets Valentine Show” on Muppet Wiki.  Jim Henson’s Red Book entry about getting this pilot green-lit by some guy at ABC named “Mike” Eisner.  We quickly touch on Crazy Harry’s original incarnation as “Crazy Donald” and then immediately drop it.  Miss Mousey.  George the Janitor is simultaneously UHF’s Stanley Spadowski and WWE’s Perry Saturn.  George and Mildred At the Dance.  Droop in the “Cosby Show” episode, “Cliff’s Nightmare.”  The first appearance of Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle.  “You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket.”  “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” and the Looney Tunes musical bomb gag.  Brian’s blog post about “The Candy Apple News Company.”  ****  “The Muppets Valentine Show” © 1974 The Jim Henson Company.  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.

🎄 Tonight in the Advent Calendar House, we’re doing the same thing we do every night… watchin’ a bunch of holiday specials!  🎙️ Joey O. and special guest Joey Letson from The Animanicast joins the mission to apply North Pole to Pinky and the Brain’s 1996 Christmas special, probably the closest the lab mouse duo ever got to actually taking over the world.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This special won the 1996 Primetime Emmy award for outstanding animated program.  Joey O. interviewed Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche.  The Animanicast interview with Maurice LaMarche.  “Powerhouse,” Warner Bros.’ go-to “assembly line” music.  io9 ranked this episode dead last among the Brain’s plans to take over the world.  ****  “A Pinky and the Brain Christmas” © 1996 Warner Bros.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Coming to you from Gotham City, it’s the podcast nobody wanted to see, but everyone will hear.  🎙️ Jay from the Purple Stuff Podcast and Joey O. drop in to spend Christmas with the Joker on a 1992 episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The crowdsourced origins of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells.  More discussion on “Christmas with the Joker” on Batman: The Animated Podcast and The Arkham Sessions.  Gotham City is in New Jersey.  Mark Hamill’s original performance as Ferris Boyle in “Heart of Ice.”  “Comic Book: The Movie.”  Mark Hamill’s longtime obsession with David Letterman.  Charles Manson apparently spent this Christmas at Arkham Asylum before spending a later Christmas in Nebraska on “South Park.”  Joker’s “Laffy” hand puppet reminds us of Señor Wences. His upside-down mouth puppet is even weirder.  Betty Blooper looks like Toot from “Drawn Together.”  Of course the Joker is hiding out at the Laffco Toy Factory. Look at it!  ****  “Batman: The Animated Series” and “Christmas with the Joker” © 1992 Warner Bros.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Lace up your ice skates for a look at 3 classic holiday commercials starring 3 different iterations of McDonald’s clown in charge: “Happy Holidays” (the ice skating one), “Star Wish,” and “Runaway.”  🎙 Joey O. swoops in just in time to convince me not to leave home and run away to McDonaldland, which is honestly tempting.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Grape jelly is good on Sausage McMuffins. Try it.  McDonald’s Wiki, which exists, runs down all 7 versions of the ice skating commercial. Yes, there are 7, and they’re all on YouTube:  1982: the original, with King Moody as Ronald and the “You Deserve a Break Today” jingle variant.  1983: with the “McDonald’s and You” jingle variant.  1984: with the “It’s a Good Time for the Great Taste” jingle variant.  1986: with Squire Fridell as Ronald, the version I remember most.  1988: with Fridell and the original jingle.  1990: with Fridell and the “Food, Folks and Fun” jingle variant.  1991: with Jack Doepke as Ronald, bad lighting, and “The Wish that Changed Christmas.”  King Booker.  Squire Fridell as Ronald McDonald in “Mac and Me” and Paul Rudd’s ongoing prank on Conan O’Brien.  Grimace’s last appearance as of this recording was at Dodger Stadium, though as we know, nothing can kill the Grimace.  The “World’s Largest Entertainment McDonald’s” in Orlando, home to an animatronic Mac Tonight that hangs from the ceiling.  ****  “Happy Holidays,” “Star Wish,” and “Runaway” © McDonald’s.  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.

🎄🐭 It’s the one with the mouse. Turn back the clock till it goes kerplunk — or kerplooey — to make some time for Rankin/Bass’s 1974 retelling of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas from the perspective of the mouse and his know-it-all nerdy son.  🎙️ Joey O. is in the Advent Calendar House to do what’s necessary, ’cause even a miracle needs a hand.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The worst thing we’ve broken that ruined multiple peoples’ day.  We prepared for this episode by listening to Green Day’s “Kerplunk!”  South Park’s cover of “Even a Miracle Needs a Hand.”  A young Julia Stiles in a 1990s Apple Jacks cereal commercial.  Dusty Rhodes’s “Hard Times” promo.  ****  “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 In our Christmas Eve season finale, the Advent Calendar House is haunted by 3 spirited guests  — Sue London, Jonathan MacFarlane, and Joey O. — as we each draft our own casts of “A Christmas Carol” from a pool of characters from Christmas past.  ****  🎩 “A Christmas Carol” versions mentioned, in chronological order:  1951: Scrooge (starring Alastair Sim).  1954: Shower of Stars’ A Christmas Carol.  1962: Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol.  1970: Scrooge (musical, starring Albert Finney).  1978: Rich Little’s Christmas Carol.  1979: Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol.  1983: Mickey’s Christmas Carol.  1984: A Christmas Carol (starring George C. Scott).  1986: The Real Ghostbusters: Xmas Marks the Spot.  1987ish: Honey Nut Cheerios Christmas Commercial (starring Bill Gavin).  1988: Scrooged (starring Bill Murray).  1992: The Muppet Christmas Carol.  1993: Animaniacs: A Christmas Plotz.  1994: A Flintstones Christmas Carol.  1997: A Christmas Carol (starring Tim Curry).  1999: A Christmas Carol (starring Patrick Stewart).  2003: A Carol Christmas (starring Tori Spelling).  2009: Disney’s A Christmas Carol (starring Jim Carrey).  2011: Batman: Noël.  ****  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  

🎄 Joey O. returns to the Advent Calendar House bearing the gift of his favorite regional holiday commercial. Join us as we spend 17 times the length of a 30-second lottery commercial talking about the spot that had a whole commonwealth singing “Five Cash Fives!”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original Pennsylvania Lottery Christmas Commercial from 1992.  The updated commercial from 2012, remade shot-for-shot like 1998’s Psycho.  PA Lottery’s Holiday Ad Gets Makeover (CBS Philly, 2012)  “Move Closer to Your World,” the greatest broadcast news theme song ever composed.  Philadelphia Eagles fans’ longing for kelly green football uniforms.  Major League Baseball’s endless array of ugly hats for every holiday.  ****  “Snowfall” © 1992, 2012 PA Lottery.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Ho-ho-ho, I’m hu-hu-hungry! Fill your soul with season’s greetings and another batch of cereal commercials from Christmas past.  🎙️ Uh-oh, here comes Joey O. to revisit a collection of seasonal ads for Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, starring Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The main attraction: This Fruity Pebbles Christmas commercial, circa 1986, and a redubbed version with Jim Cummings as Santa from the early ’90s.  An older Fruity Pebbles Christmas commercial, dated 1980.  A Newer Cocoa Pebbles “Christmas Carol” commercial.  “I’m the Master Rapper and I’m here to say, I love Fruity Pebbles in a major way!”  The theory I’m going with: Fred and Barney know about Christmas because they live in a post-apocalyptic future.  The Rock’s Fruity Pebbles promo on John Cena, 2011.  WWE’s Christmas in Baghdad opening from 2003, featuring “Stone Cold” Steve Austin disguised as Santa Claus.  ****  Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles cereal commercials © Post Consumer Brands / Warner Bros.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 The taste of nuts and honey thaws Scrooge’s icy heart in this 30-second portrayal of Scrooge for a Christmastime cereal commercial.  🎙️ Joey O. stops by to share a sufficient helping of customary gruel as we squeeze every last drop of honey out of this commercial, officially titled “Ebenezer Scrooge Discovers Honey Nut Cheerios,” which ran from around 1987 through at least the end of the 20th century.  Addendum: Thanks to Guy Hutchinson for identifying our Scrooge as actor Bill Gavin!  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A tale of two Buzz Bees: “It’s Christmas,” vs. “It’s the holidays.”  Arnold Stang, the original voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee, Top Cat, and Nestlé’s Chunky candy bar.  A brief tangent questioning the lifespan and ancestral history of honeybees.  ****  Honey Nut Cheerios © General Mills.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.