🎄 It’s 1991, and Santa Claus is fighting with a talking dog over a park bench.

By some Christmas miracle, this obscure special was rediscovered over 30 years later. For years, people on the Internet tried to identify it on a TV in the background of an old family photo, until finally, thanks to the power of positivity, it was identified as “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light.” Join us as we meet the intergalactic Soulmates in what seems like a pilot that never got off the ground.

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🎙 Guests:

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, @TheyCallMeDiGio).

Jeff Somogyi (Classic Film Jerks, Linktree: @sommerjam).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” on YouTube, uploaded by creator Gabrielle St. George.

2. Tumblr post: “Can You Figure Out Who This Is?” by Sophie Campbell, 2016.

3. Will Sloan’s tweet of the screenshot, September 2022.

4. CBC News: Canadian cartoon mystery finally solved after 6 years, thanks to the internet, 2022.

5. The Littles, for comparison.

6. Today’s TV Trope: Mind-Control Eyes.

7. Soulmates Productions, Inc. defaulted in 2007.

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📼 Commercial Break:

Canadian Tire: Scrooge / Nintendo Action Set Commercial, 1991.

Pop Tarts Commercial starring Dan and Dave, 1990.

Remember That Show?, a monthly journey to explore obscure and forgotten TV series from the ’80s and ’90s.

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“The Soulmates in The Gift of Light” © 1991 Soulmates Productions, Inc.

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

This holiday season, experience the joy of rewatching the same TV specials you watch every year in podcast form! It’s the Advent Calendar House: A salute to all holiday specials, but mostly the Christmas ones.

Revisit 12 holiday TV classics and not-so-classics each December and July.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we watched a cavemen take over Santa’s job after he fell off the roof in “A Flintstone Christmas.”

This time, our reunion tour of previously podcasted-about characters makes its final stop of the season in Bedrock, where Fred Flintstone is letting the lead role of “Ebonezer” Scrooge go to his head, while Wilma is doing the workload of I lost count of how many victims of the highly contagious Bedrock Bug. We also make the strongest case yet that this Modern Stone-Age Family does, indeed, know about who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.

PLUS: Help choose which version of “A Christmas Carol” we cover for Christmas Eve! VOTE HERE.

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🎙 Guests:

“Ant-stony” Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along).

“Mi-coal” May (MichaelMay.online, AfterLUNCH).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “A Flintstone Family Christmas,” from a year before, was the last appearance of adult Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

2. “The Flintstones & WWE: Stone-Age Smackdown!”

3. The latest we’ve waited to shop for our spouses.

4. A grown-up Philo Quartz from “The Flintstone Kids” appears here and then never again.

5. The Piltdown Man hoax.

6. How big is the stage, and how are the actors playing ghosts appearing translucent?

7. They added a “love scene” with Belle, and Maggie Magma is way too excited about it.

8. Brian Cummings (Ernie/The Ghost of Christmas Present) did a weird Kermit the Frog voice in a promo for “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.”

9. Other Dickens characters have headstones in the graveyard.

10. IMDb credits Rip Taylor as the voice of a Venus flytrap tuba in the orchestra pit.

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📼 Commercial Break:

Cocoa Pebbles “Christmas Carol” commercial, 1998.

“Dinner & a Movie” makes standing rib roast with “Rockshire” pudding, 1996.

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“A Flintstones Christmas Carol” © 1994 Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we went on an apocryphal adventure with the story of The Little Drummer Boy.

This time, Rankin/Bass drums up an unnecessary sequel from 1976, its busiest year for holiday specials. Join Aaron on a side quest to retrieve the stolen silver bells from a troop of greedy Roman soldiers in the “Rogue One” of Christmas stories.

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🎙 Guests:

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, 📸 @blessedarethegeek)

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Allen Swift (Melchior) as Twinkie the Kid.

2. Simeon the bellmaker is very loosely based on the Biblical Simeon, but his Song of Simeon is left out.

3. Ray Owens (Simeon) as the voice of Superbook, and Jesus in “The Flying House.”

4. Zero Mostel (Brutus) on “The Muppet Show.”

5. “Money Money Money” (not the song from “Mamma Mia!”)

6. How bad is Brutus compared to the other Rankin/Bass Christmas villains?

7. “Do You Hear What I Hear?” was written during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

8. Our favorite recordings of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Copeland, the Mike Sammes Singers for Disneyland Records, and one by Spiraling that invokes The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.”

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📼 Commercial Break:

Kodak XL Movie Camera: “One Christmas,” 1976.

Holly Jolly X’masu, your podcast destination for Japanese Christmas music.

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“The Little Drummer Boy, Book II” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 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 on an animated adventure to the North Pole, courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird.

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🎙 Guests:

Adam Pope (WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics, @hojukoolander).

Steven (UFO Club).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Comparing the original sitcom’s theme song to the cartoon’s theme.

2. Galoob made a plush Glomer.

3. Adam’s VHS cover has a very off-model Glomer.

4. The Master Christmas Switch’s effect on time reminded me of the “Futurama” episode “Time Keeps on Slippin’.”

5. Punky taught Adam how to wink.

6. Santa drops off the kids on the roof again, just in like in “Frosty the Snowman.”

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📼 Commercial Break:

The Story of Phroomf commercial featuring baseball star Bob Boone, 1986.

WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.

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“It’s Punky Brewster” and “Christmas in July” © 1985 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we were Dreaming of a White Ranger with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

This time, they’re away helping Santa, so Zordon surprises Alpha by teleporting in a bunch of children for a Christmas party. Join us for this very bonkers Power Rangers home video, plus our mini tribute to the late Jason David Frank, who’s seen as both the Green and White Ranger here because nobody cares about continuity during Christmas, I guess.

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🎙 Guests:

Andre Bennett (Cult Cinema Cloister, Philadelphia Championship Rock Paper Scissors, @AndreBennettGO).

C.J. Bélanger (Christmas Sessions).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “Alpha’s Magical Christmas,” preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.

2. “Chosen Sentai Jetman” on Shout Factory TV.

3. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always” on Netflix.

4. Morphed: Cheryl Saban’s Journey from Beach Bunny to Philanthropist.

5. The real-life Command Center: The House of the Book at the American Jewish University.

6. Baby Groot and the bomb that will kill everyone.

7. Andre proves “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie.

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📼 Commercial Break:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club Video, 1994.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Fan Club, 1994.

The Magic of the Season, a podcast celebrating the holidays that we live for.

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“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and “Alpha’s Magical Christmas” © 1994 Saban Entertainment, Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🫓 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we helped our favorite talking babies stop a true meanie in “A Rugrats Chanukah.”

This time, we’re ignoring the rules of another long-standing tradition as we travel by baby basket back to 1995 to witness grown men throwing temper tantrums and ending up locked in the attic.

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🎙 Guests:

Sarah Shay (sarahshay.com, Bandcamp, Pilot House Podcast, @thesarahshay).

Zach Gozlan (@zachgozlan, @N_THEYSTAYTHERE, “How I Got (Somewhat) Smart(er in Five Months)”).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. I found this special hiding in a 4-hour VHS recording of Nick on CBS from 2003.

2. Pilot House episode on “I Dream of Jeannie,” which would not be seen the night this premiered.

3. Fact-Checking “Fact-Checking A Rugrats Passover.”

4. As of this recording, the Sultan of Brunei in 1995 is still sultan.

5. “Noozles,” with co-starred Cheryl Chase (Angelica) and was not “The Adventures of the Little Koala.”

6. The 4 categories of Jewish holidays.

7. Melanie Chartoff (Didi, Minka) as the principal in “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.”

8. The controversy over Boris and Minka’s design.

9. “The Song That Doesn’t End” from “Lamb Chop’s Play Along.”

10. The Maxwell House Haggadah.

11. A Haggadah of Our Own.

12. “Bible Adventures.”

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📼 Commercial Break:

Country Crock Spreadable Sticks, 1994, featuring Jack Riley (Stu).

Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, 2003.

The Studio Demands It!, a podcast that recreates, reimagines, or flat out fixes existing film franchises when a hypothetical studio demands more films.

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“A Rugrats Passover” © 1995 Viacom International Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

💝 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we visited the Easter Bunny’s underground nightmare factory in “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise.”

This time, it’s 1982, and love and hockey are in the air as Brother Bear gets stalked by a secret admirer, and his Papa’s public displays of affection send him into orbit.

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🎙 Guest:

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” on YouTube.

2. The Broad Street Bullies.

3. Totally Rad Christmas on Chuck E. Cheese.

4. Homer Simpson’s rabbit trap.

5. The bottom brick scene in ”Bloodsport.”

6. A set of clips from this special set to “Let’s Hear It for The Boy” by Deniece Williams.

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📼 Commercial Break:

McDonald’s Berenstain Bears Happy Meal Toys, 1986.

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

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“The Berenstain Bears’ Comic Valentine” © 1982 Joseph Cates Co., Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

We’re back! This surprise bonus episode covers the 1976 Rankin/Bass special, The First Easter Rabbit, which despite its name and main theme, still relies heavily on Christmas.

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🎙 Guest:

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed Are the Geek).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. A very obvious and very uncredited Velveteen Rabbit connection.

2. Easter Valley’s odd location next door to the North Pole, and Rankin/Bass’s habit of giving bad directions.

3. They named the talking snowball “Br-r-ruce,” a joke I didn’t notice until JUST NOW.

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“The First Easter Rabbit” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.