🌴 In Part 2 of our “Futurama” Xmas double-header, we meet the only thing worse than an evil robot Santa… two evil robot Santas.

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🎙 Guests:

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Bluesky)

Erin Evans (Bluesky)

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)

Donnie Storms (Bronwen’s Ghost, Bluesky)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

“Box Car Blues” (1930).

Santa’s Death Fortress sure looks like Elsa’s ice palace.

Coolio’s final acting role before his death was a return as the voice of Kwanzaa-bot.

An ode to Musicmatch Jukebox and our turn-of-the-century mp3 albums we’re still holding onto.

My favorite joke in all of “Futurama.”

“I’m Spartacus!”

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📼 Commercials:

America Online Keyword: eBay (2001).

Christmas Creeps.

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“Futurama” and “A Tale of Two Santas ” © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🌴 It’s either 1999 or the year 3000, and a killer robot Santa is…

wait, what month is it?

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1986, and the only way Drew Barrymore can save her new friends is to believe in the magic of toys… and Cincinnati.

From director Clive Donner comes a bonkers adaptation of “Babes in Toyland” starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Richard Mulligan as a weird, evil guy who lives in a bowling ball.

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🎙 Guests:

Molly Patton (MollyPatton.com)

Becca Petunia (ToughPigs.com, Bear in the Big Blue Podcast, Bluesky)

Adam Pope (The Retro Network, Wizards: The Podcast Guide to Comics, Remember That Show?, Bluesky)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “Babes in Toyland” on Tubi, the full, 3-hour original broadcast with commercials, or the unofficial “Director’s Cut” without ads.

2. Misfits in Toyland (NSFW), an unrelated horror-comedy webcomic.

3. Keanu Reeves (Jack) on “Going Great” (1985).

4. Googy Gress (Georgie) in “Wayne’s World 2.”

5. Today’s TV Trope: And You Were There.

6. The Cookie Jar House of South Jersey.

7. The Undertaker’s entrance at WrestleMania IX, in the middle of the afternoon.

8. Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (and Tripping Daisy’s cover of theme song).

9. The Toymaster’s Santa coat looks like Belle’s from “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.”

10. Was It Great, or Were You 8?

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📼 Commercial Break:

McDonald’s: Recital (1986)

Give ’Em All a Little Pat of Butter (1986)

TGI Podcast

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“Babes in Toyland” © 1986 The Finnegan Company.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1970, and a couple of bear cubs have jumped through my window and are eating all my marshmallows.

Join us on a deeper than expected dive into a Christmas special by former Hanna-Barbera animator Tony Benedict that almost wasn’t released till the owner of a now-defunct Florida theme park swooped in and saved it.

CONTENT WARNING: No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about one of the 4 versions of this special.

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🎙 Guests:

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)

Ethan (The Hungry Reader, A Special Presentation or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “A Yellowstone Christmas” (Tony’s Version), the original cut.

2. The theatrical version with Hal Smith in the intro and added songs and sequences.

3. The Pirates World version with scenes from Ocean World Marine Park. This version was screened for Rifftrax.

4. The Modern Sound Pictures version with the songs but no live-action segments.

5. The Unusual History of Santa and the Three Bears. (The Delbert Cartoon Report, 2021)

6. The soundtrack and some background info.

7. Hal Smith in “The Incredible, Indelible, Magical, Physical Mystery Trip.”

8. Bobby Riha (Chinook) in Hanna-Barbera’s “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

9. Yellowstone National Park’s Zone of Death.

10. Today’s TV Trope: Human Snowball.

11. CBS Storybreak’s “Grinny.”

12. Homer Simpson tries to catch a rabbit.

13. Iceman in X-Men #1.

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📼 Commercial Break:

Hardee’s Gift Checks (1970s)

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“Santa and the Three Bears” © 1970 Tony Benedict Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1986, and Santa looks different after arriving late to the mall due to a flat reindeer.

Unfold that TV Guide you crafted into an angel centerpiece and join us for a semi-festive Christmas episode of “Mama’s Family” that will have you believing in either Santa or ghosts at the end of it.

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🎙 Guest:

Joe Fulton (Christmas Aficionado)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “Santa Mama” on the Internet Archive.

2. A Mama’s Family reunion on “Vicki!”

3. Vicki Lawrence sings “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”

4. Mama’s house was also seen in “Halloween.”

5. Ken Berry (Vinton) as Peter-No-Tail.

6. The cheapest Christmas gifts we got for childhood crushes.

7. The fragility of one-of-a-kind ornaments.

8. “You Are My Sunshine” on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

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📼 Commercial Break:

Snuggle Fabric Softener Free Christmas Ornament (1986)

Snow in Southtown

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“Mama’s Family” and “Santa Mama” © 1986 Joe Hamilton Productions, Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 2020, and a gift-wrapped puppy licked my face and made my skin turn blue.

From the Chiodo Brothers comes a charming stop-motion Christmas special about how an alien invasion of the North Pole almost ruined Christmas — and the entire planet’s gravity, but also Christmas. Plus: A “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” Easter egg, some cameos from “Elf,” and Santa with nunchucks.

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🎙 Guests:

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Bluesky)

Sammy Hain (Sammy’s Easter Tails, Bluesky)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “Alien Xmas” on Netflix.

2. A behind-the-scenes interview with the Chiodo Brothers.

3. Bloody Disgusting’s review.

4. A “Killer Klowns” Easter egg hidden in the Klepts’ chamber of stolen stuff.

5. The magnetic north pole vs. the geographic North Pole.

6. Michelle Deco (Noelle) writes Nintendo trailers, including this one for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.

7. Today’s TV Trope: Tablecloth Yank.

8. “Here’s your problem: Someone set this thing to ‘evil.’”

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📼 Commercial Break:

Coca-Cola “Santa Packs Are Coming” (1994)

Holidays After Dark

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“Alien Xmas” © 2020 Netflix US, LLC.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1988, and the Spirit of Christmas just broke down my bedroom door to say hello.

This edition of Scrooge Sunday turns everyone’s favorite festive tale of redemption on its head and blows it out its enormous, muscular backside as great philanthropist and all-around softy Ebenezer Blackadder learns from watching his ancestors and descendants that it’s good to be bad.

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🎙 Guest:

Jack Ford (Total Christmas Podcast)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “Blackadder’s Christmas Carol” on Vimeo.

2. Tony Robinson’s “Christmas Wrapping” and the Total Christmas Podcast episode on it.

3. How have I never heard of humbug candies?

4. “A Merry Messy Kweznuz.”

5. A deleted scene.

6. Miriam Margolyes (Queen Victoria) in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

7. Jim Broadbent (Prince Albert) as Santa in an Aldi Christmas ad.

8. “The Last of Scrooge,” and Jack’s review of it.

9. The cast of “Grange Hill” sings “Just Say No.”

10. Dennis Lill (Beadle) in “Batman” (1989).

11. Spitting Image and “The Chicken Song.”

12. Merry Britsmas on “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.”

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📼 Commercial Break:

BBC1 Intro to “Blackadder’s Christmas Carol” (1988)

Barclaycard: “Surveillance” (1995), starring Rowan Atkinson.

Festive Foreign Film Fans.

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“Blackadder’s Christmas Carol” © 1988 BBC.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1984, and Santa’s in front of a firing squad because his executioner didn’t appreciate the socks he got last Christmas.

The slime is an extra festive shade of green in this 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.”

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🎙 Guests:

Shawn Robare (Plastic Rocket Pop, Cult Film Club, Wolfman’s Got Nards)

Steven (UFO Club, The Bigfoot Club)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch the Christmas episode on Facebook.

2. Shawn’s piece of the Prevert Family’s living room wallpaper.

3. Nick Knacks on “You Can’t Do That on Television.”

4. Mike pitches a sequel to “Santa Claus: The Movie” on SequelQuest (2020).

5. “UFO Kidnapped,” a TV pilot featuring much of the same cast of kids.

6. Les Lye as Professor Coldheart in “The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings.”

7. How we’ve fielded the question of Santa’s one-night flight.

8. Abby Hagyard (Mom) on YouTube.

9. Ice Cream Dolls, The Visible Man, and the G.I. Joe Motorized Battle Tank.

10. Calvin and Hobbes makes the same “Santa wants beer” joke.

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📼 Commercial Break:

“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.

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“You Can’t Do That on Television” © 1984 Carleton Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1992, and there’s no such thing as Buster Bunny.

The Advent Calendar House wraps up Christmas in July with the unofficial series finale of “Tiny Toon Adventures” that sees Buster wishing he’d never been on the show, and the horrors within Montana Max’s Biff Tannen Pleasure Palace or whatever.

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🎙 Guests:

Adam Pope (Geekster, YouTube, Remember That Show?)

William Bruce West (West Week Ever, Remember That Show?)

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. I found this special hiding in a 4-hour Christmas special compilation on the Internet Archive.

2. “Meet the Tiny Toons” in the special edition magazine “Bugs Bunny: He’s 50, Folks” (1990).

3. The title card compared to the “It’s a Wonderful Life” opening credits.

4. “The Chipmunks Go to the Movies.”

5. Tony Pope (God) as Goofy in “Watch O ut for Goofy” (the theme song for Adam’s 2 Goofs Podcast) and as the first voice heard in “Back to the Future.”

6. John Kassir (who voices Buster in this episode) as the Crypt-Keeper in RD’s Retro Detention Halloween Specials in 2019 and 2023.

7. Chad realizes in real time that Elmyra Duff is the Tiny Toons derivative of Elmer Fudd.

8. What education level is Acme Looniversity, anyway?

9. Today’s TV Trope: Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.

10. Jacoby & Meyers and a 2-minute-long tangent about personal injury lawyer commercials.

11. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming role as Santa in “The Man with the Bag.”

12. American Express Commercials with Mel Blanc and Jim Davis.

13. Bugs Bunny may have been voiced by an uncredited Noel Blanc, Mel’s son, for a single line at the end.

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📼 Commercial Break:

Godzilla: The Series Promo (1998)

Toy Story: Holiday TV Spot (1995)

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“Tiny Toon Adventures” and “It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special” © 1992 Warner Bros.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.