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Advent Calendar House

Garfield’s Thanksgiving

We end our countdown to Christmas in July by badly dancing back to 1989 to celebrate the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season in “Garfield’s Thanksgiving,” the clear bronze medalist of Garfield’s holiday trilogy, thanks to Jon Arbuckle going from goofy pet owner to gaslighting, mansplaining, hopelessly inept creep.

On This Episode

  1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), 10 minutes into a diet and have already lost his sense of humor.
  2. Jeff Somogyi (@sommerjam), a motivational electronic talking scale that’s also a film enthusiast, from Talkin’ Chopp.

Topics and Tangents

  1. Orson the Pig from “U.S. Acres” makes a cameo in Liz’s waiting room.
  2. The dumbest things we’ve done to get a date pale in comparison to Jon holding his breath until Liz concedes to going out with him. Hey, y’all, don’t do that. Please.
  3. Pat Carroll is back as Grandma in her 2nd greatest vocal performance of November 1989.
  4. Julie Payne (Liz) was also briefly the voice of another cartoon doctor, Janice N!Godatu, from the other animated segment of “The Tracey Ullman Show.”
  5. A brief history of sock garters.
  6. This special confirms Jon can’t hear Garfield speaking, but somehow Garfield’s computerized scale with the fat-shaming jokes can hear him.
  7. The best of Calvin’s dad from “Calvin and Hobbes,” in example.
  8. Grandma Arbuckle’s Sweet Potatoes, as prepared by Dinosaur Dracula.
  9. Cranberry sauce tastes better when it’s shaped like the inside of a can.
  10. Desirée Goyette, the female singing voice in Garfield’s specials and also the voice of Nermal, also sang the title theme to “It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown.”

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

“Garfield’s Thanksgiving” © 1989 United Feature Syndicate, Inc./Anderson Digital.

Commercial Break: Garfield Alpo Cat Food Commercial, 1989.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

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Title: Garfield’s Thanksgiving

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G.I. Joe: Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town

S-s-season’s greetings-s-s! You better watch out, because today we’re kindly rewinding back to a 1985 Christmas episode of “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero,” entitled “Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town!”

On This Episode

  1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), rambunctious Navy SEAL looking for a meaningful relationship with a large slab of frozen meat.
  2. Joey O. (@ImGonnaDJ24), 50-foot-tall wise cracking parrot from Y-Not Radio and Words With Nerds.

Topics and Tangents

  1. We don’t even get 4 minutes into this without talking about the U.S.S. Flagg.
  2. Crossfire comes up for no reason.
  3. A brief history of the G.I. Joe toy line, from “America’s Movable Fighting Man” to the Adventure Team, to “A Real American Hero.”
  4. “The Toys That Made Us” on Netflix.
  5. The “opening monologue that explains the show” has nothing on Voltron’s.
  6. Neil Ross (Shipwreck, Dusty, and Buzzer in this episode) has an audio camero in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “I Can’t Watch This.”
  7. Joey’s interviews with Pat Fraley (Wild Weasel), Gregg Berger (Firefly), Michael Bell (Duke, Blowtorch, Major Bludd), and Rob Paulsen (Tripwire, in Paulsen’s earliest known voice credit).
  8. “The Viper is Coming” is both our favorite “G.I. Joe” episode and my dad’s favorite dad joke.
  9. “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons,” starring Christopher Collins (Chris Latta), the voice of Cobra Commander.
  10. We try and find Keystone City, which may or may not be somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania.
  11. The titular Cobra CLAW (Covert Light Aerial Weapon), an odd name for a Cobra vehicle, because snakes don’t have claws.
  12. The Definitive Ranking of all 25 Fensler G.I. Joe Parodies, by DailyDot.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

“G.I. Joe” and “Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town” © 1985 Hasbro Inc.

Commercial Break: William “The Refrigerator” Perry G.I. Joe Action Figure, 1987.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

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Title: G.I. Joe: Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town

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The Stingiest Man in Town

On another Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we fly back in time to 1978 to revisit Rankin/Bass’s turn at “A Christmas Carol,” “The Stingiest Man in Town.”

On This Episode

  1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), your ghost host of Christmases Past and Present.
  2. Michael DiGiovanni (@theatomicgeeks), the scariest door knocker in all of Scroogedom, from the Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit, and The Atomic Geeks podcasts.
  3. Michael May (@michaelmaycomix), hobo insect taking a break from rockin’ and rollin’ all week long, from his Adventure Blog and the Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, and AfterLUNCH podcasts.

Topics and Tangents

  1. This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on “The Alcoa Hour,” starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. Rankin/Bass uses most of the songs from that special.
  2. The original “Stingiest Man in Town” on Sleigh Bell Cinema.
  3. Michael May’s annual coverage of scenes from this and other “Christmas Carol” adaptations.
  4. Sonny Melendrez (Bob Cratchit) in “You and Me, Kid.”
  5. This has my all-time favorite, super creepy version of Marley’s face appearing on Scrooge’s door knocker.
  6. This special gets older Belle completely wrong.
  7. Tiny Tim has skinny robot legs.
  8. The eldest Cratchit sibling, Martha, is Debbie Clinger of the Clinger Sisters, a.k.a. Superchick from the “Krofft Supershow” host band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.
  9. Rankin/Bass should have made a south seas-themed special called “Christmas Island.”
  10. Scrooge’s grave morphing into a giant devil face is a reminder in hindsight that this special was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the predecessor to Studio Ghibli.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

“The Stingiest Man in Town” © 1978 Rankin/Bass Productions.

Commercial Break: Glad Trash Bags Commercial starring Tom Bosley, 1981.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

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Title: The Stingiest Man in Town

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The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold

Sail back to 1981 with us as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special ever, “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because they had the rights to “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it.

On This Episode

  1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), tiny but prolific cobbler who only makes shoes in primary colors.
  2. Michael DiGiovanni (@theatomicgeeks), who insists on hiding his life savings in a magic cave, from the Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit, and the Atomic Geeks podcasts.
  3. Michael May (@michaelmaycomix), the Lord of the Leprechauns, of his Adventure Blog and the Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, and AfterLUNCH podcasts.

Topics and Tangents

  1. Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the “Jeopardy!” guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, “The Astuter Computer Revue.”
  2. Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in the opening of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”
  3. Blarney Kilakilarney and his wife are a poster Irish couple and the reason everyone’s advice at your wedding is: “Never go to bed angry.”
  4. This special keeps adding new rules about how both banshees and rainbows work, like they’re Mogwai.
  5. The Leprechauns’ “phantom island of Tralee” shares a name with an actual mainland town in Ireland, but is closer to Dursey Island, population (as of 2016): 4.
  6. The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.
  7. According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.
  8. “Jack O’Lantern,” from Rankin/Bass’s “Festival of Family Classics” TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

“The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” © 1981 Rankin/Bass Productions.

Commercial Break: “Gremlins” Gizmo Plush Pet, 1984.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

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Title: The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold

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Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Koopa Klaus / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush

Hey, paisanos! We warp back to 1989 for a double dose of Christmas segments from “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show” — the live-action “Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush,” featuring Santa losing his “transportation” in Brooklyn; and the animated “Koopa Klaus,” featuring a plot to… freeze the North Pole.

On This Episode

  1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), tiny selfish mushroom baby.
  2. Adam Pope (@hojukoolander), another fun guy, fresh out of Retro Detention, from Retro-Daze and The Retro Network.

Topics and Tangents

  1. Nintendo Power’s Preview of “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” as tweeted by Adam, and preserved on the Internet Archive (for now) (it’s on page 93).
  2. I didn’t realize till recently the music in the “Back to the Future” Nintendo game is a sped up version of “The Power of Love.”
  3. “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons,” a live-in-studio spinoff show local to Los Angeles and hosted by King Koopa, performed at one point by Christopher Collins, the voice of Cobra Commander.
  4. Captain Lou Albano’s Wrestling Hotline 1-900 number.
  5. We map out where Mario and Luigi lived in Brooklyn.
  6. “Stunt Dawgs,” an obscure 1992 cartoon featuring Harvey Atkin playing another character with the same King Koopa voice.
  7. A brief discussion on the term “teeter-totter,” used by Mario here, versus “see-saw.”
  8. How tall is Mario? Captain Lou was 5-foot-10, though other sources range from 5-foot-1 to 3-foot-8.
  9. Preview of Super Nintendo World, coming to Universal theme parks.
  10. Finally, I get to talk at length about The Legend of Zelda!
  11. Adam’s SequelQuest episode on the “Super Mario Bros.” movie, featuring a parody of the Super Show theme song.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

“The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” “Koopa Klaus,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush” © 1989 DiC Entertainment.
“Super Mario Bros.” © Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Commercial Break:

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.

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Title: Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Koopa Klaus / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush

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