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🎄 How many Muppets can fit inside a farmhouse? We took a head count. It’s a lot.  🎙️ Carlin Trammel from Nerd Lunch stops by the Advent Calendar House to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of “A Muppet Family Christmas,” the shredded wheat and cranberry sauce of TV specials. Together, we try and piece together the various home video cuts over music rights, and wrap around heads around the dizzying continuity issues surrounding the Muppet Babies.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Can you say “OshKosh B’gosh”?  A milk PSA and the world’s most forward-thinking bullies.  Osvaldo el Gruñón, Oscar the Grouch’s Puerto Rican counterpart.  Parting words from the guy with the beard doing the dishes.  ****  “A Muppet Family Christmas” © 1987 Jim Henson Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s1 #1980s #muppets

🎄 Merry Christmas, little Zachary. Enter the void as time, space, and reality blur around the 1979 TV special accompaniment to my favorite Christmas album of all time, “John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.” 🎙️ Carlin Trammel and Bill Hanstock join the celebration of peace on Earth and good will to men, women, chickens, bears, Dizzy Gillespie, and Missy Piggy.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Bill’s Uncle Deadly tattoo.  Pro-wrestler and “Muppets Most Wanted” cast member Hornswoggle’s Muppet tattoo.  The Muppet Show Season 4 DVD promised at 2009’s D23 Expo, but which never came.  Miss Piggy makes a sex joke, lest we forget the “Muppet Show” pilot opened with “Sex and Violence.”  John Denver’s linear notes for the album’s 1996 re-release cite the Muppets as an inspiration for writing “Alfie, the Christmas Tree.”  “A Baby Just Like You is one endpoint of the John Denver Christmas song emotional spectrum. The other is “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas).”  “I Will Wait for You” in “Futurama.”  Jesus Christ has His own entry on Muppet Wiki.  Zachary Denver in the audience during “Silent Night,” and at his father’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2014.  Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold sing “When the River Meets the Sea” at Jim Henson’s memorial service.  ****  “John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together” © 1979 John Jer Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #muppets

🎄 Listen in as we gush over a 1977 Muppet Christmas special that probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves.  🎙️ Emily Rowley drops in to marvel at Kermit riding a bicycle, watch a drum roll out a door too many times to count, and rock out to the Riverbottom Nightmare Band. Pa would’ve loved this podcast.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Muppet Wiki has the lowdown of all 5 cuts of this.  The official outtake reel and the one with the drum roll.  Of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show.  The Christmas Price Index.  The “ass sliding” scene from “Rad.”  Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold sing “When the River Meets the Sea” at Jim Henson’s memorial.  The Can’t Wait for Christmas podcast on Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.  ****  “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas” © 1977 The Jim Henson Company.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #muppets #giftofthemagi

🎄 It’s Christmas Eve, and we’re celebrating with the first Christmas special I ever remember watching, from 1978.  🎙️ Erin Evans and Joey O. help bring Advent to a close as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street,” in which Big Bird worries Santa’s unfit for skinny chimneys, Mr. Hooper spends his Hanukkah saving Christmas, and we get a possible clue into how to get to Sesame Street.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  My taped copy of this is interrupted in the middle by a WHYY telethon with Philadelphia TV legend Ed Cunningham.  The Count’s amazing ice-skating cape.  The wibbly-wobbly physics of Oscar’s trash can.  Olivia married the Predator.  A cameo by Mr. Macintosh.  If you want to go read about Northern Calloway (David) and his off-screen troubles and tragic death, proceed with caution.  The adorable 2-year-old girl too little for her own vocabulary trying to explain that Santa pushes a magic button to go down chimneys is now in her 40s.  “Don’t Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”  An oral history of Mr. Snuffleupagus’s revelation as not imaginary.  Oscar holds a broom like it’s Not His Broom.  Ernie’s pajamas look like the background of the “Trololo” video.  Joey makes my Christmas by assuring me I didn’t imagine “The Candy Apple News Company.”  ****  🏌️‍♂️ After This Episode:  Listen to my guest appearance on the Two Bad Neighbors podcast discussing my favorite Christmas-adjacent episode of The Simpsons, “Marge Be Not Proud.”  Then go relax or take a nap or something. Hope you enjoy your Christmas!  ****  “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” © 1978 Children’s Television Workshop.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #muppets #giftofthemagi

💝 Love and dynamite are in the air as I introduce 2 guests to an early pilot of what would eventually become “The Muppet Show,” guest-starring a pregnant Mia Farrow.  🎙️ Joey O. and Brian Arnold drop by as we fall head over heels for “The Muppets Valentine Show,” a 1974 TV special that misinformed me about where babies come from.  📺 You can find “The Muppets Valentine Show” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Muppets Valentine Show” on Muppet Wiki.  Jim Henson’s Red Book entry about getting this pilot green-lit by some guy at ABC named “Mike” Eisner.  We quickly touch on Crazy Harry’s original incarnation as “Crazy Donald” and then immediately drop it.  Miss Mousey.  George the Janitor is simultaneously UHF’s Stanley Spadowski and WWE’s Perry Saturn.  George and Mildred At the Dance.  Droop in the “Cosby Show” episode, “Cliff’s Nightmare.”  The first appearance of Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle.  “You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket.”  “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” and the Looney Tunes musical bomb gag.  Brian’s blog post about “The Candy Apple News Company.”  ****  “The Muppets Valentine Show” © 1974 The Jim Henson Company.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #valentinesday #muppets

🕎 Kick off Hanukkah with the objectively better son from “Growing Pains” spinning bad puns like he made them out of clay.  🎙️Sarah Shay stops by as we shine a light on a 1990 episode of “Shalom Sesame,” an on-again, off-again co-production of “Sesame Street” and its counterpart in Israel, “Rechov Sumsum.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Shalom Sesame” on Muppet Wiki.  Israel’s Big Bird stand-in, Kippi Ben Kippod, is mistranslated as a porcupine despite clearly being a hedgehog. A similar but unclothed costume was used in Spain’s Barrio Sésamo for Espinete, who’s identified as a hedgehog.  Jeremy Miller, as Linus, sings “The Vigil” in “Snoopy! The Musical.”  Yoav Tzafir’s other credits include the Hebrew-dubbed voices of Ninja Turtle Michaelangelo and Super Mario. Later he directed Israel’s version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”  The real, actual, annual Hanukkah Torch Relay.  Moishe Oofnik, Israel’s counterpart to Oscar, looks less like a grouch and more like a standard Muppet monster. Probably because he has a nose.  Baby Bear teaches Telly Monster how to play dreidel.  A supposed folktale listed on the Wikipedia entry for sufganiyah may or may not be full of something that’s not jelly.  Sarah met the head puppeteer from “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah.”  Nell Carter, a Jewish convert, appeared on other episodes of “Shalom Sesame” as herself.  ****  “Shalom Sesame” © 1990 Children’s Television Workshop.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1990s #hanukkah #muppets

🐰 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

🎄 Join us on a stroll down Jim Henson’s dark hall of nightmares to 1986 to rewatch “The Christmas Toy,” an idea no one has repeated since.  🎙 Beth Cieslik, Adam Jurotich, and Donnie Storms are the newest friends in the playroom who have to learn the horrors of getting caught out of place.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Kermit was cut from the DVD release, but he’s back in the version on Amazon Prime Video.  Rugby crashing his skateboard into a block tower is the 1980s Muppet version of WWE’s Titus O’Neil tripping and sliding underneath the ring.  “Teacup Furby.”  “Mother Goose Rock ’n’ Rhyme” and the song “Gordon (Never Really Learned to Play).”  Apple is closer to a female My Buddy than Kid Sister, the actual female My Buddy.  The inevitable “Toy Story” comparison.  Somehow we worked in a “Christmas Shoes” joke. I’m not linking to that. I just wanted you to know.  “Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”  “The Secret Life of Toys,” the short-lived 1994 sequel series.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Kraft Holiday Recipes featuring “The Christmas Toy” poster (1986), preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.  Crispy Critters Cereal (1987)  Snow in Southtown.  ****  “The Christmas Toy” ©1986 Henson Associates, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s5 #1980s #muppets

🦖 It’s the most wonderful time of 60 million years ago, so come in and buy paint.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe joins us with frying pan ready to celebrate Refrigerator Day with the Jim Henson Company’s “Dinosaurs,” which is somehow the Advent Calendar House’s first TGIF episode.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Simpsons” parodies “Dinosaurs.”  We go from talking about the “Økėÿ Døkęÿ Køøkïñ” segment of “Muppets Now” to Netflix’s “Nailed It!”  Sally Struthers (Charlene) for International Correspondence School.  A brief history of the Christmas bonus, or “thirteenth salary.”  Sam McMurray in the very short-lived “A League of Their Own” sitcom, and my own pitch for a TV adaptation on Nerd Lunch’s Fourth Chair Army Invasion.  Pons Maar (Roy’s body actor) as the original voice of The Noid.  Unisaurs: The Dinosaurs equivalent to the Anything Muppet.  The biggest gifts we ended up returning.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Talking Baby Dinosaur and Dinosaurs Figures (1991)  TGI Podcast.  ****  “Dinosaurs” and “Refrigerator Day” © 1991 The Walt Disney Company.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s6 #1990s #muppets

🎄 It’s 1978, and celebrities pretending to be ghosts are gaslighting Oscar the Grouch into participating in Christmas. Also, Michael Jackson shows up. 🎙 Alan Johnson and Donnie Storms join us for another Scrooge Sunday episode to witness the 2nd best “Sesame Street” Christmas special from 1978… out of 2.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Our episode on “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.”  I thought Tough Pigs made up this special in 2001 to be funny, but nope, it’s real.  Sesame Street lost an Emmy to Sesame Street.  “A Special Sesame Street Christmas” on Muppet Wiki.  “Elmo’s Delicious Christmas.”  “Anne Murray Sings for the Sesame Street Generation,” an American re-release of “There’s a Hippo in My Tub.”  “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street.”  Michael Jackson inadvertently saved Sesame Street from a lawsuit.  “Just One Person” at Jim Henson’s memorial service. Mike talks about “Snoopy! The Musical” on A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Sesame Place (1984)  Kringle Talks Kristmas.  ****  “A Special Sesame Street Christmas” © 1978 Bob Banner Associates.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s7 #1970s #scroogesunday #muppets

🎄 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 2002, and we’re trapped in a horrifying world where Kermit the Frog doesn’t exist.  🎙 Lindy Kempe, Adam Jurotich, and Erik Johnson join us for a spectacular, spectacular Christmas Eve extravaganza starring Kermit in the George Bailey role of the Muppets’ perfectly silly take on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” also featuring Joan Cusack, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, the cast of “Scrubs,” and Whoopi Goldberg as God, Herself.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Muppet Wiki’s list of similarities between this special and 2011’s “The Muppets.”  Joe Snow.  Hoggle from “Labyrinth” at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  Director Kirk Thatcher as the punk on the bus in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and ”Picard.”  Jonathan Bruce, who’d later appear in “Elf.”  Deleted scenes include more of Carson Daly, Santa, and a lost cut scene with Snoop Dogg.  The giant Bossmen Muppets.  A scheduling conflict robbed this movie of actual Steve Irwin.  Fozzie as “that green guy who stole Christmas.”  Today’s TV Tropes: Celestial Bureaucracy, Laser Hallway, and Lampshade Wearing.  The Yoda Muppet has his own Muppet Wiki entry.  So does Amy, the Dancing Brick!  The World Trade Center in alternate timeline Piggy’s apartment window, and that’s not the worst part of that scene.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Mastercard Priceless Getaway Sweepstakes Commercial starring The Muppets (2002)  Acid Washed Memories, a retro pop-culture celebration podcast starting January 9, 2023.  ****  “It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie” © 2002 The Jim Henson Company.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s9 #2000s #muppets #itsawonderfullife

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Hanukkah on “Shalom Sesame,” and even uncovered the oddity, “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.”  This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas.  🎙 Becca Petunia and Anthony Strand from ToughPigs.com drop in to watch Elmo’s wish for Christmas Every Day cause economic and environmental disaster in a star-studded special narrated by Maya Angelou and featuring Harvey Fierstein as the Easter Bunny and “Doc Hopper,” himself, Charles Durning, as Santa.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Brats of the Lost Nebula.”  Early “proto-Elmo” appearances.  Miss Piggy’s cookbook has a recipe by Maya Angelou.  Baby Bear is Jewish.  14 Karat Soul sings “Down Below the Street.”  Cookie Monster disguised as Ernie.  A petition to remake “White Christmas” with Elmo and Rosita’s military veteran dads.  This special’s unique News Flash logo.  The soundtrack that’s not actually a soundtrack.  Big Bird sings “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but not THAT one.  Elmo as the ring bearer at Luis and Maria’s wedding.  Ranking all the jokes in “Elmo Says BOO!”  Bert and Ernie meet their “It’s a Wonderful Life” counterparts.  ****  📼 Commercials:  “Elmo Saves BOO!” (1997)  Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.  ****  “Elmo Saves Christmas” © 1996 Children’s Television Workshop.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1990s #muppets #christmaseveryday

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.  🎙️ Tori Schmidt and Tony Whitaker join us as we venture through the tunnels under Santa’s workshop to uncover Jim Henson’s first ever TV holiday special, presented by The Ed Sullivan Show and featuring the first Muppet performances by Richard Hunt, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol, and John Lovelady, as well as the first appearances of Thog and a familiar-looking Frackle who’d later be reworked into the Great Gonzo.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Great Santa Claus Switch” on Muppet Wiki.  ToughPigs.com’s transcript of the special (2004)    Jim Henson, Thog, and Lothar on “The Dick Cavett Show” (1971)  Taminella Grinderfall in “Tales of the Tinkerdee.”  Jim Henson’s Red Book entries on the special’s casting and debut.  Tony’s art of the Two-Headed Monster as the Miser Brothers.  So Many Muppets Are Named Fred.  Daniel Seagren as Spider-Man on “The Electric Company.”  Richard Hunt as Elmo.  Snarl, the Frackle who would become Gonzo.  My Emmet Otter’s Teenage Mutant Jug-Band Christmas T-shirt.  We have dubbed the green Frackle who looks like Thig with a beak and horns “Theg.”  “This Is Halloween” in a Sesame Place parade.  “8 Balls of Fur.”  Stop calling them “Muppeteers.”  ****  📼 Commercial Break:  FritoLay Holiday Party Display Commercial (1970)  “Noëlco” Razor Santa Commercial (1970)  Merry Britsmas.  ****  “The Great Santa Claus Switch” © 1970 Sullivan Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1970s #muppets

🦃 It’s 2015, and in my search for a noisy cryptid I accidentally freed 175 roided-up turkeys, but neither of those things is the real monster.  🎙 Sammy Hain, Tony Whitaker, Ethan “The Hungry Reader” join us as we rediscover a long lost Thanksgiving special concept Jim Henson dreamed up in the 1960s and meet the Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow.  📺 You can find “Turkey Hollow” on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ToughPigs.com Behind the Scenes of Turkey Hollow.  Muppet Wiki on this special, Jim Henson’s original concept, and the 2014 graphic novel.  Some prototype musical monsters: An early Grover, Snerf, and the Rock and Roll Monster.  Director Kirk Thatcher in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”  On-set interviews with Ludacris, Lisa Henson, and Alice Dinnean.  Hope you like Beets.  Today’s TV Tropes: When You Coming Home, Dad? and Hollywood Law.  Station from “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”  “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge.”  Jason Hopley’s (Zorp) IMDb profile picture is from “Goosebumps.”  Lewis, Target’s Halloween Ghoul.  Homer Simpson eating potato chips on the space shuttle.  ****  📼 Commercials:  AT&T “Turkey” Commercial (2008)  TGI Podcast.  ****  “Turkey Hollow” © 2015 The Jim Henson Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s12 #2010s #thanksgiving #muppets

🎄 The Advent Calendar House is back in time for a freakin’ country bear jamberoo as a family of Muppet mice risk their lives to bring home the top of the top of the top of the top of a Christmas tree fit for an eccentric future Iron Man. 🎙 Anthony Strand from ToughPigs.com and Tim Babb from the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast join us for a waltz back to 1995 as Robert Downey Jr. may or may not be holding Kermit the Frog hostage until he gets his perfect Christmas tree. Plus: Shy butler Leslie Nielsen, homesick Swedish maid Stockard Channing, and a pre-Bobo Bobo the Bear!  📺 We watched this 1995 broadcast of “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree,” with 1995 commercials.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” on Muppet Wiki.  The original book.  An odd TV promo featuring Brian Cummings’ Kermit the Frog impression.  Kermit and Miss Piggy’s music video of “She Drives Me Crazy,” featuring Leslie Nielsen.  Movin’ Right Along talks Kermit: Unpigged.  The Sesame Street Muppets on “The West Wing” with Stockard Channing.  Mama and Papa Bear are Beth from “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and the future Bobo from “Muppets Tonight.”  “Jim Henson’s Animal Show” on Owls… and Humans.  Sandra Bullock plays the glass harp in “Miss Congeniality.”  An Oreo commercial where a mall Santa takes off his beard way too quickly.  ****  📼 Commercials: Dizzy Grizzlies and Ritz Air Crisps (1995)  “Santa in His Own Words,” a book by Matt Spaulding. ****  “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” © 1995 Jim Henson Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s13 #1990s #muppets

🎄 Now it’s time for a Muppety holiday fix, so let’s turn the clock back to 1996, to a show I’m excited to reintroduce: it’s “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.”  🎙️ The Advent Calendar House welcomes 2 of Muppet Wiki’s finest, Tony Whitaker and Shane Keating, to join our Jingle Day pageant.  📺 You can watch “Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton” on the Jim Henson’s Family Hub YouTube channel.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Where in the who-heck is the Grinch?  “The noozle at the end of the hoose,” (surprisingly not a Dr. Seuss reference).  Michael K. Frith on Muppet Wiki.  The Muppets on “Family Feud” (2001).  Kathy Mullen (Morton) interview with ToughPigs.com (2013).  These aren’t Whatnots; they’re Whozits.  “Sesame English,” an English as a second language “Sesame Street” series.  “Good grief! The comedian’s a bear!”  Cindy Lou Who’s on First?  Defunctland Podcast: Working in a Wubbulous World with Stephanie D’Abruzzo and Craig Shemin.  There’s a rolling drum gag, so here’s the “Emmet Otter” outtake reel again.  “You’re the poet laureate of…”  Shane and the ToughPigs staff visit the “Sesame Street” set.  Shane’s supercut of Gordon from “Sesame Street” saying, “Oh, hi!”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Hallmark’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Collection (1998)  Closer to Christmas.  ****  “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss” and “Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton” © 1996 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s14 #1990s #drseuss #muppets

🎄 It’s been 10 years since the Muppets’ 2015 TV series gave us the gift of a Christmas episode, so it’s time to stay Up Late with Miss Piggy and find out if we can take it seriously, or if it left us because we couldn’t stop making jokes about it.  🎙️ Becca Petunia and J.D. Hansel of ToughPigs.com join the chaos including, but not limited to: a rigged Secret Santa! Gross and unhelpful mistletoe strategy! And, of course, Echosmith!  📺 You can find “Single All the Way” on Disney+.  Becca’s also on A Prairie Dawn Companion and Here Comes Tomorrow.  J.D. is also on The Great Muppet Fandom Panel and Stick to Shorts.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ToughPigs’ review of “Single All the Way” (2015)  The Muppets at Midseason: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly (ToughPigs.com, 2016)  70 Years, 70 Muppets: Yolanda the Rat and Chip.  The Muppets’ a cappella cover of “Cool Kids” by Echosmith.  “Bright” by Echosmith.  Sam the Eagle’s paintball-themed minigame in “Muppets Party Cruise.”  The Swedish Chef is married because one time Steve Whitmire forgot to take off his wedding ring and they just decided it’s canon now.  Chip has synesthesia.  An extremely rare one-on-one scene with Miss Piggy and Fozzie.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Pizza Hut “4 for All” Pizza Commercial starring the Muppets (2004)    ****  “The Muppets” and “Single All the Way” © 2015 ABC Studios / The Muppets Studio.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.  #s15 #2010s #muppets #disney

🎃 It’s Halloween in July, and it’s time to spookalize!  🎙️ Becca Petunia joins us as we creep back to 1997 for a howling good time at the spookiest address on Sesame Street, as Elmo pays a visit to Count von Count with one mission: To tell him a bunch of funny, scary jokes!  📺 You can find “Elmo Says BOO!” on YouTube.  ****  (00:00) - Intro  (02:19) - History of the Special and Accompanying Album  (14:12) - Funny, Scary Jokes!  (48:26) - Retro Commercial Break  (49:43) - More Funny, Scary Jokes!  (1:02:29) - Into the Pyramid  (1:07:53) - Even More Funny, Scary Jokes!  (1:26:28) - More About the Album and Final Thoughts  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Muppet Wiki notes this Halloween special doesn’t mention Halloween… on purpose.  The “Elmo Says BOO!” album featuring songs not in the special, including a weird “Monster Mash” cover.  ToughPigs: My Week with Halloween: Elmo Says BOO!  A Definitive Rating of All 15 Funny, Scary Jokes in Elmo Says BOO!  Becca discusses “Kermit Unpigged” on Movin’ Right Along.  The Count and Susan Sarandon in a “Rocky Horror” spoof.  Jim Henson’s Monster Cereals.  “The Song of the Count” art by Luke Flowers.  Shriek on “Batman Beyond.”  Julia Roberts shares a limo with the Two-Headed Monster.  “Java.”  Mike’s Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets preview and interviews with Imagineers and Electric Mayhem guitarists.  Elmo’s debut in the original “We Are All Monsters,” and the redub that’s a rare instance of Elmo speaking in the first person.  Bert & Ernie’s Pyramid Scheme: The Sesame Street Sketch You Might Have Repressed.  The Other Top 70 Muppet Moments.  “Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter” (It’s Swedish for “Five ants are more than four elephants.”)  Frazzle shows his range of emotions.  J.D. Hansel interviews Noel MacNeal, including his work on “The Batty Bat.”  Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” as performed by Tom Cat and Bugs Bunny.  “Mysterioso Pizzicato,” or “The Villain’s Theme.”  Jackman Wolf on home video and at Sesame Place.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Elmo Says BOO! VHS Commercial (1997)  Micro Machines Micro Lights (1990)  ****  “Elmo Says BOO!” © 1997 Children’s Television Workshop.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.  #s16 #1990s #halloween #muppets