Christmastime with Mister Rogers
Explicit content warning
12/02/23 • 110 min
1 Listener
🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandmother is surrounded by dancing chickens.
It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with some extremely bizarre adventures.
****
🎙 Guests:
Guy Hutchinson (Pointless Nostalgia, GuyHutchinson.com).
Tim Lybarger (The Neighborhood Archive, Third Quarter Run, TimLybarger.com).
****
đź’¬ Topics & Tangents:
1. Watch “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” at MisterRogers.org.
2. The Neighborhood Archive entry on “Christmastime with Mister Rogers.”
3. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History,” co-written by Tim.
4. Frances Bay (Mrs. Hamilton) in “The Karate Kid.”
5. Today’s TV Trope: Hollywood Giftwrap.
6. Mr. Rogers and François Clemmons sharing a wading pool.
7. Lesser-known Christmas hymns “The Friendly Beasts,” “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” and “My Sheep Were Grazing.”
8. Was Music Man Stan from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” inspired by the Music Man from this special?
9. “The Littlest Angel,” 1969.
10. Chuck Ozeas (Andrew) is now a director of photography.
11. “A Very Young Dancer” and The Life That Followed, 2011.
12. Stephanie Selby’s obituary, 2022.
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells Commercial, 1989.
Dirt Cheap Liquors Chicken Commercial.
Closer to Christmas, a podcast featuring a random Christmas topic every episode.
****
“Christmastime with Mister Rogers” © 1977 Family Communications, 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.
🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandmother is surrounded by dancing chickens.
It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with some extremely bizarre adventures.
****
🎙 Guests:
Guy Hutchinson (Pointless Nostalgia, GuyHutchinson.com).
Tim Lybarger (The Neighborhood Archive, Third Quarter Run, TimLybarger.com).
****
đź’¬ Topics & Tangents:
1. Watch “Christmastime with Mister Rogers” at MisterRogers.org.
2. The Neighborhood Archive entry on “Christmastime with Mister Rogers.”
3. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History,” co-written by Tim.
4. Frances Bay (Mrs. Hamilton) in “The Karate Kid.”
5. Today’s TV Trope: Hollywood Giftwrap.
6. Mr. Rogers and François Clemmons sharing a wading pool.
7. Lesser-known Christmas hymns “The Friendly Beasts,” “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,” and “My Sheep Were Grazing.”
8. Was Music Man Stan from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” inspired by the Music Man from this special?
9. “The Littlest Angel,” 1969.
10. Chuck Ozeas (Andrew) is now a director of photography.
11. “A Very Young Dancer” and The Life That Followed, 2011.
12. Stephanie Selby’s obituary, 2022.
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells Commercial, 1989.
Dirt Cheap Liquors Chicken Commercial.
Closer to Christmas, a podcast featuring a random Christmas topic every episode.
****
“Christmastime with Mister Rogers” © 1977 Family Communications, 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.
Previous Episode
Animaniacs: A Christmas Plotz / Little Drummer Warners
🎄 After spending 3 months locked in a water tower, the Advent Calendar House has escaped in time for Christmas Podcast Day, a fake holiday originally made up for a hashtag back when social media was slightly less stupid.
It’s not Scrooge Sunday, but the theme for this year’s Christmas Podcast Day is “A Christmas Carol,” so I’m playing a long, but also cheating a little by covering both segments of a 1993 Christmas episode of “Animaniacs.”
You can follow #ChristmasPodcastDay on Facebook, Instagram, and that other one. And probably TikTok, but I’m not on that.
****
🎙 Guests:
Erin Evans (@mserinevans).
Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words With Nerds, @imgonnadj24).
****
đź’¬ Topics & Tangents:
1. The Animanicast.
2. Animaniacs Wiki entry for this episode.
3. Sherri Stoner (Slappy Squirrel) was the live action reference model for Disney Princesses Ariel and Belle.
4. A Christmas Plotz: The Hip-Hop Musical.
5. Rock Sugar, Jess Harnell’s (Wakko) band.
6. Jess Harnell sang the Taz-Mania theme.
8. Today’s TV Tropes: Sensational Staircase Sequence and Scooby Stack.
9. Baby Jesus is in a thatched-roof cottage.
10. Kathryn Page’s gag credits.
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
Animaniacs McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, 1994.
Snow in Southtown Christmas Podcast.
****
“Animaniacs,” “A Christmas Plotz,” and “Little Drummer Warners” © 1993 Warner Bros.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
“Christmas Podcast Day” song by Tim Babb from the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast. Parody of “Weasel Stomping Day” by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.
Next Episode
The Soulmates in The Gift of Light
🎄 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.
****
🎙 Guests:
Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, @TheyCallMeDiGio).
Jeff Somogyi (Classic Film Jerks, Linktree: @sommerjam).
****
đź’¬ 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.
****
đź“Ľ 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.
****
“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.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.
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