About this episode
🎄On this episode of the official holiday podcast for people who hate all humans — which, in 2020, is most of us — we dance to the beat of our own drum back to 1968 and back into the Rankin/Bass universe for their stop-motion follow-up to Rudolph . **** 🎙 Guests Brandon Medley ( @brandmed , Star Weirdos ). Michael May ( MichaelMay.online , Sleigh Bell Cinema , AfterLUNCH , Mystery Movie Night , @michaelmaycomix ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. This was Romeo Muller’s favorite Christmas special he wrote for Rankin/Bass. Also, that link on Rankin/Bass’s website is from 2003 and looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2003. 2. Paul Frees voices of 8 different characters in this special, if you count animal noises. 3. The song, originally called Carol of the Drum , was written more recently than I’d thought — in 1941 — and first recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family Singers, the family that inspired The Sound of Music . 4. Aaron’s origin story is the same as Conan the Barbarian’s . 5. Here’s an isolated version of One Star in the Night , without the narration. 6. Burl Ives wouldn’t have felt out of place narrating this special, since he’d go on to narrate one about another caravan . 7. The special also mixes up its kings, at least as they’re traditionally named . 8. Our definitive versions of the song. 9. Young Brandon insists on adding the Little Drummer Boy to a church Nativity pageant. **** 📼 Retro Commercial Break: Kentucky Fried Chicken: Christmas Carol , 1989. **** 🎤 And Now, These Messages: NetfliXmas . Feliz Christmas, Merry Navidad . “The Little Drummer Boy” © 1968 Rankin/Bass Productions. Say hi on Twitter and Instagram . Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house . Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .