canadian christmas special

🎄 By special request, this episode of the official podcast of teaching aliens about Christmas takes you on a domesticated goose chase back to 1977 through the first fully animated feature by Canadian studio Nelvana.  

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🎙 Guest:  

Jeff Fox (Name That Christmas  Special, @chrspecials).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Jeff’s collection of A Cosmic Christmas music and scanned promotional items.  

2. Joanna Wilson’s Christmas TV History.  

3. This special got George Lucas’s attention and led to Nelvana producing the animated segment of the Star Wars Holiday Special.  

4. The Nelvana Story: Thirty Animated Years.  

5. Today’s TV Trope: Big Ball of Violence.  

6. Jellybean looks like the red-eyed Pac-Man on the side of the arcade cabinet.  

7. Duncan Regehr (Amalthor) as Dracula in The Monster Squad.  

8. Marian Waldman, Mrs. Mac from Black Christmas, also has a quick line or two.  

9. The Castle Thunder stock sound effect.  

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:  

Burger King Doll Christmas Commercial, 1977.  

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:  

Weird Christmas.  

“A Cosmic Christmas” © 1977 Nelvana Enterprises, Inc.  

Say hi on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  
Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

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

🎄 We’re responsibly deforesting our way back to 1980 to dig up the first appearance of early Disney Channel imports The Raccoons and the greedy Cyril Sneer.  

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🎙 On This Episode:  

Michael DiGiovanni (Classic Film Jerks, Pop Culture Retrofit, @theatomicgeeks).  

Christian Nielsen (Pop Culture Retrofit, @hunkburger).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. This special and an accompanying story album were narrated by Rich Little, a “Man of a Thousand Voices,” in his own, regular voice.  

2. The voice of Forest Ranger Dan is Rupert Holmes, the singer/songwriter behind Escape (The Piña Colada Song).  

3. Tammy Bourne (Julie) and Hadley Kay (Tommy) were both in 1980 movies as children who fall from great heights.  

4. Today’s TV Trope: Human Snowball.  

5. Where does the dream end and reality begin? Maybe it’s all in the St. Elsewhere Snow Globe Universe of Tommy Westphall (no relation).  

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:  

Canadian Tire’s “Scrooge Approved” Prices, 1987.  

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🎤 And Now, These Messages:  

Christmas Creeps.  

“The Christmas Raccoons” ©1980 PFS Christmas Raccoons / PFS Pooled Film Services, Inc.  

Say hi on Twitter and Instagram.  
Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

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