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🕎 In the Advent Calendar House’s first Hanukkah episode, we follow the Rugrats on their mission to stop the “Meanie of Chanukah” and make him take a nap.  🎙️ Sarah Shay joins the search and helps count all the misspoken “babyisms” along the way.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Sarah’s top 2 favorite spellings of “Hanukkah.”  E.G. Daily (Tommy) as Dottie in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”  A tale of 2 panics: Babies climbing up to open flames vs. babies trying to blow out Hanukkah candles.  Stu’s giant, tacky menorah vs. the Miami Marlins’ home run celebration monstrosity.  The TV trope of the Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.  Our worst on-stage mishaps.  ****  “A Rugrats Chanukah” © 1996 Klasky-Csupo, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s1 #1990s #hanukkah #nickelodeon

🎄 Set your sentient clocks back to 1988 for a very wound-up and thrown out into a pile of junk in another dimension episode of the Advent Calendar House.  🎙 Chad Young joins us for a one-time-only trip to Tattertown, the holiday brain-child of Ralph Bakshi and Nickelodeon’s first-ever original animated TV program.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Christmas in Tattertown” sketches from Bakshi Productions.  Nick Knacks on “Christmas in Tattertown.”  Cameos by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Flip the Frog, and Popeye.  Today’s TV Trope: The Up the Real Rabbit Hole.  A shout-out to the dearly departed Hollywood Video for staying open on Christmas Day for idiots like me who forgot to ask for required accessories like the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak.  Wawa’s Holiday Gobbler hoagie.  Bosko and Honey on “Tiny Toon Adventures.”  A brief introduction to “snoap,” Florida’s fake snow.  ****  “Christmas in Tattertown” ©1988 Bakshi Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1980s #nickelodeon

🕎 Marc Weiner and his puppets won’t stop screaming in Nickelodeon’s first Hanukkah special.  🎙 April Ryley joins us as we noisily snowmobile back to 1995 to try and figure out what everyone’s yelling about. Unexpectedly, it all started in outer space.  📺 You can watch “The Weinerville Chanukah Special” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Weinerville.com is alive and well in 2020.  Marc Weiner as Swiper the Fox and the Map in “Dora the Explorer.”  Marc Summers on his OCD being “blown out of freakin’ proportion,” and why he dropped his given last name.  Sour cream vs. applesauce for latke dipping.  Michael Gunst (Sinrek) may or may not be this puppeteer and mask maker.  Brian O’Connor (Antidorkus) as Schemer on “Shining Time Station.”  Thanks to Nickelodeon being under the MTV Networks umbrella, this special featured music by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Miami Sound Machine, and the B-52’s.  The bulk of this special was filmed at the Summit Lodge in Killington, Vermont.  Telephone booths still exist at Walt Disney World.  Liver as a go-to food kids hate.  Kevin “Diesel” Nash was still WWF Champion during taping, but lost it shortly before the special aired.  The art of making your own menorah out of household items, recyclable objects, or fruit.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Kmart Holiday Commercial starring Rosie O’Donnell and Penny Marshall (1995)  Holly Jolly X’masu.  ****  “The Weinerville Chanukah Special” © 1995 Nickelodeon.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s5 #1990s #hanukkah #nickelodeon #puppets

🎄 Doug uses weaponized cupcakes to break Porkchop out of doggie death row.  🎙 Gregiffer Stevens from the Pop Arena and Nick Knacks joins us as we skate on thin ice back to 1993 for a very educational trip to Bluffington that I forgot was a Christmas episode while I was watching it.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Disney’s “Doug” was fine, y’all.  “Doug” creator Jim Jinkins worked on Nickelodeon’s first show, “Pinwheel.”  Early versions of Doug in a bumper for USA Network and a PSA for Florida Grapefruit Juice narrated by Lorenzo Music.  Today’s TV Trope: Danger: Thin Ice.  Alice Playten (Beebe) in “Really Rosie” as Alligator.  Constance Shulman (Patti) in “Weekend at Bernie’s II.”  Every car in Bluffington looks like Homer Simpson designed it.  Greg Lee from “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” voices the now-former mayor White, and boy, am I glad we recorded this after election week.  “The Phred on Your Head Show.”  Mr. Dink’s last name is apparently an acronym for “Double Income, No Kids.”  Don’t wrap pets in boxes!  What is Pork Chop?  The topper on the Funnies’ Christmas tree is Mr. Dink’s face.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Nicktoons Pizza Hut Kids’ Pizza Pack Commercial, (1991)  SequelQuest.  TGI Podcast.  ****  “Doug” and “Doug’s Christmas Story” © 1993 Jumbo Pictures, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s5 #1990s #nickelodeon

🎄 Garbageman is here for your Christmas spirit.  🎙️ Tommy Coombs and Chad Young join us as we look happily deranged back to 1996 to follow Pete and Pete’s brother, Pete, on their mission to keep Christmas going for as long as possible, and keep their Christmas tree safe from the evil Garbageman.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Michael C. Maronna (Big Pete) in “Home Alone,” and in a series of Ameritrade commercials circa 1999.  “Snow Day” was originally conceived as a Pete & Pete movie.  The first Pete & Pete short, “What Would You Do for a Dollar?”  The Pete & Pete 20th Anniversary Reunion.  Danny Tamberelli (Little Pete) as Jimmy De Santa in “Grand Theft Auto 5.”  Hardy Rawls (Dad) as the Maytag Repairman circa 2005.  Sludge Central on “Pete & Pete” filming in New Jersey.  Chad and Michael May talk “Silent Night, Deadly Night.”  David Johansen sings “Garbageman’s Ballad.”  The Max Headroom Pirating Incident.  A mini ode to character actress Marilyn Dobrin as the Wrigleys’ notably loud neighbor.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Adventures of Pete & Pete: “Mom’s Plate” (1991)  Christmas Clatter.  ****  “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” and “O’ Christmas Pete” © 1995 Viacom.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s6 #1990s #nickelodeon

🎄 It’s 1996, and we’re holding our football-shaped heads high on a quest to find our neighbor’s long-lost daughter… but first, a pair of highly sought after Nancy Spumoni snow boots!  🎙 Anthony Caruso from Tis the Podcast and Matt Eurich from TGI Podcast join us for a very special Christmas episode that solidified “Hey Arnold!” as an unforgettable Nicktoon.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The story behind the iconic Vietnam Episode of ‘Hey Arnold!’ (NBC News, 2021)  Arnold’s Claymation origins: “Arnold Escapes from Church” (1988)  Arnold Uses His Imagination on “Sesame Street.”  Helga in “Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.”  The “Pollyanna,” Philadelphia’s hyper-local Secret Santa.  Mr. Hyunh’s banana wallpaper.  Mr. Hyunh’s flashback includes the iconic helicopter image from the Fall of Saigon.  One-Legged Bob, the Affable Railroad Tramp.  Hey, grown-ups, remember dot matrix printers?  Hiep Thi Le’s life could’ve been a movie; instead the refugee became a star playing someone else (Los Angeles Times, 2018)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Talkboy Voice Recorder from “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”  ****  “Hey Arnold!” and “Arnold’s Christmas” © 1996 Viacom International, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s7 #1990s #nickelodeon

🎄 It’s 1990, and we’re looking a gift horse in the mouth.  🎙 Justin O’Connor joins us on a wild ride to the Bar None Ranch for a Very Special Episode™ of Nickelodeon’s “Hey Dude” disguised as a barely festive Christmas in July special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  An ode to our childhood friends who lied about having an Uncle Who Worked For Nintendo.  Hey Dude Reviewed’s episode rankings and review of “Ride, She Said.”  Kelly Brown (Brad) in “Danger Zone 4: Mad Girls, Bad Girls” (NSFW).  Kelly Brown’s boutique on Long Island.  Christine Taylor (Melody) in “Showdown.”  Susan Sindelar (Cindy) in the background of a fight scene in “Smokey and the Bandit.”  TROT (Therapeutic Riding of Tucson).  The “Hey Dude” set is still somewhat standing in a secluded area of another, actual ranch.  The Hangin’ Out Gang.  The Huron Carol, believed to be the oldest North American Christmas carol, was written in an indigenous language.  The poster for “Miracle on 34th Street” gives no indication that it’s a Christmas movie.  You know what? I’ll just let y’all search for “star registry” on your own if you want to actually look naming a star after someone.  ****  📼 Commercials:  California Games for Nintendo (1987)  Christmas Creeps.  ****  “Hey Dude” and “Ride She Said” © 1990 MTV Networks.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1990s #nickelodeon

🫓 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we helped our favorite talking babies stop a true meanie in “A Rugrats Chanukah.”  This time, we’re ignoring the rules of another long-standing tradition as “Rugrats” reimagines the story of Passover.  🎙️ Sarah Shay and Zach Gozlan join us as we witness grown men throwing temper tantrums and ending up locked in the attic.  📺 I found this special hiding in a 4-hour VHS recording of Nick on CBS from 2003.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Pilot House on “I Dream of Jeannie,” which would not be seen the night this premiered.  Fact-Checking “Fact-Checking A Rugrats Passover.”  As of this recording, the Sultan of Brunei in 1995 is still sultan.  “Noozles,” which co-starred Cheryl Chase (Angelica) and was not “The Adventures of the Little Koala.”  The 4 categories of Jewish holidays.  Melanie Chartoff (Didi, Minka) as the principal in “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.”  The controversy over Boris and Minka’s design.  “The Song That Doesn’t End” from “Lamb Chop’s Play Along.”  The Maxwell House Haggadah.  A Haggadah of Our Own.  “Bible Adventures.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  Country Crock Spreadable Sticks (1994), featuring Jack Riley (Stu).  Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards (2003)  The Studio Demands It!  ****  “A Rugrats Passover” © 1995 Viacom International Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1990s #passover #nickelodeon

🎄 It’s 1984, and Santa’s in front of a firing squad because his executioner didn’t appreciate the socks he got last Christmas.  🎙 Shawn Robare and Steven join us as the slime is in an extra festive shade of green for a Christmas episode of the show that defined Nickelodeon’s early years, featuring an all-star cast of the 5 most featured kid actors of “You Can’t Do That on Television.”  📺 You can watch the episode “Christmas” on Facebook.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Shawn’s piece of the Prevert Family’s living room wallpaper.  Nick Knacks on “You Can’t Do That on Television.”  Mike and Steven pitch their ideas for a sequel to “Santa Claus: The Movie” on SequelQuest (2020)  “UFO Kidnapped,” a TV pilot featuring much of the same cast of kids.  Les Lye as Professor Coldheart in “The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings.”  How we’ve fielded the question of Santa’s one-night flight.  Abby Hagyard (Mom) on YouTube.  Ice Cream Dolls, The Visible Man, and the G.I. Joe Motorized Battle Tank.  Calvin and Hobbes makes the same “Santa wants beer” joke.  ****  📼 Commercials:  “You Can’t Do That on Television” Green Slime Shampoo (circa 1987)  The Lost Christmas Podcast.  “A Very Zelda Christmas,” by DarkNuck, on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.  ****  “You Can’t Do That on Television” © 1984 Carleton Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s13 #1980s #nickelodeon

🎄 It’s 1990, and Santa’s lost in my confusing network of chimneys.  🎙 Adam Parker Sibun from Merry Britsmas join us for a more silly than spooky Christmas special that takes us from Castle Duckula to a concussion-induced space adventure and back.  📺 You can find “A Christmas Quacker” on the Internet Archive (it’s mislabeled as another episode).  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “Count Duckula” on Nick Knacks.  Count Duckula’s first appearance on “Danger Mouse.”  UK Christmas TV, an extensive archive of Christmas TV listings for the UK’s main channels.  Jack May (Igor) was the original English voice of Muzzy.  The Odd Case of Dennis the Menace: 2 separate comic strip characters with the same name debuting on the same day on opposite sides of the Atlantic.  Return to the Turducken Hunger Games.  The daydream scene in “Sidekicks.”  Mike Oldfield’s “In Dulci Jubilo.”  Today’s TV Trope: Blunder-Correcting Impulse.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Shreddies Cereal: Count Duckula Adventure Scratch & Win Game (1989)  Muzzy (circa 1989)  ****  “Count Duckula” and “A Christmas Quacker” © 1990 Carleton Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s13 #1990s #nickelodeon