Behind The Bells Podcast

"You know Tommy? You were right. Santa isn't such a bad guy after all."

Continuing into doing some editorial episodes on Nickelodeon Christmas specials, it's time to look at the channels... former number one hit, Rugrats. One was made at the begining of the series and the other towards the end.

Oh, and we'll also look at the All Grown Up special because... I'll probably never get another chance to talk about it.

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"St Nicholas is not coming this year. Instead, a much darker, ancient spirit. His name is Krampus"

It turns out that Michael Dougherty had wanted to do a scary Christmas movie for a while. Let's see how his research in Halloween's Pagen origins lead him to learn more about Krampus

Learn about how Krampus shot in the same studios as Lord of the Rings, how they pulled off ALL the scenes in studio and why even competing with Star Wars didn't detract it from being a hit!

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"I don't know why they are always trying to remake the classics. Never as good as the originals"

Today we've got a special treat! Joining me are Anthony from Tis the Podcast, C.J. from Christmas Conversations and Manny from Feliz Christmas Merry Navidad as we talk about the recent sequel/reboot Home Sweet Home Alone. None of us had much nice to say, so we have some fun as we rant and even talk about other Christmas movies. 

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Be sure to check out the other podcasters as well!

Tis the Podcast

Christmas Conversations

Feliz Christmas Merry Navidad

“This is supposed to be a happy time. This isn’t happy”

In our first editorial episode, rather then doing a deep dive, we'll be looking into my general thoughts and opinions on whatever I want. Today I'd thought we'd start with a nostalgic classic, Doug. Both the Nickelodeon and the Disney versions had their own Christmas specials, one better then the other. It's not what you'd think.

One's a total downer and the other is... certainly better.

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Merry Monday everyone! We've got something special for today! We have our first interview with Ed Daly, the author of the recently published ultimate guide on the season, "The Christmas Book". The first part has us talking about how he got the idea to write such a book, the research process and how he sold it.

Ed is also the first to be subjected to the Behind the Bells Infamous Christmas Survey. 40 Holiday questions that go from the classic to the modern to the absolute weird of Christmas. It's nearly 2 1/2 hours of Christmas chatter and fun!

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"It's Christmas. Nothing Bad is going to happen on Christmas!"

Happy Halloween!!

Before we go into the movie, learn of Krampus' origin in Alpine Pagan Winter Traditions, how Christmas Cards gave him expansion, how the Austrian political climate may have stoped any further attention and how the Internet may have brought him to the public eye. 

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"Rudolph, with your nose so bright, will you guide my sleigh tonight?"

We get to the point where Arthur Rankin Jr. and songwriter Johnny Marks meet to discuss turning the classic song into an animated TV special. Time to learn how General Electric paid for the entire budget, which meant the elves were now selling electric blankets and can openers.

Learn how the animating team in Japan took a lot of care in their detail to build the 22 sets and characters over the 18 month filming. Also learn how Burl Ives ended up the only actor to earn any residuals from the special.

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"Whats the matter with misfits, thats where we fit in!"

Time to dive into the stop motion world of Rankin/Bass! Before we get into the special itself, it's important to go into the history of the story and song...which explains why we never see Rudolph in Santa's gang even though he's famous

Learn how the story writer was a copywriter who came up with the idea just for a promotional giveaway, how the songwriter served his country before coming up with the song and how they convinced a reluctant Gene Autry into singing the first hit of the 50s.

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"Hey! The only one who yells is me!"

Film Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was about to come on because of...NASCAR. Denis Leary wanted to go from a risqué standup comic to actor and MTV commercial director Ted Demme was ready to break into movies

Learn how all these people got together, how the film's ending would have dramatically changed the entire movie and why a crowded season of comedies may have forced The Ref out of the 1993 holiday season.

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"You know what this family needs? A mute"

Writer Richard Lagravenense, who was raised in New York, wanted to be a playwright like Neil Simon or Eugune O' Neil. It just so happened that he also loved movies with sharp dialogue and great jokes.

Learn how he scored his first hit with The Fisher King (which was also his first script ever written on his own), How his personal families Christmases gave him and his sister-in-law the idea and why he left Disney after too much executive meddling.

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"One hundred gold pieces, and not a penny more!"

Burny not only gathered his best crew, he assigned people to whichever character they wanted. So why did Disney not want them to hire back the original voice of Donald Duck?

Learn about how characters from Pinocchio and Sword in the Stone were replaced, how they almost made the short into feature length and how the short (and it's movie's it related with) got competition from...The Smurfs.

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"If I give money to the poor, then they won't be poor anymore"

At a point when Disney was putting out fewer animated projects, a young animator Burny Mattinson pitched a retelling of a Christmas Carol with Mickey and the gang. It was the first new Mickey cartoon in over 30 years.

Learn about why Disney's Animation output had declined. Learn how a young man started from the mail room all the way to working with the 9 Old Men. Also see how Alan Young would introduce Scrooge McDuck to more people

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"Open Holidays Only!"

Irving Berlin was now ready to work with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire to bring his story of a hotel only open on holidays to life. But there was concern to see how well their personalities would work together. They still had to find their unknown to play Linda as well.

Even with the production going well, Pearl Harbor would happen. Learn what they changed about one of their songs. Also learn how White Christmas would become famous on the battlefield. Also, we'll dive into the controversial blackface sequence that may the reason not many people talk about Holiday Inn any more

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"Don't Ask Why. Just go and God Bless America."

Irving Berlin went from being the youngest of eight children to an immediate hit songwriter whose song "Blue Skies" would be one of the first pieces of music on film. But he would end up away from his family a lot and yearned to be back in New York celebrating any holiday.

Learn how his consistent work would inspire him to write White Christmas. Also see how Bing Crosby, who was dominating the radio scene, would be selected to debut White Christmas and set up the negotiation for Holiday Inn. 

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"This is it! Don't get scared now."

At the start of production in Winnetka, Illinois, Home Alone seemed to have things ready to go with the entire production being done in a gym. But Daniel Stern would be fired early to be replaced by a Matlock actor. Also learn how Warners got mad that Home Alone would end up costing more then the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. 

Also hear about how Joe Pesci took inspiration from the Looney Tunes, how they got lucky with getting John Williams as a composer and why the film was in theaters all the way till June of the next year. 

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"Peter! We slept in!"

John Hughes was in a point in his career where he would exit directing to focus on writing and producing. Though Uncle Buck would provide some help, it was actually a vacation where John got the idea. Learn how he wrote his script...almost as close as the film would come out.

Also learn how Chris Columbus would get the directing job even after a major flop. Oh, and how certain roles almost went to Jon Lovitz, Kelsey Grammar and even Chris Farley. Yep, THAT Chris Farley.

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"Is she dead? No, she's just resting her eyes for a minute. Of course she's f**king dead, her neck's broken"

Despite the casting of Robert Downey Jr. (the studio had hoped to cast Johnny Knoxville instead) and Val Kilmer, the movie would start off a good luck charm that would lead to an easy shoot, even if it was Shane Black's directorial debut.

Time to see what kind of preparation the crew went on to make Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a lot like a noir movie from the 60's. See how despite good critical reviews and a good festival debut, just how stupid it's release was, forcing a failure when there shouldn't have been.

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"Hey, hey, hey! It's Christmas, wheres my present, Slick?"

Time to go into detail of one of my favorite cult Christmas movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. See how despite having a good track record, Shane Black's ego is lowered with the failure of The Long Kiss Goodnight and why he turned to his pulp detective stories.

See how Kiss Kiss Bang Bang initially started as a romantic comedy...because James L. Brooks thought it would make his comeback. Also see how an old friend got his movie going at Warner Brothers.

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"I am one with the Yuletide, knowwhatImean?"

Ernest Goes to Camp would prove to be a larger hit then Disney anticipated. The sequel would get a larger budget and a new location.

See how the first major production in Orlando went, how Ernest became close to becoming Santa, how reindeer forced a changed in filming, and how did became a bigger hit.

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"Trust people. It pays off more then you think"

In order to talk about Ernest Saves Christmas, I felt it was important to discuss Jim Varney's background, how he started to do commercials, how Ernest got his start, and why he got popular.

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And believe it or not, Disney got on board after discovering Ernest was more popular then the governor of Indiana and even Mickey Mouse. Let's go for a ride!