About this episode
🎄 On another Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we fly back in time to 1978 to revisit Rankin/Bass’s turn at A Christmas Carol. **** 🎙 Guests: Michael DiGiovanni ( Classic Film Jerks , Pop Culture Retrofit , @theatomicgeeks ). Michael May ( MichaelMay.online , Sleigh Bell Cinema , Mystery Movie Night , AfterLUNCH , @michaelmaycomix ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. This is specifically an adaptation of a 1956 production on The Alcoa Hour starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. Rankin/Bass uses most of the songs from that special. 2. The original Stingiest Man in Town on Sleigh Bell Cinema . 3. Michael May’s annual coverage of scenes from this and other Christmas Carol adaptations . 4. Sonny Melendrez (Bob Cratchit) in You and Me, Kid . 5. This has my all-time favorite, super creepy version of Marley’s face appearing on Scrooge’s door knocker . 6. This special gets older Belle completely wrong. 7. Tiny Tim has skinny robot legs . 8. The eldest Cratchit sibling, Martha, is Debbie Clinger of the Clinger Sisters, a.k.a. Superchick from the Krofft Supershow host band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. 9. Rankin/Bass should have made a south seas-themed special called Christmas Island . (Hi from the future! We ended up exploring this idea on AfterLUNCH .) 10. Scrooge’s grave morphing into a giant devil face is a reminder in hindsight that this special was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the predecessor to Studio Ghibli. **** 📼 Retro Commercial Break: Glad Trash Bags Commercial starring Tom Bosley , 1981. **** “The Stingiest Man in Town” © 1978 Rankin/Bass Productions. Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house . Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse . Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .