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🐰 We’re back! This surprise springtime episode covers the 1976 Rankin/Bass special, “The First Easter Rabbit,” which despite its name and main theme, still relies heavily on Christmas.  🎙️ Brandon Medley hops by to discuss this special’s very obvious and very uncredited connection to “The Velveteen Rabbit,” Easter Valley’s odd location next door to the North Pole, and Rankin/Bass’s habit of giving bad directions.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  They named the talking snowball “Br-r-ruce,” a joke I didn’t notice until just now!  ****  “The First Easter Rabbit” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s1 #1970s #easter #rankinbass

🐰 Hello, sunshine! Join us for a hop back to Easter 1986 to revisit the Jim Henson special, “The Tale of the Bunny Picnic.”  🎙 Emily Rowley hops into the guest chair for this special, which it turns out is about neither Easter, nor a bunny picnic… but it did introduce the world to Bean Bunny, the Muppets’ Nermal.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Jim Henson’s original intro to this special.  “The Jim Henson Hour.”  Bean Bunny in Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  Bean was also a late-series addition to “Muppet Babies,” and his picture is on the playroom wall in Disney’s new “Muppet Babies.”  “The Muppet Musicians of Bremen” and its grotesque, full-size Muppet bad guys.  Sweetums in “Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.”  Bean trying to tell the other bunnies to quiet down or the dog will hear them is also the plot of the first act of “Trolls.”  Every Easter Bunny costume is terrifying.  Y’all remember Puffalumps? You do now.  The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta is home to several Muppets from this special, including both Bean and his Dragon Bunny form from his dream sequence.  Carlin Trammel’s video tour of the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Jim Henson exhibit.  ****  📼 Commercials:  McDonald’s Muppet Babies Holiday Huggables (1988)  Christmas Creeps.  ****  “The Tale of the Bunny Picnic” © 1986 Henson Associates.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1980s #easter #muppets

🐰 Who is Easter Bunny? OMG, Bear is Easter Bunny! How can that be? 🎙 Emily Rowley and Alan Johnson join us as we hop, hop, hop back to 1981 for our first trip to Bear Country, which it turns out was built on top of the Easter Bunny’s industrial nightmare factory.  📺 You can watch “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise” for free on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Yes, we all collectively mispronounced “Berenstain.”  The VHS cover, for reference.  “The Berenstain Bears: The Very First Easter,” being the story of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, who is also a bear.  Inside the Berenstain Bears’ Tree House.  The widest tree in the world, for comparison.  Things this special has in common with “Steel Magnolias”: Knowl Johnson and dozens of broken Easter eggs.  An ode to the Bear Family’s tiny, antique, circular porthole TV set.  Today’s TV Trope: Packed Hero.  “Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video,” featuring young Zachary Danziger (Bill Bunny) and a host of way more familiar names.  ****  📼 Commercial:  Kellogg’s Raisin Bran: Morgan the Mockingbird Commercial (1981), preserved from the original airing of this special.  Mike on Alan’s Two Bad Neighbors podcast for “Marge Be Not Proud” and “Monty Can’t Buy Me Love.”  ****  “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise” © 1981 Joseph Cates Co., Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s6 #1980s #easter #berenstainbears

🐰 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 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.  #s12 #2000s #easter #scroogesunday #disney

🐰 It’s Easter in July, and those two things together are the least confusing thing about today’s episode.  🎙️ It’s a race across the calendar with Michael May and Sammy Hain as we follow Peter Cottontail through time on his quest to reclaim the title of Chief Easter Bunny from the evil January Q. Irontail, voiced by Vincent Price, in Rankin/Bass’s first non-Christmas holiday special from 1971.  📺 You can find “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” on Tubi, or this restored version on the YouTube channel “The Rankin Bass Archive.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Easter Bunny That Overslept,” the book, and a read-along video.  This special has the same opening as Disney’s “Aladdin.”  Vincent Price hosting “Read, Write, and Draw” on The Disney Channel.  Jim and Dwight are the worst party planning committee on “The Office.”  Patton Oswalt on Easter eggs.  Seymour S. Sassafras is probably a Time Lord.  Today’s TV Trope: Loophole Abuse.  The Halloween segment reuses music from “Mad Monster Party?”  Is the title of Chief Easter Bunny always on the line like a 24/7 wrestling championship?  Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet.  Yosemite Sam attempts to cook hasenpfeffer.  The Easter Bunny in Hell in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”  This special got a sequel in 2005.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs (1978)  FOLCs Forever: A Lois & Clark Rewatch Podcast.  ****  “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” © 1971 Videocraft International Limited.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s14 #1970s #easter #rankinbass

🐰 This Easter in July, we’ve hopped back to 1994 on a rather stressful and dangerous trip through Jellystone Park.  🎙️ Sammy Hain and Gerry Davila join us for a visit to the Easter Bunny, the Magical Easter Chicken, and the world’s least eco-friendly plastic factory, all of which somehow call Jellystone Park home.  📺 You can find “Yogi the Easter Bear” on the Internet Archive.  ****  (00:00) - Intro  (02:23) - Guest and Special Histories  (05:50) - Act 1  (46:15) - Retro Commercial Break  (47:50) - Act 2  (59:22) - Act 3  (01:18:36) - Final Thoughts  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  There’s a whole franchise of Jellystone Park campgrounds.  Don’t feed bears chocolate!  Today’s TV Tropes: “Oh, Crap!” Smile and Bat Scare.  The International Ranger Federation was founded way more recently than I expected.  Sesame Street News Flash: Holiday Mix-Up.  The creepy Easter Bunny from “Teen Titans Go!”  “The Simpsons,” Duff, Duff Light, and Duff Dry.  “Saturday Night Live,” Colon Blow.  Easter Sammy’s Spring Breakers T-shirt, designed by Jayme!  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cadbury Bunny Tryouts (1994)  Totally Rad Christmas  ****  “Yogi the Easter Bear” © 1994 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.  #s16 #1990s #easter #hannabarbera