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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

🐰 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

🎄🐭 It’s the one with the mouse. Turn back the clock till it goes kerplunk — or kerplooey — to make some time for Rankin/Bass’s 1974 retelling of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas from the perspective of the mouse and his know-it-all nerdy son.  🎙️ Joey O. is in the Advent Calendar House to do what’s necessary, ’cause even a miracle needs a hand.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The worst thing we’ve broken that ruined multiple peoples’ day.  We prepared for this episode by listening to Green Day’s “Kerplunk!”  South Park’s cover of “Even a Miracle Needs a Hand.”  A young Julia Stiles in a 1990s Apple Jacks cereal commercial.  Dusty Rhodes’s “Hard Times” promo.  ****  “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #rankinbass

🎄 From the author of “The Wizard of Oz” comes one of the craziest Santa origin stories ever.  🎙️ Brandon Medley and Paxton Holley stop by to witness Rankin/Bass go off the rails in its last-ever stop motion animated Christmas special, 1985’s “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, based on the 1902 book by L. Frank Baum, which explains a lot.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Santa Claus’s growth to manhood, from J.D. Roth to Mumm-ra, and the rest of the Thundercats are here, too!  L. Frank Baum’s original book on the Internet Archive, in ebook, PDF, and audiobook format.  Pax’s review of the book and “Road to Oz,” which also features Santa.  Baum’s sequel story, “A Kidnapped Santa Claus.”  King Awgwa looks like My Pet Monster.  The Most Pagan Christmas Special You Will Ever See (Fit for Dragon Con, 2013)  That’s not Santa in “Return to Oz.” That’s the Shaggy Man.  A Doom Metal Tribute to The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.  ****  “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” © 1985 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1980s #rankinbass

🎄 Extend your ears as we revisit a lesser-known Rankin/Bass special from 1977 that unravels a new side quest to the Nativity story.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Brandon Medley droop in to salute “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey,” the first of a Christmas donkey double feature.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Roger Miller performing “Do Wacka Do” in 1966 with another guitarist, “Stubbs,” who’s wearing a Batman T-shirt.  Roger Miller’s “Whistle Stop” in Disney’s “Robin Hood” is secretly the Hamster Dance.  Tilly’s ascension back to heaven is strikingly similar to Poochie’s exit from “The Itchy and Scratchy Show.”  Mary has the Glow from “The Last Dragon.”  Annalee Santa dolls.  ****  “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey” © 1977 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #rankinbass #nativity

🎄 The Advent Calendar House gets overrun by earworms strong enough to burrow into wood.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May drop in to help carve into a 1980 Rankin/Bass special starring that beloved Christmas icon… Pinocchio.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Two songs, “Dancin’” and “The Very Best Friend I Ever Had,” were cut from and later restored to TV broadcasts.  “Starstuff,” a Philadelphia market, Saturday morning kids’ sci-fi TV series starring Todd Porter, the voice of Pinocchio.  The most disappointing gifts we’ve ever received, including what Santa gave me after I allegedly misspelled “Alpha Critters.”  How does Pinocchio’s nose detect lies, and does it grant him a mulligan here?  The strange flash-forward to the rest of Pinocchio’s better-known adventures, even though Rankin/Bass already made a Pinocchio TV series, its first ever stop-motion animation project.  ****  “Pinocchio’s Christmas” ©1980 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1980s #rankinbass

🎄 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

🎄 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

🎉 It’s a special, post-Christmas bonus episode for your oversized ears!  🎙 Joey O. and Brandon Medley help us turn back the years to 1976 and tip an oversized hat to “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year,” Rankin/Bass’s first sequel special, in which Rudolph has to save the Baby New Year from a big, angry bird.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Rudolph devolves into a younger-looking reindeer, because the original model may have been lost. But also he seems to forget he can fly.  According to our narrator, Father Time (Red Skelton), this story begins “on that very same foggy night.” As in Christmas Eve. When Santa’s kind of busy.  I learned who Red Skelton was from a joke in a Tex Avery cartoon.  “The Phantom Tollbooth.”  Tik-Tok from “Return to Oz.”  Creepier song about time: “The Moving Finger Writes” from this, or “Older” by They Might Be Giants?  Ralph Archibold, Philadelphia’s longtime Ben Franklin impersonator.  Billy Corgan rides a roller coaster.  ****  “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1970s #newyear #rankinbass #rudolph

🎄 Happy birthday! The Advent Calendar House kicks off a countdown to Christmas in July by setting the table for Rankin/Bass’s eventual epic crossover, starting with “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland,” the “Weird Science” of Christmas specials.  🎙️ Brandon Medley belly-whops in to salute this snowy sequel from 1976 starring a strange, tall goblin claiming to be Andy Griffith.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  A brief guide to finding obsure things on Disney+, like “Melody Time,” starring Dennis Day, (Parson Brown) as Johnny Appleseed.  Barbara Jo Ewing voiced one of the kids in her only known credit, but somehow IMDb knows her height.  We do the math to figure out how far the wind carried a newspaper from Frosty’s hometown to the North Pole.  Frosty beat “The Santa Clause 2” to the “gotta get a wife” plot point by more than 20 years.  Frosty’s “specifications” for his ideal woman are the same as Sir Mix-a-Lot’s.  At what point do snow people become self-aware?  Jack Frost’s “winter that almost didn’t end” foreshadowed the real-life Blizzard of 1977.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Freezy Freakies (1984)  Christmas Clatter.  ****  “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1970s #rankinbass #frosty

🎄 Mr. Snowman, I don’t feel so good. Rankin/Bass’s Avengers assemble in the studio’s longest holiday special ever.  🎙️ Brandon Medley returns to marvel at “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.” Frosty’s a dad! And Rudolph’s a fake uncle whose nose stops shining at the beginning of this story… but what happens to Frosty and his whole family is even worse.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  King Winterbolt’s genie of the ice scepter, allegedly Thurl Ravenscroft, is the stuff of nightmares.  “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” may be the most metal Christmas special, but this is a contender.  Rudolph’s entire story gets retconned into a long play to stop Winterbolt’s foggy Christmas Eve from grounding Santa.  Ethel Merman on “The Muppet Show.”  Scratcher is a great evil reindeer, but we’d like it better if he was Fireball.  A couple of songs were cut for time from TV, including “Chicken Today, Feathers Tomorrow” and “I See Rainbows When I Look at You.”  Walt Disney World’s Candlelight Processional.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Atari Christmas Commercial, aired during a 1981 ABC Movie Special airing, preserved by the Museum of Classic Chicago Television.  The Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July” © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1970s #rankinbass #rudolph #frosty #4thofjuly

🎄 Sail back to 1981 as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May stumble in to imbibe “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because Rankin/Bass had the rights to use the song “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the Jeopardy! guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, “The Astuter Computer Revue.”  Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”  This special keeps adding new rules about how both banshees and rainbows work, like they’re Mogwai.  The Leprechauns’ “phantom island of Tralee” shares a name with an actual mainland town in Ireland, but is closer to Dursey Island, population (as of 2016): 4.  The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.  According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.  “Jack O’Lantern,” from Rankin/Bass’s Festival of Family Classics TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Gremlins Gizmo Plush Pet (1984)  The Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” © 1981 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1980s #rankinbass

🎄 On another Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we fly back in time to 1978 to revisit Rankin/Bass’s turn at “A Christmas Carol.”  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May return to talk “The Stingiest Man in Town,” an animated remake of a made-for-TV musical, featuring the voices of Walter Matthau as Scrooge and Tom Bosley as our narrator, a literal talking Humbug.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on “The Alcoa Hour” starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge.  The original special on Sleigh Bell Cinema.  Michael May’s Christmas Carol Project.  Sonny Melendrez (Bob Cratchit) in “You and Me, Kid.”  This has my all-time favorite, super creepy version of Marley’s face appearing on Scrooge’s door knocker.  This special gets older Belle completely wrong.  Tiny Tim has skinny robot legs.  Debbie Clinger (Martha Cratchit) of the Clinger Sisters, a.k.a. Superchick from the “Krofft Supershow” host band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.  Rankin/Bass should have made a south seas-themed special called Christmas Island. (Hi from the future! We ended up exploring this idea on After Lunch.)  Scrooge’s grave morphing into a giant devil face is a reminder in hindsight that this special was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the predecessor to Studio Ghibli.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Glad Trash Bags Commercial starring Tom Bosley (1981)  Christmas Creeps.  ****  “The Stingiest Man in Town” © 1978 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1970s #rankinbass #scroogesunday