🎄 It’s 2002, and we’re trapped in a horrifying world where Kermit the Frog doesn’t exist.

Join us for a spectacular, spectacular Christmas Eve extravaganza starring Kermit in the George Bailey role of the Muppets’ perfectly silly take on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” also featuring Joan Cusack, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, the cast of “Scrubs,” and Whoopi Goldberg as God, Herself.

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🎙 Guests:

Lindy Kempe (@ieatvideogames, 📸 @pinkmedley).

Adam Jurotich (The Ambassadors of Harmony, 📸 @adam_sr).

Erik Johnson (Erik Johnson Illustrator, 📸 @erikjohnsonillustrator).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Muppet Wiki’s list of similarities between this special and 2011’s “The Muppets.”

2. Joe Snow.

3. Hoggle from “Labyrinth” at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

4. Director Kirk Thatcher as the punk on the bus in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and ”Picard.”

5. Jonathan Bruce, who’d later appear in “Elf.”

6. Deleted scenes include more of Carson Daly, Santa, and a lost cut scene with Snoop Dogg.

7. The giant Bossmen Muppets.

8. A scheduling conflict robbed this movie of actual Steve Irwin.

9. Fozzie’s accidental resemblance to “that green guy who stole Christmas.”

10. Today’s TV Tropes: Celestial Bureaucracy, Laser Hallway, and Lampshade Wearing.

11. The Yoda Muppet has his own Muppet Wiki entry.

12. So does Amy, the Dancing Brick!

13. The World Trade Center can be seen from alternate timeline Piggy’s apartment window, and that’s not the worst part of that scene.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

Mastercard Priceless Getaway Sweepstakes Commercial starring The Muppets, 2002.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Acid Washed Memories, a retro pop-culture celebration podcast starting January 9, 2023.

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“It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie” © 2002 The Jim Henson Company.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🕎 It’s 1998, and we’re praying for a miracle after getting stuck in a snow bank on the side of a dark highway with only an eighth of a tank of gas.

Join us on an enlightening revisit to the Flashy Girl from Flushing on her first Hanukkah as a married woman. Also, Ray Charles is here!

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🎙 Guest:

April Ryley (@Where2NextApril).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch “The Hanukkah Story” on Facebook.

2. April visits the Sheffield residence, and so can you.

3. Fran Drescher in “UHF.”

4. Fran Drescher says she had to fight to let ‘The Nanny’ be Jewish (L.A. Times, 2020).

5. Benjamin Salisbury (Brighton) on “Teen Celebrity Jeopardy” in 1997.

6. Daniel Davis (Niles) on “The Fran Drescher Tawk Show” in 2010.

7. Max’s childhood memory of his dad at Christmas reminded me of Bruce Wayne’s long dining room table.

8. What to do if you’re stranded in a car during a winter storm.

9. Kenny Rogers Roasters still exists, but only in Asia.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

3 Musketeers Commercial starring Fran Drescher, 1998.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Hyrule Podcasters, an audio “Let’s Play” through The Legend of Zelda.

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“The Nanny” and “The Hanukkah Story” © 1998 Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co. Medien KG.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1973, and a musical cricket is about to save the Christmas spirit during New York City’s quietest power failure.

Join us for a one-cat open sleigh ride into Chuck Jones’s beautifully animated sequel to “The Cricket in Times Square.”

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🎙 Guest:

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Classic Film Jerks, @TheyCallMeDiGio).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. A very insightful Letterboxd review.

2. Name That Christmas Special’s screenshot gallery for this special.

3. Today’s TV Trope: Bully Bulldog.

4. Mel Blanc’s voice for the Alley Cat sounds his voice for Clarence the Cat in “Birds Anonymous.”

5. DiGio introduces me to Yorkshire pudding.

6. “Down by the Old Mill Stream.”

7. The similar “Joy to the World” segment from “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”

8. The final Classic Film Jerks movie, “Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers).”

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

Mel Blanc American Express Card Commercial, 1971.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Rediscover the 80s podcasts, including The 80s Weekly and Memory Jogger.

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“A Very Merry Cricket” © 1973 Chuck Jones Enterprises.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1997, and Tim Curry as an evil pipe organ is literally bringing down the house.

Join us as we journey into the depths of Disney’s direct-to-video library for an unnecessary but charming midquel that explains why the Beast hates Christmas and raises even more questions about the curse on his castle.

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🎙 Guests:

Kristi (@BadPrincessMov) and Bri (@wallabri) from Bad Princess Movies.

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Bad Princess Movies on Disney’s original “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Enchanted Christmas.”

2. Coming Soon previews from the original VHS.

3. Kathie Lee Gifford sang the soundtrack for “Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.”

4. Behind “Prince Adam,” the Beast’s real name Disney never made official but keeps occasionally using.

5. Tim Curry as Darkness in “Legend”  and as Hexxus in “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.”

6. How tall is the Beast’s castle compared to the real world’s tallest castle?

7. Disney can’t keep the Feather Duster’s name straight, either.

8. The West Wing at Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom.

9. The terrifying air conditioner in “The Brave Little Toaster.”

10. The loudest organ ever built.

11. Belle wears her dress from this special during Christmastime at Disney parks.

12. Lisa Temming on designing Belle’s Christmas dress.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

Disney Home Video Collection, 1997.

Tiger Electronics Beauty and the Beast handheld game, 1994.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

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

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“Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas” © 1997 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1990, and a little girl’s Christmas wish is about to get shot out of the sky. Join us for the podcast’s first voyage into the Disney Afternoon as Baloo the cargo pilot bear attempts to save his boss’s daughter’s belief in Santa.

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🎙 Guest:

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

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Joey’s Christmas TV lineup that he wrote on a piece of paper around 1991 and found again 30 years later.

2. The TaleSpin/Quantum Leap joke.

3. Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” the animated one, is somehow Germany’s biggest box office draw ever.

4. “Tales of the Gold Monkey,” a single-season TV show that inspired “TaleSpin.”

5. “What a Dummy,” an even shorter single-season TV show featuring Janna Michaels (Molly) and a living ventriloquist’s dummy.

6. Joey’s Interview with Pat Fraley (Wildcat), again!

7. Today’s TV Trope: String-on-Finger Reminder.

8. Cape Suzette and Louie’s Place on the Disney Wiki.

9. Flunkey, the Einstein-haired monkey from “The Jungle Book” whose “TaleSpin” counterpart appears to be Santa Louie’s “elf,” Waldo.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

McDonald’s TaleSpin Happy Meal Toys, 1990.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Snow in Southtown, holiday TV specials, movies, music, and more!

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“TaleSpin” and “Jolly Molly Christmas” © 1990 The Walt Disney Company.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1971, and Alastair Sim is delivering an even more animated performance as Scrooge.

Join us as we invade your personal space for salute an animated adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” that bent the rules and became the last TV special to win an Oscar, directed by Richard Williams and executive produced by Chuck Jones.

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🎙 Guests:

Michael May (MichaelMay.online, AfterLUNCH).

Rob Graham (AfterLUNCH, @spidey004).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Michael May’s Christmas Carol Project entries on 1971’s “A Christmas Carol.”

2. CED Magic’s “Christmas Carol” screen adaptation directory.

3. John Leech’s original illustrations for the Dickens story.

4. AfterLUNCH on Christmas Ghosts (And One Carol in Particular).

5. The rarely seen Phantom Hearse.

6. Visions of Young Scrooge’s favorite stories dancing in his head.

7. Alex Williams’s website and blog post about his memory of voicing Tiny Tim at age 4.

8. One notable businessman from the future and his gross nose.

9. The Making of Richard Williams’s “A Christmas Carol.”

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

NyQuil Scrooge Commercial, circa 1968.

Bell Telephone Christmas Commercial, 1978.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

The Christmas Book: The Ultimate Guide to Your Favorite Holiday, by Ed Daly.

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“A Christmas Carol” (1971) © Richard Williams Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 November 1st is Christmas Podcast Day! I don’t make the rules; I just use the hashtag. So join us as on a very important mission to dig up the original animated adventures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a 1948 short film that predates the song. On the way, we’ll wonder why Rudolph’s mother is the only reindeer wearing clothes, why all the deer have bright green antlers, how Santa really gets into houses.

You can follow #ChristmasPodcastDay on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And probably TikTok, but I’m not on that.

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🎙 Guests:

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas, @RadChristmas).

Matt Spaulding (North Pole Radio).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: With Christmas Greetings from Montgomery Ward (Library of Congress).

2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s First Starring Film Role (Library of Congress, 2014).

3. The 1951 re-release, featuring the new Rudolph song.

4. The Advent Calendar House episode on Rankin/Bass’s Rudolph.

5. Disney’s Very Merry Christmas Sing-Along Songs from 1988 featuring clips from this Rudolph short.

6. Water Polo, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & Chevrolet: The Life of Jam Handy (Collegiate Water Polo Association, 2019).

7. Matt’s Little Golden Book of Rudolph, illustrated by Richard Scarry.

8. Paul Wing’s Rudolph record from 1947.

9. Rudolph’s 2nd Christmas.

10. George Klensinger, who arranged the original Silent Night intro, also composed the music to Tubby the Tuba.

11. The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree.

12. James Bond and Blofeld fight on a bobsled in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

13. Ear trumpets, and Daisy Duck’s mother using one in Donald’s Diary.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Closer to Christmas.

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“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” ©1948 The Jam Handy Organization.

Say hi on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

🦃 It’s 1983, and we’re spending Thanksgiving in July at the Saturday Supercade. 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.

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🎙 Guests:

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @horrormoviebbq).

Tom Coombs (The Pop Daddy, @thepopdaddy).

Jayme Kilsby (@brainexploderrr).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. 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.

2. Even Kangaroo got a Saturday Supercade segment eventually.

3. Peter Cullen was the first voice of Mario in the Donkey Kong segment.

4. 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.

5. Pauline and her return in Super Mario Odyssey.

6. We accidentally introduce Chad to Spookley, the Square Pumpkin.

7. They gave the snakes arms!

8. Viper has a Mae West voice, which leads into a tangent about Quasi at the Quackadero.

9. Chief Q*Eagle reminded me of Randall Cunningham’s name in Tecmo Super Bowl.

10. Saturday Supercade’s extensive use of the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library.

11. Home Movies: “Don’t Put Marbles in Your Nose.”

12. Mike guests on TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny to discuss the Perfect Strangers Thanksgiving episode, Wild Turkey.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

John Wanamaker’s 1988 Thanksgiving Sale.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Tis the Podcast.

“Saturday Supercade,” “Q*bert,” and “Thanksgiving for the Memories” © 1983 Ruby-Spears Productions.

Say hi on Twitter and Instagram.
Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1985, but we’re rocketing into the future, when apparently urgent veterinary care no longer exists.

It’s Scrooge Sunday, so join us for a glimpse into the space-age year of 2062 to find out if 3 robotic ghosts of Christmas can convince Mr. Spacely to change his stingy ways, while the clock is ticking for the Jetsons’ dog, Astro, on his deathbed.

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🎙 Guest:

Jack Ford (The Total Christmas Podcast).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. George Jetson apparently was/will be born at the end of July 2022.

2. George O’Hanlon (George Jetson) as Joe McDoakes in a series of instructional parody short films from the 1940s and ’50s.

3. The Jetsons’ “laser tree.”

4. “Bongo Feet and Zip,” the classic Hanna-Barbara running sound effect, is heard 9 times in this episode.

5. This episode marks the last appearance speaking appearance of the Jetsons’ pet alien, Orbitty.

6. Astro’s supposed fever is normal for dogs.

7. How the Flintstones movie teenage Spacely and his future wife watch changes the theory that both shows take place in the same time period.

8. The robotic Ghost of Christmas Past, Present (literally a talking wrapped Christmas present), and “Yet to Be.”

9. I had to look up whether Spacely even had a pet to warrant having a personal veterinarian. Meet Zero.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

George Jetson’s Air Pollution PSA, National Clean Air Coalition, 1990.

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:

Cool Kids Club, a nostalgia-fueled trip back to the ’80s and ’90s.

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“The Jetsons” and “A Jetson Christmas Carol” © 1985 Hanna-Barbara Productions, Inc.

Say hi on Twitter and Instagram.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.