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🎄 Happy birthday! Join us as we begin our salute to all holiday specials, but mostly the Christmas ones by attempting to answer questions no one asked about the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special, “Frosty the Snowman.”  🎙️ Brandon Medley joins the parade as we try to find out how hard it is to escape a locked greenhouse, when something you throw away stops legally being yours, and how long it would actually take to write, “I am very sorry for what I did to Frosty” a hundred zillion times.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Oatmeal is a perfectly adorable name for a snowman.  Frosty Day in Armonk, New York.  A closer look at the absurdly long and zigzagged train route to the North Pole.  The stupidest places we’ve ever been dropped off.  ****  “Frosty the Snowman” © 1969 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s1 #1960s #rankinbass #frosty

🎄 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.  #s2 #1960s #2000s #2010s #drseuss

🎄 For its first Christmas special after the success of “Rudolph,” Rankin/Bass presented us with a Dickens of a story, but not that one.  🎙️ Brian Earl from Christmas Past podcast visits the Advent Calendar House to experience 1967’s “Cricket on the Hearth,” as told by Danny Thomas, featuring a bizarre, burlesque performance of a song about Fish ’n’ Chips, and a clearly implied, off-camera murder.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The history of legends about crickets on hearths bringing good luck.  The full “Cricket on the Hearth” soundtrack is on YouTube.  Christmas Past on Golden Age Christmas TV Cartoons.  Christmas TV History’s Joanna Wilson on Rankin/Bass Voice Actors.  ****  “Cricket on the Hearth” ©1967 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1960s #rankinbass

🎄 Of all the animated Christmas specials we have covered and will cover, this is the nearsighted granddaddy of them all.  🎙 Anthony Caruso and Julia Colburn from Tis the Podcast visit the Advent Calendar House for a very special Scrooge Sunday episode as we nearly-blindly fumble back to 1962 to celebrate “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” TV’s first ever animated Christmas special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Jim Backus (Mister Magoo) based his portrayal of Thurston Howell III from “Gilligan’s Island” on another character he played on a radio show hosted by another famous future Scrooge, Alan Young.  Scrooge’s nephew is cut entirely to make room for a song about Broadway that sometimes also gets cut entirely.  The ghosts of Christmas Present and Past show up out of order for no clear reason, but an A.V. Club article from 2012 tried to find one.  Tiny Tim is an English-speaking Gerald McBoing-Boing.  This special invented a flavor! Razzleberry pie is now a thing that exists, made with raspberries and blackberries.  The Ghost of Christmas Past looks like Toon Link.  The last surviving member of the cast, Marie Matthews (Young Scrooge), was on a 2009 panel revisiting the special.  Is Belle’s hair supposed to look like an actual bell?  ****  “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol” © 1962 UPA Pictures, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1960s #scroogesunday

🎄 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.  #s3 #1960s #rankinbass #rudolph

🎄 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.  #s5 #1960s

🎄 Young Conan the Barbarian meets baby Jesus on this episode of the official holiday podcast for people who hate all humans — which, in 2020, is most of us.  🎙️ Brandon Medley and Michael May join the dance to the beat of our own drum back to 1968 and back into the Rankin/Bass universe for their stop-motion follow-up to “Rudolph.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This was Romeo Muller’s favorite Christmas special he wrote for Rankin/Bass. Also, that link on Rankin/Bass’s website is from 2003 and looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2003.  Paul Frees voices of 8 different characters in this special, if you count animal noises.  The song, originally called “Carol of the Drum,” was written more recently than I’d thought — in 1941 — and first recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers.  Aaron’s origin story is the same as Conan the Barbarian’s.  Here’s an isolated recording of “One Star in the Night,” without the narration.  Burl Ives wouldn’t have felt out of place narrating this special, since he’d go on to narrate one about another caravan.  The special also mixes up its kings, at least as they’re traditionally named.  Our definitive versions of the song.  Young Brandon insists on adding the Little Drummer Boy to a church Nativity pageant.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Kentucky Fried Chicken: Christmas Carol (1989)  NetfliXmas.  Feliz Christmas, Merry Navidad.  ****  “The Little Drummer Boy” © 1968 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s5 #1960s #rankinbass #nativity

🎄 It’s 1963, and we’re watching a show about a show within a show putting on a show for Christmas. Don’t ask us to make sense of it. We can’t stop tripping over our own home furniture.  🎙️ Tim Babb from the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast joins us to watch a show within a show put on a Christmas show, then sing the theme from the show it’s within.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Dick Van Dyke as Tubby the Tuba.  8 great little details you never noticed in The Dick Van Dyke Show Christmas episode (MeTV)  Every Episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Ranked (Vulture)  92-year-old Dick Van Dyke dancing to Step in Time.  Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins Returns.”  “John Brown’s Body.”  Key & Peele’s “Negrotown” sketch and the trope of interrupting someone’s song.  “The Dick Van Dyke Show” cast reunites on “Comic Relief” (1992)  Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book’s history of “I Am a Fine Musician.”  The theme song’s secret lyrics.  ****  📼 Commercial:  Learn Not to Burn: Holiday Fire Safety PSA (1977)  Also mentioned, this Fire Safety PSA with Dick Van Dyke pretending to be a door.  ****  “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Alan Brady Show Presents” © 1963 Calvada Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s7 #1960s