🎄 It’s 1988, the monsters under my bed are real, and they’re stealing Christmas.

Follow us under the covers through a wormhole to the home of ’80s kids’ bedding sensation the Pillow People in a Christmas special so obscure, it’s not even listed on IMDb. But it’s real, and it’s ironically nightmarish.

****

🎙 Guest:

Ethan (The Hungry Reader, A Special Presentation or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight, Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “Pillow People Save Christmas” on YouTube.

2. Pillow People on the toy collectors’ website Ghost of the Doll.

2. Toot Sweet Toys, or what’s left of it.

3. TV listing in New York magazine, November 1988.

4. Victor DiMattia (Billy) on filming “The Sandlot.”

5. Window Rattler as seen on “Full House.”

6. The Who Cares Bears.

7. Today’s TV Trope: Introdump, example: the worst Rob Liefeld drawing.

8. Cheryl Chase (Sweet Dreams) mentions working with Cree Summer (Rock-a-Bye Baby) on this special in a 2004 interview about the “Rugrats” spinoff “All Grown Up.”

9. The Far Side: “…He’s taking it with him!”

10. Nightmara looks like a cross between Mother Brain in “Captain N: The Game Master” and Madam Hecuba from the 1974 anime adaptation of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

****

📼 Commercial Break:

Pillow People: Pillow Valley Commercial (1988)

Holidays After Dark, exploring the strange, unusual, and dark sides of the holidays.

****

“Pillow People Save Christmas” © 1988 TMS Entertainment, Inc.

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

🎄 It’s 1977, and the cast of Broadway’s hottest new musical is taking drastic measures to convince 4 different unions keep the theatre open for a Christmas party because they forgot to book a venue.

Join the original Broadway cast of “Annie” as somewhere in between themselves and their characters starring in a unique TV Christmas special which may very well have been many TV viewers’ first exposure to the musical.

****

🎙 Guest:

Guy Hutchinson (Pointless Nostalgia, GuyHutchinson.com).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “The Annie Christmas Show” on the Internet Archive.

2. The original Broadway version of “Annie” ends on Christmas; the 1982 movie ends on the 4th of July.

3. Andrea McArdle in “Christmas at Walt Disney World.” (Full Episode)

4. Danielle Brisbois (Molly) in “All in the Family,” and she was a founding member of the band New Radicals.

5. “It’s Christmas” on the Annie 30th Anniversary Production Cast Recording, featuring multiple Annies and Miss Hannigans.

6. “I Don’t Care” in “In the Good Old Summertime” and “Back to the Future: The Game.”

7. “There’s a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway” in “Bullets Over Broadway.”

8. Today’s TV Trope: I Have a Family.

9. Ethel Merman sings “Tomorrow” in “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.” (Full Episode)

10. How The Twelve Days of Christmas’ days 9 through 12 got reordered.

11. Members of the cast reunited in 2019 to perform this Christmas special.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

Kinney Shoes (1977)

Fotomat (1977)

Festive Foreign Film Fans, a podcast covering festive movies and music from around the world.

****

“The Annie Christmas Show” © 1977 Martin Charmin Productions / NBC Universal Network.

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

🐰 It’s 2004, and my stuffed toy rabbit voluntold me to clean his house.

The Advent Calendar House celebrates both Easter in July and Scrooge Sunday with a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood as Rabbit does double duty as both the Easter Bunny and Scrooge, all while Christopher Robin is somewhere else entirely.

****

🎙 Guests:

Sammy Hain (Sammy’s Easter Tails)

Matt Spaulding (North Pole Radio, Two Broke Geeks)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “Springtime with Roo” on Disney+.

2. Ads from the 2004 DVD, plus a video of some dude walking through the menu screen.

3. Why do Christopher Robin’s toys have American accents?

4. John Fiedler (Piglet) in “The Golden Girls” and “12 Angry Men.”

5. “Christmas in the Stars,” the Star Wars Christmas album.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

Sears Video Game Arcade Christmas Sale (1983)

****

“Winnie the Pooh” and “Springtime with Roo” © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

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

🎄It’s 1979, and an evil king is having abandonment issues after his entire kingdom left, so he made an army of robots instead of going to therapy.

The Advent Calendar House has once again emerged from hibernation after declaring 4 more months of winter to pretend it’s still winter. Join us as we encounter what might be the least Christmassy Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a friendlier version of Jack Frost, a groundhog dressed like a pro wrestling manager, and the wintry weather neighbors of those angels your grandmother told you were bowling whenever there was a thunderstorm.

****

🎙 Guests:

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)

Matt Spaulding (North Pole Radio)

Jeff Loftin (Lost Christmas)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “Jack Frost” on YouTube.

2. Toei Animation’s “The Little Mermaid” (1975).

3. Gilbert Gottfried on his favorite death scene: Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello in “Bud and Lou.”

4. Today’s TV Trope: Inevitable Waterfall.

5. The Christmas tradition of “dream presents” is like the dinner scene from “Hook.”

6. February 2 is Candlemas, the 40th day of Christmas.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

Pennsylvania Lottery: Like Holiday Morning, starring Gus, the 2nd most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania (2018)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Hedgehog Day (1992)

****

“Jack Frost” © 1979 Rankin/Bass Productions.

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

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.

This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode. To celebrate, I let listeners vote for which “Christmas Carol” adaptation to cover, and the winner by a large margin was the 1984 TV movie starring George S. Scott, along with original “Equalizer” Edward Woodward as an exceptionally sassy Ghost of Christmas Present, and we even spotted our favorite Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Gough, as a not-so-portly gentleman seeking charity donations.

****

🎙 Guests:

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words With Nerds, @imgonnadj24).

Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along, @durwoodclapper.bsky.social).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Mickey’s Christmas Carol window displays in the Magic Kingdom.

2. David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”

3. George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”

4. “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.

5. Marley’s warning on film vs. in the original text.

6. Wikipedia and no one else names one of Bob Cratchit’s unnamed children “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.

7. Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”

8. “It’s Corn,” and My favorite joke from “Futurama.”

9. Scrooge’s grave was allegedly a real headstone that was reinscribed and is still at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.

10. A 1910 silent film of “A Christmas Carol,” and Mike discussing it on After Lunch.

11. Twelve Hundred Ghosts – A Christmas Carol in Supercut.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

IBM Sponsored Commercial Break from the original airing of “A Christmas Carol.”

CBS/Library of Congress “Read More About It” PSA featuring George C. Scott.

The Christmas Podcast Network All-Star Comedy Christmas Show!

****

“A Christmas Carol” © 1984 Travenol Laboratories Limited.

This season of the Advent Calendar House was produced in memory of Jason Gross (1976–2023), co-founder of The Retro Network. Clip of Jason and Mike from Bracket Madness: Christmas Movies, 2020.

“Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.

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

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.

Join us as we venture through the tunnels under Santa’s workshop to uncover Jim Henson’s first ever TV holiday special, presented by The Ed Sullivan Show and featuring the first Muppet performances by Richard Hunt, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol, and John Lovelady, as well as the first appearances of Thog and a familiar-looking Frackle who’d later be reworked into the Great Gonzo.

****

🎙 Guests:

Tori Schmidt (Muppets No Context, The Muppetwt Awards)

Tony Whitaker (@muppetdude, Muppet Wiki)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “The Great Santa Claus Switch” on Muppet Wiki.

2. ToughPigs.com’s transcript of the special, 2004.

3. Jim Henson, Thog, and Lothar on “The Dick Cavett Show,” 1971.

4. Taminella Grinderfall in “Tales of the Tinkerdee.”

5. Jim Henson’s Red Book entries on the special’s casting and debut.

6. Tony’s art of the Two-Headed Monster as the Miser Brothers.

7. So Many Muppets Are Named Fred.

8. Daniel Seagren as Spider-Man on “The Electric Company.”

9. Richard Hunt as Elmo.

10. Snarl, the Frackle who would become Gonzo.

11. My Emmet Otter’s Teenage Mutant Jug-Band Christmas T-shirt.

12. We have dubbed the green Frackle who looks like Thig with a beak and horns “Theg.”

13. “This Is Halloween” in a Sesame Place parade.

14. “8 Balls of Fur.”

15. Stop calling them “Muppeteers.”

****

📼 Commercial Break:

FritoLay Holiday Party Display Commercial, 1970.

“Noëlco” Razor Santa Commercial, 1970.

Merry Britsmas, all things Christmas from a British perspective.

****

“The Great Santa Claus Switch” © 1970 Sullivan Productions, Inc.

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

🎄It’s 1994, and the Jeffersons are poisoning Metropolis with greed spray from toy atomic space rats.

Join us on an unpredictable flight through the first Christmas episode of “Lois and Clark,” written by Dean Cain and starring Sherman Hemsley as the Toyman and Isabel Sanford as his reluctant assistant, plus Denise Richards, Dick Van Patten, Doug Llewellyn, and terrible special effects.

****

🎙 Guests:

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)

Paxton Holley (Cavalcade of Awesome, Cult Film Club, Hellbent for Letterbox)

Jeeg (Nerd Lunch)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. C.T. brings up this episode and Jeeg seals his fate on Nerd Lunch’s “Nerdstradamus 2013 Redux.”

2. Winslow Schott’s plan to dump his greed toxin into Metropolis’s water supply is similar to Scarecrow’s plan in “Batman Begins.”

3. Progressive Insurance “Barbie” Commercial.

4. Denise Richards (Angela) in “Tammy and the T-Rex.”

5. Eddie Jones (Jonathan Kent) in “A League of Their Own.”

6. Christmas at Graceland.

7. Totally Rad Christmas on “It’s Gary Shandling’s Christmas Show” featuring Dom Irrera (Hecklebaum).

8. Homer Simpson licking poisonous toads.

9. Today’s TV Trope: Anticipatory Breath Spray.

10. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by The Pretenders.

📼 Commercial Break:

Burger King Holiday Disney Glasses Commercial, 1994.

Children First “Read a Book” PSA featuring Brett Butler, 1994.

Totally Rad Christmas, celebrating all things Christmas in the ’80s.

****

“Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and “Season’s Greedings” © 1994 Warner Bros. Television.

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

🎄It’s 1989, and a killer in a Santa suit is making it really hard to hide my dead husband’s body.

You better watch out as we dig up the first filmed episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” a cozy Christmas nightmare directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring his then-wife and talented screamer, Mary Ellen Trainor, and the kid who gets her hoverboard stolen by Marty McFly.

****

🎙 Guests:

Jamie Ray (Fave Five From Fans, Complete Disarray with Jamie Ray)

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Mike on Fave Five From Fans with my Fave Five Christmas TV Specials (already covered them all here).

2. Fave Five Christmas Horror Movies.

3. The Vault of Horror No. 35, from 1954.

4. “And All Through the House” segment of the 1972 “Tales from the Crypt” movie.

5. HBO Feature Presentation opening, 1983.

6. John Kassir (The Crypt-Keeper) in a commercial for The Legend of Zelda, 1987.

7. Mary Ellen Trainor (Elizabeth) and Lyndsey Whitney Barry (Carrie Ann) in “Back to the Future Part II.”

8. Today’s TV Trope: Tempting Fate.

9. Elizabeth calls the operator because 9-1-1 was only available in about half the U.S. by 1989.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

The Crypt-Keeper’s Ghoulish Guide to the Howlidays on Kids’ WB, 2001.

Holidays After Dark, exploring the strange, unusual, and dark sides of the holidays.

****

“Tales From the Crypt” and “And All Through the House” © 1989 Tales From the Crypt Venture.

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

🕎 It’s 2003, and a team of Hebrew school basketball players think they’ve found the ghost of Judah Maccabee in a random guy living in a van.

It’s time once again to think about the Seleucid Empire as we watch a Disney Channel Original Hanukkah Movie very loosely based on the true story of former college basketball star Lamont Carr and a yeshiva’s struggling team looking for a leader.

****

🎙 Guests:

April Ryley (@where2nextapril, @thefancygeologist).

J.W. Friedman (I Don’t Even Own a Television).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “Full-Court Miracle” on Disney+.

2. Lamont Carr’s obituary in Virginia Magazine, 2017.

3. Psychocandy, an experimental pop duo of Cassie Steele (Julie) and Jase Blankfort (Stick).

4. UVA’s Athletics website circa 2003.

5. Alex’s prized Dr. J basketball card isn’t even a rookie card and isn’t that valuable.

6. “Jewball,” a novel featuring the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association basketball team.

7. Sadly, the only upload I could find of the hip-hop cover of the Dreidel song is a smartphone recording of a TV playing this movie.

8. This basketball movie’s NBA star cameo is provided by Jerome Williams.

****

📼 Commercial Break:

Microsoft Encarta Commercial, 1995.

Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.

****

“Full-Court Miracle” © 2003 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

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

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