Matt Spaulding

🎄 It’s the 200th episode of the Advent Calendar House, but more importantly, it’s Christmas Eve! So we’re celebrating with a salute to the last remaining special we have left to talk about in the Rankin/Bass Christmas canon: 1974’s “The Year Without a Santa Claus.”  🎙️ It’s a packed party with Tim Babb, Michael DiGiovanni, Joey O., and Matt Spaulding as we spread Christmas cheer over Southtown and everywhere else — something we could’ve seen Mrs. Claus search for if she hadn’t immediately dropped the idea, but then we wouldn’t have met the true stars of the special: The Miser Bros.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original story by Phyllis McGinley.  A read-along record narrated by Boris Karloff.  The DVD menu and only the DVD menu, if that interests you.  Snow Miser’s song in “Batman and Robin.”  Shirley Booth (Mrs. Claus) as “Hazel.”  Today’s TV Tropes: Dressed to Heal, Spinning Paper.  Bob McFadden (Elf Doctor) as “Cool McCool.”  “Panic In New York: Menagerie Breaks Loose,” and other prop newspaper headlines.  Are Santa’s Reindeer Female? (Old Farmer’s Almanac)  Survivor Series 1994: Clowns Are Us vs. the Royal Family.  Ron Marshall (Iggy’s dad) marks the first time I ended up on Muppet Wiki by surprise.  Charlie Chaplin’s hanging out in Southtown.  Heatmiser: the band.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Coca-Cola: “Candles (Buy the World a Coke)” (1977)  Coca-Cola: The World Needs More Santas (2023)  Matt’s book: “Santa in His Own Words.”  “A Bomb for Christmas 2: Past, Present, and Future” on the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Year Without a Santa Claus” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🐰 It’s 2004, and a stuffed toy rabbit voluntold me to clean his house.  🎙 Sammy Hain and Matt Spaulding join us to celebrate both Easter in July and Scrooge Sunday with a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood as Rabbit does double duty as both the Easter Bunny and Scrooge, all while Christopher Robin is somewhere else entirely.  📺 You can find “Springtime with Roo” on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Ads from the 2004 DVD, plus a video of some dude walking through the menu screen.  Why do Christopher Robin’s toys have American accents?  John Fiedler (Piglet) in “The Golden Girls” and “12 Angry Men.”  “Christmas in the Stars,” the Star Wars Christmas album.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Sears Video Game Arcade Christmas Sale (1983)  ****  “Winnie the Pooh” and “Springtime with Roo” © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1979, and an evil king is having abandonment issues after his entire kingdom left, so he made an army of robots instead of going to therapy.  The Advent Calendar House has once again emerged from hibernation after declaring 4 more months of winter to pretend it’s still winter.  🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas, Matt Spaulding from North Pole Radio, and Jeff Loftin from the Lost Christmas Podcast join us as we encounter what might be the least Christmassy Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a friendlier version of Jack Frost, a groundhog dressed like a pro wrestling manager, and the wintry weather neighbors of those angels your grandmother told you were bowling whenever there was a thunderstorm.  📺 You can watch “Jack Frost” on Tubi.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Toei Animation’s “The Little Mermaid” (1975)  Gilbert Gottfried on his favorite death scene: Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello in “Bud and Lou.”  Today’s TV Trope: Inevitable Waterfall.  The Christmas tradition of “dream presents” is like the dinner scene from “Hook.”  February 2 is Candlemas, the 40th day of Christmas.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Pennsylvania Lottery: Like Holiday Morning, starring Gus, the 2nd most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania (2018)  Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Hedgehog Day (1992)  ****  “Jack Frost” © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 November 1st is Christmas Podcast Day! I don’t make the rules; I just use the hashtag.  🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas and Matt Spaulding from North Pole Radio join us as on a very important mission to dig up the original animated adventures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a 1948 short film that predates the song.  📺 You can watch “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” courtesy of the Library of Congress.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s First Starring Film Role (Library of Congress, 2014)  The 1951 re-release, featuring the new “Rudolph” song.  The Advent Calendar House episode on Rankin/Bass’s “Rudolph.”  Disney’s Very Merry Christmas Sing-Along Songs.  Water Polo, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & Chevrolet: The Life of Jam Handy (Collegiate Water Polo Association, 2019)  Matt’s Little Golden Book of Rudolph, illustrated by Richard Scarry.  Paul Wing’s Rudolph record from 1947.  “Rudolph’s 2nd Christmas.”  George Klensinger, who arranged the original Silent Night intro, also composed “Tubby the Tuba.”  “The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree.”  James Bond and Blofeld fight on a bobsled in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”  Ear trumpets, and Daisy Duck’s mother using one in “Donald’s Diary.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Closer to Christmas.  ****  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” ©1948 The Jam Handy Organization.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.