Advent Calendar House

Love and dynamite are in the air as I introduce 2 guests to an early pilot of what would eventually become The Muppet Show from 1974, guest-starring a pregnant Mia Farrow.  ****  

It’s Christmas Eve! Tune in as we bring Advent to a close with the first Christmas special I ever remember watching, from 1978.  ****  

Remember ALF? He’s back, in podcast form! Tune in as we salute ALF’s two-part Christmas special from 1987, the single most depressing special starring a wisecracking alien puppet of all time.  Content Warning: In this Christmas special, the goofy alien with the jokes meets a terminally ill child and a man contemplating suicide.  ****  

Tune in as we unearth a 1994 cash-grab video starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — or at least some version of them — a special so low-quality, it happens in a sewer.  ****  

Tune in as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special the only way we know how: With lots of screaming, lots of fruitcake, and lots more screaming.  ****  

Mickey Mouse drags his pals into third dimension in this 2004 direct-to-DVD Disney Christmas special.  ****  

Tune in as we attempt to make sense of time, space, and the Disney fowl food chain as we watch Disney’s 1999 direct to video Christmas special.  ****  

We are not nice, not kind, and not wonderful to 1985’s He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special, in which Skeletor’s heart grows three sizes.  ****  

Tune in as we apply North Pole to Pinky and the Brain’s 1996 Christmas special, probably the closest the lab mouse duo ever got to actually taking over the world.  ****  

Join us as we gush about the Riverbottom Nightmare Band and Kermit riding a bicycle in this episode about the 1977 Jim Henson special, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. Pa would’ve loved this podcast.  ****  

Hang on to your creepy mistletoe hat as we hit the Bayside Mall for a 2-part Saved by the Bell Christmas special from 1991, in which Zack gets shook upon learning the latest girl of his dreams is homeless.  ****  

Tune in as we trace the origins of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, in the 1992 Christmas episode of Batman, the Animated Series.  ****  

Part 2 of our Christmas donkey double feature takes a deep dive into Don Bluth’s last Disney project, a short film released in front of the 1978 re-release of Pinocchio.****  

We try to make more accurate donkeys in Nativity displays catch on like a certain elf on a certain shelf by revisiting the 1977 Rankin/Bass special, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey.  ****  

We dig down like dogs to the bottom of the VHS bargain bin for an overlooked special from 1991 that had all the potential to become a Christmas classic, but none of the airtime.  You can watch Jingle Bell Rap on Amazon Prime.  ****  

Lace up your ice skates for a look at 3 classic holiday commercials starring McDonald’s clown in charge:  1. Happy Holidays (the ice skating one).  2. Star Wish.  3. Runaway.****  

It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s Christmas at Walt Disney World, featuring Shields and Yarnell as the most 1978 couple imaginable, Pablo Cruise and their indifference to help a screaming woman escape from pirates, Phyllis Diller in the world’s poofiest princess dress, the Doritos guy as a wildly off-model Geppetto, Dee from What’s Happening as an ungrateful passenger in a magical pumpkin coach, and Broadway’s original Annie singing Christmas carols with surprisingly reverent Disney villains.  ****  

We blur the lines of reality, time, and space and practice peace on Earth and good will to men, women, chickens, bears, and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1979 TV special, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.  ****  

In 1987, the California Raisins missed their bus, then made a sleigh out of garbage and flew it into space in the greatest holiday special out of all holiday specials hosted by clay dinosaurs.  WARNING: This episode inexplicably contains a major spoiler for the 2014 movie How to Train Your Dragon 2.  ****  

Let’s have a good, old-fashioned Christmas down on the farm in 1987’s A Garfield Christmas Special, featuring the voices of Squiggy and Ursula.  ****