Advent Calendar House

🎄 This podcast was created as part of a seemingly endless life debt that resulted in a wish to give the world the gift of a bunch of nerds with microphones talking about old TV holiday specials. And now you know my dark origins. 

🎙️ Collin Murr from Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast and Jeff Loftin from the Lost Christmas Podcast join us as we get violently tossed off course back to 1996 and rediscover “The Story of Santa Claus,” or at least a story of Santa Claus, the first to star Ed Asner as the big man, featuring Betty White as Mrs...

🦃 This Thanksgiving in July, I’ve put out some extra table settings for some old friends. 

Previously, on the Advent Calendar House, we watched Zack Morris be trash but still manage to find a girl and her dad a Home for Christmas. Now, thankfully, we get to see him a tiny bit more grown-up as we get wheeled directly into a wall back to 1993 for a special Turkey Day episode of “Saved by the Bell: The College Years” that’s packed with last-minute surprise celebrity guests. 

🎙️ Adam Pope and Chad Young swoop in to save this Turkey Day, p...

🎄 It’s another Scrooge Sunday, which means we’re about to be haunted by a series of spirits as we ride the airwaves back to 1980 for a version of “A Christmas Carol” set in the studios of “WKRP in Cincinnati.” 

🎙️ Gerry Davila, Scott Leopold, and Michael May join us on a trip through time that definitely wasn’t fueled by special brownies, so stop asking. 

📺 You can find “Bah, Humbug” on the Internet Archive. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(03:03) - Guest and Episode Histories 
(07:55) - Carlson’s Grandfather’s Ghost 
(26:03) - Christmas Past 
(38:30) - Retro Comm...

⚠️ Warning: Our wartime yuletide takes a grimmer turn in this episode, which includes the death of a man hit by a sniper. But since it’s Christmas, we’re all going to do the best we can to find a bit of hope, joy, and laughter in the face of tragedy. 

🎙️ Tim Babb from the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast and Jamie Ray from Fave Five From Fans join us as we report for duty to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and try to give some kids a merry Christmas. 

📺 You can watch “M*A*S*H” on Hulu. “Dea...

🎄 Today’s adventure finds us caught in the middle of a battle for the North Pole in multiple dimensions. 

🎙️ Sammy Hain and Jeff Loftin join the march back to 1997 to witness the Christmas clash of Santa vs. the Snowman, a TV special from creator Steve Oedekerk and director John A. Davis, who’d later team up to write and direct “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.” 

📺 You can find “Santa vs. the Snowman” on YouTube, both an original 1997 broadcast with commercials, and its 2002 update for IMAX 3D. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:16) - Guest and Special Histories 
(07:3...

🎃 It’s Halloween in July, and it’s time to spookalize! 

🎙️ Becca Petunia joins us as we creep back to 1997 for a howling good time at the spookiest address on Sesame Street, as Elmo pays a visit to Count von Count with one mission: To tell him a bunch of funny, scary jokes! 

📺 You can find “Elmo Says BOO!” on YouTube. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:19) - History of the Special and Accompanying Album 
(14:12) - Funny, Scary Jokes! 
(48:26) - Retro Commercial Break 
(49:43) - More Funny, Scary Jokes! 
(1:02:29) - Into the Pyramid 
(1:07:53...

🎄 It’s Christmas time for teddy bears in this 1992 prequel to what I thought until very recently was a one-off special called “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” 

🎙️ Ethan “The Hungry Reader” and Anthony Strand join us as we meet the title teddy from a later cartoon series called “The Secret World of Benjamin Bear,” his first encounter with his friend, Wally, and a new, but familiar set of rules of being a living teddy bear. Many comparisons to “The Christmas Toy” ensue.   

📺 You can find “The Teddy Bears’ Christmas” on YouTube. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:09) - The History of Benjam...

🎄 It’s that time of year again: Time to deal with smarty-pants 4th-graders who think they know how Santa Claus works. 

🎙️ The Advent Calendar House welcomes Caleb Cote from Insert Reference Here and Robert Nicholas from Behind the Bells as we watch a very special 1998 Christmas episode of Disney’s “Recess,” featuring elementary school hierarchy, a globally televised Christmas pageant, and the dulcet tones of a 10-year-old who sings like Robert Goulet. 

📺 “Recess” is available on Disney+. “Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave” is Season 2, Episode 10. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:26) - Our Histories with Recess 
(10:49) - Our H...

🐰 This Easter in July, we’ve hopped back to 1994 on a rather stressful and dangerous trip through Jellystone Park. 

🎙️ Sammy Hain and Gerry Davila join us for a visit to the Easter Bunny, the Magical Easter Chicken, and the world’s least eco-friendly plastic factory, all of which somehow call Jellystone Park home. 

📺 You can find “Yogi the Easter Bear” on the Internet Archive. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:23) - Guest and Special Histories 
(05:50) - Act 1 
(46:15) - Retro Commercial Break 
(47:50) - Act 2 
(59:22) - Act 3 
(01:18:36) - Final Thoughts 

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💬 Topics & Tang...

🎄 Well, them podcast boys have run into another Scrooge Sunday, and this time, the ghosts from “A Christmas Carol” are haunting Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard’s Saturday morning cartoon counterpart. 

🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and new guest Ken Kessler from The Sounds of Christmas join the ride through Christmas past, present, and future as the Dukes take a holiday from their race around the world in an episode that made us wish they’d get back to racing. 

📺 You can find “A Dickens of a Christmas” on the Internet Archive. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:23) - Pers...

💝 We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day in July with a deep dive into a 1990 “DuckTales” special that aired on “The Magical World of Disney.” 

🎙️ Erin Evans and Joey O. join us as we tune our heart-shaped TVs to watch Scrooge McDuck search for the lost treasure of Aphroducky, which nearly ends in him marrying the avian goddess of love and angering her Honeymooner of a husband. 

📺 You can watch “A DuckTales Valentine” on Disney+. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:26) - Our Histories with DuckTales 
(08:34) - The Magical World of Disney Intro 
(10:32) - Act 1 
(31:45) - Retro Comme...

🎄 Somehow Frosty returned. 

🎙️ The Advent Calendar House is back open for Christmas in July as Donnie Storms and new guest Collin Murr from Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast drop in seeking shelter from “Frosty Returns,” which despite the title, is not a sequel, and not even a Christmas special. From Lorne Michaels and Kermit the Frog’s ghostwriter comes a message about the environment delivered by the voices of John Goodman, Jonathan Winters, and a young Elizabeth Moss. 

📺 You can find “Frosty Returns” on the Internet Archive. 

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(00:00) - Intro 
(02:10) - Guest Histories 
(05:5...

🎄 It’s the 200th episode of the Advent Calendar House, but more importantly, it’s Christmas Eve! So we’re celebrating with a salute to the last remaining special we have left to talk about in the Rankin/Bass Christmas canon: 1974’s “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” 

🎙️ It’s a packed party with Tim Babb, Michael DiGiovanni, Joey O., and Matt Spaulding as we spread Christmas cheer over Southtown and everywhere else — something we could’ve seen Mrs. Claus search for if she hadn’t immediately dropped the idea, but then we wouldn’t have met the true stars of the special...

🎄 Rise and shine while you still can! Since this year’s December Solstice falls on a Sunday, I’ve come bearing the gift of an unexpectedly very merry Scrooge Sunday episode of “Xena: Warrior Princess” from 1996. 

🎙️ April Ryley and Sammy Hain join the mission to warm the cold heart of a king who’s banned all Solstice celebrations on an almost wibbly-wobbly timeline that manages to smash together “A Christmas Carol,” the Three Fates of ancient Greek tradition, a Santa Claus origin story, and the Nativity. It even throws in some “Home Alone” style shenanigans, as a treat! 

📺 As of this...

🎄 Fresh from 1996 comes a Christmas tale that’ll make you cry, but only because it’s being told by an onion. 

🎙️ Anthony Strand hops along for the ride as we buzz back to the VeggieTales’ first Christmas special, in which the only children’s toy that comes with a working circular saw embarks on a quest to find the true reason for the season. 

📺 You can watch the official version of “The Toy That Saved Christmas” for free on YouTube, or the original 1996 version on the Internet Archive. 
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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

Differences between the origina...

🎄 What if Mr. Christmas was on the naughty list this entire time, thanks to a curse on his family for generations? 

🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas and Guy Hutchinson from Pointless Nostalgia join us on a Christmas quest back to 1985 as Andy Williams leads a dozen “true believers” on a trip to Finland to find Santa and answer for his totally-not-made-up ancestor. 

📺 You can watch “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa” on the Internet Archive. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

The NBC Kids are: Soleil Moon Frye, Cherie Johnson, Ami Foster, and Ca...

🕎 Celebrate Hanukkah with a community talent show we don’t even get to watch. 

We’ve miraculously found another Hanukkah special — with yet another spelling of it — so join us as we instantly reappear back in 1991 with a bunch of Canadian animal puppets to discover the magic of the holiday Under the Umbrella Tree. 

🎙️ April Ryley is our lovely assistant as we meet a humble shopkeeper and former magician once known as “The Great Goldberg,” played by the equally great Harvey Atkin. 

📺 As of this recording, you can watch “Hanukah Under the Umbrella Tree” on YouTube. 

...

🎄 It is once again Scrooge Sunday, and the time has come to awkwardly smoosh our spirits through the walls of our bedchamber and float back to 2004 for a special TV movie based on Alan Menken’s musical adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” starring Kelsey Grammer as Scrooge, Jason Alexander as Marley’s Ghost, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Belle, and Jane Krakowski as the Ghost of Christmas Past. 

🎙️ Michael May and Rob Graham from After Lunch join the celebration of abundance, charity, and good will toward men as we forge this podcast link by link and dumb joke by dumb joke.  <...

🎄 Your podcast feed or burst! Join us as we dance joyfully back to 1988 for a very special episode of “Perfect Strangers,” in which Balki invites his grouchy boss to a Christmas Eve party, whether Cousin Larry and their co-workers like it or not. 

🎙️ Shawn Robare and William Bruce West join the party which, despite IMDb’s summary, is not a “Christmas Carol parody.” If anything, Mr. Gorpley’s the Grinch. And hey, a pre-“Family Matters” Harriette Winslow is here! But why isn’t she with her own children? 

📺 As of this recording, “The Gift of the Mypiot” (Season 4, Episode...

🎄 Put on your cute little helmet and join us on a journey back to 1984 for a Christmas special based on the toy craze that turned holiday shopping from a winter wonderland to a warzone. 

🎙️ Julia (Tis the Podcast) and Steven (The Bigfoot Club) join the adventure from the hidden home of the Cabbage Patch Kids to the unnamed but totally identifiable big city in search of the Christmas spirit, while we evade 2 nearly identical but probably not related trios trying to kidnap us. It’ll all make sense. 

Actually, no. It will not. 

📺 “The Cabbage Patch...

🎄 It’s been 10 years since the Muppets’ 2015 TV series gave us the gift of a Christmas episode, so it’s time to stay Up Late with Miss Piggy and find out if we can take it seriously, or if it left us because we couldn’t stop making jokes about it. 

🎙️ Becca Petunia and J.D. Hansel of ToughPigs.com join the chaos including, but not limited to: a rigged Secret Santa! Gross and unhelpful mistletoe strategy! And, of course, Echosmith! 

📺 You can find “Single All the Way” on Disney+. 

Becca’s also on A Prairie Dawn Companion...

🎄 If you thought Christmas was fast approaching, hang onto something as we zip back to 1996 and do our best to keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog on a mission to save Christmas. 

🎙️ Mike (Bitter Karella) and Ethan (The Hungry Reader) from A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight join the quest to rescue Santa from the evil Robotnik Claus, obtain the Secret to Ultimate Velocity, and find a gift for Sonic’s girlfriend from another universe. 

📺 You can watch “Sonic Christmas Blast” for free on YouTube. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

How Sonic scored two...

🎄 Found under a pile of too many toys, enough for 442 boys, is a little-known gem of a Christmas special from 1993. 

🎙️ Chad Young from the Horror Movie BBQ, Jeff Loftin from the Lost Christmas Podcast, and Sean Sotka from ChristmasPodcasts.com join us for the story of Jeremy Creek, a kid so greedy, Santa mistook his list for an entire town’s. Featuring the voices of Dick Van Dyke, Hal Smith, and the kid from “Kindergarten Cop” who gave us an anatomy lesson. 

📺 You can find “The Town Santa Forgot” on the Internet Archive. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents...

🎄 “This just in: Santa Claus is dead… or he might as well be, because there’s an even fatter man who’s holding families at nice-point!” 

’Tis the Advent Calendar House’s 15th season, so this December’s dozen begins with a similarly titled episode of “The Simpsons” from 2003. 

🎙️ Shane Keating from ToughPigs.com, Erin Evans, and Joey O. join the mission to stop being selfish and start being good. 

📺 As of this recording, “’Tis the Fifteenth Season” (Season 15, Episode 7) is available on Disney+. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

This episode premiered the day after Saddam Hussein...

🍍 I’ve hidden a pineapple somewhere in this episode, and if you can find it… you get nothing. Sorry. 

The Advent Calendar House is back for Christmas Podcast Day. This year, a bunch of your yuletide podcast pals are dropping episodes themed to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and that gave me a premonition to take a closer look at a very merry episode of “Psych” from 2010. 

🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas joins this examination of our superego, taking the form of renowned actor Tony Cox as himself… kind of. 

Find more “Wonderful” episodes in the Ch...

🎄 We wrap up Christmas in July with an old-fashioned scary ghost story. 

🎙️ Adam Pope and Donnie Storms join the trip aboard the Mystery Machine 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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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

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

Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue. 

Mr. Wizard and the Talking Head Illusion. 

Our experience with Christmas pageants, including some unfortunate elementary sch...

🦃 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. 

🎙️ Chad Young and Tommy Coombs hop onto either side of our tractor for a hayride back to 1986 to watch 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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💬 Topics...

🎄 Join us for a short spin back to 1993 as I spend 48 minutes blah blah blah yackety schmacketing about Taz’s attempt to spread Christmas cheer. 

🎙️ Sammy Hain and Joey O. join us for Summer in December during Christmas in July in a land that’s way under Down Under. 

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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 the Los Angeles Zoo. 

Hot Dr. Pepper. ...

🎄 This episode is stuffed with surprises, so get your propeller spinning and take off back to 1987 to go barnstorming — or bearnstorming — above the South Pole with Santabear. 

🎙️ Ethan “The Hungry Reader” is our co-pilot as we nosedive into a Midwestern Christmas tradition we wish found a place to land elsewhere. 

📺 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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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

Mike on A Special Presentation, or ALF Will Not Be Seen Tonight, for “Poochie” and “The Hugga Bunch Movie.” 

“Santabear’...

🎄 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.” 

🎙️ The Advent Calendar House welcomes 2 of Muppet Wiki’s finest, Tony Whitaker and Shane Keating, to join our Jingle Day pageant. 

📺 You can watch “Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton” on the Jim Henson’s Family Hub YouTube channel. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

Where in the who-heck is the Grinch? 

“The noozle at the end of the hoose,” (surprisingly not a Dr. Seuss refere...

🎃 This year, Halloween in July has fallen on a Scrooge Sunday, so we’re hitting two holiday tropes with one garbage disposal. 

🎙️ Gerry Davila and Brandon Medley join us on a 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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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

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

The “Psych” pineapple. 

October 30th is Mischief Night in New Jersey and, apparently, nowhere else. 

Elks Lodges lodges...

🎄 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. 

🎙️ Kristi and Bri from Bad Princess Movies join us as we go 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” o...

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

🎙️ Anthony Strand, Shawn Robare, and Jaime Hood join the ride as we follow Michelangelo and a kitty named Klunk on a Christmas Eve car chase to 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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💬 Topics & Tangents...

🐰 It’s Easter in July, and those two things together are the least confusing thing about today’s episode. 

🎙️ It’s a race across the calendar with Michael May and Sammy Hain as we follow Peter Cottontail through time on his quest to reclaim the title of Chief Easter Bunny from the evil January Q. Irontail, voiced by Vincent Price, in Rankin/Bass’s first non-Christmas holiday special from 1971. 

📺 You can find “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” on Tubi, or this restored version on the YouTube channel “The Rankin Bass Archive.” 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

“The Easter Bunn...

🎄 We’re snowed in a bit earlier than expected, so we’ve hunkered down to have a Christmas feast from around the world with the WJM TV family in a 1974 non-Christmas Christmas episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” 

🎙️ Joining the party is film critic and author Alonso Duralde, who recommended this episode. A newly Revised and Updated edition of Alonso’s book, “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas,” is being released in September, but you can pre-order it now. 

You can also find Alonso at The Film Verdict; check out his other book, Hollywood Pride; and listen to Lin...

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

🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms return for 2001’s “A Tale of Two Santas.”

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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 Musicmatch Jukebox and our turn-of-the-century mp3 albums we’re still holding onto. 

My favorite joke in all of...

🌴 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.” 

🎙️ It’s extra crowded in the cryogenic chamber as Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms drop in for 1999’s “Xmas Story,” 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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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

“Fresh Hare” (1942). 

Orange Cassid...

🕎 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. 

🎙 Becca Petunia and April Ryley join us as we revisit some old Friends in honor of Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah sharing a day on the calendar this year. Plus: 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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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

How often does the first ni...

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

🎙 Molly Patton, Becca Petunia, and Adam Pope join us for a bonkers adaptation of “Babes in Toyland” from director Clive Donner and starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Richard Mulligan as a weird, evil guy who lives in a bowling ball. 

📺 You can watch “Babes in Toyland” on Tubi, the 3-hour original broadcast with commercials, or the unofficial “Director’s Cut” without ads. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

Misfits in Toyland (NSFW), an unr...

🎄 It’s 2010, and I’m hiding in a closet from a flying shark that ate half my screwdriver. 

I’ve finally caught up with the timeline of people who have been requesting that I watch the “Doctor Who” Christmas specials. 

🎙 Andre Bennett, Jack Ford from the Total Christmas Podcast, and Anthony Strand from ToughPigs.com join me for a twisted take on “A Christmas Carol” starring Michael Gambon in the Scrooge role and the 11th Doctor as at least 2 ghosts of Christmas. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

Andre’s review of this episode from 2011. 

Ant...