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🎄 Tune in as we mysteriously float back to 1983 for an unseasonably warm Christmas adventure through Mexico with our cool grandma and a talking Rubik’s Cube with more powers than Superman.  🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas join us for a puzzling revisit to “Rubik, the Amazing Cube,” a Saturday morning cartoon that lasted an even shorter amount of time than the fad it tried to cash in on.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The History of Rubik’s Cube.  The theme song by pre-Ricky Martin Menudo.  Ángela Moya, the voice of the kids’ mother, played a small but grim part in “Gleaming the Cube.”  An ode to the family station wagon.  An archived, early-Internet Rubik fan site.  Las Posadas.  Date a TV show by adding a CB radio.  Rubik ending up in an eagle’s nest reminded me of “The Polar Express.”  Reynoldo’s speed cubing skills compared to the real-life Rubik’s Cube world records in 1983 and today.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cap’n O.G. Readmore (1985)  Cap’n Crunch Cereal: Crunch vs. Taste (1985)  An Alpha Bits Cereal commercial that’s clearly still trying to ride the Pac-Man wave, but I’m not complaining (1985)  ****  “Rubik, the Amazing Cube” and “Rubik’s First Christmas” © 1983 Ruby-Spears Enterprises, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s6 #1980s #rubyspears

🦃 It’s 1983, and we’re spending Thanksgiving in July at the Saturday Supercade.  🎙️ Chad Young, Tommy Coombs, and Jayme Kilsby join us as we take a cue from Q*bert and pals and try to stay on topic as they learn how to build a Q home in a Q land in a retelling of the first Thanksgiving as square as the wheels on the Q*horse and buggy Pilgrim Q*bert wants to win. ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  We all tried to remember who brought up the Q*bert special last year while talking about “A Thanksgiving Tale,” and we were all wrong.  Even “Kangaroo” got a “Saturday Supercade” segment eventually.  Peter Cullen was the first voice of Mario in the “Donkey Kong” segment.  “The Kingdom Chums: Little David’s Adventure,” an animated retelling of David and Goliath featuring Billy Bowles (Q*bert) as a stuffed lion come to life.  Pauline and her return in “Super Mario Odyssey.”  We accidentally introduce Chad to “Spookley, the Square Pumpkin.”  They gave the snakes arms!  Viper has a Mae West voice, which leads into a tangent about “Quasi at the Quackadero.”  Chief Q*Eagle reminded me of Randall Cunningham’s name in Tecmo Super Bowl.  Saturday Supercade’s extensive use of the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library.  Home Movies: “Don’t Put Marbles in Your Nose.”  Mike guests on TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny to discuss the Perfect Strangers Thanksgiving episode, “Wild Turkey.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  John Wanamaker’s 1988 Thanksgiving Sale.  Tis the Podcast.  ****  “Saturday Supercade,” “Q*bert,” and “Thanksgiving for the Memories” © 1983 Ruby-Spears Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s8 #1980s #thanksgiving #rubyspears #videogames

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we saved Punky Brewster’s Christmas spirit in “Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus.”  This time, join Punky in 1985 on an animated adventure in which Punky and pals visit Santa’s workshop and accidentally start Christmas too early.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us on an instantaneous trip to the North Pole courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Comparing the original sitcom’s theme song to the cartoon’s theme.  Galoob made a plush Glomer.  Adam’s VHS cover has a very off-model Glomer.  The Master Christmas Switch’s effect on time reminded me of the “Futurama” episode “Time Keeps on Slippin’.”  Punky taught Adam how to wink.  Santa drops off the kids on the roof again, just in like in “Frosty the Snowman.”  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Story of Phroomf commercial featuring baseball star Bob Boone (1986)  WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “It’s Punky Brewster” and “Christmas in July” © 1985 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s10 #1980s #rubyspears

🎄 It’s 1987, and someone stole Santa Claus in the middle of his hot dog break.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Emily Rowley join us as we follow a renowned novelist who may or may not be a teenager and her animated mouse writing partner on a quest find out who kidnapped a department store Santa, while we solve the mystery of how anyone remembers this Christmas special that only aired once.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Dick Van Patten’s shout-out in “Wayne’s World” and cameo in “Robin Hood: Men In Tights.”  Darcy Marta (Jill) on Totally Rad Christmas.  Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse dancing in “Anchors Aweigh.”  Jill’s Miami Mice poster — no relation to the “Sesame Street” parody of the same name.  Donald O’Connor (Alex) in “Singin’ in the Rain.”  Helen Hughes (whoever the woman who answers Jill’s door is supposed to be) in “Billy Madison.”  Today’s TV Trope: 555.  Francis Dambeger’s (Jerry) 1991 film “Solitaire,” and its solitaire review on IMDb.  The realistic looking toy gun predates the same federal law that forced Nintendo to recolor its Zapper orange.  ****  📼 Commercials:  7up Christmas Commercial (1986–1987)  Wild Puffalumps Commercial (1987)  The Magic of the Season.  ****  “A Mouse, A Mystery, and Me” © 1987 Ruby-Spears Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s11 #1987 #rubyspears

🎄 Put on your cute little helmet and join us on a journey back to 1984 for a Christmas special based on the toy craze that turned holiday shopping from a winter wonderland to a warzone.  🎙️ Julia (Tis the Podcast) and Steven (The Bigfoot Club) join the adventure from the hidden home of the Cabbage Patch Kids to the unnamed but totally identifiable big city in search of the Christmas spirit, while we evade 2 nearly identical but probably not related trios trying to kidnap us. It’ll all make sense.  Actually, no. It will not.  📺 “The Cabbage Patch Kids’ First Christmas” is well preserved on YouTube. Here’s an upscaled version.  Watch Steven’s film, “The Bigfoot Club,” on Prime Video.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The totally official, extremely bonkers Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Babyland General Hospital.  ‘Custody’ fight over Cabbage Patch dolls (Christian Science Monitor, 1983)  Josh Rodine (Dawson Glenn) in “Sparky’s Magic Piano” (1987)  Sparky Marcus (Xavier) as Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979)  “Kudzu: The Invasive Vine that Ate the South.”  Piedmont Park.  What idiot took the gay out of “Don we now our gay apparel”?  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cabbage Patch Kids Talking Phone (1984)  Cabbage Patch Kids Hide and Seek Game (1984)  ****  “The Cabbage Patch Kids’ First Christmas” © 1984 Ruby-Spears Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.  #s15 #1980s #rubyspears