Pinocchio’s Christmas

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.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 SnowmanSeason 2, Episode 1: How the Grinch Stole ChristmasSeason 2, Episode 5: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

“Pinocchio’s Christmas” ©1980 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.

The Advent Calendar House on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Twitter @adventcalhouse, and part of the Christmas Podcast Network.