About this episode
🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we went on an apocryphal adventure with the story of The Little Drummer Boy . This time, Rankin/Bass drums up an unnecessary sequel from 1976, its busiest year for holiday specials. Join Aaron on a side quest to retrieve the stolen silver bells from a troop of greedy Roman soldiers in the “Rogue One” of Christmas stories. **** 🎙 Guests: Brandon Medley ( @brandmed , 📸 @blessedarethegeek ) **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. Allen Swift (Melchior) as Twinkie the Kid . 2. Simeon the bellmaker is very loosely based on the Biblical Simeon , but his Song of Simeon is left out. 3. Ray Owens (Simeon) as the voice of Superbook , and Jesus in “ The Flying House .” 4. Zero Mostel (Brutus) on “ The Muppet Show .” 5. “ Money Money Money ” (not the song from “ Mamma Mia! ”) 6. How bad is Brutus compared to the other Rankin/Bass Christmas villains? 7. “Do You Hear What I Hear?” was written during the Cuban Missile Crisis . 8. Our favorite recordings of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Copeland , the Mike Sammes Singers for Disneyland Records, and one by Spiraling that invokes The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” **** 📼 Commercial Break: Kodak XL Movie Camera: “One Christmas,” 1976. Holly Jolly X’masu , your podcast destination for Japanese Christmas music. **** “The Little Drummer Boy, Book II” © 1976 Rankin/Bass Productions. Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house . Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .