Elmo Saves Christmas

The Advent Calendar House has awoken early from its long winter’s nap to take the Leap Year challenge as prescribed by Dr. Frasier Crane on one unseasonably warm February morning in 1996. On the way we look up the “Frasier” cast’s Christmas connections, explore the world of complicated opera solos and bad Western ballads, and call in to a PBS pledge drive to try and talk to Big Bird.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Kelsey Grammer in “Mr. St. Nick” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve.”  

2. Our adventures on the mid-1990s internet, when it was All About the Pentiums.  

3. “Frasier” episodes ranked on Variety, Frasier Online, and Thrillist.  

4. “When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold” from “The Pirates of Penzance,” in which Leap Day becomes a plot point.  

5. Oleg Cassini and the worst title card gag.   

6. KACL is a real radio station, but not in Seattle.  

7. “Rigoletto” and the aria “Ella mi fu rapita / Parmi veder le lagrime.”  

8. Kelsey Grammer sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Philadelphia.   

9. “Buttons and Bows,” as sung by Bob Hope in “The Paleface” and by Leap Day baby Dinah Shore.  

10. Adam “Edge” Copeland talks “Money Plane” on Hey! (EW).  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

McDonald’s “Morning Break” Commercial starring Kelsey Grammer, 1995.  

Remember That Show?, a podcast journey to explore obscure and forgotten TV series.  

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“Frasier” and “Look Before You Leap” © 1996 Paramount Productions.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.  

This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode. To celebrate, I let listeners vote for which “Christmas Carol” to cover, and the winner is the 1984 TV movie starring George S. Scott, along with original “Equalizer” Edward Woodward as a sassy Ghost of Christmas Present, and we even spotted our favorite Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Gough, as a not-so-portly gentleman.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along, @durwoodclapper.bsky.social).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”  

2. George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  

3. “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.  

4. Wikipedia and NO ONE ELSE names one Cratchit child “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.  

5. Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Return of the Jedi.”  

6. “It’s Corn,” and My favorite “Futurama” joke.  

7. Scrooge’s grave, allegedly a real, reinscribed headstone, at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.  

8. Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

IBM Sponsored Commercial Break from the original airing of “A Christmas Carol.”  

George C. Scott “Read More About It” PSA.  

The Christmas Podcast Network All-Star Comedy Christmas Show!  

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“A Christmas Carol” © 1984 Travenol Laboratories Limited.  

In memory of Jason Gross (1976–2023).  

“Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  

Join us we fail upward through middle to upper hotel management featuring a simultaneously very mature and very immature conversation about cartoon bears discovering mistletoe. What could be the Jellystone Winter Lodge’s final Christmas carnival manages to wake up Yogi Bear, who hibernates directly underneath it but somehow never knew about it before now.  

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🎙 Guest:  

Bill Hanstock (@sundownmotel, “We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History”)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. This special opens with a typo: The sign reads “Yellystone Park.”  

2. Daws Butler’s Snagglepuss voice was a Bert Lahr impression that was so spot on, Lahr threatened to sue when Snagglepuss started endorsing Kellogg’s cereal.  

3. Hanna-Barbera’s Christmas Sing-A-Long album, featuring songs from this special.  

4. Yogi was in “Casper’s First Christmas” in 1979, so this isn’t really Yogi’s First Christmas.  

5. Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial episode, 2017.  

6. The Wonkamobile.  

7. ClickHole: “Which One of My Garbage Sons Are You?” Clickhole, 2014.  

8. Eddie the Eagle.  

9. Mickey Mouse’s shirtless (and hatless) Steamboat Willie winter look at Disneyland.  

10. “Mean, Sour, Crafty, and Cruel” in “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” and “Smurfs.”  

11. The Zone of Death in the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho.  

12. “Christmas Is Here” in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

Cocoa Krispies Snagglepuss “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Commercial, circa 1963.  

Bad Princess Movies, a catalogue of terrible movies about princesses and princesses-to-be.  

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“Yogi’s First Christmas” © 1980 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.  

Join us as we venture through the tunnels under Santa’s workshop to uncover Jim Henson’s first ever TV holiday special, presented by The Ed Sullivan Show and featuring the first Muppet performances by Richard Hunt, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol, and John Lovelady, as well as the first appearances of Thog and a familiar-looking Frackle who’d later be reworked into the Great Gonzo.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Tori Schmidt (Muppets No Context, The Muppetwt Awards)  

Tony Whitaker (@muppetdude, Muppet Wiki)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. “The Great Santa Claus Switch” on Muppet Wiki.  

2. ToughPigs.com’s transcript of the special, 2004.   

3. Jim Henson, Thog, and Lothar on “The Dick Cavett Show,” 1971.  

4. Taminella Grinderfall in “Tales of the Tinkerdee.”  

5. Jim Henson’s Red Book entries on the special’s casting and debut.  

6. Tony’s art of the Two-Headed Monster as the Miser Brothers.  

7. So Many Muppets Are Named Fred.  

8. Daniel Seagren as Spider-Man on “The Electric Company.”  

9. Richard Hunt as Elmo.  

10. Snarl, the Frackle who would become Gonzo.  

11. My Emmet Otter’s Teenage Mutant Jug-Band Christmas T-shirt.  

12. We have dubbed the green Frackle who looks like Thig with a beak and horns “Theg.”  

13. “This Is Halloween” in a Sesame Place parade.  

14. “8 Balls of Fur.”  

15. Stop calling them “Muppeteers.”  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

FritoLay Holiday Party Display Commercial, 1970.  

“Noëlco” Razor Santa Commercial, 1970.  

Merry Britsmas, all things Christmas from a British perspective.  

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“The Great Santa Claus Switch” © 1970 Sullivan Productions, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1983, and the Worst Kids in the World are taking over the church Nativity play, smoking in the ladies’ room, and helping themselves to the sacramental grape juice.  

Join us as we meet the Herdmans in a classic Christmas story turned TV movie starring Loretta Swit from M*A*S*H and a young Fairuza Balk in her on-screen debut.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Scott Leopold (Holly Jolly X’masu)  

Bob Baker (Festive Foreign Film Fans)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Today’s TV Tropes: It’s the Best Whatever, Ever and Title Drop.  

2. Author Barbara Robinson wrote 2 sequels: “The Best School Year Ever” (1994) and “The Best Halloween Ever” (2004).  

3. Fairuza Balk (Beth) in “The Waterboy.”  

4. Loretta Swit (Grace) interview: “Meanest kids in town make the best pageant,” AP via The Free Lance-Star, 1983.  

5. Jason Michas (Leroy) as Johnny Arcade in “The Power Team” animated segment from Season 1 of “Video Power.”  

6. Antony Holland (Reverend Hopkins) as Dr. Light — er, “Dr. Wright” — in “Captain N: The Game Master.”  

7. Ocean Hellman (Alice) in “Danger Bay,” which keeps coming up this season.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

Duracell “No Longer Under the Christmas Tree” Commercial, 1983.  

Festive Foreign Film Fans, covering festive movies and music from around the world.  

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“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” © 1983 Comworld Productions.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1994, and the Jeffersons are poisoning Metropolis with greed spray from toy atomic space rats.  

Join us on an unpredictable flight through the first Christmas episode of “Lois and Clark,” written by Dean Cain and starring Sherman Hemsley as the Toyman and Isabel Sanford as his reluctant assistant, plus Denise Richards, Dick Van Patten, Doug Llewellyn, and terrible special effects.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Gerry Davila (Totally Rad Christmas)  

Paxton Holley (Cavalcade of Awesome, Cult Film Club, Hellbent for Letterbox)  

Jeeg (Nerd Lunch)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. C.T. brings up this episode and Jeeg seals his fate on Nerd Lunch’s “Nerdstradamus 2013 Redux.”  

2. Winslow Schott’s plan to dump his greed toxin into Metropolis’s water supply is similar to Scarecrow’s plan in “Batman Begins.”  

3. Progressive Insurance “Barbie” Commercial.  

4. Denise Richards (Angela) in “Tammy and the T-Rex.”  

5. Eddie Jones (Jonathan Kent) in “A League of Their Own.”  

6. Christmas at Graceland.  

7. Totally Rad Christmas on “It’s Gary Shandling’s Christmas Show” featuring Dom Irrera (Hecklebaum).  

8. Homer Simpson licking poisonous toads.  

9. Today’s TV Trope: Anticipatory Breath Spray.  

10. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by The Pretenders.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

Burger King Holiday Disney Glasses Commercial, 1994.  

Children First “Read a Book” PSA featuring Brett Butler, 1994.  

Totally Rad Christmas, celebrating all things Christmas in the ’80s. 

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“Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and “Season’s Greedings” © 1994 Warner Bros. Television.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 2001, and a magical partridge is sending me on a coat drive for some kind of Karate Kid-style Santa training.  

Hop in our light blue ’54 convertible and buckle up as we take you on a joyride through the very last and most forgotten Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a mostly black cast starring Patti LaBelle, Gregory Hines, and a criminally underused Eartha Kitt as a talking cat.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Andre Bennett (Cult Cinema Cloister, Philadelphia Championship Rock Paper Scissors).  

Tim Babb (Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. This special was co-written by Suzanne Collins, who went on to write “The Hunger Games.”  

2. The other co-writer, Peter Bakalian, also has a book series. It’s called “The F.A.R.T. Diaries.”  

3. Patti LaBelle in Philadelphia’s “Get to Know Us” tourism campaign, 1985.  

4. Patti LaBelle on “Sesame Street” singing “How I Miss My X.”  

5. IMDb’s photo gallery for “Santa, Baby!” is full of high-quality promotional images.  

6. RankinBass.com’s first look at “Santa, Baby!” from December 2001.  

7. Gregory Hines in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Running Scared.”  

8. Rankin/Bass finally includes “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” in a Christmas special.  

8. Natalie Toro (Samson) lists “Santa Baby!” on her bio page.  

10. Andre’s uncle co-wrote K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life.”  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

McDonald’s “Wake Up” Breakfast Commercial featuring Patti LaBelle, 1990.   

Can’t Wait for Christmas, the podcast dedicated to keeping the spirit of Christmas alive all year round.  

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“Santa, Baby” © 2001 Perisphere Pictures, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1989, and a killer in a Santa suit is making it really hard to hide my dead husband’s body.  

You better watch out as we dig up the first filmed episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” a cozy Christmas nightmare directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring his then-wife and talented screamer, Mary Ellen Trainor, and the kid who gets her hoverboard stolen by Marty McFly.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Jamie Ray (Fave Five From Fans, Complete Disarray with Jamie Ray)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Mike on Fave Five From Fans with my Fave Five Christmas TV Specials (already covered them all here).  

2. Fave Five Christmas Horror Movies.  

3. The Vault of Horror No. 35, from 1954.  

4. “And All Through the House” segment of the 1972 “Tales from the Crypt” movie.  

5. HBO Feature Presentation opening, 1983.  

6. John Kassir (The Crypt-Keeper) in a commercial for The Legend of Zelda, 1987.  

7. Mary Ellen Trainor (Elizabeth) and Lyndsey Whitney Barry (Carrie Ann) in “Back to the Future Part II.”  

8. Today’s TV Trope: Tempting Fate.  

9. Elizabeth calls the operator because 9-1-1 was only available in about half the U.S. by 1989.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

The Crypt-Keeper’s Ghoulish Guide to the Howlidays on Kids’ WB, 2001.  

Holidays After Dark, exploring the strange, unusual, and dark sides of the holidays.  

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“Tales From the Crypt” and “And All Through the House” © 1989 Tales From the Crypt Venture.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s 1979, by way of 1933 — or the other way around — and the human from Fraggle Rock has broken into my garage with a haunted choir of singing children.  

Join us as we turn the dial on our haunted time-traveling radio to find Henry Winkler at the height of his fame as the Fonz hiding under multiple layers of makeup as a Scrooge figure in Great Depression-era New England.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Tom Coombs (The Pop Daddy)  

Scott Leopold (Holly Jolly X’masu)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Watch “An American Christmas Carol” on YouTube, courtesy of Shout Factory.  

2. Henry Winkler interview on being asked to play a Scrooge figure.  

3. The Ford Model TT truck, in example.  

4. Dorian Harewood (Matt Reeves/Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) filling in for James Avery as Shredder.  

5. Today’s TV Trope: Recursive Fiction — and “The Identical.”  

6. Robin Williams on “Sesame Street” showing Elmo different ways to play with a stick.  

7. “Sister Kenny,” based on the true story of an Australian nurse.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

McDonald’s Gift Certificates Christmas Commercial, 1979.  

Holly Jolly X’masu, your podcast destination for Japanese Christmas music.  

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“An American Christmas Carol” © 1979 Scrooge Productions, 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.

🕎 It’s 2003, and a team of Hebrew school basketball players think they’ve found the ghost of Judah Maccabee in a random guy living in a van.  

It’s time once again to think about the Seleucid Empire as we watch a Disney Channel Original Hanukkah Movie very loosely based on the true story of former college basketball star Lamont Carr and a yeshiva’s struggling team looking for a leader.  

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🎙 Guests:  

April Ryley (@where2nextapril, @thefancygeologist).  

J.W. Friedman (I Don’t Even Own a Television).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. “Full-Court Miracle” on Disney+.  

2. Lamont Carr’s obituary in Virginia Magazine, 2017.  

3. Psychocandy, an experimental pop duo of Cassie Steele (Julie) and Jase Blankfort (Stick).  

4. UVA’s Athletics website circa 2003.  

5. Alex’s prized Dr. J basketball card isn’t even a rookie card and isn’t that valuable.  

6. “Jewball,” a novel featuring the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association basketball team.   

7. Sadly, the only upload I could find of the hip-hop cover of the Dreidel song is a smartphone recording of a TV playing this movie.  

8. This basketball movie’s NBA star cameo is provided by Jerome Williams.  

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📼 Commercial Break:  

Microsoft Encarta Commercial, 1995.  

Returning Student, a 40-year-old’s journey to finish the college degree he never got.  

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“Full-Court Miracle” © 2003 Disney Enterprises, 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.