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🎄 It’s 1984, and it’s time to let the music play down in Fraggle Rock as we ring in Christmas in July on a quest to find the true meaning of the Festival of the Bells.  🎙 Tommy Coombs and Donnie Storms join us on a journey to Outer Space as Doc teaches Sprocket — and us — about the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and Christmas around the world.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A clip from the British airing of “The Bells of Fraggle Rock,” in which Doc is replaced by a lighthouse captain.  Gerald Parkes (Doc) as the Ghost of Christmas Present in “An American Christmas Carol.”  Doc’s tool-themed Christmas tree.  Philadelphia’s John Wanamaker Christmas Light Show and Dickens Village.  The Weebabeast, in pictures.  Gobo’s maze-like map to the Cave of the Great Bell.  St. Nicholas Day.  “Mokey and the Festival of the Bells,” a Christmas-themed Fraggle Rock storybook.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Fraggle Rock Book Club (1985)  McDonald’s Fraggle Rock Happy Meal Toys (1988)  Hyrule Podcasters, an audio “Let’s Play” through The Legend of Zelda.  ****  “The Bells of Fraggle Rock” © 1984 Jim Henson Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #muppets

🎄 It’s 1983, and Young Republican Alex P. Keaton is sick and tired of hearing “Merry Christmas.” It was a different time.  🎙 Molly Patton and Joey O. join us as we airlift our dirty laundry back to before “Back to the Future” for a Scrooge Sunday edition of “Family Ties,” in which Michael J. Fox is taken 30 years into the future to fix his family.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Michael Gross (Steven) on making the Christmas movie “Noelle.”  Chris Hebert (Young Alex) in “Fuzzbucket.”  Justine Bateman as Mallory as the Ghost of Christmas Future is the Best Dressed Ghost of Christmas Future.  Justine Bateman as Lady Zara, Superman’s long-lost betrothed wife-to-be on “Lois and Clark.”  Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter (Elyse) as Santa and Mrs. Claus in the 2015 Lifetime Original Movie, “Becoming Santa.”  The time I went shopping on Christmas Day in the year 2000 and ended up finding the loneliest Hollywood Video employee.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Atari Christmas Commercial (1983)  The Christmas Alphabet Podcast.  ****  “Family Ties” and “A Keaton Christmas Carol” © 1983 Paramount Pictures Corp.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #scroogesunday

🐰 It’s 1983, and despite replacing our entire body with robot parts, we still can’t plow faster than a rapidly growing magic forest baby.  🎙 Chad Young and Sammy Hain join us as we get things rolling with the mascots of Paas Easter egg coloring kits in a secret hit piece on landlords disguised as a wacky Easter story. On the way, we’ll meet the ever-looming shadow of the Easter Bunny and teach animals to talk by giving them clothes.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The History of Paas.  Patton Oswalt on Paas and its short-lived competitors.  This special was written by Rankin/Bass legend Romeo Muller, with songs composed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles.  Charles Woolf (Terrence) in “Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.”  The origin of a farmer’s “South 40” and the Homestead Act of 1862.  Paas replaced their mascot characters. The only original one left is Feathers — if that’s even the same Feathers.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Paas Easter Egg Coloring Kit (1984)  Holidays After Dark.  ****  “Peter and the Magic Egg” © 1983 RLR Associates, Ltd. / Romeo Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #easter

🎄 It’s 1984, and all we want for Christmas is our mom back.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us for a roller coaster of emotions from sad raindrop to beautiful snowflake as we turn around back to 1984 with Punky Brewster during her very special, very crucial first Christmas with her new family.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  I totally missed the 2021 “Punky Brewster” revival series on Peacock.  Ami Foster (Margaux) in “Wrinkles in Need of Cuddles.”  The Punky Brewster Wiki exists and is very helpful.  What do you mean, “Nobody would want A Bomb for Christmas?”  “Santa Claus Lives in Santa Cruz” is a very obscure single that may or may not have been written for this episode.  “I’ve Got the Sun in the Morning” from Annie Get Your Gun.  Today’s TV Trope: Santa’s Existence Clause.  ****  📼 Commercials:  NBC’s One to Grow On interstitial with Soleil Moon Frye, circa 1984.  Wizards! The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “Punky Brewster” and “Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus” © 1984 NBC Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s

🎄 It’s 1983, and a young bear and fox are lost in the Big City after accidentally riding the rails on the apparently famous Christmas Tree Train in an obscure special that has little to do with Christmas trees or trains.  🎙 Ethan “The Hungry Reader” climbs aboard as we explore the first holiday special starring Buttons and Rusty, known later as the Chucklewood Critters.  📺 You can watch “The Christmas Tree Train” on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Unofficial Chucklewood Critters Home Page, which looks like it was created in 2003, last updated in 2011, and is a perfect specimen of an early 2000s Internet fan page.  William Boyett (Ranger Jones) in “Last Clear Chance,” a 1959 driving safety film later featured on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”  Foxes actually hang out around bears in nature (Nature.org, 2021)  A random shout-out to mid-1990s Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe Bubsy the Bobcat.  A very difficult jump in a sewer level in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo game.  All the human characters in this special look like they’re related to Gargamel from The Smurfs.  RiffTrax Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Santa’s Village in Southern California, circa 1983 during an airing of “The Christmas Tree Train.”  North Pole Radio.  ****  “The Christmas Tree Train” © 1983 Encore Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s

🎃 It’s 1989, and Rue McClanahan is trapped in an underground castle inhabited by a bunch of Gremlin-looking puppets called Greevils — and for some reason, she wants to leave.  🎙️ Matt from Dinosaur Dracula drops in for a Halloween in July celebration of “The Wickedest Witch,” co-written and produced by ALF creator Paul Fusco, and starring Blanche from The Golden Girls as the evil Avarissa. As far as we know, this Halloween special only ever aired once, but somehow managed to capture our hearts and burrow itself into the cavernous depths of our memories.  📺 There are 3 copies on YouTube — some include commercials, others hit record a second too late. For the closest we can get to a full picture of the special, here are all 3, courtesy of:  1. Dinosaur Dracula,  2. Jared’s VHS Treasures,  3. trivialord.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Dino Drac on The Wickedest Witch.  Rue McClanahan on Entertainment Tonight, October 27, 1989 (Interview starts at 6:57).  Ronn Lucas (Sammy), creator of Scorch and the 1988 Disney Channel special, “Who’s in Charge Here?”  Judge Doom murdering a clown shoe in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  Free Stuff for Kids.  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s Halloween Gift Certificate Books, 1989 during the airing of The Wickedest Witch.  Weird Christmas.  ****  “The Wickedest Witch” © 1989 Boo You Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #halloween #puppets

🎄 It’s 1985, but we’re rocketing into the future, when apparently urgent veterinary care no longer exists.  🎙 Jack Ford from the Total Christmas Podcast joins us for a glimpse into the space-age year of 2062 to find out if 3 robotic ghosts of Christmas can convince Mr. Spacely to change his stingy ways, while the clock is ticking for the Jetsons’ dog, Astro, on his deathbed.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  George Jetson apparently was/will be born at the end of July 2022.  George O’Hanlon (George Jetson) as Joe McDoakes in a series of instructional parody short films from the 1940s and ’50s.  The Jetsons’ “laser tree.”  “Bongo Feet and Zip,” the classic Hanna-Barbara running sound effect, is heard 9 times in this episode.  This episode marks the last appearance speaking appearance of the Jetsons’ pet alien, Orbitty.  Astro’s supposed fever is normal for dogs.  How the Flintstones movie teenage Spacely and his future wife watch changes the theory that both shows take place in the same time period.  The robotic Ghost of Christmas Past, Present (literally a talking wrapped Christmas present), and “Yet to Be.”  I had to look up whether Spacely even had a pet to warrant having a personal veterinarian. Meet Zero.  ****  📼 Commercials:  George Jetson’s Air Pollution PSA, National Clean Air Coalition (1990)  Cool Kids Club, a nostalgia-fueled trip back to the ’80s and ’90s.  ****  “The Jetsons” and “A Jetson Christmas Carol” © 1985 Hanna-Barbara Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #scroogesunday #hannabarbera

🦃 It’s 1983, and we’re spending Thanksgiving in July at the Saturday Supercade.  🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us as we take a cue from Q*bert and pals and try to stay on topic as they learn how to build a Q home in a Q land in a retelling of the first Thanksgiving as square as the wheels on the Q*horse and buggy Pilgrim Q*bert wants to win. ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  We all tried to remember who brought up the Q*bert special last year while talking about “A Thanksgiving Tale,” and we were all wrong.  Even “Kangaroo” got a “Saturday Supercade” segment eventually.  Peter Cullen was the first voice of Mario in the “Donkey Kong” segment.  “The Kingdom Chums: Little David’s Adventure,” an animated retelling of David and Goliath featuring Billy Bowles (Q*bert) as a stuffed lion come to life.  Pauline and her return in “Super Mario Odyssey.”  We accidentally introduce Chad to “Spookley, the Square Pumpkin.”  They gave the snakes arms!  Viper has a Mae West voice, which leads into a tangent about “Quasi at the Quackadero.”  Chief Q*Eagle reminded me of Randall Cunningham’s name in Tecmo Super Bowl.  Saturday Supercade’s extensive use of the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library.  Home Movies: “Don’t Put Marbles in Your Nose.”  Mike guests on TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny to discuss the Perfect Strangers Thanksgiving episode, “Wild Turkey.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  John Wanamaker’s 1988 Thanksgiving Sale.  Tis the Podcast.  ****  “Saturday Supercade,” “Q*bert,” and “Thanksgiving for the Memories” © 1983 Ruby-Spears Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #thanksgiving #rubyspears #videogames

💝 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we visited the Easter Bunny’s underground nightmare factory in “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise.”  This time, it’s 1982, and love and hockey are in the air we get all warm and fuzzy with the Bear Family’s Valentine’s Day capers.  🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas joins us as Brother Bear gets stalked by a secret admirer, and his Papa’s public displays of affection send him into orbit.  📺 You can watch “The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” for free on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Broad Street Bullies.  Totally Rad Christmas on Chuck E. Cheese.  Homer Simpson’s rabbit trap.  The bottom brick scene in ”Bloodsport.”  A set of clips from this special set to “Let’s Hear It for The Boy” by Deniece Williams.  ****  📼 Commercial:  McDonald’s Berenstain Bears Happy Meal Toys (1986)  ****  “The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” © 1982 Joseph Cates Co., Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #valentinesday #berenstainbears

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we witnessed goodness make the badness go away in “The Smurfs’ Christmas Special.”  This time, we’re taking a one giant puppy open sleigh ride back to 1987 to spend another Christmas with the Smurfs.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Donnie Storms join us to help the Smurfs save Christmas for a poor human toymaker and his gravely ill wife, while Brainy and Hefty get lost in medieval Crime Alley.  📺 You can watch “’Tis the Season to be Smurfy” for free on YouTube, or an upscaled version including the opening credits.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Look at the adjective…”  The crazy backstories of the Smurfs’ Puppy and Sassette.  The Great Cookie Thief.  New and improved Joker products!  Painter Smurf paints like “Duck Amuck.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Smurf-Berry Crunch Cereal (1983)  Bad Princess Movies.  ****  “’Tis the Season to be Smurfy” © 1987 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #hannabarbera

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, our hearts and golden harmonicas went out to “A Chipmunk Christmas.”  This time, it’s Scrooge Sunday, so get set to have some fun in this Dickens of an episode of “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”  🎙️ Tommy Coombs and Sean Sotka joins us in Hollywood — or at least a nearby cartoon suburb where Alvin turns his greed up to 11 and blames it on his lonely old neighbor who doesn’t know how to plant a garden.  📺 You can watch “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” on Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” on Munkapedia.  Pee-wee Herman’s breakfast machine.  “Paperboy,” the video game.  “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  Dads with trash bags on Christmas morning.  “A Chipmunk Reunion.”  A Seville family portrait featuring Dave’s abnormally large head.  Mickey Mouse’s 1980s Epcot spacesuit.  Today’s TV Trope: Sounding It Out.  Southern California’s Blizzard of 2023.  “Here Comes Christmas,” the TV version, and the album version.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Chipmunks are Coming to Target (1990)  Cool Kids Club.  ****  “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Merry Christmas, Mr. Carroll” © 1989 Bagdasarian Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #scroogesunday #dic

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we saved Punky Brewster’s Christmas spirit in “Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus.”  This time, join Punky in 1985 on an animated adventure in which Punky and pals visit Santa’s workshop and accidentally start Christmas too early.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us on an instantaneous trip to the North Pole courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Comparing the original sitcom’s theme song to the cartoon’s theme.  Galoob made a plush Glomer.  Adam’s VHS cover has a very off-model Glomer.  The Master Christmas Switch’s effect on time reminded me of the “Futurama” episode “Time Keeps on Slippin’.”  Punky taught Adam how to wink.  Santa drops off the kids on the roof again, just in like in “Frosty the Snowman.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Story of Phroomf commercial featuring baseball star Bob Boone (1986)  WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “It’s Punky Brewster” and “Christmas in July” © 1985 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #rubyspears

🦃 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we let the goofy alien puppet with the jokes toy with our emotions in “ALF’s Special Christmas.”  This time, ALF teaches us about Melmac’s version of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he’s already eaten the turkey, but there might still be some  sweet potato pie in the garage, with the homeless man.  🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us around the Fappiano table as we aim a spoonful of squash back to 1988 for a very special, 2-part Thanksgiving episode.  📺 Watch “Turkey in the Straw” Part 1 and Part 2 on ALF’s official YouTube channel.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ALF ruined Willie’s best belt to make his Thanksgiving pageant headdress.  Oh no, Tom brought up Gerbert.  Melmac’s version of Thanksgiving is named for Bob Fappiano, ALF’s assistant puppeteer.  ALF trying to eat wax fruit reminded me of Rizzo in “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”  I’m sad to report “Das Cornucopia, from Wagner Strauss’s ‘Der Feaster Famine,’” is not real.  Is turkey really an aphrodisiac?  What football game were the Alien Task Force agents watching?  Chad still has his ALF doll from Burger King.  ALF co-hosting the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Nobody Beats The Wiz Super Thanksgiving Sale (1985)  Fan Fix-tion.  ****  “ALF” and “Turkey in the Straw” © 1988 Alien Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #thanksgiving #alf #puppets

🎄It’s 1989, and a killer in a Santa suit is making it really hard to hide my dead husband’s body.  🎙 Jamie Ray from Fave Five From Fans joins us to dig up the first filmed episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” a cozy Christmas nightmare directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring his then-wife and talented screamer, Mary Ellen Trainor, and the kid who gets her hoverboard stolen by Marty McFly.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Mike on Fave Five From Fans with my Fave Five Christmas TV Specials (already covered them all here).  Fave Five Christmas Horror Movies.  The Vault of Horror No. 35 (1954) “And All Through the House” segment of the 1972 “Tales from the Crypt” movie.  HBO Feature Presentation opening (1983)  John Kassir (The Crypt-Keeper) in a commercial for The Legend of Zelda (1987)  Mary Ellen Trainor (Elizabeth) and Lyndsey Whitney Barry (Carrie Ann) in “Back to the Future Part II.”  Today’s TV Trope: Tempting Fate.  Elizabeth calls the operator because 9-1-1 was only available in about half the U.S. by 1989.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Crypt-Keeper’s Ghoulish Guide to the Howlidays on Kids’ WB (2001)  Holidays After Dark.  ****  “Tales From the Crypt” and “And All Through the House” © 1989 Tales From the Crypt Venture.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s

🎄It’s 1983, and the Worst Kids in the World are taking over the church Nativity play, smoking in the ladies’ room, and helping themselves to the sacramental grape juice.  🎙 Scott Leopold from Holly Jolly X’masu and Bob Baker from Festive Foreign Film Fans join us as we meet the Herdmans in a classic Christmas story turned TV movie starring Loretta Swit from “M*A*S*H” and a young Fairuza Balk in her on-screen debut.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Today’s TV Tropes: It’s the Best Whatever, Ever and Title Drop.  Author Barbara Robinson wrote 2 sequels: “The Best School Year Ever” (1994) and “The Best Halloween Ever” (2004).  Fairuza Balk (Beth) in “The Waterboy.”  Loretta Swit (Grace) interview: “Meanest kids in town make the best pageant,” AP via The Free Lance-Star, 1983.  Jason Michas (Leroy) as Johnny Arcade in “The Power Team” animated segment from Season 1 of “Video Power.”  Antony Holland (Reverend Hopkins) as Dr. Light — er, “Wright” — in “Captain N: The Game Master.”  Ocean Hellman (Alice) in “Danger Bay,” which keeps coming up this season.  ****  📼 Commercial:  Duracell “No Longer Under the Christmas Tree” Commercial (1983)  Festive Foreign Film Fans.  ****  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” © 1983 Comworld Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #nativity

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  🎙 Bill Hanstock join us we fail upward through middle to upper hotel management featuring a simultaneously very mature and very immature conversation about cartoon bears discovering mistletoe. What could be the Jellystone Winter Lodge’s final Christmas carnival manages to wake up Yogi Bear, who hibernates directly underneath it but somehow never knew about it before now.  📖 Check out Bill’s book, “We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This special opens with a typo: The sign reads “Yellystone Park.”  Daws Butler’s Snagglepuss voice was a Bert Lahr impression that was so spot on, Lahr threatened to sue when Snagglepuss started endorsing Kellogg’s cereal.  Hanna-Barbera’s Christmas Sing-A-Long album, featuring songs from this special.  Yogi was in “Casper’s First Christmas” in 1979, so this isn’t really Yogi’s First Christmas.  Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial episode (2017)  The Wonkamobile.  ClickHole: “Which One of My Garbage Sons Are You?” Clickhole, 2014.  Eddie the Eagle.  Mickey Mouse’s shirtless (and hatless) Steamboat Willie winter look at Disneyland.  “Mean, Sour, Crafty, and Cruel” in “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” and “Smurfs.”  The Zone of Death in the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho.  “Christmas Is Here” in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cocoa Krispies Snagglepuss “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Commercial, circa 1963.  Bad Princess Movies.  ****  “Yogi’s First Christmas” © 1980 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #hannabarbera

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.  This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode! 🎙 Erin Evans, Joey O., and Anthony Strand join us for a Dickens of a celebration with 1984’s TV movie adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” starring George S. Scott, along with the original “Equalizer” Edward Woodward as a sassy Ghost of Christmas Present, and we even spotted our favorite Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Gough, as a not-so-portly gentleman.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”  George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.  Wikipedia and NO ONE ELSE names one Cratchit child “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.  Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Return of the Jedi.”  “It’s Corn,” and My favorite “Futurama” joke.  Scrooge’s grave, allegedly a real, reinscribed headstone, at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.  Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.  ****  📼 Commercials:  IBM Sponsored Commercial Break from the original airing of “A Christmas Carol.”  George C. Scott “Read More About It” PSA.  The Christmas Podcast Network All-Star Comedy Christmas Show!  ****  “A Christmas Carol” © 1984 Travenol Laboratories Limited.  In memory of Jason Gross (1976–2023).  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  “Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1980s #scroogesunday

🎄 It’s 1983, and my emotional support jack-in-the-box is not providing much help for my Imposter Syndrome.  🎙️ Tommy Coombs, Jayme Kilsby, and Chad Young join us for a deep dive into another pre-ALF puppet special from Paul Fusco starring a very depressed elf in training trying to find where he belongs in Santa’s workshop by first finding everywhere he doesn’t belong.  Plus: Santa’s Swedish Chef-like human hands!  A three-eyed purple teddy bear we never get to see!  Paul Fusco inserting himself into his own Christmas fan fiction!  📺 You can watch “Santa’s Magic Toy Bag” on Tubi.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Sherman looks like A Gnome Named Gnorm.  The hot dog puppet from “Funland.”  The History of the Nickelodeon Hotel (Defunctland)  The keeper of Santa’s Magic Toy Bag reminds me of the presidential designated survivor.  Superman impales some jerk’s truck on a telephone pole in “Man of Steel.”  Cracked: We Ruined Santa With Math.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Sears Video Game Arcade Christmas Sale (1983)  The Studio Demands It!  ****  “Santa’s Magic Toy Bag” © 1983 Imagicom Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #1980s #puppets

🎄 It’s 1981, and a jolly swagman who may or may not be Santa Claus is flying me around the world in a sleigh built out of a bench and some rope we had lying around to search the globe for a lost baby kangaroo.  Today’s Christmas in July episode begins where it’s actually winter in July, and only gets stranger and more inappropriate from there.  🎙 Dan MacPherson joins us for “Around the World with Dot,” also known as “Dot and Santa Claus,” starring the title character from an 1899 Australian children’s book, “Dot and the Kangaroo.”  📺 You can find “Around the World with Dot” on YouTube. You may want to watch “Dot and the Kangaroo” first.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Director Yoram Gross endured World War II in Poland; his family was on Schindler’s list. His studio, now Flying Bark Productions, more recently animated “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and Marvel’s “What If…?”  Barbara Frawley (Dot) singing “The Black Cat” on “Play School.”  Today’s TV Trope: Magical Homeless Person.  “Sakura Sakura,” which I recognized from Punch-Out!!  How a White Lie Gave Japan KFC for Christmas. (Gastro Obscura)  “The Real World of the Circus” opens similarly to the movie “Chaplin.”  “Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.”  “Alouette” is about plucking the feathers off a lark.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mortein “Louie the Fly” Commercial (1980s)  Myer “Celebrate Christmas” Commercial (1980s)  Bad Princess Movies. ****  “Dot and the Kangaroo” © 1981 Yoram Gross Filmstudio Pty Ltd.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #1980s

🎃 It’s 1986, and one student at a magical boarding school is struggling to fit in while having to deal with a hard-nosed potions teacher and bullying from a golden child whose father will hear about this, but finds comfort in broom flying and encouragement from the kindly old headmaster.  No, not that one.  🎙️ Becca Petunia and Lindy Kempe join us for “The Worst Witch,” adapted from the original beloved series of books about a quirky boarding school for witches. This Halloween special stars a young Fairuza Balk, featuring Dianna Rigg, Charlotte Rae in a dual role, and Tim Curry in the trippiest ’80s music video.  📺 You can watch “The Worst Witch” on the Internet Archive.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Find “The Worst Witch” book at your local library.  St. Michael’s College is for sale.  Pam Jones (Donna) — formerly Kate Buckley before another actress took that name while she was on hiatus — is now a ceramic artist.  The kitten ceremony background music sounds kind of like Zelda’s Lullaby.  Mildred and Ethel’s rivalry gave us “Owl House” vibes.  Toonces the Driving Cat.  One student is a future Teletubby!  Becca on Movin’ Right Along discussing Tim Curry singing in “Muppet Treasure Island.”  Both Tim Curry and Sebastian from “The Little Mermaid” sing “begin the Beguine.”  Tim Curry in “Red Alert 3.”  Other “Worst Witch” TV adaptations, including a college spinoff and a Netflix series.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Carvel Halloween Ice Cream Cakes Commercial (1986)  Hyrule Podcasters, an audio “Let’s Play” through The Legend of Zelda.  ****  “The Worst Witch” © 1986 Central Independent Television Plc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #1980s #halloween