Advent Calendar House - TV Holiday & Christmas Specials

🎄 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.

****

🎙 Guests:

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

C.J. Bélanger (Christmas Sessions).

****

💬 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.

****

📼 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.

****

“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 flew a sleigh made out of a dumpster into space with the California Raisins in “Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration.”

🎃 This time, we’re reanimating a creepier creation of his from 1991 — a Halloween special that premiered in May for some reason — starring the scheming Wilshire Pig on a quest to uncover the secret lab of Dr. Frankenswine.

****

🎙 Guests:

Sammy Hain (@SammyHain).

Chad Young (The Horror Movie BBQ, @horrormoviebbq).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. IMDb’s photo gallery from this special.

2. “The Adventures of Mark Twain.”

3. Todd Tolces’ website and YouTube résumé.

4. Michele Mariana (Wilshire) on “Sesame Street” as Cecile, the singing ball of clay.

5. Herb from Burger King.

6. Will Vinton wanted to build a theme park called Claymation Station with Wilshire Pig as its Mickey Mouse.

7. Raphael opened the floodgates for characters made for children saying curse words.

8. Sheldon the Snail bears a passing resemblance to The Noid.

9. A closer examination of the bathroom graffiti.

10. Today’s TV Trope: Removable Shell.

11. Does Famine’s business card say he’s from Limbo, Illinois?

****

📼 Commercial Break:

McDonald’s Coke Float Commercial, 1991, aired during this special.

Another Zelda Podcast... you’ll never guess what it’s about.

****

“Claymation Comedy of Horrors” © 1991 Will Vinton Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.

Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎃 Put out the oars and surrender yourself to the mercy of the rivers of time as they take us back to Garfield’s terrifying 1985 Halloween special.

****

🎙 Guests:

Jeff Somogyi (@sommerjam, Talkin’ Chopp).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Jim Davis wanted ‘Garfield’s Halloween Adventure’ to ‘at least scare 4-year-olds’ (The A.V. Club, 2014).

2. Samples of the comic book adaptation, Garfield in Disguise, from Rotten Ink and Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks, including even creepier drawings of the old man and pirate ghosts.

3. The first appearance of Binky the Clown!

4. Jon’s head going through the bottom of a falling jack-o’-lantern could have killed him at worst and concussed him at best.

5. How many kids in the history of trick-or-treating got suckered into getting double the candy for their siblings?

6. The time a raccoon broke into Jeff’s attic and left a hornet’s nest inside a Nativity scene shepherd.

7. Speaking of attics, the Pink Panther advertising Owens Corning fiberglass insulation.

8. The Roy Ogle of the very random passing reference “Roy Ogle’s roots” was a plant breeder at Clemson University. They’re sweet potatoes.

9. The black cat pajamas may be a callback to the killer panther from 1984’s Garfield in the Rough, another good special to put on if you want to give your kids nightmares.

10. If ghosts are real, as this special establishes, was the ghost of Jon’s grandfather watching all the Christmas festivities in that special?

11. C. Lindsay Workman, the voice of the old man, and also Garfield’s grandfather in Garfield on the Town, and God in Garfield: His 9 Lives.

12. The “double burn” glowing effect used on the ghosts reminds us of the Night on Bald Mountain sequence of Fantasia.

13. We had to ask: Did Garfield an Odie really survive the night, or is everything thereafter really Garfield Minus Garfield?

****

📼 Retro Commercial Break:

McDonald’s Halloween Pumpkin Pails!

****

“Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” ©1985 United Feature Syndicate, Inc./Anderson Digital.
Closing Music: Witch’s Night Out, by Razoreater, written by Peter Rochon.

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

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

To mark the 30th anniversary of the shredded wheat and cranberry sauce of TV specials, we take a head count of every unexpected guest Fozzie Bear’s mother graciously welcomed into her home on Christmas Eve, 1987. It’s a lot.

****

🎙 Guest:

Carlin Trammel (Nerd Lunch, Dragonfly Ripple, @nerdlunch).

****

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. We try and piece together the various home video cuts and music rights issues.

2. The dizzying continuity issues surrounding the Muppet Babies.

3. Can you say “OshKosh B’gosh”?

4. A milk PSA and the world’s most forward-thinking bullies.

5. Osvaldo el Gruñón, Oscar the Grouch’s Puerto Rican counterpart.

6. Parting words from the guy with the beard doing the dishes.

****

“A Muppet Family Christmas” © 1987 Jim Henson Productions.

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

🎄 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.

****

🎙 Guests:

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, 📸 @blessedarethegeek)

****

💬 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.”

****

📼 Commercial Break:

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

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

****

“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.