Michael DiGiovanni

🎄 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.

🌴 In Part 2 of our “Futurama” Xmas double-header, we meet the only thing worse than an evil robot Santa… two evil robot Santas.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms return for 2001’s “A Tale of Two Santas.” ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Box Car Blues” (1930).  Santa’s Death Fortress sure looks like Elsa’s ice palace.  Coolio’s final acting role before his death was a return as the voice of Kwanzaa-bot.  An ode to Musicmatch Jukebox and our turn-of-the-century mp3 albums we’re still holding onto.  My favorite joke in all of “Futurama.”  “I’m Spartacus!”  ****  📼 Commercials:  America Online Keyword: eBay (2001).  A Bomb for Christmas: A made-for-podcast Christmas movie featuring your old pal, me.  ****  “Futurama” and “A Tale of Two Santas ” © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🌴 The Advent Calendar House has awoken from what feels like a thousand-year slumber and a lame April Fool’s joke. As a peace offering, here’s the first of two back-to-back episodes celebrating Xmas as imagined by “Futurama.”  🎙️ It’s extra crowded in the cryogenic chamber as Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms drop in for 1999’s “Xmas Story,” in which we’re introduced to the annual tradition of gift-giving and shelter-taking from a killer robot Santa Claus that awaits our descendants in the year 3000.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Fresh Hare” (1942).  Orange Cassidy sleeping through his own wrestling match.  “Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ Instead of ‘Ask,’ and Why Some Still Do” (NPR, 2013).  “Why is the number 1,729 hidden in Futurama episodes?” (BBC, 2013).  The classic dangling from a clock tower scenes from “Safety Last” and “Back to the Future.”  John Goodman’s other appearances as Santa.  Randy Johnson hits a bird with a fastball.  Corona Extra’s Christmas palm tree commercial.  The lyrics to “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” are sinister enough by themselves.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hess Truck 1999 Space Shuttle Toy.  Stick to Shorts: A Classic Cartoons Podcast.  ****  “Futurama” and “Xmas Story” © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 2020, and a gift-wrapped puppy licked my face and made my skin turn blue.  🎙 Michael DiGiovanni and Sammy Hain join us for a charming stop-motion Christmas special from the Chiodo Brothers about how an alien invasion of the North Pole almost ruined Christmas — and the entire planet’s gravity, but also Christmas. Plus: A “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” Easter egg, some cameos from “Elf,” and Santa with nunchucks.  📺 You can find “Alien Xmas” on Netflix.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A behind-the-scenes interview with the Chiodo Brothers.  “Alien Xmas” on Bloody Disgusting.  A “Killer Klowns” Easter egg hidden in the Klepts’ chamber of stolen stuff.  The magnetic north pole vs. the geographic North Pole.  Michelle Deco (Noelle) writes Nintendo trailers, including this one for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.   Today’s TV Trope: Tablecloth Yank.  “Here’s your problem: Someone set this thing to ‘evil.’”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Coca-Cola “Santa Packs Are Coming” (1994)  Holidays After Dark  ****  “Alien Xmas” © 2020 Netflix US, LLC.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1991, and Santa Claus is fighting with a talking dog over a park bench.  By some Christmas miracle, this obscure special was rediscovered over 30 years later. For years, people on the Internet tried to identify it on a TV in the background of an old family photo, until finally, thanks to the power of positivity, it was identified as “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light.”  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Jeff Somogyi join us as we meet the intergalactic Soulmates in what seems like a pilot that never got off the ground.  📺 You can watch “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” for free on YouTube, courtesy of the special’s creator, Gabrielle St. George.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original Tumblr post: “Can You Figure Out Who This Is?” by Sophie Campbell (2016)  Will Sloan’s tweet of the screenshot, September 2022.  CBC News: Canadian cartoon mystery finally solved after 6 years, thanks to the internet (2022)  “The Littles,” for comparison.  Today’s TV Trope: Mind-Control Eyes.  Soulmates Productions, Inc. defaulted in 2007.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Canadian Tire: Scrooge / Nintendo Action Set Commercial (1991)  Pop Tarts Commercial starring Dan and Dave (1990)  Remember That Show?  ****  “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” © 1991 Soulmates Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1973, and a musical cricket is about to save the Christmas spirit during New York City’s quietest power failure.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni join us for a one-cat open sleigh ride into Chuck Jones’s beautifully animated sequel to “The Cricket in Times Square.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A very insightful Letterboxd review.  Name That Christmas Special’s screenshot gallery for this special.  Today’s TV Trope: Bully Bulldog.  Mel Blanc’s voice for the Alley Cat sounds his voice for Clarence the Cat in “Birds Anonymous.”  DiGio introduces me to Yorkshire pudding.  “Down by the Old Mill Stream.”  The similar “Joy to the World” segment from “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”  The final Classic Film Jerks movie, “Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers).”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mel Blanc American Express Card Commercial (1971)  Rediscover the 80s podcasts, including The 80s Weekly and Memory Jogger.  ****  “A Very Merry Cricket” © 1973 Chuck Jones Enterprises.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎅 It’s the 100th episode of the Advent Calendar House, and what better day than Christmas Eve to return to the World of Rankin/Bass?  🎙 Erin Evans, Michael DiGiovanni, Michael May, Brandon Medley, and Joey O. join us as we put one foot in front of the other back to 1970 to revisit a Christmas classic that dares to answer children’s questions about Santa Claus while illegally opening his mail.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Both IMDb and Wikipedia had the premiere date wrong because of a typo in an old book. Rich Goldschmidt’s “The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and The Daydreamer” gets it right.  Former pro-wrestler Special Delivery Jones (no relation).  Burgermeister Meisterburger is a dead ringer for Mauser from “Police Academy 2.”  Hey, IMDb, I highly doubt the Greg Thomas voicing young Kris Kringle grew up to play the saxophone in Parliament Funkadelic.  For a while, Topper was renamed Waddles.  Kris’s weird face he makes after being caught by the Winter Warlock’s angry trees.  Save the Earth from Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.  Weddings on Christmas Day used to be popular.  The first known recording of the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and our favorite versions.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Folgers Coffee: Peter Comes Home for Christmas (1982)  ****  “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” © 1970 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 2014, but this special about a forgotten holiday mascot feels like it’s from the 1990s. Unfortunately, so do some of the jokes.  🎙 Michael DiGiovanni and Donnie Storms join us on a sleigh ride back through “How Murray Saved Christmas,” which follows Murray Weiner (rhymes with diner) from the hidden hometown of every holiday mascot… but mostly the American ones.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Former “Simpsons” showrunner Mike Reiss’s original books, “How Murray Saved Christmas” and “Santa Claustrophobia.”  The trimmed half-hour cut of the special removes some bad jokes, but also Murray’s backstory.  Speaking of super offensive things, Marc Mero as Johnny B. Badd.  Today’s TV Trope: Santa’s Sweatshop.  “Vishnu” takes “The Problem with Apu” to a new low.  Every LBGTQ+ Joke on The Simpsons Ever (as of early 2021).  There’s an actual National Milkmen Day… on June 26, not August 12.  All 27 or so Holidays Represented:  Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Day, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, Presidents Day, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Easter, Arbor Day, Earth Day, Secretary’s Day (maybe), May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Graduation Day?, Father’s Day (maybe), (American) Independence Day, Bastille Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving… oh, and Jack Frost is there.  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s McDLT Commercial starring Jason Alexander (1985)  Tinsel Tunes.  ****  “How Murray Saved Christmas” © 2014 Universal Animation Studios.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 We may all exist in the dreams of 2 kids and their dog.  🎙 Michael DiGiovanni and Christian Nielsen help us responsibly deforest our way back to 1980 to dig up the first appearance of early Disney Channel imports The Raccoons and the greedy Cyril Sneer.  📺 You can watch “The Christmas Raccoons” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This special and an accompanying story album were narrated by Rich Little, a “Man of a Thousand Voices,” in his own, regular voice.  Rupert Holmes (Forest Ranger Dan) is the singer/songwriter behind “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).”  Tammy Bourne (Julie) and Hadley Kay (Tommy) were both in 1980 movies as children who fall from great heights.  Today’s TV Trope: Human Snowball.  Where does the dream end and reality begin? Maybe it’s all in the St. Elsewhere Snow Globe Universe of Tommy Westphall (no relation).  ****  📼 Commercials:  Canadian Tire’s “Scrooge Approved” Prices (1987)  Christmas Creeps.  ****  “The Christmas Raccoons” ©1980 PFS Christmas Raccoons / PFS Pooled Film Services, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 On another Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we fly back in time to 1978 to revisit Rankin/Bass’s turn at “A Christmas Carol.”  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May return to talk “The Stingiest Man in Town,” an animated remake of a made-for-TV musical, featuring the voices of Walter Matthau as Scrooge and Tom Bosley as our narrator, a literal talking Humbug.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on “The Alcoa Hour” starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge.  The original special on Sleigh Bell Cinema.  Michael May’s Christmas Carol Project.  Sonny Melendrez (Bob Cratchit) in “You and Me, Kid.”  This has my all-time favorite, super creepy version of Marley’s face appearing on Scrooge’s door knocker.  This special gets older Belle completely wrong.  Tiny Tim has skinny robot legs.  Debbie Clinger (Martha Cratchit) of the Clinger Sisters, a.k.a. Superchick from the “Krofft Supershow” host band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.  Rankin/Bass should have made a south seas-themed special called Christmas Island. (Hi from the future! We ended up exploring this idea on After Lunch.)  Scrooge’s grave morphing into a giant devil face is a reminder in hindsight that this special was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the predecessor to Studio Ghibli.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Glad Trash Bags Commercial starring Tom Bosley (1981)  Christmas Creeps.  ****  “The Stingiest Man in Town” © 1978 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Sail back to 1981 as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May stumble in to imbibe “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because Rankin/Bass had the rights to use the song “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the Jeopardy! guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, “The Astuter Computer Revue.”  Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”  This special keeps adding new rules about how both banshees and rainbows work, like they’re Mogwai.  The Leprechauns’ “phantom island of Tralee” shares a name with an actual mainland town in Ireland, but is closer to Dursey Island, population (as of 2016): 4.  The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.  According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.  “Jack O’Lantern,” from Rankin/Bass’s Festival of Family Classics TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Gremlins Gizmo Plush Pet (1984)  The Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” © 1981 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 The Advent Calendar House gets overrun by earworms strong enough to burrow into wood.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May drop in to help carve into a 1980 Rankin/Bass special starring that beloved Christmas icon… Pinocchio.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Two songs, “Dancin’” and “The Very Best Friend I Ever Had,” were cut from and later restored to TV broadcasts.  “Starstuff,” a Philadelphia market, Saturday morning kids’ sci-fi TV series starring Todd Porter, the voice of Pinocchio.  The most disappointing gifts we’ve ever received, including what Santa gave me after I allegedly misspelled “Alpha Critters.”  How does Pinocchio’s nose detect lies, and does it grant him a mulligan here?  The strange flash-forward to the rest of Pinocchio’s better-known adventures, even though Rankin/Bass already made a Pinocchio TV series, its first ever stop-motion animation project.  ****  “Pinocchio’s Christmas” ©1980 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s time once again to count down to Christmas Eve, starting with 3 versions of Dr. Seuss’s classic Christmas tale from 1966, 2000, and 2018.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May drop by as all 3 Mikes compare and contrast 3 very different Grinches.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.,” Dr. Seuss’s first — and last — feature film screenplay.  DiGio discovers Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” was also Tony the Tiger.  Grinchmas, the annual Christmas celebration at Universal Studios Hollywood and Islands of Adventure in Orlando.  “How Murray Saved Christmas,” a 2014 animated TV special starring Jerry Stiller that just made my to-do list.  “The Muppet Christmas Carol” on Sleigh Bell Cinema.  ****  “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” © 1966 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.  “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” © 2000 LUNI Productions GmbH & Co. KG.  “The Grinch” © 2018 Universal Studios.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.