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Monday, December 24, 2012

Miracle on 34th Street


I can't believe we're on the second last day of “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar” already. That must mean that the calendar reads December 24th, which means that it happens to be Christmas Eve!

On one hand, I am so excited to see that it is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is probably one of the most magical days of the whole year (well, right next to Christmas Day, that is). Christmas Eve is a day that is filled with loads of anticipation over what is to come...especially when you're a child. I mean, think about it. One more day to go before Santa Claus slides down the chimney! One more day to go before you find out what goodies and treasures Santa Claus left behind for you. One more day before you get to spend well-deserved time off with your friends and family members.

(Well, okay...those friends and family members that you can stand to be in the same room with, at least.)

At the same time, Christmas Eve is sort of a bittersweet day for me. I've had a lot of fun with this advent calendar idea. It's really the first time in the blog's history that I have ever done a feature that has lasted nearly an entire month, and from what I can tell, it has been positively received by a lot of you. So, for it to be almost over...well, it kind of makes me feel sad. I guess it's the same way that a lot of us feel after the big day is over. I guess you could call it a minor case of post-holiday depression.

But, I don't dwell on it for too long. After all, a new year is coming, and I have got some really neat ideas for 2013. I've actually got a new idea for a theme month on deck for February 2013, so definitely be on the lookout for that.

But since we're still in December 2012, I have at least two more holiday themed entries left to talk about on the last two days of the advent calendar. And, why not celebrate the last Monday Matinee of the advent calendar with a holiday movie that many deem a film classic?

The question is...which version of the movie do I talk about?

You see, today's blog subject has no less than FIVE different adaptations made of it. The earliest was made in 1947...the most recent version came out in 1994. And, depending on the version of the movie that you end up watching, you'll see quite a few famous faces appearing in each one.

For instance, in the 1955 made for television version of the film, veteran “Days of our Lives” star Macdonald Carey played the main character. In the 1959 version, Ed Wynn and Orson Bean had starring roles. The 1973 film featured Roddy McDowall, Sebastian Cabot, and Tom Bosley. And Dylan McDermott, Elizabeth Perkins, Mara Wilson, and Richard Attenborough took on roles in the 1994 version.

I have not yet seen the 1955 or 1959 versions of the film yet, so I have no commentary on them. I did not really care for the 1973 version at all, as the character names were changed, and you could clearly tell that the movie, despite being depicted as being set during the holiday season was filmed in the summer because of the greener than normal trees in the background scenes. Oops! As for the 1994 version, I'll readily admit to liking it a lot. It's not quite as good as the version that I have chosen to spotlight in this blog, but I'll sit down and watch it a couple of times at least. What can I say, that little Mara Wilson was charming back then. It's too bad she's given up acting.

(And, it really makes me feel old knowing that Mara Wilson is now 25 years old!!!)

But while all of these remakes of a classic film were good and brought the classic story by Valentine Davies to a different generation every two decades, none of them would have even been possible without the original template to base a remake on.



So, for today's blog entry, I thought we would look at the classic 1947 original motion picture, Miracle on 34th Street! The original film was released sixty-five years ago on (weirdly enough) May 2, 1947! I know it seems bizarre for a Christmas film to be released four and a half months after Christmas, but I suppose back in those days, people didn't really mind all that much. At least in the country of Australia, the release was held off until December 18, 1947, which actually made more sense.

At any rate, the odd timing for release aside, the movie has ended up winning several accolades over its 65 year history. Just listen to some of the honours that the film has to its credit.

  • Won the Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Edmund Gwenn) Academy Award
  • Won the Academy Award for Best Writing
  • Won the Academy Award for Best Original Story (Valentine Davies)
  • Won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay
  • Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
  • Was named as the fifth best Fantasy Film by AFI in June 2008
  • Was selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry in 2005

That's not bad for a movie that was made on a budget of less than $700,000. Mind you, $700,000 in 1947 was worth a lot more than it is now, but still...it's mighty impressive. It's easy to see why so many seem to feel that “Miracle on 34th Street” is one of the best, if not the best, films of 1947.

Now, let's get onto the casting for the movie, which has some very interesting nuggets of trivia included within.



For instance, did you know that Maureen O'Hara (who played the role of Doris Walker) almost didn't take the role? She had just moved to Ireland and was reluctant to come back to America just for a film role. Although she did an about face once she read the script. It's probably a good thing that she did too, because I really couldn't picture anyone else in the role.



Another casting tidbit involves Natalie Wood (cast as Susan Walker, Doris' daughter). Did you know that this film was Natalie Wood's first major role in a motion picture? It's true. What's also true is that Natalie Wood was initially considered to play a role in the 1973 remake...the same role that Maureen O'Hara played in the original film (albeit renamed Karen Walker). But when it was suggested that Natalie's daughter play her daughter in the film, Wood declined the offer, stating that her daughter was way too young to begin acting.

My guess is that the daughter in question is Natasha Gregson Wagner...but I don't have absolute confirmation on this, so just keep in mind that this is only speculation.



And, of course, Edmund Gwenn won an Academy Award playing the role of Kris Kringle...and it is his story that forms the basic plotline for “Miracle on 34th Street”.



The story begins at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, and Kringle seems to believe that the Santa Claus that has been hired for the parade is drunk as a skunk, and insists to Doris Walker (the event director) that he be replaced immediately. Doris agrees, and she gives Kringle the job. To everyone's surprise, Kringle does a fantastic job. He does such a convincing job that Macy's immediately hires him on as the store Santa Claus at their flagship New York location on the busy 34th Street.

Now, one would think that if one is hired to play a Santa within a retail space that they would act as a sort of ambassador to the space. I imagine that the Santa Claus that visits our local mall every December will likely try to coerce shoppers to visit the several stores inside the mall itself.

Kris Kringle seems to take on a different approach, actually telling people to shop at other stores instead of Macy's! One shopper (Thelma Ritter) is actually taken aback at the suggestion that Kris Kringle gives her, but eventually comes to realize that Kris was actually trying to help her make the right choice when it comes to buying gifts, and she promptly tells the toy manager at Macy's that she has now become a loyal customer.

DISCLAIMER: If you work in retail, don't try this at your job. You might not get that pleasant of a reaction!

The children all seem to love Kris as Santa, as he seems to connect with them better than most other people. There's just one notable exception.

Susan Walker.



The precocious six-year-old daughter of Doris doesn't believe in Santa...a belief that was instilled into her by Doris herself, who raised her not to believe in fairy tales. So when Fred Gailey (John Payne), a neighbour of Doris' who also happens to practice law takes her to see Santa, Susan is only pretending to go along with the charade.

Until she overhears Santa speaking Dutch to a young girl who cannot speak English, and she begins to wonder if Santa Claus really does exist after all. Doris seems to pick up on this and she tells Kris to tell Susan that he isn't the 'real' Santa. But, Doris is stunned when Kris insists that he truly is the real Santa Claus. She isn't exactly sure how to respond to that.

Her first instinct is to terminate his employment, but rethinks that option after seeing just how good he is with the children who come to visit him. Plus, his presence at Macy's has generated a lot of positive publicity for the store, which has netted Doris a nice Christmas bonus. Still, Doris has doubts about the man, and arranges for Granville Sawyer (Porter Hall) to give him a psychological evaluation. Kris passes...but by the end of the evaluation, Granville ended up being the one who may have needed it more!

Now, this is where the story takes an interesting turn. Kris continues to do very well in his job, even going as far as being the catalyst in a sort of peace treaty between the owner of Macy's and the owner of rival department store chain, Gimbel's! At the same time, while Doris is constantly reassured that Kris is safe to be around children, Kris and Fred end up making a deal with each other. Kris will work on getting rid of Susan's cynical attitude towards Christmas and Santa if Fred will do the same with helping Doris overcome the bitterness she has towards the failure of her marriage.

(Keeping in mind that divorce was considered to be a somewhat taboo subject in the late 1940s.)

Of course, Susan doesn't make Kris' job easy. What Susan wants for Christmas more than anything else in the world is a house for her and her mother to live in...a rather large request for anyone to honour...even Santa Claus. But, Kris makes a promise to her that he will do his best.



Unfortunately, Kris discovers a rather shocking truth about Mr. Sawyer. It turns out that for whatever reason, Sawyer is threatened by a young employee of Macy's, and he somehow convinced him that he was mentally ill. The only thing that the employee was guilty of was perhaps being a little too kind and generous. And, there was no way that Kris was going to stand for it.

So, he confronts Granville Sawyer and after a verbal scuffle he grabs his cane and lightly taps him on the head! This persuades Granville to fake the seriousness of the injuries that he received, and as a result, Kris gets committed into a hospital for the mentally ill!

So, what will happen to Kris? Will Fred manage to find a way to get him out? Will Doris ever get over her divorce and start to see things in a brighter light? Will Susan ever believe in Santa Claus? Will Sawyer get his comeuppance?

You expect me to tell you? Like a wrapped up Christmas present, you're going to have to unwrap the ending yourself. But take it from me, it's a beautiful way to wrap up a classic movie!



And, that wraps up our Christmas Eve entry.



Tomorrow marks the final day of the advent calendar...and all I will say is that it is a Tuesday Timeline. That's coming up on Christmas Day.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Wonderful Christmastime


I can't believe that it's only two more days until Christmas! Where the heck did the month of December disappear to? Before you know it, 2012 will be another year in history!

But, at least we'll always have The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar as a visual record of the entire month of December 2012 to look back upon.



It's Day #23, and the last Sunday Jukebox entry of the advent calendar. Before I continue on with this, I just wanted to thank all of you for following this blog for not only the month of December, but since this blog began back in May 2011. I always have said that I would not have continued on with this blog if it weren't for all of you showing interest in it. The comments (even those that offer constructive criticism) are very much welcomed, and I really do appreciate the support that you have given me.

I think part of the reason behind the advent calendar is a way to thank all of you for that support.

Now, let's get on with today's subject.



If you remember back a couple of weeks ago, I did a little bit of a tribute to John Lennon, who was killed outside of his apartment building on December 8, 1980. As a part of that tribute, I did a feature on John Lennon's 1971 Christmas classic “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”.

But, did you know that John Lennon wasn't the only Beatle to release holiday themed songs? At some point, all four Beatles released a holiday song.



Let's take a look at Ringo Starr, for example. In October 1999, Starr released a Christmas album entitled “I Wanna Be Santa Claus”. Although the album was critically praised, and featured such classics as “Winter Wonderland”, “The Little Drummer Boy”, and “White Christmas”, commercially, it didn't do so hot, and none of the album's twelve tracks ended up making a dent on the charts.



The late George Harrison also had a holiday release, the 1974 single “Ding Dong, Ding Dong”. The song also wasn't a huge success on the charts, though it did peak at #36 on the Billboard Charts.



And then there's the offering that was released by Paul McCartney. And Sir Paul's song is one that can be quite polarizing. For every person who claims that the holiday song is one of their most favourite Christmas songs ever, there are others who find it cheesy, annoying, and classify it as one of the worst Christmas songs ever recorded.

I will tell you that I definitely fall in one of these camps. But, before I share my opinion, we need to listen to this song and watch the video for said song.



ARTIST: Paul McCartney
SONG: Wonderful Christmastime
ALBUM: N/A (was a single release)
DATE RELEASED: November 16, 1979
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: N/A
PEAK POSITION ON THE UNITED KINGDOM CHARTS: #6

There's a couple of things that I think that I should make clear before I go ahead with the history behind this release. First, although the song never did crack the Billboard Hot 100, it DID manage to reach the Top 10 for the designated Christmas Singles chart in December 1984 – five years after it was originally released.

And, secondly...I know that the video has Paul and Linda McCartney in it, but man, oh, man is that video ever bad...in a bad way. I mean, I know it was 1979 and that the video pre-dated MTV, but wow...I don't think that I can ever un-see that.



This single was recorded right around the same time that Paul McCartney was working on tracks for his 1980 album “McCartney II” (the same album that included the #1 song “Coming Up”). It was also one of the last singles that featured the members of the band, Wings – the band that Paul and Linda McCartney began in 1971.

And, when I say “featured”, I mean that the band members appeared in the music video. The members of Wings did not sing on the recording of “Wonderful Christmastime”.

Well, aside from Paul McCartney, that is.

The single was recorded during the summer of 1979, and the music video was filmed at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

This single proved to be a huge success for McCartney. Not only did it perform well on the UK Charts, but financially, it's a little bit of a gold mine for McCartney. The song has consistently played on radio stations every Christmas season since 1979, and ranks near the top of the most requested Christmas songs of all time. So, as far as actual airplay goes, McCartney nets millions of pretty pennies alone.

And, then there are all the cover versions of this song. Did you know that there are no less than twenty-six different versions of “Wonderful Christmastime” that have been released since 1979? Some of the artists who have re-recorded the song include Amy Grant, Hilary Duff, Demi Lovato, Jars of Clay, Kelly Rowland, and believe it or not, the trio of Martin Sheen, John Spencer, and Stockard Channing from “The West Wing”!

(Although it makes sense when you consider that the last one was released as part of a celebrity Christmas album released by NBC twelve years ago.)

The point is that with the airplay that McCartney's original song receives, plus the royalties that he gets when someone else records the song, it is estimated that McCartney makes an additional $400,000 from the song's royalties alone! This adds up to approximately $15 million generated income for McCartney since this song's 1979 release! Now, that is absolutely impressive.

Not bad, considering that these days McCartney seems a little bit embarrassed by the song and its success. Of course, McCartney also seemed to realize not to look a gift horse in the mouth, as “Wonderful Christmastime” is literally his gift that kept on giving! And over the years, that initial embarrassment seems to have melted away, as he performed the song on Saturday Night Live on December 15, 2012.

So, that's all that I have to say about “Wonderful Christmastime”.

It's fascinating though...whenever the song “Wonderful Christmastime” comes on the radio, people seem to have very strong opinions. Some people love it, others can't stand it.

My take? Unfortunately, I'm not all that wowed by it. To me, “Wonderful Christmastime” isn't all that wonderful.

But the reason why has nothing to do with who sings it. I think that had McCartney taken on a different arrangement with different musical instruments, and performed it more softly, it could have been a beautiful song, well deserving of its wonderful description.

And, I get that when the song was released, synthesizer music was huge. After all, late 1979 was the time when the music scene was shifting from disco to New Wave, and McCartney was just following suit. I suppose I can't fault him for that.

But listening to “Wonderful Christmastime” now, I can't help but grimace over how incredibly dated it sounds. Even some of the synthesizer heavy tracks from the middle of the 1980s don't sound as old-fashioned as “Wonderful Christmastime”.

I suppose that my final opinion about “Wonderful Christmastime” is that it was an okay song with good lyrics...but its presentation sounds extremely dated. It was good, but not nearly as wonderful as it could have been.

But, hey...at least I tried to be diplomatic about it. There are some people who hate this song with the fire of an erupting volcano. But they're entitled to their opinions.

After all, McCartney has sung his way to the bank with this song. What does he care anyway?

And, that wraps up Day #23.



Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and for our twenty-fourth day of the advent calendar, I've selected a holiday classic for your viewing pleasure...a holiday classic that has spawned at least four remakes. Which version will we feature? You'll see on Christmas Eve!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

The Year Without A Santa Claus


Sometimes, I get inspiration from some of the strangest places. And in the case of today's edition of The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar, I ended up getting the inspiration from several people on my Facebook friends list.

Occasionally, I will come across some rather interesting photos that are posted on my News Feed right around this time of year. There are lots of photos that wish people a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, and there are also some photos that are rather sarcastic, with a biting wit to them.

And, then I saw photos of these two charming characters.




Do you recognize these two? It's okay if you haven't. I must admit that I was completely confused myself. As it turns out, these two are named Heat Miser and Snow Miser. The two men are stepbrothers, and both of them were literally polar opposites of each other. Their mother? Mother Nature, of course!




Anyway, as their names describe, Heat and Snow basically live up to their descriptions. Heat Miser has his base around the Southern United States, and he has the power to make hot summer days and perfect beach weather any day you want it.




On the opposite side of the world, Snow lives near the North Pole, making sure that every place he goes is covered with tons of snow, ice, and frost. The temperatures are always biting cold...just the way he liked it.

Now, you'd think that with two bi-polar personalities as Heat and Snow had that they would not exactly find common ground. And, well...you're right. Both of the Miser brothers seemed to have an extreme case of jealous sibling rivalry. Heat Miser would try to melt Snow Miser with heat rays, while Snow Miser constantly kept giving Heat the cold shoulder...and then some.

Why, it would take a Christmas miracle for the two brothers to reconcile with each other. Like, say...if one of the key figures at the North Pole decided to take a vacation and the children of the world lost their faith in him. If there was only one way to convince this person to come back to work, and that one way for that to happen was for two sworn enemies to work together. Will Christmas be saved?




That's the question that has to be answered in the 1974 Rankin-Bass television special “The Year Without A Santa Claus”.

Now, part of the reason why I have never heard of the Miser brothers is the fact that I have never seen this television special until now. It initially debuted on ABC on December 10, 1974, and aired annually on that network until Christmas 1980.

Problem was...I wasn't born until 1981.

Now, reportedly it airs on the television cable channel known as ABC Family...but I don't get that channel on my TV, so I went years not even realizing that this television special even existed.

Thank goodness for YouTube!

Now, I imagine that a lot of you are like me, and have never seen this television special before. So, I'll post the links to the whole show HERE, HERE, HERE, and...oh yeah, HERE. I figure that we can watch it together while I talk a little bit about the storyline.




By the way, this Rankin-Bass special differs from previous ones, as the narration is entirely done by a female. In this case, the narration is performed by Mrs. Claus herself, voiced by the late Shirley Booth. To round out the voice cast is Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, George S. Irving as Heat Miser, the late Dick Shawn as Snow Miser, the late Bob McFadden and Bradley Bolke as Jingle and Jangle Bells, and Colin Duffy as Ignatius Thistlewhite.




Ignatius Thistlewhite. What a mouthful. Better call him Iggy from now on.

So, our story begins at a time before any of us on Earth were born (well, I suppose in my case, this was definitely the truth). It was Christmas Eve in the North Pole, and all the little elves were busy working away on toys for every boy and girl, and all was going well.

Until Santa got sick.




You know that nasty winter bug that is going around that is causing some people to develop a serious cold that can turn into pneumonia (the only reason I know about this bug is because everyone else in my family seems to have gotten it except myself)? Apparently Santa ended up coming down with it, and the end result forced him into bed. Mrs. Claus called in the doctor to give him a check-up, and the doctor forces him to make some changes in his Christmas Eve activities. Apparently all of that riding around in an open sleigh through heavy snow and sleet has done a number on Santa's body.

Is Santa upset about this? Of course...just not for the reasons you might have expected. Santa doesn't seem to think that the people of Earth care about him anymore, nor do they believe in Christmas anymore. Mrs. Claus tells him that he's being foolish, but Santa is set in his ways, and feels that maybe a holiday will do him some good.




Enter the elves known as Jingle and Jangle, and their baby reindeer, Vixen.

Mrs. Claus seems to believe that if Santa Claus was confronted with the truth that the people do love him, and that they do care about Christmas, it may snap him out of his depression. So, she sends Jingle, Jangle, and Vixen out to find people who truly do believe in Christmas.

It was all supposed to go flawlessly...well, until poor Vixen got distracted by the fighting between Heat and Snow, and ended up getting zapped by one of the Heat Miser's rays. The impact sent all three of them crashing down towards the village of South Town, USA, a place where it feels like summer vacation all year long.




To make matters worse, Jingle and Jangle end up getting ticketed by a police officer for riding a Vixen down the wrong way of a one-way street, crossing the White Line, and wearing strange clothes on a Sunday! Even worse, Vixen's temperature seems to be spiking up, and she is getting a bad fever. And, on top of all that, when Jingle and Jangle try to disguise Vixen as a dog, the local dog catcher takes her to the pound!

With help from a young boy named Iggy, Jingle and Jangle make an appeal to the mayor of South Town, begging him to release Vixen so that she can get better. But the skeptical mayor laughs in their faces when they claim that they are Santa's elves. Nevertheless, he agrees to free Vixen on one condition...that they make it snow in South Town on Christmas Eve.

A challenge, considering that South Town hadn't had a single snowflake appear in the town in well over a century.

Still, the elves did have one chance. Mrs. Claus was sort of a figure of neutrality between Heat and Snow, and both Heat and Snow held her in high regard. All they would have to do is recruit Mrs. Claus's help to get Snow Miser to make it snow in South Town. Problem solved.

Or not. Apparently, South Town is out of jurisdiction for Snow Miser. South Town is a community Heat Miser has had under his watch for a hundred years, and there was no way that he would allow Snow to bring a frosty chill over the community, even for one day. Although, he did wish them luck in trying to convince Heat to let Snow play in South Town for one day.

Needless to say, when Mrs. Claus asked Heat to let snow fall in South Town for Christmas Eve, the reception that she got wasn't the warmest. The only way that Heat Miser would agree to let it snow in South Town would be if Snow Miser would allow Heat Miser to create a lovely Spring day in the North Pole. Since neither brother would allow the other one to do what they wished, they found themselves in a stalemate, and it seemed like there was nothing that could be done.




But, Mrs. Claus still had one more ace up her sleeve. The question is, would her plan work?

Meanwhile, Santa is getting restless, and decides to disguise himself as an average resident of South Town, and he ends up getting a bit of an epiphany over the impact that he has on the people in town...particularly from one little girl who likes to use blue crayons...

I suppose that I could tell you how this special ends...but then what would the point be of posting a link to the television special within this blog? Click on it, and watch it for yourselves! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.  And, believe it or not, there was a sequel made that starred the Miser brothers that was released 34 years after the original!  Even better?  Mickey Rooney and George S. Irving reprised the original roles they played in the original television special!  Definitely be on the lookout for that one!




Coming up on Day #23 of the advent calendar...two weeks ago, we looked at a Christmas song by the late John Lennon. This time around, another Beatle will be featured.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Commercials Of Christmas Past


*tap tap tap*

Hello?  Anybody out there?  You can come out now!  The world hasn’t ended today!  We’re all still safe and sound, floating through space out of harm’s way...or at least until the next crackpot comes out of hiding and tries to predict the apocalypse yet again.

Today is December 21, 2012, and the only thing that is spectacular about today is that it happens to fall on the twenty-first day of The Pop Culture Addict’s Advent Calendar!  Aren’t you lucky!

For today’s blog entry, I have decided to make today an entirely commercial venture.  Oh, but don’t worry.  I’m not going to try to sell you anything (believe me, I make a horrible salesperson as it is).  Instead, I thought that we’d use this blog entry as a space where we can discuss our favourite (and maybe not-so-favourite) holiday ads over the last few years.

You can usually tell when the holidays are fast approaching when you turn on the television and during ad breaks, you see lots of snow, Christmas lights, and Santa Claus imagery amongst the cheeseburgers, shampoo, and automobile insurance salesmen.

What I find not so much fun is the fact that the holiday ads seem to begin earlier and earlier every year.  This past year, I remember seeing my very first Christmas commercial on HALLOWEEN NIGHT!  To me, that’s just plain overkill.  I suppose that by the year 2020, we’re going to be seeing Christmas ads in August, with advertisers trying to scare you into shopping early for the holidays.  After all, Christmas is only 120 days away!!!

Though, I digress.  Some of those holiday ads are quite memorable. 

So, I’ve searched through the darkest depths of YouTube high and low to try and compile a list of some of the most fascinating holiday commercials ever made.  And, I think I’ve come up with a great list.  Why don’t we start off with a classic?


Ah yes, the Hershey Kisses commercial with the silver kiss conducting a choir of red and green kisses to make a concerto of absolute sweetness?  It seems hard to believe, but this commercial has been delighting audiences for twenty-five years...at least.  I’m not sure exactly when the date was that it first premiered, but quite a few sources pinpoint the origin as being 1987.  It could be a year or two off, but considering that I remember it playing throughout my whole childhood, I would estimate that to be correct. 


Now, I believe that the commercial was either redone in high definition or completely redone, because the version that I am seeing for 2012 is much crisper and cleaner than the 1987 version...but it’s still the same commercial to me.  And, as far as I am concerned, it wouldn’t be the holidays without it.  It’s simplistic, but traditional...and it really makes me feel like the holidays have truly arrived.

While we’re on the subject of chocolate, let’s take a look at this commercial from the mid-1990s?


I make no secret that I have a love affair with M&M chocolate candies.  I have a beach towel, wristwatch, candy dish, and I even received an M&M candy dispenser as a Secret Santa gift through my workplace this year (which works fantastic, by the way).  This commercial is a rather cute one, as both Santa and Red come face to face with each other and realizing that the other one is real before collapsing on the floor.  It takes the whole idea of “is there really a Santa Claus” one step further, and it paid off.  It also sees a heavy rotation over the holidays, and has now for almost twenty years.

Okay, we’ve talked about chocolate long enough.  So, why don’t we transition from chocolate to mocha to coffee for our next classic ad?


Okay, so this commercial first aired sometime during the mid-1980s, and in it, we see a young man named Peter coming home for the holidays from what I would assume was college or something else.  He tries to get inside without waking anyone up, but nothing ever gets by his baby sister!  So, he decides that instead of using a transistor radio, an alarm clock, or a megaphone, he will wake up the rest of the family by brewing a pot of Folgers coffee.


(In my family though, it would have to be Tim Horton’s coffee...they hate Folgers.)

Nonetheless, the commercial was heartfelt and tugged at the heartstrings...and it aired until the late 2000s!  Yep, that same commercial aired for over twenty years.  I guess the executives at Folgers woke up and smelled the coffee when they realized that the little girl in the ad would likely be in her thirties with kids of her own by 2009!  So, in 2009, a new Folgers ad was created...though I don’t think it’s as good.  Take a look for yourselves.


What?  The caffeine buzz from the Folgers coffee wasn’t enough?  Okay, fine, let’s tune in to a couple of holiday ads from the world of Coca-Cola.


That first one always makes me smile regardless of where I am when I watch it.  I believe that I first started seeing this ad sometime around 1993, so we’re going back almost twenty years here.  I just think that even though the ad is sponsored by a soft drink company, this ad just works at showcasing the wonderful holiday magic that the season has to offer.  Who wouldn’t want a giant fleet of transport trucks driving through your town, making every single tree, house, and building glimmer and glow in gleaming multicoloured lights?  The whole commercial was just incredibly done, and I think it was one of the best examples of really showing what the holidays mean to a child. 


I also loved this Coca-Cola commercial below.


First things first, any commercial that features either a polar bear or a penguin gets my seal of approval.  The fact that this commercial contained both makes it doubly special.  I also love the background message behind it as well.  It wasn’t the baby polar bear’s fault that he accidentally crashed the penguin party below.  He just slipped and fell.  But the cutest little baby penguin that pops up and offers the bear a nice cold Coke as a refreshment showed all of us that the holidays are a time to be together and to share love, joy, compassion, and kindness towards your fellow man.  I think that some people could stand to listen to the little baby penguin. 

Yes, you have found out my secret.  I’m a sucker for cute holiday commercials.  Here’s another one for you.


Okay, so that little kid in the commercial is probably a full-grown man by now.  The commercial’s still sweet.  I can remember many moons ago being that kid who played in the snow during the holidays, building snow forts, making snow angels, throwing snowballs at the annoying neighbours, and just chilling out in a winter wonderland.  And whenever I grew tired of playing out in the cold, Mom would always have a treat for me to warm up with.  It wasn’t uncommon for me to have a little cup of soup and a hot chocolate after vigorous play in the fluffy white stuff.  It wasn’t necessarily Campbell’s soup, but it sure hit the spot.  So, I can sort of identify with the little boy in the commercial...

...well, aside from the turning into a snowman part.

Oh, look...here’s another one of my favourites!


For some reason, even though this commercial originally aired when I was a really young boy, I remember it like it was yesterday.  I know that some people are terrified of clowns, and they weren’t huge fans of Ronald McDonald, but after watching him pick up the ice skating challenged kid and twirling him around the frozen pond, that’s the moment I decided I liked the Ronald.  Although I am not a huge fan of McDonald’s now, I used to eat the Happy Meals when I was a kid...and I think a part of that had to do with the Christmas ad that I posted above.  The commercial was like my idea of what a perfect Christmas was like.  It was pure magic.

Of course, not all holiday ads bring joy to my heart.  Some of them are just tacky.  I know that I praised Hershey’s chocolate for coming up with their brilliant Hershey’s Kisses ad, but this one made me kind of throw up in my mouth a bit.


Okay, so the carolers are a nice touch, and I like the idea of the whole world being made out of Hershey’s chocolate.  Oh, heck, who are we kidding here?  With an insatiable sweet tooth, a world made out of chocolate would be my idea of heaven.


But, since when is Modern English’s “I Melt With You” considered a Christmas song?  Especially when you consider that the song is about a couple who are making love as a series of NUCLEAR BOMBS DESTROY THE WORLD!!!  Oh yeah, that’s a lovely song to promote a peaceful time of year like Christmas, isn’t it?

Ah, well...I guess they can’t all be gems.

Now, I open the floor to you.

What are some of your favourite holiday commercials? 


Coming up on Day #22 of the advent calendar, what happens when we experience the year WITHOUT a Santa Claus?

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ending the End Of The World Theories


The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendarcontinues with yet another Thursday diary entry. Unfortunately for me, some people have it in their heads that this blog entry could very well be my last one if the Mayans have their way. What do I think? Well...just read on.

December 20, 2012

Welcome to what could very well be the last full day in the world as we know it!



Did you know that tomorrow (December 21, 2012) is slated to be the end of the world? According to the Mayans, this is very much the truth. Sometime tomorrow, the world as we know it will completely collapse upon itself and civilizations will crumble.



But hey, at least we won't have to worry about what the weather is going to be like this week.

(Well, on one hand, I always wanted to see something falling from the sky just before Christmas...wasn't counting on it being magma, fire, and boulders, but hey, you take what you can get.)

In case you can't tell already, I am being overly sarcastic here. I don't believe for a second that the world is going to end tomorrow. The only world that I know that ever ended was the soap opera “As The World Turns”, and it ended two years ago. And, guess what? We all survived it!

Just as we're going to survive tomorrow!

You know, this isn't the first time that people have panicked about the end of the world. In my lifetime, the world has been slated to end at least four different times. During the peak of the Cold War and the disaster that occurred in Chernobyl in 1986, many people believed that the world was destined to become a radioactive meatball. Twenty-six years later, that still hasn't happened.



There were also the many predictions made by Harold Camping. He initially predicted that the end of the world was going to take place on May 21, 2011 at 6:00. The problem is that the world sees 6:00 forty-eight times each day (taking into account the twenty-four time zones and the am/pm thing), so it seemed a little bit too generalized. I always stated that if I turned on the news and there are reports of Australia and New Zealand sinking underwater, then would be the time to panic.

It didn't really matter. May 21 came and went, and the world is still here. But, Harold Camping, in an obvious attempt to save face, recanted his earlier prediction, stating that he miscalculated the end of the world the first time, and that the real end of the world would be October 21, 2011.

(Geez...May 21, October 21, December 21...why is the 21st supposedly such an unlucky day? At least if these “oracles” suggested that the world would end on Friday the 13th, it might be slightly more believable!)

Once again, Camping predicted the end of the world, and once again, the world refused to die. Funnily enough, Camping decided to retire from predicting the end of the world shortly after his second attempt. Can't imagine why he'd do such a thing...can you?

And, then there was the prediction that the beginning of the new millennium would bring forth a catastrophic disaster that would destroy the world as we know it. And, once again, I lived through it.



We're going to go back in time almost thirteen years to December 31, 1999 for this story.

There was a lot of talk about the year 2000 being a big year. I know that for me personally, 2000 was a year of change, as it was the year that I graduated high school, headed off to my ill-fated university life, and turned legal drinking age.

(Well, legal at least in Canada...most provinces have 19 as the age of legality.)

I still remember turning on the television that day, and seeing television stations like ABC broadcasting the entire day to show how other countries all over the world rung in 2000. It was really cool to see all the different cultures celebrating the arrival of 2000 in their own distinct methods.

But some others were convinced that the year 2000 would be the very year in which everything would end.



You see, a couple of years prior to the celebrations of 2000 were reports that every computer system in the world was in danger of failing due to something called the “Y2K problem”. Due to some computer systems being unable to read the year 2000 in code, when the calendar changed from 1999 to 2000, the display read 1900 instead. There were plans involved to reprogram some of the older computers in the world to make them Y2K ready, though as far as I was concerned at the time, even if the computer listed the date as 1900, the problems would have been minor, at most.

Of course, some people seemed to believe that this would cause major, major problems. Planes would fall out of the sky. Credit cards and debit cards would cease working. Massive blackouts would plague the world.



(Wow...come to think of it, that kind of sounds like the pilot episode for the television series “Revolution”.)

On December 31, 1999, we all stayed up late to watch the ball drop on Times Square, wondering if there really was something to worry about in regards to Y2K. But when the ball ended its descent and the number 2000 glowed in brightly coloured lights, I remember being a little annoyed that nothing actually happened! No lights went out, we didn't enter another Great Depression, and no planes ended up falling in our backyard.

That's not to say that there weren't any problems. Those problems were all minor though, and certainly didn't end up destroying the world. Among some of the more entertaining ones...

  • Bus ticket validation machines failed to operate in Australia
  • Slot machines at a Delaware casino quit working
  • The United States Naval Observatory gave the date on its official website as January 1, 19100!
  • An alarm sounded at a Japanese nuclear power plant two minutes after midnight, although there was no risk to the public
  • Some Japanese cell phones didn't quite work correctly after January 1, 2000

You see? Minor things. Nothing to worry about. Certainly not enough to actually build an underground bunker out of old school buses, or stockpile enough food to fill an entire supermarket. And yet, so many people did.

And so many people are designing their own survival plans to ring in December 21, 2012. They're almost convinced that they will survive the disaster if they plan ahead.

But that's the million dollar question, isn't it? What disaster?



All that we know is that the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to an end tomorrow. It doesn't exactly specify how the world will end. Will a gigantic earthquake split the world in two? Will a comet smash into the Earth's crust, wiping us all out like the dinosaurs were 65 million years ago? Will aliens from another planet swoop down over our major cities and blow us up a la “Independence Day”?

NO! I don't believe it will.

Frankly, the real problem of December 21, 2012 is not the impending end of the world. It's the general pessimistic attitude that many people seem to have towards life.

I wouldn't put it past some people who secretly are hoping that the world DOES end tomorrow just because they're frustrated with life in general. And, just the fact that so many people expect the worst to happen regardless of the scientific proof that states otherwise drives me absolutely insane in the membrane.

Seriously, get a grip.

If the world does happen to end tomorrow...so be it. But, why worry about it in the meantime? If it's meant to happen, there's nothing that we can do to stop it.

So, why not just sit back and enjoy whatever time we have left instead of worrying about what could happen? Christmas is coming up soon, and I for one expect to celebrate it this year. I also have lots of things to experience in my life, and I'm not going to let a silly little thing like the end of the world stop me from dreaming big. I always say that if things are meant to happen, they will.

So, you know what? I'm going to look at every day I have as a gift. And, you know what? I don't believe that the world is going to end tomorrow, and I will just see it as being just another day.

Of course, if it does, this blog post will be the sweetest of irony...and what a way to go out!

So, I guess my point is...STOP WORRYING!!



Coming up tomorrow on Day #21 (and yes, there will be a Day #21), you know those holiday commercials? We take a look at some of our favourites!