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🕎 Hanukkah is here, so here’s a 1995 special starring sock puppets hanging out with Mr. Miyagi, the dad from Growing Pains, and the mayor of Gotham City.  🎙️ Sarah Shay returns to the Advent Calendar House to reintroduce me to “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah,” which miraculously brings together Pat Morita, Alan Thicke, and Lloyd Bochner as both dinner guests and computer-generated, one-dimensional superheroes.  There’s now a better copy of “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah” on YouTube. The one we watched for this podcast was from some guy holding his iPad’s camera up to a TV.  Check out Sarah’s albums: “You Have Queer Street Cred” and “The Shay & Shay Radio Hour.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Shari Lewis’s amazing single-color red dreamcoat and stylin’ menorah.  Alan Thicke on “Celebrity Family Feud.”  “Lamb Chop in the Haunted Studio,” an earlier Halloween special also featuring Alan Thicke.  Charlie Horse’s prize-winning superhero, the stuff of someone’s very specific nightmares.  They almost make it through a whole Hanukkah special without mentioning Christmas, but blow it at the end for no reason.  ****  “Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah” © 1995 8 Candles Production, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1990s #hanukkah #puppets

🕎 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

🦃 We’re talking turkey as we dig up and dig in to a 1983 Thanksgiving special from puppeteer Paul Fusco, the creator of ALF.  🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us the follow a turkey’s dream of stardom that ends with dogs and cats living together.  📺 You can watch “A Thanksgiving Tale” on Youtube, with curated retro Thanksgiving commercials.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Imagicom Productions’ Holiday Specials Collection.  Fred Travalena as the Joker in the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  A November 16, 1983 TV listing in an archived New York Magazine.  Paul Fusco’s “Space Cats.”  David Lander in “Funland.”  Mental Floss’s Oral History of ALF.  Today’s TV Trope: Invited as Dinner.  The “You Bet Your Life” Duck.  The art of making puppets fight: Throw them into the air from behind a fence.  We compare the Thanksgiving play in this special to the one in Addams Family Values.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Butterball Turkey Commercial (1985)  Christmas Time in the City.  ****  “A Thanksgiving Tale” © 1983 Imagicom Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s6 #1980s #thanksgiving #puppets

🕎 It’s 1988, and we’re getting lit at Bubbe’s Boarding House for Hanukkah. 🎙 April Ryley joins us for a spin with a bunch of puppets you’ll never hear from again.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A Simpsons animator designed the puppets for this weird, wonderful ’80s Hanukkah special (Splinter, 2014)  “Caps for Sale”  Anton and his Easter Island head.  April’s very non-kosher latke recipe.  Mayim Bialik explains the letters on the dreidel and other Hanukkah facts.  Calvin getting trolled by his dad in “Calvin and Hobbes.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  1970s/’80s PBS Logo ID.  1985 Teddy Ruxpin “Frankenstein” Commercial, preserved by Dinosaur Dracula. Teddy Ruxpin voice actor Phil Baron co-wrote this special.  Cool Kids Club.  ****  “Chanuka at Bubbe’s” © 1988 Pan-Imago, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s7 #1980s #hanukkah #puppets

🎃 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

🦃 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 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

🕎 Celebrate Hanukkah with a community talent show we don’t even get to watch.  We’ve miraculously found another Hanukkah special — with yet another spelling of it — so join us as we instantly reappear back in 1991 with a bunch of Canadian animal puppets to discover the magic of the holiday Under the Umbrella Tree.  🎙️ April Ryley is our lovely assistant as we meet a humble shopkeeper and former magician once known as “The Great Goldberg,” played by the equally great Harvey Atkin.  📺 As of this recording, you can watch “Hanukah Under the Umbrella Tree” on YouTube.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Holly Larocque in “The Big Band Broadcast” (2008)  Stephen Brathwaite’s (Jacob) artwork portfolio.  Bob Stutt (Iggy) as Wander McMooch on “Fraggle Rock.”  David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear.  “Peoples is peoples.”  Today’s TV Trope: Magicians Are Wizards.  A Star is Borscht: The Harvey Atkin Young Jewish Performer Competition (2022)  “Under the Umbrella Tree: The Mask Special” (2020)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Happy Holidays from “Under the Umbrella Tree” (CBC)  Hallmark “Old Friends” Hanukkah Card Commercial (1993)  Remember That Show?  ****  “Hanukah Under the Umbrella Tree” © 1991 Noreen Young Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.  #s15 #1990s #hanukkah #puppets