Elmo Saves Christmas
Explicit content warning
07/17/23 • 126 min
1 Listener
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Hanukkah on “Shalom Sesame,” and even uncovered the oddity, “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.”
This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas, featuring Maya Angelou, Harvey Fierstein as the Easter Bunny, and “Doc Hopper,” himself, Charles Durning as Santa.
****
🎙 Guests:
Becca Petunia (ToughPigs.com, Hubba-Wha?!, @UnclePetunio)
Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along)
****
đź’¬ Topics & Tangents:
1. “Brats of the Lost Nebula.”
2. Early “proto-Elmo” appearances.
3. Miss Piggy’s cookbook has a recipe by Maya Angelou.
5. 14 Karat Soul sings “Down Below the Street.”
6. Cookie Monster disguised as Ernie.
7. A petition to remake “White Christmas” with Elmo and Rosita’s military veteran dads.
8. This special’s unique News Flash logo.
9. The soundtrack that’s not actually a soundtrack.
10. Big Bird sings “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but not THAT one.
11. Elmo as the ring bearer at Luis and Maria’s wedding.
12. Ranking all the jokes in “Elmo Says BOO!”
13. Bert and Ernie meet their “It’s a Wonderful Life” counterparts.
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
“Elmo Saves BOO!,” 1997.
Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.
****
“Elmo Saves Christmas” © 1996 Children’s Television Workshop.
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.
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Hanukkah on “Shalom Sesame,” and even uncovered the oddity, “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.”
This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas, featuring Maya Angelou, Harvey Fierstein as the Easter Bunny, and “Doc Hopper,” himself, Charles Durning as Santa.
****
🎙 Guests:
Becca Petunia (ToughPigs.com, Hubba-Wha?!, @UnclePetunio)
Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along)
****
đź’¬ Topics & Tangents:
1. “Brats of the Lost Nebula.”
2. Early “proto-Elmo” appearances.
3. Miss Piggy’s cookbook has a recipe by Maya Angelou.
5. 14 Karat Soul sings “Down Below the Street.”
6. Cookie Monster disguised as Ernie.
7. A petition to remake “White Christmas” with Elmo and Rosita’s military veteran dads.
8. This special’s unique News Flash logo.
9. The soundtrack that’s not actually a soundtrack.
10. Big Bird sings “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but not THAT one.
11. Elmo as the ring bearer at Luis and Maria’s wedding.
12. Ranking all the jokes in “Elmo Says BOO!”
13. Bert and Ernie meet their “It’s a Wonderful Life” counterparts.
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
“Elmo Saves BOO!,” 1997.
Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.
****
“Elmo Saves Christmas” © 1996 Children’s Television Workshop.
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
It’s Punky Brewster: Christmas in July
🎄 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 an animated adventure to the North Pole, courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird.
****
🎙 Guests:
Adam Pope (WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics, @hojukoolander).
Steven (UFO Club).
****
đź’¬ 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.”
****
đź“Ľ Commercial Break:
The Story of Phroomf commercial featuring baseball star Bob Boone, 1986.
WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.
****
“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.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.
Next Episode
The Little Drummer Boy, Book II
🎄 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)
****
đź’¬ 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.”
****
đź“Ľ 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.
Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.
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