Adventures in Wonderland: Christmas in Wonderland

🎄 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: The Miser Bros.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original story by Phyllis McGinley.  A read-along record narrated by Boris Karloff.  The DVD menu and only the DVD menu, if that interests you.  Snow Miser’s song in “Batman and Robin.”  Shirley Booth (Mrs. Claus) as “Hazel.”  Today’s TV Tropes: Dressed to Heal, Spinning Paper.  Bob McFadden (Elf Doctor) as “Cool McCool.”  “Panic In New York: Menagerie Breaks Loose,” and other prop newspaper headlines.  Are Santa’s Reindeer Female? (Old Farmer’s Almanac)  Survivor Series 1994: Clowns Are Us vs. the Royal Family.  Ron Marshall (Iggy’s dad) marks the first time I ended up on Muppet Wiki by surprise.  Charlie Chaplin’s hanging out in Southtown.  Heatmiser, the band.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Coca-Cola: “Candles (Buy the World a Coke)” (1977)  Coca-Cola: The World Needs More Santas (2023)  Matt’s book: “Santa in His Own Words.”  “A Bomb for Christmas 2: Past, Present, and Future” on the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Year Without a Santa Claus” © 1974 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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 recording, “A Solstice Carol” is available to watch on Prime Video.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Lucy Lawless in “Spider-Man.”  “Ebenezer and the Invisible World,” the video game.  Moirai: The Three Fates.  The Simpsons: “Desperately Xeeking Xena” from “Treehouse of Horror X” (1999)  Inside Senticles’s toy closet, and his King Friday XIII lookalike jack-in-the-box.  The song: “Solstice Night.”  Karl Urban as Cupid in a Valentine’s Day episode.  ****  📼 Commercials:  7up: Holiday Celebration (1996)  Bad Princess Movies.  ****  “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “A Solstice Carol” © 1996 MCA Television Limited.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Differences between the original and the reanimated version from 1997.  “Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus.”  “Most folks call ’em green onions, but they’re really scallions.”  This Mr. Nezzer is not the previously seen Nebby K. Nezzer, but his brother, Wally P. Nezzer, who’s not as cleverly named.  The original vs. the new, improved Bunny Song.  The shelves of Buzzsaw Louies predate the shelves of Buzz Lightyears in “Toy Story 2.”  Ken Cavanagh (Buzzsaw Louie) may have authored this Medium post from 2020: “Leave Jesus Out of It. Viruses don’t care what you believe.”  “The Dead Sea Squirrels,” by Mike Nawrocki.  Today’s TV Trope: Blatant Burglar.  Doctors in the hallway in “Muppets From Space.”  What do you call a group of penguins?  Two More Eggs: CGI Palz.  ****  📼 Commercials:  VeggieTales: “The Incredible Singing Christmas Tree” album (2005)  The Incredible, Edible Egg: Wisecracks (1991)  Mouse Trap (1990)  The Studio Demands It!  ****  “VeggieTales” and “The Toy That Saved Christmas” © 1996 Big Idea Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 What if Mr. Christmas was on the naughty list this entire time, thanks to a curse on his family for generations?  Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas) and Guy Hutchinson (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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The NBC Kids are: Soleil Moon Frye, Cherie Johnson, Ami Foster, and Casey Ellison from “Punky Brewster”; Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner from “The Cosby Show”; Alfonso Ribeiro from “Silver Spoons”; and Joey and Matthew Lawrence from “Gimme a Break!” But not Mindy Cohn from “The Facts of Life,” who shows up, sings half a line, and that’s it.  Guy visits New York City’s Christmas cinematic landmarks, including the locations from “Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis in A Christmas Dream.”  Not Just Theo: Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Surprising Career.  Alfonso Ribeiro’s Pepsi Commercial with Michael Jackson (1984)  The painting supposedly featuring Lars Sven Olaf Williams, from 1863.  The Sàmi.  “Sea for Catwoman!”  Porvoo Cathedral (pronounced like “Borga”).  ****  📼 Commercials:  NBC “Let’s All Be There” ID with Santa (1985)  Polaroid: “Christmas – Santa Claus” (1985)  Tinsel Tunes - The Christmas Music Podcast.  ****  “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa” © 1985 Pierre Cossette / Barnaby Productions.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🕎 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Holly Larocque in “The Big Band Broadcast” (2008)  Stephen Brathwaite’s (Jacob) artwork portfolio.  Bob Stutt (Iggy) as Wander McMooch on “Fraggle Rock.”  David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear.  “Peoples is peoples.”  Today’s TV Trope: Magicians Are Wizards.  A Star is Borscht: The Harvey Atkin Young Jewish Performer Competition (2022)  “Under the Umbrella Tree: The Mask Special” (2020)  ****  📼 Commercials:  Happy Holidays from “Under the Umbrella Tree” (CBC)  Hallmark “Old Friends” Hanukkah Card Commercial (1993)  Remember That Show?  ****  “Hanukah Under the Umbrella Tree” © 1991 Noreen Young Productions, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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.  📺 You can watch “A Christmas Carol: The Musical” for free on YouTube.  Plus: After this episode, listen to the 3 of us on After Lunch review “A Christmas Carol” on “Shower of Stars” from 1954.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Julian Ovenden (Fred) in “Downton Abbey.”  Today’s TV Trope: And You Were There.  Jacob Collier (Tiny Tim) on YouTube, including his Grammy-winning arrangement of “The Flintstones” theme.  Brian Bedford (Fezziwig) on “Frasier” and as Disney’s Robin Hood.  Ebenezer Scrooges Ranked by How Redeemed They Are (FilmHounds, 2024)  ****  📼 Commercials:  KFC “Christmas with Jason Alexander” (2001)  Merry Britsmas.  ****  “A Christmas Carol: The Musical” © 2004 Hallmark Entertainment Distribution, LLC.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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 9) is available for free on Pluto TV.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  “The Gift of the Mypiot” on Perfect Strangers Reviewed, and the gift of assswing.gif.  This is just 3 episodes before we’d meet Carl Winslow. I guess he was busy this Christmas at Nakatomi Plaza.  Kate Finlayson (Allyson) “Dancing the Enneagram.”  The mystery of Nora Trueblood Adams.  Geraldo opens Al Capone’s vault.  Our personal stories of getting the same gift twice and having to play it cool.  ****  📼 Commercials:  “Perfect Strangers” Cast Christmas Greeting (1988)  Circuit City Christmas Sale (1988)  WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics.  ****  “Perfect Strangers” and “The Gift of the Mypiot” © 1988 Lorimar Television.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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 Kids’ First Christmas” is well preserved on YouTube. Here’s an upscaled version.  Watch Steven’s film, “The Bigfoot Club,” on Prime Video.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The totally official, extremely bonkers Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Babyland General Hospital.  ‘Custody’ fight over Cabbage Patch dolls (Christian Science Monitor, 1983)  Josh Rodine (Dawson Glenn) in “Sparky’s Magic Piano” (1987)  Sparky Marcus (Xavier) as Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979)  “Kudzu: The Invasive Vine that Ate the South.”  Piedmont Park.  What idiot took the gay out of “Don we now our gay apparel”?  ****  📼 Commercials:  Cabbage Patch Kids Talking Phone (1984)  Cabbage Patch Kids Hide and Seek Game (1984)  ****  “The Cabbage Patch Kids’ First Christmas” © 1984 Ruby-Spears Enterprises, Inc.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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 and Here Comes Tomorrow.  J.D. is also on The Great Muppet Fandom Panel and Stick to Shorts.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  ToughPigs’ review of “Single All the Way” (2015)  The Muppets at Midseason: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly (ToughPigs.com, 2016)  70 Years, 70 Muppets: Yolanda the Rat and Chip.  The Muppets’ a cappella cover of “Cool Kids” by Echosmith.  “Bright” by Echosmith.  Sam the Eagle’s paintball-themed minigame in “Muppets Party Cruise.”  The Swedish Chef is married because one time Steve Whitmire forgot to take off his wedding ring and they just decided it’s canon now.  Chip has synesthesia.  An extremely rare one-on-one scene with Miss Piggy and Fozzie.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Pizza Hut “4 for All” Pizza Commercial starring the Muppets (2004)   ****  “The Muppets” and “Single All the Way” © 2015 ABC Studios / The Muppets Studio.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.

🎄 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.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  How Sonic scored two different animated series at the same time (Polygon, 2020)  This specially was originally called “An X-tremely Sonic Christmas” to promote a Sega Saturn game that ended up getting canceled.  Jay Brazeau (Santa) as the referee in “Air Bud” who says the line.  The robot queen in “The Great Mouse Detective.”  “Let the Heartaches Begin” by Long John Baldry (Robotnik).  The original “Ugly Sonic” movie trailer.  Dr. Robotnik’s in-game design looks like both an Eggman and a walrus.  The other cartoon’s theme song.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Sonic & Knuckles Christmas Elves Commercial (1994)  ****  “Sonic Christmas Blast” © 1996 DIC Productions, L.P.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Hosted by The Retro Network.