🎃 It’s 1986, and one student at a magical boarding school is struggling to fit in while having to deal with a hard-nosed potions teacher and bullying from a golden child whose father will hear about this, but finds comfort in broom flying and encouragement from the kindly old headmaster. No, not that one. Before Harry Potter, there was “The Worst Witch,” which was adapted into a TV Halloween special starring a young Fairuza Balk, Dianna Rigg, Charlotte Rae in a dual role, and Tim Curry in the t...
Jul 13, 2024•1 hr 51 min•Season 12Ep. 7
🎄 It’s 1977, and the cast of Broadway’s hottest new musical is taking drastic measures to convince 4 different unions keep the theater open for a Christmas party because they forgot to book a venue. Join the original Broadway cast of “Annie” as somewhere in between themselves and their characters in a unique TV Christmas special which may very well have been many TV viewers’ first exposure to the musical. **** 🎙 Guest: Guy Hutchinson ( Pointless Nostalgia , GuyHutchinson.com ). **** 💬 Topics ...
Jul 11, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 12Ep. 6
🎄 It’s 1981, and a jolly swagman who may or may not be Santa Claus is flying me around the world in a sleigh built out of a bench and some rope we had lying around to search the globe for a lost baby kangaroo. Today’s Christmas in July episode begins where it’s actually winter in July, and only gets stranger and more inappropriate from there. It’s “Around the World with Dot,” also known as “Dot and Santa Claus,” starring the title character from an 1899 Australian children’s book, “Dot and the ...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 12Ep. 5
🐰 It’s 2004, and a stuffed toy rabbit voluntold me to clean his house. The Advent Calendar House celebrates both Easter in July and Scrooge Sunday with a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood as Rabbit does double duty as both the Easter Bunny and Scrooge, all while Christopher Robin is somewhere else entirely. **** 🎙 Guests: Sammy Hain ( Sammy’s Easter Tails ) Matt Spaulding ( North Pole Radio , Two Broke Geeks ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Watch “Springtime with Roo” on Disney+ . 2. Ads from t...
Jul 07, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 12Ep. 4
🎄 It’s 1983, and my emotional support jack-in-the-box is not providing much help for my Imposter Syndrome. Prepare for a deep dive into another pre-ALF puppet special from Paul Fusco starring a very depressed elf in training trying to find where he belongs in Santa’s workshop by first finding everywhere he doesn’t belong. Plus: Santa’s Swedish Chef-like human hands! A three-eyed purple teddy bear we never get to see! Paul Fusco inserting himself into his own Christmas fan fiction! **** 🎙 Guest...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Season 12Ep. 3
🎄It’s 1979, and an evil king is having abandonment issues after his entire kingdom left, so he made an army of robots instead of going to therapy. The Advent Calendar House has once again emerged from hibernation after declaring 4 more months of winter to pretend it’s still winter. Join us as we encounter what might be the least Christmassy Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a friendlier version of Jack Frost, a groundhog dressed like a pro wrestling manager, and the wintry weather neighb...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Season 12Ep. 2
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. **** 🎙 Guests: Erin Evans ( @mserinevans ). Joey O. ( Y-Not Radio , @imgonnadj24 ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangent...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 12Ep. 1
🎄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, M...
Dec 24, 2023•2 hr 21 min•Season 11Ep. 12
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guest: Bill Hans...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 11Ep. 11
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guests: Tori Schmidt...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 43 min•Season 11Ep. 10
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guests: Scott Leopold ( Holly Jolly X’masu ) Bob Baker ( Festive Foreign Film Fans ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Today’s TV Tropes: It’s the Best Whatever...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 11Ep. 9
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guests: Gerry Davila ( Totally Rad Christmas ) Paxton Holley ( Cavalcade of Awesome , Cult Film Club ,...
Dec 16, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 11Ep. 8
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guests: Andre Bennett ( Cult Cinema Cloister , Philadelphia Championship Rock Paper Scissors ). T...
Dec 14, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 11Ep. 7
🎄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. **** 🎙 Guests: Jamie Ray ( Fave Five From Fans , Complete Disarray with Jamie Ray ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Mike on Fave...
Dec 12, 2023•44 min•Season 11Ep. 6
🎄 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. **** 🎙 Guests: Tom Coombs ( The Pop Daddy ) Scott Leopold ( Holly Jolly X’masu ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Watch “...
Dec 10, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 11Ep. 5
🕎 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. **** 🎙 Guests: April Ryley ( @where2nextapril , @thefancygeologist ). J.W. Friedman ( I Don’t Even Own a Televi...
Dec 08, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Season 11Ep. 4
🎄 It’s 1987, and someone stole Santa Claus in the middle of his hot dog break. Join us as we follow a renowned novelist who may or may not be a teenager and her animated mouse writing partner on a quest find out who kidnapped a department store Santa, while we solve the mystery of how anyone remembers this Christmas special that only aired once. **** 🎙 Guests: Lindy Kempe ( Bluesky ). Emily Rowley ( Threads ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Dick Van Patten’s shout-out in “Wayne’s World” and...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 11Ep. 3
🎄 It’s 1991, and Santa Claus is fighting with a talking dog over a park bench. By some Christmas miracle, this obscure special was rediscovered over 30 years later. For years, people on the Internet tried to identify it on a TV in the background of an old family photo, until finally, thanks to the power of positivity, it was identified as “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light.” Join us as we meet the intergalactic Soulmates in what seems like a pilot that never got off the ground. **** 🎙 Guests:...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Season 11Ep. 2
🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandmother is surrounded by dancing chickens. It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with some extremely bizarre adventures. **** 🎙 Guests: Guy Hutchinson ( Pointless Nostalgia , GuyHutchin...
Dec 02, 2023•1 hr 50 min•Season 11Ep. 1
🎄 After spending 3 months locked in a water tower, the Advent Calendar House has escaped in time for Christmas Podcast Day, a fake holiday originally made up for a hashtag back when social media was slightly less stupid. It’s not Scrooge Sunday, but the theme for this year’s Christmas Podcast Day is “A Christmas Carol,” so I’m playing a long, but also cheating a little by covering both segments of a 1993 Christmas episode of “Animaniacs.” You can follow #ChristmasPodcastDay on Facebook , Instag...
Nov 01, 2023•59 min•Season 10Ep. 13
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we watched a cavemen take over Santa’s job after he fell off the roof in “ A Flintstone Christmas .” This time, our reunion tour of previously podcasted-about characters makes its final stop of the season in Bedrock, where Fred Flintstone is letting the lead role of “Ebonezer” Scrooge go to his head, while Wilma is doing the workload of I lost count of how many victims of the highly contagious Bedrock Bug. We also make the strongest case yet that this ...
Jul 23, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Season 10Ep. 12
Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we let the goofy alien puppet with the jokes toy with our emotions in “ ALF’s Special Christmas .” 🦃 This time, join us around the Fappiano table as we aim a spoonful of squash back to 1988 for a special, 2-part Thanksgiving episode of “ALF.” Too bad he’s already eaten the turkey, but there might still be some sweet potato pie in the garage, with the homeless man. **** 🎙 Guests: Tom Coombs ( The Pop Daddy , @thepopdaddy ). Jayme Kilsby ( Forever Bogus P...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Season 10Ep. 11
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we went on an apocryphal adventure with the story of The Little Drummer Boy . This time, Rankin/Bass drums up an unnecessary sequel from 1976, its busiest year for holiday specials. Join Aaron on a side quest to retrieve the stolen silver bells from a troop of greedy Roman soldiers in the “Rogue One” of Christmas stories. **** 🎙 Guests: Brandon Medley ( @brandmed , 📸 @blessedarethegeek ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Allen Swift (Melchior) as Twi...
Jul 19, 2023•53 min•Season 10Ep. 10
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street , Hanukkah on “ Shalom Sesame ,” and even uncovered the oddity, “ A Special Sesame Street Christmas .” This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas, featuring Maya Angelou, Harvey Fierstein as the Easter Bunny, and “Doc Hopper,” himself, Charles Durning as Santa. **** 🎙 Guests: Becca Petunia ( ToughPigs.com , Hubba-Wha?! , @Unc...
Jul 17, 2023•2 hr 6 min•Season 10Ep. 9
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we saved Punky Brewster’s Christmas spirit in “ Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus .” This time, join Punky in 1985 on an animated adventure to the North Pole, courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-gopher Ewok lookin’ friend. The ’80s were weird. **** 🎙 Guests: Adam Pope ( WIZARDS The Podcast Guide to Comics , @hojukoolander ). Steven ( UFO Club ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Comparing the original sitcom’s theme song to the cartoon’s t...
Jul 15, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 10Ep. 8
Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we flew a sleigh made out of a dumpster into space with the California Raisins in “ Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration .” 🎃 This time, we’re reanimating a creepier creation of his from 1991 — a Halloween special that premiered in May for some reason — starring the scheming Wilshire Pig on a quest to uncover the secret lab of Dr. Frankenswine. **** 🎙 Guests: Sammy Hain ( @SammyHain ). Chad Young ( The Horror Movie BBQ , @horrormoviebbq ). ***...
Jul 13, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 7
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we were Dreaming of a White Ranger with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This time, they’re away helping Santa, so Zordon surprises Alpha by teleporting in a bunch of children for a Christmas party. Join us for this very bonkers Power Rangers home video, plus our mini tribute to the late Jason David Frank, who’s seen as both the Green and White Ranger here because nobody cares about continuity during Christmas, I guess. **** 🎙 Guests: Andre Bennett (...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Season 10Ep. 6
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, our hearts and golden harmonicas went out to “ A Chipmunk Christmas .” This time, it’s Scrooge Sunday, and our Christmas in July reunion tour arrives in Hollywood — or at least a nearby cartoon suburb where Alvin turns his greed up to 11 and blames it on his lonely old neighbor who doesn’t know how to plant a garden. So get set to have some fun in this Dickens of an episode of “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” **** 🎙 Guests: Tom Coombs ( The Pop Daddy , @the...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 10Ep. 5
🫓 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we helped our favorite talking babies stop a true meanie in “ A Rugrats Chanukah .” This time, we’re ignoring the rules of another long-standing tradition as we travel by baby basket back to 1995 to witness grown men throwing temper tantrums and ending up locked in the attic. **** 🎙 Guests: Sarah Shay ( sarahshay.com , Bandcamp , Pilot House Podcast ) Zach Gozlan ( zachgozlan.info ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. I found this special hiding in a 4-...
Jul 07, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Season 10Ep. 4
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we witnessed goodness make the badness go away in “ The Smurfs’ Christmas Special .” This time, we’re taking a one giant puppy open sleigh ride back to 1987 to help the Smurfs save Christmas for a poor human toymaker and his gravely ill wife, while Brainy and Hefty get lost in medieval Crime Alley. **** 🎙 Guests: Lindy Kempe ( @ieatvideogames ). Donnie Storms ( Bronwen’s Ghost , @boxcar45 ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Watch “’Tis the Season to ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 10Ep. 3
