Advent Calendar House

🎃 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.  

****  

🎙 Guests:  

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)  

Brandon Medley (Instagram)  

****  

💬 Topics & Tangents:  

T...

🎄 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...

🎄 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...

🐰 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...

🎄 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.”  

****  

🎙 Guest:  

Alonso Duralde (Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, The Film Verdict, Linoleum Knife, Maximum Film,...

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

****  

🎙 Guests:  

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Culture Retrofit, Bluesky)  

Erin Evans (Bluesky)  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)  

Donnie Storms (Bronwen’s Ghost, Bluesky)  

****  

💬 Topics & Tangents:  

“Box Car Blues” (1930).  

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

Coolio’s...

🌴 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.  

****  

🕎 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 m...

🎄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.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Molly Patton (MollyPatton.com)  

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

🎄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, particularly this twisted take on “A Christmas Carol” starring Michael Gambon in the Scrooge role and the 11th Doctor as at least 2 ghosts of Christmas.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Andre Bennett (Bluesky)  

Jack Ford (Tot...

🎄It’s 1970, and a couple of bear cubs have jumped through my window and are eating all my marshmallows.  

Join us on a deeper than expected dive into a Christmas special by former Hanna-Barbera animator Tony Benedict that almost wasn’t released till the owner of a now-defunct Florida theme park swooped in and saved it.  

CONTENT WARNING: No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about ...

🎄It’s 2003, and nothing puts me in a festive mood quite like a bar fight.  

Join us as we spend Christmas break with the Justice League — well, most of it. Wonder Woman’s off doing something else, and Batman… you know, smells.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Bluesky)  

James Riley (Twitter)  

****  

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Mike talks “Comfort and Joy” on Tis the Podcast.  

2. Paul Dini’s notes on “Comfort and J...

🎄It’s 1986, and Santa looks different after arriving late to the mall due to a flat reindeer.  

Unfold that TV Guide you crafted into an angel centerpiece and join us for a semi-festive Christmas episode of “Mama’s Family” that will have you believing in either Santa or ghosts at the end of it.  

****  

🎙 Guest:

Joe Fulton (Christmas Aficionado)  

****  

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “Santa Mama” on the Internet Archive.  

2...

🎄It’s 1990, and Santa’s lost in my confusing network of chimneys.  

Prepare yourself for a more silly than spooky Christmas special that takes us from Castle Duckula to a concussion-induced space adventure and back.  

****  

🎙 Guest:

Adam Parker Sibun (Merry Britsmas)  

****  

💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. “A Christmas Quacker” on the Internet Archive (it’s mislabeled as another episode).  

2. Nick Knacks on “Count Duckula.”...

🎄It’s 2020, and a gift-wrapped puppy licked my face and made my skin turn blue.  

From the Chiodo Brothers comes a charming stop-motion Christmas special about how an alien invasion of the North Pole almost ruined Christmas — and the entire planet’s gravity, but also Christmas. Plus: A “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” Easter egg, some cameos from “Elf,” and Santa with nunchucks.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Michael DiGiovanni (Pop Cul...

🎄It’s 1982, and I’m trapped at sea while Mickey Rooney butts into everyone’s conversation.  

Join us as we embark on a Christmas cruise aboard the Pacific Princess for a very merry episode of “The Love Boat” featuring Maureen McCormick, Donny Osmond, and Mickey Rooney as an angel in disguise as your nosy neighbor.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Guy Hutchinson (Pointless Nostalgia, GuyHutchinson.com)  

William Bruce West (West Week Ever, ...

🎄It’s 1988, and the Spirit of Christmas just broke down my bedroom door to say hello.  

This edition of Scrooge Sunday turns everyone’s favorite festive tale of redemption on its head and blows it out its enormous, muscular backside as great philanthropist and all-around softy Ebenezer Blackadder learns from watching his ancestors and descendants that it’s good to be bad.  

****  

🎙 Guest:  

Jack Ford (Total Christmas Podcas...

🎄It’s 2001, and a rock giant is chasing us across the ocean, which has been entirely frozen over by fairies with minty fresh breath.  

From the makers of “ReBoot” and Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” music video comes Barbie’s first feature-length movie, complete with motion capture of the New York City Ballet, revolutionary hair animation, and Tim Curry as an extra sassy Mouse King.  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Kristi and Bri from B...

🎄It’s 1984, and Santa’s in front of a firing squad because his executioner didn’t appreciate the socks he got last Christmas.  

The slime is an extra festive shade of green in this Christmas episode of the show that defined Nickelodeon’s early years, featuring an all-star cast of the 5 most featured kid actors of “You Can’t Do That on Television.”  

****  

🎙 Guests:

Shawn Robare (Plastic Rocket Pop, Cult Film Club, Wolfman’s...