Advent Calendar House

🎄 We wrap up Christmas in July with an old-fashioned scary ghost story. Join us as we fire up the Mystery Machine and take a drive back to 1984 for Scooby-Doo’s very first Christmas special, in which the gang tries to save an orphanage with the power of pageantry, and stop the mysterious Ghost of Christmas Never.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Adam Pope (Wizards: The Podcast Guide to Comics, Remember That Show?, Bluesky)  

Donnie Storms (Bronwen’s Ghost, Bluesky)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

“The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries” opening was riding the “Th...

🦃 This Thanksgiving in July, I’ve decided to treat y’all to a feast of a special I’ve had tucked away in my memory for decades, but it’s finally time to cross those Bridges, so let’s back this barely-running hayride tractor back to 1986 for a very special Disney family movie directed by Beau Bridges and featuring 3 generations of his family, along with teenage Jason Bateman and Courtney Thorne-Smith, and an injured goose named Chester.  

“The Thanksgiving Promise” is on YouTube with or without commercials.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Tommy Coombs (The Pop Daddy, B...

🎄 Join us for a short spin back to 1993 as we spend 48 minutes blah blah blah yackety schmacketing about Taz’s attempt to spread Christmas cheer in a land that’s way under Down Under.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Sammy Hain (Sammy’s Easter Tails, Bluesky)  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

Tasmania was once home to the world’s tallest decorated Christmas tree.  

John Astin (Bull Gator) in “Return of the Killer Tomatoes.”  

How the origins of Taz’s creation involve Errol Flynn and th...

🎄 This episode is stuffed with surprises, so get your propeller spinning and take off back to 1987 as we nosedive into the history of Santabear, a Midwest Christmas tradition we wish found a place to land elsewhere.  

At press time, you can find “Santabear’s High Flying Adventure” on the Internet Archive, or a recording with the original commercials on YouTube.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Ethan (The Hungry Reader, A Special Presentation or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

Mike on “Special Presentation…” for “Poochie” and “The Hugga...

🎄 Now it’s time for a Muppety holiday fix, so let’s turn the clock back to 1996, to a show I’m excited to reintroduce: it’s “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.” So go get your fanciest Jingle Bells on for “Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton.”  

You can watch it on the Jim Henson’s Family Hub YouTube channel.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Tony Whitaker (Muppet Wiki, Bluesky)  

Shane Keating (ToughPigs.com, MuppetWiki, Bluesky, Letterboxd)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

Where in the who-heck is the Grinch?  

“The noozle at...

🎃 This year, Halloween in July has fallen on a Scrooge Sunday, so we’re killing two birds with one garbage disposal as we journey back to 1992 to watch Roseanne endure a haunting by the Ghosts of Halloween Past, Present, and Future.  

At press time, the episode “Halloween IV” is available on Peacock.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)  

Brandon Medley (Instagram)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

The Story Behind Roseanne’s Iconic Chicken Shirt (Decider, 2018).  

The “Psych” pineapple.  

October 30th is Mischief Night...

🎄 Hey, remember the Christmas episode of that show on ABC where Snow White and Prince Charming are transported by the Evil Queen to a land without magic and have to adjust to modern-day America? No, you don’t, because you’re thinking of “Once Upon a Time,” which didn’t have a Christmas episode, which was rude. But we’re going back an even longer time ago to the enchanted year of 1987 to meet The Charmings, who did have a Christmas episode!

You can watch “Yes, Lillian, There Is a Santa Claus” on YouTube, or this VHS-recorded copy with commercia...

🎄 Cowabunga! In nearly 40 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, 2004’s “The Christmas Aliens” is somehow their only animated Christmas episode.  

Join Michelangelo and a kitty named Klunk on a Christmas Eve car chase as they save a truckload of stolen Little Orphan Alien dolls meant for a group of little orphan human Earthlings, all while Splinter makes a sewer full of guests wait for Mikey to arrive before they eat.  

At press time, “The Christmas Aliens” is available on Paramount+.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Jaime Hood (ShezCrafti, Cult Film Club, Bluesky)  ...

🐰 It’s Easter in July, and those two things together are the least confusing thing about today’s episode. In 1971’s “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” the first Rankin/Bass non-Christmas holiday special, it’s a race across the calendar to reclaim the title of Chief Easter Bunny from the evil January Q. Irontail, voiced by Vincent Price.  

You can watch it on Tubi, or this restored version on the YouTube channel “The Rankin Bass Archive.”  

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🎙 Guests:  

Michael May (MichaelMay.online, After Lunch, Bluesky)  

Sammy Hain (Sammy’s Easter Tails, Bluesky)  

🎄 We’re snowed in a bit earlier than expected, so we’ve hunkered down to have a Christmas feast from around the world. Our colleagues from the newsroom upstairs are less than enthusiastic, but that’s not stopping us from enjoying this 1974 non-Christmas Christmas episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”  

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🎙 Guest:  

Alonso Duralde (Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, The Film Verdict, Linoleum Knife, Maximum Film, Breakfast All Day, Deck the Hallmark, Hollywood Pride, Bluesky).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

Pre-order the Revised and Updated Edition of “Have Yourself...

🌴 In Part 2 of our “Futurama” Xmas double-header, we meet the only thing worse than an evil robot Santa… two evil robot Santas.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Bluesky)  

Erin Evans (Bluesky)  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)  

Donnie Storms (Bronwen’s Ghost, Bluesky)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

“Box Car Blues” (1930).  

Santa’s Death Fortress sure looks like Elsa’s ice palace.  

Coolio’s final acting role before his death was a return as the voice of Kwanzaa-bot.  

An ode to Musicmat...

🌴 The Advent Calendar House has awoken from what feels like a thousand-year slumber and a lame April Fool’s joke. As a peace offering, here’s the first of two back-to-back episodes celebrating Xmas as imagined by “Futurama.”  

Up first is “Xmas Story” from 1999, in which we’re introduced to the annual tradition of gift-giving and shelter-taking from a killer robot Santa Claus that awaits our descendants in the year 3000.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Bluesky)  

Erin Evans (Bluesky)  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)  

Donnie Storms (Bronwen...

🕎 It’s the year 2000, and Christmas and Hanukkah have crossed paths at my doorstep in the form of Santa Claus and his part-Jewish friend… a weird turtle man.  

In honor of Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah sharing a day on the calendar this year, we’re revisiting some old Friends, an escaped tarantula, a restaurant we may never be allowed in or out of again, and an unforgettable interfaith holiday mascot fit for a new millennium.  

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🎙 Guests:

Becca Petunia (ToughPigs.com, Bear in the Big Blue Podcast, Bluesk...

🎄It’s 1986, and the only way Drew Barrymore can save her new friends is to believe in the magic of toys… and Cincinnati.  

From director Clive Donner comes a bonkers adaptation of “Babes in Toyland” starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Richard Mulligan as a weird, evil guy who lives in a bowling ball.  

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🎙 Guests:

Molly Patton (MollyPatton.com)  

Becca Petunia (ToughPigs.com, Bear in the Big Blue Podcast, Bluesky)  

Adam Pope (The Retro Network, Wizards: The Podcast Guide to Comics, Remember That Show?, Bluesky)  

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