It’s a special, post-Christmas bonus episode of the Advent Calendar House as we turn back the years to 1976 and tip our oversized hat hiding our oversized ears to Rankin/Bass’s first sequel special, “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.”
On This Episode
- Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), the living embodiment of a friendly reminder that someday you’re going to die.
- Brandon Medley (@brandmed) from Blessed Are the Geek.
- Joey O. (@ImGonnaDJ24) from Y-Not Radio and Words With Nerds.
Topics and Tangents
- Rudolph devolves into a younger-looking reindeer, because the original model may have been lost. But also he seems to forget he can fly.
- According to our narrator, Father Time (Red Skelton), this story begins “on that very same foggy night.” As in Christmas Eve. When Santa’s kind of busy.
- I learned who Red Skelton was from a joke in a Tex Avery cartoon.
- Rudolph has to cross a desert to see a man who lives under a star about a baby who must be found in order to save the world.
- “The Phantom Tollbooth,” in example.
- Tik-Tok from “Return to Oz,” in example.
- Creepier song about time: “The Moving Finger Writes” from this, or “Older” by They Might Be Giants?
- Ralph Archibold, Philadelphia’s longtime Ben Franklin impersonator.
- Billy Corgan rides a roller coaster.
Previous Episodes of This Podcast Mentioned
- Season 1, Bonus: The First Easter Rabbit
- Season 2, Episode 3: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Season 2, Episode 5: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
- Season 2, Episode 12: Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
- Season 3, Episode 2: Pinocchio’s Christmas
- Season 3, Episode 8: Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol
- Season 3, Episode 12: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.