The Advent Calendar House gets overrun by earworms strong enough to burrow into wood as we carve into the 1980 Rankin/Bass TV special, “Pinocchio’s Christmas.”
On This Episode
- Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), buxom and unusually lightning-susceptible feline.
- Michael DiGiovanni (@theatomicgeeks), from the Atomic Geeks, Classic Film Jerks, and Pop Culture Retrofit podcasts.
- Michael May (@michaelmaycomix) of his Adventure Blog and the Sleigh Bell Cinema, Mystery Movie Night, and Nerd Lunch Fourth Chair Army Invasion podcasts, among many others.
Topics and Tangents
- Two songs, “Dancin’” and “The Very Best Friend I Ever Had,” were cut from and later restored to TV broadcasts.
- “Starstuff,” a Philadelphia market, Saturday morning kids’ sci-fi TV series starring Todd Porter, the voice of Pinocchio.
- The most disappointing gifts we’ve ever received, including what Santa gave me after I allegedly misspelled “Alpha Critters.”
- We question the less-than-clear laws that govern Pinocchio’s lie-detecting nose, which appear to grant him a mulligan here.
- Those classic Christmas puppet show characters, Don Quixote and an alligator.
- The strange flash-forward to the rest of Pinocchio’s better-known adventures, even though Rankin/Bass already made a Pinocchio TV series, its first ever stop-motion animation project.
Previous Episodes of This Podcast Mentioned
- Season 1, Episode 1: Frosty the Snowman
- Season 2, Episode 1: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Season 2, Episode 3: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Season 2, Episode 5: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
“Pinocchio’s Christmas” ©1980 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.
The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.