Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
The Podcast of Misfit Toys
Ever wondered why we Gen Xers hold a special place in our hearts for the Macy's Day Parade and Rocky Balboa? Nicole and Heather are here to take you on a nostalgic ride filled with Thanksgiving memories, from dreaming of dancing with the Rockettes to celebrating "Rocky Day" in Philadelphia. We explore the legendary film's footprint in the city, with everything from bus tours to ice skating events, as we share our childhood fantasies and holiday traditions.
Our love for classic holiday TV specials knows no bounds. Join us as we recall the quirky charms of Rankin-Bass productions like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus," offering amusing anecdotes and surprising production facts. We get into the heartwarming yet complex narratives that captivated generations, contrasting them with today's streaming landscape. Alongside this, we dive into the commercialism critiques found in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," sharing our own reflections and laughs along the way.
As we wrap things up, we embrace the whimsy and absurdity of Frosty's escapades and Kris Kringle's origins. We laugh over Frosty's bizarre adventures and Kris's rebellion against toy bans, all while weaving in fun trivia and personal insights. From Jack Frost's unrequited love to a playful nod at Santa's lore, we revel in the delightful madness of these stories. Plus, we're eager to hear from you! Connect with us on social media or drop us a line at likewhatever@gmail.com with your thoughts and suggestions. Join us for some festive cheer, hearty laughs, and a trip down memory lane!
We're never done as ever laughing and sharing our stories. Clever, we'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for, by and about Gen X. I'm Nicole and this is my BFFF, heather Go.
Speaker 3:Birds.
Speaker 2:That's right, go birds. So, besides a really great win for our birds, Fly, eagles, fly. How was your week? It was good.
Speaker 3:Thanksgiving was good. Yeah, ate a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fully full Was her cooking on point, as usual.
Speaker 3:Of course. Of course, of course, aunt Vera killed it again. Um yeah, how was your thanksgiving?
Speaker 2:good, um, I ended up deciding to cook, so that was kind of fun. Like I did all the prep work leading up to uh to it like thawing the turkey, which always takes longer than what they tell you that it takes. Like we ended up with it in, like plus in. It was like baking plastic bags in the utility sink, trying to like thaw it out, right but it came out great.
Speaker 2:Everything worked out um yeah, and just a lot of football, like non-stop football, because we watched college football weekend too, because this was all like I'm not into college football, but this was all kind of leading up to this new playoff system, which at least sounds more fair, but I still don't understand any of it. But I just like watching football.
Speaker 3:I thought the games were really boring on Thanksgiving, though. Yeah, true, they didn't hold my interest. This year yeah. But my aunt had crafts to do. I don't know. I know she made ginger. We put together gingerbread houses. She's so cute, she is cute, so we had that to do. I don't know, yeah, but I mean I really could not get into those games. I was really sad because that's my favorite part, but it just wasn't happening. I did probably watch the most of the macy's day parade.
Speaker 2:I did not watch the parade I usually kind of have it on for a minute and then you know I'm just like all right, whatever, just put on whatever you want. But we actually watched it and it wasn't so bad. And actually, kylie minogue, you did text me that.
Speaker 3:Rushed it yes.
Speaker 2:She was killer. She's awesome. I mean she's always been awesome, but yeah, she was worth it. And I love the Rockettes. Of course I like to see them. That's what I was supposed to be when I grew up as a Rockette I remember that you have seen the Rockettes. I have a number of times I radio a new musical. Yeah, I am 5'9", just like a Rockette.
Speaker 3:Damn it. Why weren't you a Rockette? So many reasons, so many reasons.
Speaker 2:Too many reasons.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I hear today is a special day. Today is a special day. Today is a special day. Today is rocky day, that's right. Yes, december 3rd is rocky day in the city of philadelphia yes because today was the day that it was released to the country in 1976 and we are going to do an episode on. I found my phone. Everybody, I'm recording a video for youtube with my phone and I'm looking around because I had this rocky shit on my phone right before we started recording and I was like lucky for y'all.
Speaker 2:We shut it off because it shook that crazy for a minute, and then she had used my apple phone.
Speaker 3:What?
Speaker 3:she needs so rocky day. Yes, today, um, you can take a bus tour, a 90 minute bus tour. Um of philly's must see rocky sites. You can look at the neighborhoods, streets and landmarks featured in the film uh the attack. He goes to the market, mighty Mix, gym, and then tomorrow, everybody at 10 am, which I won't be able to attend because I have to at work. Had I known, I might have taken the whole goddamn week off. They are revealing a mural, because Philadelphia loves a mural, and then, okay, everybody, I'm going to need you to calm down for a second this part Friday, December 6th, the day we are releasing this.
Speaker 3:Yes 7 to 10 pm. Yes, you can recreate Adrienne and Rocky's first date during the University of Pennsylvania's historic special date night rink.
Speaker 2:Do you think you're actually going to be able to get on the ice?
Speaker 3:I mean I would elbow my way on.
Speaker 2:They're going to have to get people like five minutes.
Speaker 3:There are drink specials, lookalike contests that would be so fun. So that is at the University of Pennsylvania, 3130 Walnut Street, december 6th. Also Friday. Also Friday, yeah, everything seems to be Friday. Something is going on at the statue, benjamin Franklin Parkway. Oh and then there's a Rocky movie marathon, which I don't know why you would not do that at the Philadelphia Film Center on Chestnut Street. Oh, and here's the other one.
Speaker 3:Here's the other one. Hold your hat, because this one is at the Philadelphia Zoo on Saturday from five to nine and it's a date night and it is set across 16 zones and among millions of twinkling lights, recreate the beats of Rocky and Adrian's engagement. Okay, wow, I know, I mean. I just I don't know how. I didn't know this was the thing that happens every year, all right. Well, actually this is only the second year, so I guess that's how I know you should put it on your calendar for next year, for next year.
Speaker 3:you bet your fucking ass I am. Are you going to say the proposal no?
Speaker 1:Damn it, you're so good at this, you wouldn't mind marrying me very much, yeah, no, because damn it, you're so good at it you wouldn't mind marrying me very much.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah so, um, that is one of my all-time favorite movies and we will be doing I will be doing an episode on the rocky franchise, although I hate some of them, the middle ones there yeah, but yeah and we'll get into that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm excited too because I that's one of those movies, like not a lot of things make me cry, like movie or tv wise, that movie, every single time at the end when he screams out for her, oh, my gosh every time. That is what I yelled when the eagles won the super bowl yeah, yeah, um, and my dad was a huge rocky fan like I went to the theater to see rocky when it came out with my dad. So, yeah, I I'm gonna really, really enjoy that episode it's, it's gonna be.
Speaker 3:I don't know when we're gonna do. I had well, we could have done it. This, had I been, whatever, had we been paying attention, I could have done it next week's episode. Yeah, that's okay. I don't know what I'm going to do next week, guys. Anybody has? Suggestions for not Christmas things or alternative Christmas things. Send us an email, because I am.
Speaker 2:I saw the news the other day. I want to say Ireland, where's Krampus from? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Germany.
Speaker 3:Where's the Germany?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that is right. Actually there's some sort of like Krampus like yeah and all these people dressed up. It would look pretty funny.
Speaker 3:I want to go to a Krampus festival, so bad. But.
Speaker 2:I can't go to Germany. Are you banned in Germany? Yes, geez. We don't talk about why I can't go to Germany. You can't go to the mall and you can't go to Germany. I know there's a lot of things I'm not allowed to do.
Speaker 3:No, I just I don't speak German and it's very far away and requires a lot of money to get there. Oh, that's why I can't go. I mean, I'm legally allowed as far as I know, that's my motherland. Mine is, oh, I mean, I'm legally allowed as far as I know, that's my motherland. Mine is a little further south than that. Yeah, italy.
Speaker 2:But I think that we were comrades, yes, in some war.
Speaker 3:One of those wars Very bad comrades. Yeah, yeah, that didn't go well, no.
Speaker 2:No, we're not proud of that part of no heritage?
Speaker 3:no, not even a little bit. Yeah. So, guys, rocky week. Yes, had I known that there was going to be a rocky and adrian date night, you bet your ass I would have been in philadelphia at a skating rink with you so that we could hold hands and exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wouldn't be the first time we skated. It would not be. I don't know that we've ever ice skated? No, I've only ice skated, maybe twice I used to.
Speaker 3:We used to ice skate a lot because the carousel in ocean city had a skating rink.
Speaker 2:But I'm terrible, I can't do it no, I tried roller skating like a year ago at my um niece's birthday party, and because I used to be really good, I was like there's no way I'm like that bad. Like my ankles were like what the fuck do you?
Speaker 3:think you're doing? You are 50 years old. Yeah, I couldn't skate then. I still can't skate. Now I could go forwards, kind of, but I never could go backwards, I never could do any I could do all the trick stuff.
Speaker 2:I could not.
Speaker 3:I lived at the roller rink we're definitely gonna do an episode on the roller rink for sure. I have just a phenomenal amount of memories about me too.
Speaker 2:I can remember what it smells like, what color the carpet was, every time centerfold comes on, it just takes me back.
Speaker 3:I don't know why centerfold.
Speaker 2:Mine is Michael Jackson's.
Speaker 3:Can't Stop Till you Get Enough. Can't Stop. Isn't that Can't Stop yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the one. Like my body actually starts to like move like I would skating, like that's the one.
Speaker 3:Every time centerfold comes on it just takes me back.
Speaker 2:Centerfold is one of my favorite songs from the 80s.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was a Steve Miller song too. I want to say it was Abracadabra. But I don't think it was Abracadabra.
Speaker 2:I think it was. I've been to Phoenix Arizona, no I don't remember it being that one.
Speaker 3:It had to have been Abracadabra. Anyway, we're going to do a, so Prepare yourselves for that excitement. Send us an email about what your favorite Favorite. Roller rink. It's time for an all skate, or is it a couple skate and then it would go completely dark. And what was that Like? Dangerous skate, death skate, fall and break a neck skate the limbo. And the dice game. I don't remember the dice game.
Speaker 2:Big, huge dice you rolled.
Speaker 3:I would just sit on the sidelines. I probably would go have pizza, or something.
Speaker 2:Skating rink pizza is the best. It really is. Okay, let's fuck around and find out about classic children's holiday TV specials. Boo, shut your pie hole. I picked some of the darker ones just for you. Oh good, hopefully you'll enjoy some of the content, because some of them are kind of weird.
Speaker 2:This week's content I got from historycom, smithsoniancom and fandomcom, and at the end of this episode I will share information with you on how and where to watch each of these episodes, because things are totally different than they were when we were kids. Yeah, cause it's not just three channels. No, I had a real shocker, but I'll save it for later. Um so, tv's Yuletide classics never seem to wear out their welcome. The most durable specials continue to find new audiences among the children and grandchildren of those of us who watch them when they were new and every year since. Especially for us Gen Xers, those stop motion animated specials made by the Rankin Bass Studios in the 1960s and 70s are like the Saturday morning schoolhouse rock shorts Lessons taught early and often and set to memorable songs that can play more than a few bars without opening floodgates of nostalgia. They're thoroughly dated and yet not dated at all Quaint, yet influential. Okay, all right, you're ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a lot of. I mean I remember as I got older like watching these with my kids. I would be like a lot of people in these cartoons are assholes, like yeah, even like santa claus is coming to town. Like I love that one.
Speaker 3:He was such a little bitch about stuff sometimes like seriously, I feel like santa's a little bitch, I mean yeah, and a lot of the stories he is um.
Speaker 2:There's one that I'm gonna talk about. I'll tell you, okay, but anyway, yeah, so, um, all right. So I with this. Of course, there are tons and tons of things to choose from, so I chose some of my favorites, some um that really bring out a lot of nostalgia, that I remember watching um. So what I'm gonna do is try to go into a little detail, remind you of um, what it was like watching them, and try to trigger your memory it's been a long time since I've watched any of these.
Speaker 2:That's why, like so, we always type up a script and I left some pictures. I put some pictures in the script for Heather because, I have no idea.
Speaker 3:And I'm hoping she'll be like we're going to discover this together, because I was not, I did not have time to read it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, together, because I was not. I did not have time to read it. Yes, yes, um, so, and then, like I said at the end, um, I did do research and see where and when, um, these episodes are airing. So and um, yeah, so, anyway, um, so the granddaddy I think of of all the Christmas shows would probably be Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. That's the one I remember. Yeah, yeah, that's the big one. So that was made out of A Christmas Carol which we all know. This is Rankin-Bass. Again, they did. I actually, while I was writing this script, I was doing research and I watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Rankin-Bass came up. I was like, oh, that's what I'm researching. So, anyway, I'm easily entertained. So Burl Ives is the snowman who narrates the cartoon or the show. I remember that there's the Island of Misfit Toys.
Speaker 3:And I have always said that when we had our restaurant, that's what our restaurant was. It was the Island of Misfit Toys.
Speaker 2:To Hermie, the elf that wanted to be a dentist.
Speaker 3:Which is fucking weird.
Speaker 2:It's funny. We were watching football this weekend, one of the four days. I don't know what it is, but they showed like a coach and it was cold and I was like he looks just like hermy the dentist. It's his rosy nose, his rosy cheeks that's just weird that you'd.
Speaker 3:Whatever, I guess elves need dentists too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, elves do. And then actually he performed a dental extraction on the Abominable. Snowman and saved the day.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2:So in 1960, Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass of Rankin Bass founded a company in New York City that would go on to produce some of the most popular animated Christmas specials. They founded Videocraft International and later renamed it Rankin-Bass Productions. The company became famous for stop-motion TV specials like Rudolph the Resnose Reindeer in 1964, the Little Drummer Boy in 1968, Santa Claus is Coming to Town in 1970, and the Year Without a Santa Claus in 1974.
Speaker 3:I don't know any of those except for Rudolph.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I'm going to do the Little Drummer Boy. Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the Year Without Santa.
Speaker 3:Then I guess I'm going to learn them. I guess you are Today. You're going to get learned.
Speaker 2:So I have a couple little facts here about Rudolph. I did go into a little more detail with him, since this really is the quintessential Christmas show. So it premiered in 1964, like I said earlier on NBC as part of the General Electric Fantasy Hour. That was 1964. I'm going to say that wasn't around when we were kids because I don't remember that. I don't remember that. Yeah, to create. Oh yeah, this was now I got it. This was very interesting. So to create Rudolph's glowing nose, animators used a type of LED light bulb that General Electric engineer Nick Holonyak Jr had invented just a couple of years before. It was the first LED bulb to produce visible light and the red glow it emitted made it the perfect way to represent Rudolph's nose.
Speaker 3:I do very much remember the light his nose. It was so cool yeah.
Speaker 2:It was very awesome, uh, because he started with the black uh like muff thing to cover it, because his parents didn't want everybody to know he had a red nose.
Speaker 3:Don't be different kids don't embarrass your parents.
Speaker 2:Um, and it is the longest running um holiday tv special. Let's see what else the animation was created in Japan, which was interesting to me because anime is so big now Right, and I didn't realize like, way back then Japan was like leading the way with that sort of thing. So Rankin-Bass hired a Japanese company, or hired Japanese companies to animate almost all of their TV specials. The Tokyo Studio MOM Productions, founded by pioneering animator Tada Hito Mochinaga Easy for you to say, I hope I got it close Did the stop motion animation for Rudolph the Reznor's Reindeer and the Little Drummer Boy.
Speaker 2:Then they changed their name to Video Tokyo Productions and that one animated Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the Year Without a Santa Claus. So I thought that was pretty cool. Rudolph used over 200 stop motion puppets. Mom productions crafted over 200 stop motion puppets for rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and it's unclear where they ended up. Animators probably repurposed some of them for other animated specials by removing the heads and redressing the bodies yeah, remove the heads, I bet if you could find any, I bet they go for so that's why I included this.
Speaker 2:like there were some other factoids about it and I was like, oh, that's not really interesting, but if you are out there in the world anywhere and you have any of these, there are none, um. So the only publicly identified rudolph puppets never actually appeared in the TV special, and I remember when these were sold In 2020, puppets of Santa Claus and Rudolph that were incorrectly identified as the ones from the special sold for $368,000 at an auction. Later, goldschmidt discovered these figures were actually only used in USS promotional materials. He says if any original figures from the TV special exist, they're probably in the personal family collections of the animators who worked on the production in Japan. That's crazy, right, it is.
Speaker 3:I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2:But if you have some of those laying around, at least go on to Antiques Roadshow so that I can watch it on TV and see what they say about it. You can retire. So they had some famous voice actors. So Burt Ives was Sam the Snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I think I mentioned that already the gravely voiced comedian Jimmy Durante, Durant Durante.
Speaker 2:Durante right yeah, narrated Frosty the Snowman. And in Santa Claus is Coming to Town, fred Astaire played mailman and narrator, special delivery SD Kluger, while Mickey Rourke voiced the role of Chris Kringle, the man who became Santa Claus. Rooney also played Santa again in the Year. Without a Santa Claus, that's oh. I thought this was really cute. So in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, rudolph and Hermie the elf sing a duet about being misfits. Yes, yes, I'm just a misfit. I don't even think that was close to what the song sounds like. So in real life, the voice actors for these characters ended up living in the same community for older and disabled artists where they performed this song for other residents. Isn't that cute. While living in the Performing Arts Lodge in Toronto, actress Billy Mae Richards, who voiced Rudolph, and actor Paul Soles, who voiced Hermie, frequently entertain their neighbors by singing we're a Couple of Misfits. I love that.
Speaker 3:Isn't that adorable and I want to go to that old people home, I know Well, they both passed away. Okay, I don't care if they're there, I just want to go live at that restaurant that sounds like a cool place to live.
Speaker 2:It really, really does All right. So probably a close second to the quintessential Christmas show would be Charlie Brown Christmas. Don't roll your eyes.
Speaker 3:Okay, we already know how I feel about the peanuts At Halloween. I just don't understand. I know how I'm going to mind my own business over here about the peanuts.
Speaker 2:All right. So it came out in 1965. It was the first ever peanut special and it was about Charles Schultz's neurotic kid hero and his pathetic little tree. It introduced the immortal Vance Giraldi lounge jazz score that came to be associated with the Peanuts gang. Yeah, forever after. Do you at least like that? Nope, um, also, it's one of the few christmas specials that actually makes a point of remembering that the holiday is all about the birth of jesus and not just the secular and commercial avatars that have come to dominate the season. Heather just rolled her whole entire head.
Speaker 3:I did I rolled my whole self on that one.
Speaker 2:And while I am not Christian, I did always think that part of that show was very sweet, because it's Linus on stage by himself and there's all this chaos and he recites like Jesus in the manger and Mary and all that stuff, and I just and the spotlights on him. It is a very sweet scene, sure, and it's true. I mean, supposedly Christmas is Christian but none of these specials have, supposedly Because nobody would watch them. But anyway, and it's a sham, and it's a sham.
Speaker 2:The Charlie Brown Christmas is the first of 45 animated television specials based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schultz. It originally aired on CBS on December 9th 1965. And in the program Charlie Brown questions the meaning of Christmas if it has lost its true meaning from how commercial it has become. Can you imagine poor Charlie Brown nowadays? He thinks it was commercial in 1965. Holy moly, he wouldn't even know. Sorry, I need a sip of wine. God bless us everyone. So all of the Peanuts characters that have been introduced and established as permanent in the strip by 1965 featured in the program. Pigpen, frida, and even Shermie um was featured in a minor role. Um, let's see, char-. Charlotte Braun had been dropped a decade earlier. I don't remember a Charlotte Braun in the comic strip.
Speaker 2:I didn't know, but she was dropped in 1955.
Speaker 3:So we wouldn't know her, we don't even know her.
Speaker 2:No, we don't. I'm going to look her up, let's see. So most of the Pean peanuts characters are skating on a frozen pond as the song christmas time is here. Please on his way to join them. Charlie brown confides in lioness that, even though the holidays are approaching, he is starting to feel depressed, despite all the presents and cards and tree decorating. And this is why I don't understand why you don't like charlie brown, because I can identify with that he is really like serious debbie downer, like he's right up your alley.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding, I think you're amazing but, well, but charlie is a little I'm a little neurotic you're the um're the pessimist. To my optimist, that is true.
Speaker 3:I'm always Debbie Downing.
Speaker 2:But that's what I love about you. I know I need somebody to pull me down to reality. So his depression and aggravation only get exasperated by the goings on in the neighborhood. Though his mailbox is empty of Christmas cards, he tries sarcastically to thank Violet for the card she sent him, Though Violet knows she did no such thing. Charlie Brown shouts after Violet as she walks away. Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it? See, he's a smartass.
Speaker 3:I'm identifying with Charlie right now. Actually, I don't think I have ever seen the Peanuts Christmas thing.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fair. So, yeah, right now I've actually I don't think I have ever seen the peanuts christmas thing. Well, that's fair. So, yeah, okay, but um, anyway, ultimately, charlie brown visits lucy at her psychiatric booth, um, and on her advice, he gets involved in directing a christmas nativity play. All right, that's where you guys are going to part ways.
Speaker 2:God help me she also sympathizes with charlie brown about holiday depression, always getting a lot of stupid toys instead of what she wants, which is real estate. Um, all right, on the way to the theater, charlie brown is drawn to snoopy, who is frantically and gleefully busy decorating his doghouse okay, here's my problem with Snoopy.
Speaker 3:I'm going to just one second. Okay, my issue with Snoopy is the same issue I have with Bugs Bunny the Roadrunner, all of them Tom Tom. They're bullies. Snoopy is a bully. Aren't all dogs bullies, though? Really yes, but Snoopy is way more.
Speaker 2:That's my little rant, I'll keep it to a minute well, I mean, charlie brown is his owner, so he's easily, easily bullied um.
Speaker 3:What's the little bird's name woodstock.
Speaker 2:I knew that okay, moving on when charlie brown demands an explanation for why Snoopy is decorating his doghouse, snoopy hands him a flyer about the neighborhood Christmas lights and display contest. Charlie Brown walks away in frustration at his dog having been bitten by the Christmas commercialization bug. I did not expect all this eye rolling. I might have to turn my chair around, because okay, first of all.
Speaker 3:If my dog handed me some light decorating competition, I would punch him in his little flat face you're a dog. Why are you handing me paper? How did you learn to read all?
Speaker 2:right. So then, after his dog bullies him, he gets accosted by Sally, who is his sister. Yes, little sister.
Speaker 3:They're the worst. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And she wants him to dictate a letter for her to Santa. She ultimately asks Santa to just send money, particularly 10s and 20s Heard, causing Charlie Brown to run away in exasperation at even his sister's secularization. Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsals but, try as he might, he cannot seem to get control of the situation. The uncooperative children are more interested in modernizing the play with dancing and lively music. Here's where Heather steps in. Here's where heather steps in. Charlie brown, on the other hand, is determined to not let the play become secularized by focusing on the traditional side of the story. Um, so anyway. Um, he just didn't like all that riffraff. I don't blame him so thinking.
Speaker 2:The play requires the proper mood. Charlie brown decides he needs to go get a christmas tree. So here's where the infamous charlie brown I do know the charlie brown tree.
Speaker 2:I think the whole world knows the charlie brown tree and you've never even seen charlie brown christmas. So no, but I know and you still know it. Um, so lucy takes over the crowd and dispatches Charlie Brown to get a shiny big aluminum tree. She says, maybe even pink, with Linus in tow. Charlie Brown sets off on his quest. When they get to the tree market O Tannenbaum is playing in the background I always call it Tennis Ball, tennis Ball.
Speaker 2:I love O Tannenbaum because Nat King Cole taught me how to sing it in German, and I feel so fancy because I know all the words.
Speaker 3:Well, she used to play that song and that's why I call it O Tennis Ball.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Charlie Brown zeroes in on a small tree, baby tree which, with symbolic irony, is the only real tree on the lot. Oh, look at that.
Speaker 3:You cut down a tree in the prime of its life.
Speaker 2:Linus is reluctant about Charlie Brown's choice, but Charlie Brown is convinced that with decorations it will be just right for the play.
Speaker 3:So they went to the Christmas tree market, but there was only one real tree there. Is that what you're trying to tell me?
Speaker 2:Maybe they mean real like. Is it like? A Selena. Gomez tree?
Speaker 3:Or is it a Kim Kardashian tree, a big shiny aluminum tree?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's what she wanted was the big.
Speaker 3:So there was like, well, you didn't just go to Walmart to get that? I mean, like you had to go to a Christmas tree lot out in the freezing-ass cold, yeah, and they only had one real tree. This place is a rip-off For real. That's weird. It is weird Moving on, okay.
Speaker 2:They returned to the auditorium with the tree, only to be verbally castigated Okay, by the girls using fancy words especially lucy about the puny tree, second guessing lucy's just a bitch she is yeah, yeah, straight up a million times.
Speaker 2:Yes, um, second guessing himself, charlie brown begins to wonder if he knows what christmas is about, loudly asking in despair. Now here's the part I like. Linus quietly says he can tell him and walks to the center of the stage to make his point Under a spotlight. Linus quotes the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 8 through 14, from the King James Bible, in which angels from heaven tell a group of initially frightened shepherds of the birth of the baby Jesus and instruct them as to where they can find the babe.
Speaker 3:The babe with the power.
Speaker 2:I got the power, power of voodoo. Voodoo, the voodoo that you do. So Charlie Brown realizes he does not have to let commercialism ruin Christmas. With a newly found sense of inspiration, he quickly picks up the little tree and walks out of the auditorium, intending to take the tree home to decorate and show the others it will work in the play. On the way, he stops at Snoopy's decorated doghouse, which now sports a first prize blue ribbon, of course.
Speaker 3:And electricity apparently. Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:Letting his dog's commercialism roll off his back, charlie Brown takes an ornament off the doghouse and hangs it on the tree. But the ornament's weight is too much for the small branch and pulls it to the ground, much to Charlie Brown's shock. Charlie Brown, seeing the ornamented branch droop to the ground, says I've killed it. Oh, everything I touch gets ruined.
Speaker 2:I say that nearly on a daily basis um, it walks away without taking the ornament off his head, hanging in shame, unbeknownst to charlie brown, the rest of the gang having also heard linus's recitative recitative, that's all right. Okay, I have already made myself look dumb, I'm just gonna keep going. Uh, they begin to realize that they were a little too rough on charlie brown and quietly followed him back from the auditorium. Linus goes up to the little tree and gently props the drooping branch back on its upright position ornament and all linus says I never thought it was such a bad little tree. Then wraps his blanket around the base of the trunk and adds it's not bad at all, maybe it just needs a little love. So the kids all steal stuff from snoopies and prize-winning dog house and decorate the tree when they're done. Lucy concedes to charlie brown's choice, saying charlie brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree. Then they, then they start humming and they do that deep breath in between each one too. Oh, do they.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. So when Charlie Brown returns, he demands to know what's taking place, what they've done with the tree, what the fuck's going on in here. The fuck away from my tree. Settle down Charlie and all the children shout Merry Christmas, charlie Brown. And then they start singing Hark the Herald.
Speaker 3:Sweet baby Jesus.
Speaker 2:Yep, okay, there, we're done with that one. This one is not one of my favorites, but it is very popular. This one's my favorite, of course it is. I like the original. I do not like hearing the song on the radio. It's just not a like Christmassy caroly kind of song for me, and I love Christmas music and I don't like anything that's been made since the first one.
Speaker 3:Really I don't mind the Jim Carrey one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to talk about that one. So how the Grinch Stole?
Speaker 3:Christmas came out in 1966. And actually all I'm going to say about that one is You're a mean one.
Speaker 2:Ron Howard spent $123 million in 2000 to create this big, fancy Dr Seuss movie, which misses the point of the holiday being about greed and materialism.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the sarcasm. I read about it. I thought it was kind of funny, like whatever, I don't care. I didn't like it, but a lot of people did so actually my daughter loves that movie.
Speaker 3:My niece loves that movie too, yeah.
Speaker 2:My daughter's favorite one is Polar Express. And then the Grinch might be. Well, she loves Elf too, and we agree on that one. But yeah, I can't. I can't do the other ones Anyway, Me either. So the original from 1966 was done by the great Chuck Jones, who worked for Warner Brothers and Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and all that good stuff, and it was narrated by Boris Karloff.
Speaker 3:Probably why I like it. He's the wolf man, right? Boris Karloff is the wolf man.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, let's see. And the your Meemaw, mr mr grinch, was sung by thorough ravens croft, aka the voice of tony the tiger. Little trivia there, for you um, that's great, all right, you're right, you are the grinch, not charlie. So the Grinch is a surly antisocial green creature with a heart two sizes too small.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent Mine's eight sizes too small. I don't even think it's in there. Cold, dead and dark.
Speaker 2:He lives well. It says he lives alone atop Mount Crumpet, but he has his dog, he has his dog. I know Max Exactly.
Speaker 3:It's my kind of life. Yes, away from everybody but your dog, except the top of that mountain is very high, I don't care okay, no one will come there, true, yeah yeah, I'm gonna eat I don't know snow, I go oh I'm sure you could have door comes. Yeah, I'll getash, you just go to the Grinch.
Speaker 2:He does come out, you put a barbed wire with signs that nobody put DoorDash on this place.
Speaker 3:Nobody come down every now and then to get supplies. I think he comes down every now and then to get supplies.
Speaker 2:Who the Grinch, the Grinch. Well, he comes down to wreak havoc on.
Speaker 3:Christmas. I don't blame him. That's when he picks up all his stuff for the year.
Speaker 2:He steals.
Speaker 3:All right, and then he just makes his own dinner.
Speaker 2:Anyway, mount Crumpit is above the village of Whoville. He especially hates Christmas and has spent the last 53 years annoyed by their Christmas celebrations. Three more years, you only have a few more years to go, you will have completely transformed into a bitch.
Speaker 3:I'm going to wear green all the time. That's it. 53 was going to be my year.
Speaker 2:In particular, he hates the noise. Yep, all right. The gluttonous feasting that one, I don't yeah, that one's all right. And the Christmas music.
Speaker 3:God awful.
Speaker 2:Christmas music. And on Christmas Eve he has decided he's had enough and he's going to stop Christmas Day from coming to Whoville. So the Grinch makes himself a Santa Claus style coat and hat to disguise himself as the famed Christmas character. He also disguises his dog, max, as a reindeer.
Speaker 3:Wait, can I interject for a second, of course, have you seen the meme? Maybe it's a meme, maybe it's just like a it's a meme, and it's the Grinch and Max, and then the next little cell is Jack Skellington and Zero, and then the next one is the corpse bride and the dog, where they're dead.
Speaker 2:So it's the yeah, that is so cute.
Speaker 3:Makes sense too it does. Jack was definitely the Grinch. Yeah, and he's trying to get Christmas back? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep. So the Grinch loads some empty bags into his sleigh and he travels to Whoville in the middle of the night. Acting as the reverse of Santa Claus, he takes everything Christmas themed in the house first house he finds. In so doing, he is almost caught by Cindy Lou who, who was voiced by June Foray, if you'll, it was the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Natasha. I recognized her name. I was like I know that we talked about her in another episode, so I looked it up. So Cindy Lou is a toddler who girl who wakes up and sees him taking the Christmas tree, maint maintaining character as santa the grinch tells cindy lu that he is merely taking the tree to his workshop for repairs and then gets her a drink before sending her back to bed. See, and you would do that too, like you are like the grinch, but you would be really nice to the little girl have a drink of nyquil little girl rub some whiskey on her gums.
Speaker 2:Um, let's see. He finished, uh, emptying the first house of all the christmas related items and then repeats the process to the other homes in whoville, um, with the who's stolen christmas goods. The grinch and max travel back up mount crumpet, um, before dropping the loaded sleigh off the, the Grinch and Max travel back up Mount Crumpit before dropping the loaded sleigh off the mountain. The Grinch listens excitedly to hear cries of anguish from the Hoos when they wake up to discover their losses. However, down in the village, the Hoos joyously begin to sing Christmas carols as though nothing had happened, proving that the spirit of Christmas does not depend on material things. Blah.
Speaker 2:At first the Grinch is confused, but he then begins to understand the true meaning of Christmas. It's not going to happen at 53. Just as the stolen Christmas items begin to slip off the mountain edge, the Grinch rushes to save them. His heart grows three sizes, granting him the strength of 10 Grinches plus two which he needs to lift the sleigh to safety. He brings everything back to the who's and participates in the holiday festival. He's given the honor of carving the who's favorite Christmas dish, a rare roast beast, and Max gets the first slice for all of his troubles, my sister and I do still call it roast beast.
Speaker 2:A couple little factoids about this is this was the first Dr Seuss TV special. It was directed by Chuck Jones, like I said earlier. See, he also ended up producing Horton Hears, a who and the Cat in the Hat, thurl Ravenscroft was uncredited in the Dr Seuss special and in one of the most infamous errors, dr Seuss attempted to rectify this by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer of On your Mean One, mr Grinch. He is also part of the chorus on the other two songs. Yeah, that kind of is a big yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially back then, man, like that was, the only way you got seen was if you were in the credits, that's like the whole thing yeah.
Speaker 2:Some of the characters were adapted to look different than from the original book. Some of the characters were adapted to look different than from the original book. The Grinch was given a signature color for this show. Max's fur was colored brown and in the book he was white. The Whos appeared to wear clothing attire, so I guess they were naked in the book, and they also had human-colored flesh tones. I mean, they're not real, so they needed clothes?
Speaker 3:No, because the Grinch doesn't wear anything.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's true. Yeah. And then Cindy Lou, who looks almost much more human in her design and was given blonde hair and blue eyes Originally in the book. She was almost balding and had very small tall specks of hair sticking out the top of her head. I think that would have been cuter, that's probably cute. And then in the movie she's much older. Yeah.
Speaker 3:She's kid size.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no but no, all right. So now the little drummer boy, ones that you said that you don't remember. I don't remember the little drummer boy, all right. So said that you don't remember, I don't remember the little drummer, all right. So this one's from 1968. This one I remember, but I have like the least memory of this one. This one was created. This little drummer boy was 1968. Uh, done by greer garson, uh, narrating the rankin bass production. Uh, it was done based on the carol, obviously, about a poor boy who joins the three wise men in journeying to Jesus' birthplace. Only, he has nothing to offer the newborn savior, except his skilled beats. Um Jose Ferrer shows up to voice a circus ringmaster while the Vienna Boys Choir performs the title tune. This is straight out of the bible. It's one of those and old testament bible where, like god punishes you. Just to prove that.
Speaker 2:That's why we've I've never seen it yeah, and maybe that's why they don't air it anymore either. But um, so this is a story, but I do remember this one. Um, it was a young drummer boy named aaron um, and he was orphaned after the desert bandits stole his family's sheep, killed his parents and burned their farm. Jesus, yeah, I told you, it was very old testimony. Um, his only companions are Baba, a lamb, samson, a donkey and Joshua, a camel. Uh, so Aaron's animal friends like dancing to the songs of his drum, which was given to him by his father before his death. Uh, one day, aaron, baba, samson and Joshua are captured by a performer named Ben Harriman and his lanky partner, ali. So, after the capture, ben Harriman talks Aaron into joining their show caravan and performing, though Aaron has vowed to hate all people for what they have done to his family and joyful life. See you connect with this guy?
Speaker 2:There's a little bit of me in everybody who knew you were in all these Christmas specials. You're the pre-moral to the story.
Speaker 3:I am the pre-moral. I am the pre-moral to every story. Every story I'm involved in is pre-moral.
Speaker 2:So let's see here. Um, so let's see. When the trio and the animals arrive in jerusalem, they roll out the carpet and begin the show with two unsuccessful chinese tumblers and ali who attempts to juggle pots and ends up breaking them. So this is probably why they don't air it anymore, because they're probably we're not done.
Speaker 2:You think, probably really racist, very problematic, yes. Aaron then performed why Can't the Animals Smile? With some assistance from Baba, samson and Joshua. The audience loves it and begs for more. But Aaron becomes angry at them for being happy after the painful loss of his parents, becomes angry at them for being happy after the painful loss of his parents. His vow to hate all humans overtakes him and the bewildered crowd chases the performers out.
Speaker 3:I can't tell you how many times.
Speaker 2:So here's a picture of that, One of the pictures. I didn't know if that would help you.
Speaker 3:If that looks from that's the Chinese man.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that is problematic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. So soon after setting up camp, Ben, harrimond and Ali discover the caravan of the three kings. Ben promises Aaron he will give him half the money and set him free if he does a performance for the kings. Aaron agrees, but to Ben's dismay, the kings are leaving to follow the star of Bethlehem and have no time for a performance because, you know, stars travel very fast. They got no time for your shit uh.
Speaker 2:But one of the king's camels collapses damn Damn it and not able to get up. And who's got a camel? Aaron, the king then remembers seeing a camel with the trio and Ben sells Joshua, much to Aaron's horror. Like this poor kid Right Now, this dude sold his camel. Here's another picture. All right. So determinedaron leaves ben and, along with samson and baba, goes to follow the king's caravan to reclaim joshua the campbell. Uh, they resort following the star bethlehem and soon come upon the bar in the birthplace of jesus. They spot joshua and happily run to meet him. Unfortunately, a horse-drawn cart comes rolling past and injures Again this poor kid. Here we go, here we go, here we go. He does not understand but reluctantly lays down his beloved lamb and approaches Jesus. He plays a song on his drum while the Vienna boys choir sings the title song. Jesus then smiles at him Baby Jesus, baby Jesus, dear tiny little baby Jesusesus yeah, teledeganites, no.
Speaker 2:After the song he finds out that baba is alive. It's a miracle. He then realizes that the vow he then realizes that easter is when we eat lamb he then realizes that the vow he had made and kept on the night of his parents' death was wrong. The star of Bethlehem still shines in the sky, protecting and illuminating Bethlehem forevermore. Okay.
Speaker 3:And scene.
Speaker 2:All right. Next we have Frosty the Snowman. It came out in 1969. Know this one? Okay, I watched this one today while I was doing research as well. Hand-drawn in animation, instead of the elaborate, elaborate 3d puppetry of the other specials. Right, this was a career highlight for nightclub comic Jackie Vernon, who is best remembered today for voicing the charismatic snowman who comes to life when a magician's top hat lands on his head. Jimmy Durante there's that name again Drawn, complete with the schnoz. I couldn't remember, so I looked him up and I remembered him as soon as I looked at him and he did have a schnoz. So he narrates and sings the title song. Plus, I hadn't heard the word schnoz in a really long time and it's fun to say so. Schnoz there. All right, I'm done. I promise I'll stop saying it now. All right, so here I have to. The funny thing is, when I was doing research on um this one, for whatever reason, pull up Frosty the Snowman and it said that there were spoiler alerts.
Speaker 3:Spoiler alerts. Spoiler alerts. The melt. Okay.
Speaker 2:So on Christmas Eve, a girl named Karen and her classmates are waiting at the end of the school day. They're waiting to see the magical act of Professor Hinkle in the newly fallen snow. So they build a snowman and they're trying to think of a name. And they think about Christopher Columbus or oatmeal, and then Karen decides the name of Frosty. Wow. Then they find Hinkle's discarded hat, which blew off his head. Karen puts it on Frosty's head and Frosty says happy birthday. Frosty's not one of my favorites either, although there was watching it today. It's got a lot of dark stuff in it too. So now he's got this magic hat, um power that brought him to life, and he also um has the pet rabbit, hocus pocus. That returns to the hat, um, because remember back.
Speaker 3:I get it. He was a magician, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I was gonna say remember back in the day like that was a big thing, like every magician had like a rabbit, so frosty um. He soon sensed that the temperature outside was rising and he needed to get somewhere. So the kids were going to stick him on a train to the North Pole.
Speaker 3:I hope it's an outdoor train.
Speaker 2:But then Frosty gets in a confrontation with a traffic cop and karen explains that frosty came to life and is just coming to terms with his surroundings. So the cop lets frosty go wow with the warning why?
Speaker 3:no, men are white oh gosh go mess with the cop right now and then have your little buddy be like oh no, for real. He's a magic hat, okay.
Speaker 2:Put the crack pipe down for a second.
Speaker 3:Maybe lay off the meth.
Speaker 2:So then, at the train station, frosty stows away in a refrigerated box car. Good, at least they thought that one through. Yeah, since the kids didn't have any money For a train ticket. By the way, speaking of which, did you see a lady Stowed away Was a stowaway on an airline.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:American, she, I want to say I was out of JFK On a flight to Paris. Wow, she got through everything and the Flight crew finally figured it out, because she never sat, she just went from bathroom to bathroom.
Speaker 3:How does that even happen?
Speaker 2:I don't know she's like a Russian nationalist and she was begging him not to send her back to the US and she's like 58 years old or something, I don't know. It was crazy. Anyway, let's see. So he's stowed away. Karen and Hocus decide that they're going to go with him. Let's see here.
Speaker 3:I think they brought a coat because I feel like it's pretty cold in here.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it, like I was watching, so, yeah. So it comes to, the train stops up north and Frosty notices that Karen is freezing hey, frosty notices that Karen is freezing, hey. So they get off the train. Then Hinkle jumps off the train too, but he falls down a mountain and crashes into a tree and snow piles up on him. So then Hocus convinces the forest animals to build a campfire. Oh, that's right. When I was watching it today, frosty was like building a campfire is the one thing I can't do.
Speaker 3:Just the one, huh. So yeah, I mean his arms are made of sticks. Maybe if we rubbed them together.
Speaker 2:So yeah, he was looking for somebody that could build a fire for him. Hocus suggests that the Marines and the President of the United States come help. Oh wait, that the Marines and the President of the United States come help. And then he says Santa Claus.
Speaker 3:So this went so far off the rails, I told you.
Speaker 2:These shows are crazy, man. Like you remember the basis of the story and like the song that goes with it. But there's some really deep shit in these things.
Speaker 3:The Marines, yes, and the President of the United states and santa claus and santa claus.
Speaker 2:Yes, he covered all his bases I don't know, maybe his dad was a marine. Frosty agrees, and sure, why wouldn't he? So hocus gets santa. Let's see hinkle it confronts. Oh, hinkle's the one looking for his hat. That's whose hat that they have, and it's probably his bunny and hocus. But hocus ran away from him, so he must have been a bad owner living ahead he's snatched up by his ears all the time.
Speaker 2:Um, let's see. So frosty and karen blow out the campfire and they have to flee again. And Karen is on Frosty's back and he's sliding headfirst down a hill. And then they get to the bottom.
Speaker 3:Why is he staying?
Speaker 2:attached. They get to the bottom and there's a greenhouse filled with Christmas poinsettias. Yes, Despite Karen's objections, Frosty steps inside with her saying that he could afford to lose a little weight. Unfortunately, Hinkle catches up and locks them inside. I don't understand why he wouldn't.
Speaker 3:That's murder Straight up. That's just murder, it is. It is it is Kidnapping and murder and cruelly the animal All right.
Speaker 2:But then Hocus brings Santa and the Marines no, not the Marines To the greenhouse, only to find a heartbroken Karen in tears and Frosty melted on the floor. Santa explains that Frosty's made of snow Dumbass he's made of snow and he'll take the form of summer rain until next December and he'll take the form of summer rain until next December With a gust of cold air through the door, the puddle that was frosty blows out the door magically changes back into frosty.
Speaker 3:So what you're trying to tell me is when it rains, and this is how I am forever now going to remember rain in the summer as frosty blood. So basically, when it rains in the summer, you are covered in frosty goo.
Speaker 2:Yes, hinkle relents only when he gets threatened to be put on santa's naughty list for the rest of his life. So hinkle gives in um see. And then hinkle went home and wrote I am really sorry for what I did to frosty a hundred zillion times jesus christ so that he might get a gift in his stocking on Christmas morning.
Speaker 3:You're a grown-ass adult. Go buy your own shit.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, All right. So let's see. Yeah, that's enough of Frosty, we're done with that one, all right? So Santa Claus is coming to town in the 1970s.
Speaker 3:I do know his little song. I'll Be Back on Christmas Day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and apparently all over your face All summer long.
Speaker 2:So the next one is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. This one came out in 1970. And this was always one of my favorites too, but again, watching it as an adult, just it's different. As an adult, just it's different. So Mickey Rooney plays Kris Kringle in this Rankin-Bass origin story that purports to explain the origins of all their traditions surrounding Santa Claus. Dancing mailman narrates it, featuring one of the most memorable rankin bass villains, the toy hating burger meister meister burger, who had like a german accent. It was very nazi-esque, um, when I was watching it. And another thing that was really creepy is Kris Kringle, so I'll skip this part, but anyway he goes. This guy comes into town, kris Kringle, and the Burger Meister Meister Burger has banned toys from the town because they like corrupt kids or something. So Kris Kringle is singing to the kids and the line was if you sit in my lap today, a kiss, a toy is the price you'll pay. You see it over and over and I said it to my husband. He's like I heard yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's why he was watching Right, all right, so yeah, so the yeah, it's weird To catch a predator.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why he was watching it, right, all right, so yeah, so the narrator is Special Delivery, or SD Kluger, which Fred Astaire as a mailman. His mail truck breaks down, so he decides he'll tell the story of Santa.
Speaker 3:I mean as someone whose mail truck has broken down. You definitely have time.
Speaker 2:The story begins in a gloomy municipality called Sombertown I live there which is ruled by Burgermeister Meisterburger. One night, a baby arrives on his doorstep with a name tag reading claws and a note requesting that burger meister raised the child on his own.
Speaker 3:Um, he's angry I don't blame him. I'd be like fuck this shit, I want a baby and he orders his right hand man to take the baby to the orphanage.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what you would do get this thing out of here on the way over, though, uh, the wind blows and the baby blows far away to the mountains of the west I love that I hate it when my baby blows away there.
Speaker 2:A group of animals hide him from the winter warlock, a powerful wizard who dislikes anyone trespassing on his land man. So the animals bring the baby to the other side of the mountain where he lives with a family of elves and their last name is kringle uh. Their queen is tonta kringle uh, and she decides to adopt the baby and name him Chris. As he grows up, the elves teach Chris how to make toys and cookies, not those kind of elves.
Speaker 2:When Chris is old enough, he volunteers to deliver the toys to Sombertown, joined along the way by a lost penguin who he names Topper. So here's a picture. Do you recognize this one A little? Okay, that's Jessica, his boo thing.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, His future wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was the teacher. Meanwhile, the Burgermeister, after tripping on a toy duck and breaking his funny bone, outlaws all toys in Sombertown, declaring that anyone with a toy in their possession will be arrested and thrown in the dungeon. After avoiding an encounter with the winter warlock, chris arrives in sombertown where he starts handing out toys to the children. He is briefly haunted by miss jessica, uh, the local school teacher, and she quickly warms up to him because he's the only guy her age in town and he's wearing a fancy red suit.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he gave her a china doll and she always wanted one.
Speaker 3:Bribery will get you everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yes. Afterward the Burgermeister arrives and nearly arrests the children for playing with the toys. Chris gives the Burgermeister a yo-yo, which he initially enjoys, admitting that he loved a yo-yo when he was a kid, only for Grimsley to remind him that he is breaking his own law. Enraged, the Burgermeister orders to have Chris arrested, but Chris just barely manages to escape the Burgermeister's troops and out of Sombertown. So then Chris and Topper are in the woods and they are captured by the winter warlock. Finally, um and but uh, the tree monsters of the winter warlock catch him. Um, so he gives the warlock a toy train in an attempt to placate him. Class seat Play again, let's see, touched by his act of kindness, the warlock's icy exterior melts away and he befriends Chris.
Speaker 3:Because of a train.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, it's got to be a little bit more than a train, maybe if it's the first toy he ever got in his life.
Speaker 3:I mean it's got to be like a toy train with dollar bills hanging out of it or something.
Speaker 2:So now the warlock wants to be called Winter. Chris goes and finds Jessica, who informs him that the Burgermeister destroyed all the toys and the children want new ones. Greedy little fuckers.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Like he's supposed to pull them out of his ass, I guess so fuckers right, like he's supposed to pull him out of his ass like, I guess, um, the the kringles move onto winter's mountain and build a new workshop there, and chris starts delivering the toys at night. To prevent further toy deliveries, the burgermeister orders all doors to be locked tight. So chris started starts sliding down chimneys to deliver them, breaking and entering yes. The Burgermeister then begins searching houses outright and this in the show is literally like German-esque soldiers kicking indoors.
Speaker 2:Chris resolves to hide the children's toys in stockings which he routinely leaves by the fireplace. Frustrated with the inability to stop Chris, the Burgermeister sets a trap for him when he makes another delivery. He arrests Winter and the Kringles and he personally captures Chris, who surrenders willingly once he sees Topper being taken hostage. Poor Topper. When the Kringles and most of their allies now in the dungeon, the burgermeister personally sets fire to the children's toys in front of them, declaring they will never play with toys again. You know what that reminds me? I was watching, I used to watch that show hoarders, and it can't anymore because it makes me sad. But um, the one lady. She was a hoarder because when she was a kid her mom took all her toys out in the front yard and set them all on fire oh wow yeah, so then she never wanted to get rid of anything, just reminded me of that.
Speaker 2:Okay, anyway, um. So jessica implores the burgermeister to release chris and the kringle family. Um, but he won't. So she goes to the dungeon and tells winter to use his magic to free everyone. Why didn't he think of that? Um, but he says he has no more magic, except for some corn that can make reindeer fly do you know that the um, the reindeer have to be all that?
Speaker 3:santa's reindeer are girls, because the male reindeer shed their antlers and the females don't.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So this inspired Jessica to give some of the corn to Chris's reindeer friends Dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, who then use their new flying abilities to help the Kringles, chris, topper and Winter escape. Now the Burgermeister is mad again For some time. It is shown that Chris has grown a beard and Tanta suggests that he return to his birth name, claus, for safety. Chris asks Jessica to share the name Claus with him as his wife After they're married. Under a fully decorated pine tree, the group travels to the North Pole where they build a new workshop making more toys for the children of Sombertown. Eventually, the people of Sombertown realize how silly the Meister Burger's laws are. Once the Burger Meister passes away, chris's legend goes worldwide, now known as Santa Claus. He realizes he cannot keep up with all the toy requests, leading to his decision to go just once a year on December 24th. Interesting that, my friends, is how Santa Claus came to be.
Speaker 3:This is the super extended version long episode of like whatever today.
Speaker 2:I know I couldn't choose, I actually cut some out, all right. So next is Twas the Night Before Christmas. That one came out in 1974. And it was another hand drawn Rankin-Bass special. That was done based on a poem by Clement Clark Moore about a typical visit from Santa Claus. There was a fictional town called Junctionville, new York. The whole town had written their letters to Santa and all the letters came back. So the mayor and the town's folk were confused, of course. So Father Mouse discovers that Santa is offended by an anonymous letter that was printed in the town's newspaper, signed from all of us, and claiming that he didn't exist. He immediately suspects that his brainy older son, albert this is father mouse, his brainy older son, albert albert mouse, is the author does he have another son named mickey?
Speaker 2:michael mighty um albert confirms his suspicions, repeating the letter verbatim to him. While Father Mouse tries to show his skeptical son what his actions have done, joshua Trundle, a human clockmaker whom Father Mouse assists, devises a plan to appease Santa and pitches it to the town committee. He will build a singing clock tower for him, with a special recording to play a song that will make Santa happy again and convince him not to bypass Junctionville on Christmas Eve. I can't wait to hear what song.
Speaker 3:this is From the edge of my seat.
Speaker 2:I don't. I love this one. I remember this one, I would be so stressed out. So anyway, they had the town meeting in the town square and they unveiled Joshua's new clock to the townsfolk. Unfortunately, albert enter Albert, the mouse enters it to explore it without permission and inadvertently breaks it. This ends up seriously damaging Joshua's professional reputation as his business dies out due to the townsfolk not trusting him with their clocks. Furthermore, the mayor publicly embarrassed the clockmaker's clock tower's failure and refuses to give Joshua access to it for repairs.
Speaker 2:After realizing that his actions may have ruined Christmas for the whole town, a remorseful Albert confesses his mistake to his father and volunteers to repair the clock tower himself. Father Moss tells Joshua about the situation before both families go to bed, waiting with worry on Christmas Eve. Although Albert does not complete his task until about one minute after the midnight deadline, the clock tower does play its song after all, within earshot of Santa, which convinces him to turn around and come to Junctionville after all. The special ends amid an animated retelling of the original poem set to Santa, leaving gifts at the Trundle home, performing the action stated in it, then flying off into the night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't remember what the song is I was waiting for the song and I know I didn't think I had it in here.
Speaker 2:Santa claus is coming to town all right, I'll learn it and sing it to you next week please all right. So this was a year without santa claus. One again. Santa was done by Mickey Rooney, and he gets sick. And then so Mrs Claus, who's played by Shirley Booth, tries to take center stage, but she's upstaged by two of the most unforgettable rank and best supporting characters Feuding Brothers Snow Miser and Heat Miser, each with his own vaudevillain anthem and lair full of mini-me's.
Speaker 3:I do know the little songs because they play them on TikTok all the time. Okay, and they do the makeup.
Speaker 2:Anyway. So the story is told by Mrs Claus and it's about the year that there almost wasn't Christmas because Santa Claus got he had fallen ill and hurt and doesn't quite feel like making his annual. Sounds like some bullshit to me.
Speaker 2:You only work one day a year, pick a story and stick to it. Under the recommendation of his doctor, santa decides to issue a press release to announce that christmas was canceled so that he may take a holiday. Do you take 364 days a year off? Well, you know, humoring her husband. For the time being, mrs claus assigns two elves named jingle bells and jangle bells with a task. She orders them to leave the north pole in the weeks leading up to christmas to find a town where they could rally up some Christmas cheer to convince Santa to still perform his annual journey.
Speaker 3:My God, sir, you only work one day a year. Suck it up.
Speaker 2:Riding the baby reindeer Vixen. The dim witted elves set off to the South when they get caught into in the crossfire of the ever-feuding miser brothers snow miser, who controls the cold northern weather, and his foul-tempered brother heat miser, who controls the hot weather in the south. The elves and vixen are immediately attacked by heat miser and his minions. Asiser looks on, but they fortunately manage to escape. They soon arrive in the American city known as Southtown. The exact state is never mentioned.
Speaker 3:That's the Springfield from the Simpsons.
Speaker 2:And they received a court summons from a local cop To avert suspicions. Disguised vixen as a dog, after an encounter with a grouchy woman, jingle and jangle approach a group of nonchalant school children, including a boy named ignatius thistlewhite, disheartened that no one seems to care that christmas is canceled. The elves almost fail to notice that Vixen has been captured by the dog catcher. Wow, back at the North Pole, santa learns of his wife's plot to resurrect Christmas and sets off, accompanied by his flying reindeer Dasher, to assist the helpless elves in a dangerous world they know nothing of. He's like God damn it, mrs Claus, I take some Nyquil once. After arriving in south town himself, he meets and befriends ignatius and, calling himself mr claus, asked him if he's seen the two elves. Uh, the boy's mother overheard it and voice invites the jolly man into her house.
Speaker 3:Uh, they never invite jolly men into your house well, he drank some of mrs thistle white's tea.
Speaker 2:That'll teach mrs claus. Uh, the family discusses the existence of Santa Claus, not realizing that they are in his company. Mr Thistlewhite oh, this just got interesting sings a song about when he was a boy and learned that Santa was in fact real, leading Iggy to admit that maybe he's not too old to believe in Santa himself lifting Santa's spirits. So, blah, blah, blah, More reindeer. So, anyway, Santa brought Vixen back to the North Pole. He finds out that some of the people still believe in him and in the spirit of Christmas after all, especially when the world's children decide they will make presents for him since he plans on taking a holiday.
Speaker 3:What the actual fuck I'm only gonna do it if you make me do it the children's decision sets off headlines around the world.
Speaker 2:One little girl is especially sad to miss santa on christmas eve. Writing to him that she'll have a blue christmas touched by all the evidence he has seen of caring and generosity, santa decides to pack the sleigh and make his christmas eve journey after all, even though he didn't feel good, he he got hurt. I have to work sick too, sam. So that's that one. The last one's Jack Frost from 1979. This was just these Rankin-Bass ones, like I never knew that that was who I loved so much, but he made like most of my favorite ones. So this is a wintertime sprite who wants to become immortal after he falls in love with a human girl. Did you see this one?
Speaker 2:I know so, uh, the villain is. I know who jack cross is. Okay, so the villain is kubla cross. Uh, cossack monarch with a mechanical horse and a robot army. Oh Lord, I didn't know all this.
Speaker 3:Now we're going to bring robots in.
Speaker 2:And Bunny Hackett is the narrator, as a chubby-cheeked groundhog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 2:So the immortal sprite falls in love with a human girl named Alyssa uh. After he rescues her, jack asked Father Winter if he can become human in order to be with her. Father Winter gives him a chance but warns that Jack must prove he can succeed as a human by earning a house, a horse, a bag of gold and a wife by the first sign of spring Holy that's a lot. Yeah, Especially like you don't know how to do that. No stuff Like there's no Google.
Speaker 2:No, exactly, you don't need those things in Sprite world. Uh, if not, he will become a Sprite again. Uh, jack agrees and turns human, assuming the identity of Jack snip. He runs a tailor shop in the town of January Junction with two friends who also turned human Snip the snowflake maker and Holly the holiday snow gypsy. Snip and Holly were sent by Father Winter to ensure Jack does not get into trouble. Father wins her to ensure Jack does not get into trouble. Alyssa is charmed by Jack's snip, but she harbors a romantic dreams of Sir Reveno Did I say that right? Sure, a knight in golden armor, of course. But then Alyssa gets kidnapped by the evil king Kubla Kraus, who has an army as well as menacing mechanical horses, um, and he possesses all the brick, gold and timber that january junction used to have. He lives in a castle on miserable mountain me too with a side quick sidekick, a ventriloquist dummy named Dommy. Oh God no. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm with you on that one that is creepy. Yeah, ventriloquists are a no-go for me. No, that's a no, especially the dolls, and that's who he lives with is the doll, not even the ventriloquist, but the doll, just the doll.
Speaker 2:After Alyssa is rescued by a knight named Sir Ravennaud, kubla vows to destroy January Junction and he imprisons Jack, snip, snip and Holly. Jack decides to become a sprite again in order to whip up the biggest snowstorm ever seen, freezing Kraus in his castle. Snip and Holly change back to sprites as well. This tactic works until Groundhog Day comes. Jack Frost uses his shadow to scare Pete back to hibernation and continues whipping up the storm. Finally, with one hour left before the arrival of spring, jack returns to human form in an attempt to meet Father Winter's conditions and win Alyssa. He battles Kubla Kraus, which ends with him falling out of his castle and blown very far away by Father Winter.
Speaker 2:Jack then claims the gold Klang Stumper, which was the horse and the castle. He races off to ask Alyssa for her hand in marriage. This was all in an hour, mind you, um. But during his absence she has fallen in love with sir reveno and he with her. Jack becomes a sprite again for good and blows ice onto alissa's wedding bouquet, turning it white. When asked about the change, she sheds a tear, saying an old friend just kissed the bride. Snip calls out to Jack that winter wouldn't be the same without him.
Speaker 3:Wow, I know that's a tale, it is. It's intense.
Speaker 2:It's like um early Hallmark Christmas movie. All right, so, as that, that was it. Um, I know this ran long and I'm really sorry, but I had so much fun looking into these things and just kind of reminiscing and I'm hoping that, um, those of you that are listening to it are like remembering these shows or like, oh yeah, I want to watch that again. So, um, I did go through and research and see where everything is playing, so I'll give you that now and we'll also share it on our social media when the episode comes out. So, how the Grinch Stole Christmas will be on NBC on December 5th and the 25th. I'm not going to go through everything here, but Frosty is also on NBC and on Freeform. Rudolph will be on NBC and Freeform. Jack Frost is on AMC, and then the rest of these A Year Without Santa Claus.
Speaker 2:Any of these I think you can see on YouTube. As far as I could see, um, or you can rent it or, uh, with a subscription on other platforms that one was actually available on, like a bunch of obscure ones, so I didn't list those. Uh, santa Claus coming to town Um, you can stream it on Amazon prime or Hulu. Uh, towards the night before Christmasmas you can stream on amazon prime, little drummer boy, amazon prime. Uh, and this really shocked me the um charlie brown christmas is now owned by apple tv. Yeah, and that is the only place you can see it.
Speaker 2:I think that they own all of charlie brown yeah, but they are and I thought this was nice that it'll be available to stream for free on apple tv plus this year on saturday december 14th and sunday, december 15th. So they do offer it for free um a couple times for people to see um and, like I said, I'll share this on our socials with everybody speaking of socials yes, you can find us on all the socials at.
Speaker 3:LikeWhateverPod, and that is where Facebook and probably Instagram, and I am trying to talk her into another one. Yeah, yeah, likewhateverpod. The email, if you wish to tell us that our episode was entirely too long this time, yeah. Or you want to tell me what I should do next week, but I think I now know what I'm going to do. Yeah, so, likewhatever at Gmail, you can send us an email or don't Like whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye We'll take you back. It's like whatever.
