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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Celebrating the Centenary of Sinatra - Holiday Style!



Welcome to Day #12 in A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR, and I will say this right now.  This one is going to be an abbreviated one.  Not a whole lot of words will be typed, but you will hear some beautiful music.

(Well, as long as YouTube keeps it up, that is.)

I figure that I have to do something to get the Christmas spirit flowing, because having a look at the weather in my area, you'd never know that Christmas was just thirteen days away.



Now keep in mind...I live in CANADA!  These temperatures are in Celsius.  Right now, we're sitting at 5 C, which is equivalent to 41 F.  We're supposed to be sitting below zero this time of year, and we should have had snow by now!

Yes, I'm complaining about no Christmas snow.  I want Christmas snow, and I'm not talking about the character Suzanne Somers played on "Three's Company" either.

So, my idea was to get in the mood, I would share some Christmas music from one of the most notable and beloved crooners of his time.



I'm lucky that I am old enough to remember Frank Sinatra when he was still recording music.  I was just a few days shy of my 17th birthday when he passed away, and I remember being very sad about it because he was so much of a legend in the music scene.  I mean, granted, when I was a teenager, I very much listened to R.E.M., Stone Temple Pilots, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and all the 1980s music in the world.  But I had a soft spot for Sinatra, and how Ol' Blue Eyes could make anybody stop and take notice with his perfect pipes and the way he inserted every emotion into his songs.

The reason why I wanted to spotlight Sinatra's music today of all days is because this would have been Sinatra's one hundredth birthday.  And although he only made it to year 82, what he did in those eighty-two years was provide us with enough music that it could continue to entertain generations of people.

And since the holidays are here, I thought that for today's entry, I'd feature some of his Christmas albums.  I don't exactly know how many albums there are (there have been so many compilations made that I couldn't possibly keep track of them all).  But I did find at least three albums that will keep you in the Christmas spirit.  In fact, since I'm periodically recommending gift ideas for all of you, I want to recommend all of these albums as potential gift ideas.  After all, Sinatra's music is very much timeless, and I'm sure that no matter how old you are, you can really appreciate the body of work he brought to the music industry.

Now, again...I have no idea how long these will stay up - so I'll ask that to listen to them, you click the links.  I'll tell a brief story about how the albums came to be, and add one video from each album.  The rest you can listen to by clicking the link.




This may surprise some of you, but this particular album was Sinatra's third album overall!  And what also may shock you is that this album was released as a four record set!  It may seem a bit much, given that the original pressing of the album had only eight songs, but each record had one song on each side (it was released on 78 rpm mode).

The album was re-released on cassette and CD in 1994, with the original eight songs, plus a variety of other songs that he recorded while he was contracted with Capitol Records.




While his 1948 album was really an album set, this record was Sinatra's first full-length Christmas album, released on September 21, 1957 (seems a bit EARLY for a Christmas album, but I suppose that's how a lot of holiday records were released back in the day).



This album featured the Ralph Brewster Singers and an orchestra conducted by Gordon James.  And, it's actually one of the few Christmas albums that was RE-RELEASED on vinyl during the vinyl resurrection of the 2010s.  How's that for a nice piece of trivia?




This album is a bittersweet one, as by the time this album was released, all three singers credited on this album were deceased (Sinatra died in 1998, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, and Dean Martin in 1995.)  But considering that Sinatra was a huge part of the Rat Pack in the 1950s, I have to include this one because it truly is a masterpiece in spreading holiday cheer.  Imagine taking three of the most well known singers in the world and putting their work on one whole album?  That's a gift that anyone would love to receive.

Happy birthday, Frank Sinatra.  May you continue to entertain people for all eternity.

Friday, December 11, 2015

New Archies Reviewed - Episode 11A: Incredible Shrinking Archie

Sometimes part of the hassle with the holiday season is finding the perfect gift for someone.  And, that's kind of the idea behind today's edition of The New Archies Reviewed.



Now, unfortunately, this episode is not Christmas themed, which makes Day #11 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE a bit tough...however, I can honestly say that one of the plots of this episode is all about gift-giving.  Sure, it might be Archie trying to get Veronica a one of a kind birthday present, but just like Christmas, birthday presents can be hard to find.

In the case of Archie and Jughead, they find that their small problem becomes a big problem by being a small problem.

Confused?  Allow me to post this Christmas themed New Archies comic book cover while I compose myself.



That's better.  Let's take a look at the first half of the eleventh episode.



This is Episode 11A:  Incredible Shrinking Archie.  I wonder if this means that Archie's bank account shrinks, or if Archie himself shrinks.  I guess we'll find out.

As already mentioned, Veronica's birthday is when this episode takes place, and at Pop's, everyone is giving Veronica a lot of presents.  Betty gave Veronica a sweater, Jughead gave her a free meal at Pop's, and Reggie gave her a bottle of expensive perfume.  Wait, did 12-year-olds back in 1987 wear any expensive perfume other than Exclamation?  Did Exclamation even exist back in 1987?



Well, the only exclamation that Archie has to declare is that he's flat broke, and leave it to Reggie to call out Archie's cheapskate behaviour right in front of Veronica.



Naturally, Archie is the king of bluffing and tells Veronica that he has a special present that he will deliver to her birthday party later that afternoon, and that he needs Jughead to help.  Why do I get the feeling that Archie might regret this decision?



In the school's chemistry lab (which for some reason is open after school hours - Tsk tsk, Professor Flutesnoot, you're getting careless in your age), Archie is working on some sort of science experiment which causes Jughead to nearly throw up.  I guess Archie is trying to actually make Veronica a birthday gift.  You know, Archie...a trip to the school's art closet would probably be a better option.  Just saying.



But Archie insists that he can make something wonderful for Veronica using the power of science, and proceeds to dump a strange chemical into the bowl of other chemicals he is mixing up, which causes a bright reddish-blue fog to engulf Archie and Jughead.  Why do I get the feeling that Archie and Jughead are in big trouble?



Or, maybe I should say SMALL trouble.  See, that concoction that Archie made has caused Archie and Jughead to go from being five feet tall to five inches tall!  It's a good thing that their clothes also shrunk with them...otherwise NBC would have maybe banned this episode due to nudity!



After climbing a broom up to the table top, Archie reads the label of the last chemical that he used, and realizes that he is a complete moron.  Apparently there's a label on the side of the container that the chemical can cause extreme shrinkage.  Well, that's nice to know NOW!

(Note how I didn't go for the obvious below the belt reference about shrinkage?  Get it?  Below the belt?  Ah, you know what?  Forget it.)

Fortunately, Archie and Jughead aren't totally screwed.  There is apparently an antidote to the shrinking formula, and they have to apply it within two hours (by five o'clock) to prevent permanent shrinkage. 

(Be good, Matthew...Be very, very good.  Do not insert any references to phallic symbols in this blog post at all...)



It sounds simple enough...until Jughead realizes that the antidote is made up of random food items - which is worrisome because I feel that Jughead would eat the ingredients before Archie gets a chance to mix it up. 



Oh, and did I mention that a random cat decides at that moment to try to kill Archie and Jughead?  Yeah, that's real random.  But then again, in the teenage Archie comics, the school janitor, Mr. Svenson had a cat named Loki.  I wonder if this cat is named Loki?



We really don't have time to answer this question because the cat has Jughead in its clutches.  Archie tries to rescue him, only to pull off Jughead's shoes instead.  Seriously, Jughead?  Those are what you call socks?  You seriously need to do some clothes shopping in the Ken and Barbie section at Toys R Us.



Second time proves the charm as Archie and Jughead escape the cat's clutches and dive down a crack in the wall, leading to a secret area that kind of looks like an underground cavern.

But before you know it, Archie and Jughead happen to run smack dab into a spider and wake it up.



And in case you're wondering why Archie and Jughead are so frightened of that spider, keep in mind that they are only five inches tall, and to them, that spider is about the same size as one found in the Australian Outback.

The spider spins a web and captures Archie and Jughead.  Hey, a spider's gotta eat too right! 



I guess it's a good thing that Archie and Jughead know how to play Ring Around The Rosey because when they have a game of it with the spider, the spider gets all tied up and can't move.  It sounds kind of cruel, but at least Archie and Jughead didn't kill the spider. 

Archie and Jughead may have survived that battle, but now they have no idea of where they are or how to get out of the school.  And before you know it, they find themselves face to face with a giant rat!



Geez...this is like playing Dungeons and Dragons!  First spiders, and now rats?  If a minotaur pops out from behind the wall, I'm leaving.



And this is where the show gets a little bit contrived, for Archie just happens to find a piece of red fabric that he uses to be the bull...ahem...ratfighter.  I don't know where Archie got the time to go to Spain to learn how to be a matador, but wherever he picked up that skill worked.  He knocks the rat out cold, and Archie and Jughead climb on the rat's back, hoping that he can lead them out of this maze.  The rat responds by super charging to a hole leading outside and throwing them out of his house!  You show those two, Mr. Rat!

Fortunately, the rat's mood swing has swung them outside, and now comes the next challenge for the duo.  Trying to get someone to help them. 



But with school letting out for the day, Archie and Jughead have to be careful not to get stomped on by a bunch of junior high school kids running from the school to go home.  Eventually, they hitch a ride inside someone's pant cuffs - judging by the shape of the pants, I want to say that they hitched a ride on Eugene, but Eugene's yellow shoes aren't on.  Unless Eugene is one of those rare people who has more than one set of shoes.



Archie and Jughead happen to notice that Betty, Veronica, and Reggie are nearby, and they try to get their attention, but they are so tiny that their screams are inaudible.

And, soon enough, Archie and Jughead's lives are in danger again - if you're keeping track, this makes five times now - when the person crosses over a puddle and dumps Archie and Jughead into the drink.



Now, in real life, the puddle would only be an inch deep.  For Archie and Jughead, it may as well be twelve feet deep.  But Archie and Jughead manage to spot one of those plastic styrofoam cups floating down the river, and he and Jughead climb inside of it to safety.  Probably one the only times ever that plastic styrofoam can be considered good for the environment.



Okay, seriously?  Now they're approaching a waterfall?  How many times are Archie and Jughead going to almost die in this episode?  This may be the most death attempts ever made in one show!

Incredibly, Archie and Jughead survive going over Street Corner Falls and end up in what I assume is the big river that is flowing through Riverdale.  But time is running out for the duo, and they are far from home.  How are they going to get the stuff needed to make the antidote?



Well, how about boarding a yacht that happens to be docked at Riverdale Harbor?  Turns out that yacht is where Veronica's twelfth birthday party is held (as if we needed any more proof that the Lodge family is ridiculously rich).  Archie and Jughead somehow manage to sail their cup boat to the side of the yacht and climb up the side of it.  Okay, let's be realistic here.  By the time Archie and Jughead climb up to the starboard of the boat, their 5:00 deadline would have expired.  By two days.  But since this is a cartoon, anything goes.



So after unsuccessfully trying to get the attention of the party guests, Archie and Jughead manage to sneak into the kitchen of the yacht, and what a surprise!  90% of the ingredients are right at their fingertips! 

The only thing that they are lacking is a peanut.  And peanut butter, peanut brittle, and circus peanuts don't exactly count as an acceptable substitute.  So, where did all the peanuts go?



Typical.  Reggie ate them all.  Judging by the look on Veronica's face, we know she knows who ate all the peanuts, but since Reggie is part of her "in-crowd", we know that he's not going anywhere.  And since Archie and Jughead saw Reggie stick a peanut in the pocket of his sweater, they know that they have to get that peanut at all costs. 

Now, here's where the episode gets fun - mainly because Archie and Jughead are just the right size to play tricks on Reggie without him knowing!



First, Archie and Jughead tie Reggie's shoelaces together which sends him face first into Veronica's birthday cake.  And, it likely causes Reggie facial burns since all the candles on the cake were lit at the time!



Then Archie manages to undo the belt on Reggie's pants, exposing his rubber ducky boxer shorts and making him fall flat on his face, causing Betty and Veronica to laugh at him.



But while Reggie is trying to pull his pants back up, Archie and Jughead snag the opportunity to reach inside Reggie's sweater pocket to grab the peanut, which they do successfully.  They have the peanut and the clock is about to strike five.  What could possibly go wrong n...



...oh, look...a random dog happens to be running around the boat too.  I wonder if this is another one of Veronica's gifts, or if the captain owned a dog, or if Loki the cat hired the dog as a hitman...it makes no sense as to why a dog should be on the boat except to create another near death scenario for Jughead and Archie.  At this point, I hope they can find a way to go back to normal...I'm tired just watching them cheat death again and again.

Luckily, the dog crashes into a waiter, and the dog somersaults on top of a wooden spoon that acts as a catapult sending Jughead and Archie back on the table top where the mixer is with the antidote ingredients.  I'm also realizing that this will be the one and only time I will ever write a sentence like this again, so I hope you enjoyed it.



Archie adds the final two ingredients - the peanut and a splash of seltzer - and pushes the blender button just as the clock strikes five.  A nasty cloud of smelly green smoke engulfs both Archie and Jughead and dissipates leaving Archie and Jughead still shrunk.  Jughead laments that the potion did not work...



...or maybe Jughead spoke too soon, as Archie and Jughead expand back to their normal size!  Now, I think a funnier twist would have been if they grew to be fifty times their size and sank the boat to the bottom of the sea, but they'd need to make the episode a full 22 minutes for that to happen.



Just at that moment, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie walk into the kitchen and wonder why Archie and Jughead are standing on a table, what the green stuff is in the blender, and why Jughead is wearing socks that should have been pitched in the garbage sometime around August 1985.  Oh, and Reggie is taunting Archie about not giving Veronica a birthday present.

Oh, wait...Archie...you can't...you're seriously not thinking of giving Veronica your antidote for shrinkage and claiming that it's a one of a kind perfume?  Archie, that "perfume" is a combination of pizza toppings at best!  Boy, have you lost your mind?



No, wait.  Veronica likes the food perfume, saying it smells delicious and puts on a couple of drops.  Veronica, you do realize that Archie basically tried to pass off salad dressing as a birthday gift, right?  Archie could have easily gone to the supermarket and bought a bottle of raspberry vinaigrette and gotten the same result!



Oh, and now Jughead is eating Veronica's gift!  And that's gonna be our cue to end this episode.

Okay, so the ending was...stupid.  Hell, the whole plot of the story was pretty stupid.  But there were some parts I did like.  Archie and Jughead prove that their friendship is solid and that they make a good team.  And any episode where Reggie is humiliated is always good.  Plus, no animals were harmed (too badly) in the making of this episode, so they won't have PETA to deal with.

Overall...a terrible plot with some decent moments.  I give this one a D+.

Next week, we see how good Archie and the gang are in soccer...and we also learn how ethical Archie and Eugene really are.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

"The Finster Who Stole Christmas"



Today marks Day #10 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR, and I thought that I would feature a holiday special that combines two, two, two holidays in one!

I figure that it's only right, given that Hanukkah is going on at this moment and that Christmas is just around the corner.

So, what am I going to talk about that incorporates Christmas and Hanukkah together?

Well, there was the wonderful Christmas special "Arthur's Perfect Christmas", which not only referenced Christmas and Hanukkah, but other seasonal festivals from all over the world.  The only problem is that I already covered that one.

There's also the Nickelodeon series "Rugrats", in which the Pickles family have celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays...but I'm afraid that I talked about those too.

Ah, wait.  I think I may have found a loophole, and I think it involves those cute little Rugrats characters.

Only...they were all grown up.



I guess I should explain.  The original Rugrats cartoon debuted in August 1991, and managed to run for a grand total of thirteen years!  That's longer than Garfield and Friends, You Can't Do That On Television, and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!  And, the original series featured toddlers Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, Phil and Lil DeVille, Angelica Pickles, and Susie Carmichael having all sorts of adventures as they try to navigate through the first few years of their lives.

By the show's tenth year on the air, the producers of the show decided to make a special one-off episode that featured Tommy and his friends as pre-teens and teenagers, and in August 2001, the episode "All Growed Up" debuted.  It was a cute episode, and it really showed just how much Tommy and his pals had changed, but also showed how they stayed the same.

Apparently, that episode was a huge hit - reportedly twelve million viewers watched that program!  So, Nickelodeon decide to commission a full series based on what Tommy and his friends - along with new additions Dillon "Dil" Pickles and Kimi Watanabe-Finster would be like as teenagers.



Now, the spinoff series "All Grown Up" didn't nearly last as long as the original series (it ran from 2003-2008), but that's not to say it was a bad show.  It was still just as clever as "Rugrats", just a little bit more mature.



So, the episode from All Grown Up that I am featuring today is one called "The Finster Who Stole Christmas".  And, I'm guessing that you probably already know that the episode features Chuckie in a prominent role.  But Tommy and Dil have the B-plot, which is Hanukkah related.

As the winter break from school starts, we learn about what all the kids are going to be doing for the holiday break.  Phil and Lil will be doing Christmas shopping, Susie will be singing a solo in the church choir (which should be easy given that her voice actress Cree Summer is also a singer), Angelica is skiing in Aspen with her family, and Tommy and Dil come up with the idea to create their own Hanukkah song to sing at the holiday festivities at Susie's church.



The only person who is acting like a Scrooge this Christmas is Chuckie.  His step-mother and Kimi are stuck in Japan (they were bumped off their flight just before Christmas), and Chuckie is dreading the decorating of their Christmas tree.

The reason?  Chuckie is embarrassed that his father keeps buying the worst looking Christmas trees available for sale.  I'm telling you, Chuckie does make a point.  The Finster trees made Charlie Brown's little tree look like a 25-foot spruce in comparison!  And Chuckie tells Tommy that this has been a tradition since before he was even born - at least twenty years!



Tommy gives Chuckie the idea that he should go along with his dad to go tree shopping so that he can tell his dad to get a nice tree...but when Chuckie goes to the tree lot, his father picks out a nice dead branch that makes Chuckie embarrassed to be a Finster.

All Chuckie wanted for Christmas was a nice tree, and he would have done almost anything to get it.

So when Chuckie happens to come across a tree just sitting in front of someone's yard, he believes that the people in the house are going to throw it away.  He grabs the tree, not realizing that it actually belongs to another family, and not telling his father where he got it, puts it up in the living room to surprise him.

But then Chuckie is feeling awful nervous about it when he drops by the coffee shop that his father owns and he hears Phil, Lil, and Mrs. DeVil talking about how there is a Christmas tree bandit who has stolen a Christmas tree right in front of a person's front yard in the middle of the day, and Susie remarks that anyone who would steal a Christmas tree should face the punishment.

Naturally, Chuckie is mortified that his mistaken assumption about the Christmas tree ruined a family's Christmas, and in his guilt, he confesses all to Tommy expecting him to get angry.  But Tommy is very encouraging, and tells Chuckie to tell the truth about where he got the tree from.  Then they can buy another tree and Christmas will be saved.



But by the time Tommy and Chuckie arrive at the tree lot, all that is left is a sickly Christmas tree...which promptly gets run over by a car and is destroyed.  And to make matters worse, Chuckie is unable to tell his father the truth about the tree because his father has bought eighteen boxes of decorations for the tree and has planned a huge holiday party for the whole neighbourhood complete with carolers he hired.

Enter more guilt for Chuckie.

Now, if you've ever watched "Rugrats" before, you know that when something is bothering Chuckie, he obsesses about it ad nauseum, and at the mall after yelling at a department store Santa Claus, he confesses his crime to Phil, Lil, and Dil (holy rhyming names).

So, Tommy, Phil, Lil, and Dil all help Chuckie conspire to come up with a solution that will help remove Chuckie's guilt, restore Christmas to the family that lost their tree, and bring the Finster family back together again. 

While I won't spoil the ending for you, I will say this.  It's refreshing to know that Tommy, Chuckie, and their pals have kept their strong friendships going all this time, and the fact that all of them will help each other out in a bind is very nice!  It proves that the holiday spirit is present in all of them.

Also, the Hanukkah song that Tommy and Dil work on turns out to be a great success - even though Dil couldn't find a word that rhymed with dreidel.  (How about cradle or ladle?)

All in all, I strongly recommend Rugrats and All Grown Up for anyone who is looking to watch cartoons (because let's face it, at 34, I find some cartoons to be better to watch than some of the reality garbage on television these days).



In fact, here's another gift recommendation for all of you.  The episode that I just talked about in this blog is available on DVD!  It's a DVD called "Nick Picks Holiday", and you can watch this episode, as well as classic episodes of Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly OddParents, and three more holiday specials!  I bought myself a copy just for the Rugrats episodes (Rugrats was one of my favourites growing up), and I think if you have little ones at home, they'd love it too!

(I only wish they had the Christmas episode of "You Can't Do That On Television" included on this.  It's been years since I watched that one!)

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Small Town, Big Hearts

I think that it's time to start bringing in some good feelings in this blog.  I don't know what it is about this month, but so far December seems to be filled with lots of whine...and I don't mean the stuff that comes in red or white either.

I feel as though there's a lot of negativity in the air, and it's really starting to put a damper on the holiday season.  You turn on the news and there's something terrible happening almost daily.  You read the newspaper, and people are complaining about how the government is screwing them.  You go shopping and you hear people treating retail workers like dirt because they can't get what they want.  And, I'm not even going to discuss some of the flabbergasting comments that one particular presidental candidate seems to be spewing every two minutes. 

I'm telling you, I purposely wanted to use this blog entry to talk about something heartwarming.  Something enlightening.  Something that will warm people's hearts and make people realize what the true spirit of the holiday season really is all about.



And on this - Day #9 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR - I want to tell you a story of a little boy from a small town who had one wish.  And although this little boy is sadly no longer with us any more...you'll be happy to know that his final wish came true.

And all it took was a lot of planning, a lot of community spirit, and the ability to celebrate the Christmas holiday two months early.

Yes, that's right.  A whole town moved Christmas back to October because that was the wish that seven-year-old Evan Leversage of St. George, Ontario made when he learned that he might not live long enough to see another Christmas.

The tale goes like this.  When Evan was two years old, his mother got the news that no mother ever wanted to hear about her son.  Evan had been diagnosed with having a malignant brain tumour, and due to the location of where the tumour was, it was impossible to operate on him.

Almost immediately, Evan was subjected to several treatments of chemotherapy to stop the tumour from spreading.  For over four years, Evan fought the disease, and while the chemotherapy treatments were initially responsive at first, it must have been hard for Evan's family to have to watch him try to fight the illness.  I'm sure that anybody who has ever watched someone they love who has battled cancer knows exactly how the Leversage family went through.  Imagine having to go through it when your own child happens to be the person diagnosed with it.

Until early 2015, Evan seemed to roll with the punches.  But by that spring, Evan's condition gradually worsened, and the tumour had spread.  Despite every possible effort to try and extend the boy's life, doctors had told Evan's mother that he would likely pass away by the end of the year - most likely before Christmas came.

I can only imagine how heartbreaking that news must have been to the Leversage family - especially when you consider that little Evan loved Christmas very much.  It just didn't seem fair that the life of a little boy would end just before he had a chance to put up a Christmas tree, open up Christmas gifts, and have the chance to spend one last Christmas with the people he loved the most.

That's where the entire community of St. George stepped in to help.

What began as a simple request to put up Christmas lights in Evan's neighbourhood turned into a community wide effort to bring Christmas a little bit early.

How early?

Well, you know how Christmas Eve usually falls on the twenty-fourth of December?  Well, this year in St. George, Christmas Eve was moved to the twenty-fourth of October.  All the houses on the street were decorated with Christmas lights, artificial snow was created and sprinkled all over everybody's lawns, and a Santa Claus parade was put together so that Evan could enjoy one last Christmas celebration.



That photo that I posted above (courtesy of The Toronto Sun) was snapped at that parade, with Evan sitting next to Santa Claus, of course.  And, the way that the whole community got together to bring Christmas to Evan two months early...it just makes one think about what really is important in life.

Certainly for the people of St. George, they all came together to make one last wish come true.

Because sadly, as the doctors predicted, Evan passed away on Sunday, December 6, 2015 - nineteen days before Christmas.

However, while Evan's death is sad, I don't think that he would want anyone to feel sad too long.  At the end of his too short life, he died very happy, knowing that he was loved, not just by his family, but by his whole community.  In fact, his story touched so many people that it was broadcast in such places as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.  And it was reported that at the local post office, Evan had received more mail than Santa Claus himself did at the North Pole!

The reason why I wanted to talk about this story is to show people that you can have the Christmas spirit any day of the year.  And, I wanted to show people that despite all of the bad news that is happening in the world, despite the negativity and thoughtless comments that are spoken by people almost daily, and despite the doom and gloom of the eleven o'clock news...that a little town in Ontario, Canada managed to prove to all of us that there is still a lot of good in this world.

We can ALL take a lesson from the people of St. George.

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

December 8, 1976



Hello, everybody!  Welcome to Day #8 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR!  And, guess what?  It's also time to take a look back through time in a segment we like to call the Tuesday Timeline!

And I'll be really honest with you.  Today's subject was extremely easy to write about!  And unlike a lot of other Tuesday Timeline entries that I have done in the past, I've taken a few screenshots of today's special subject!

(So, right off the bat, you know that it is either a television special or a holiday movie!)

But before we take a look at what I've chosen for today's topic, we should have a look at what else happened in the world on December 8.

1765 - Cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney (d. 1825) is born

1813 - Beethoven's Seventh Symphony premieres

1907 - King Gustav V accedes to the Swedish throne

1914 - A British Royal Navy squadron defeats an inferior squadron of the Imperial German High Seas fleet in the Battle of the Falkland Islands

1922 - Northern Ireland ceases being a part of the Irish Free State

1925 - Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. (d. 1990) is born in Harlem, New York

1933 - Actor Flip Wilson (d. 1998) is born in Jersey City, New Jersey

1936 - Actor David Carradine (d. 2009) is born in Hollywood, California

1941 - One day after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declares December 7 a date that will live in infamy, following America's declaration of war against Japan

1943 - Jim Morrison (d. 1971) - the lead singer of The Doors - is born in Melbourne, Florida

1950 - Singer Dan Hartman (d. 1994) is born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

1953 - President Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech

1962 - Workers at four different newspapers in the New York City area go out on strike; the strike lasts almost four months

1980 - John Lennon is shot outside of The Dakota in New York City and dies of his injuries at just 40 years old

1982 - Country singer Marty Robbins dies at the age of 57

1987 - A mass shooting takes place at Melbourne's Australia Post building, leaving eight people dead; the gunman later takes his own life

1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine sign an agreement officially dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States

1997 - Bob Bell - the original actor who portrayed Bozo the Clown - dies at the age of 75

2004 - "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott is shot and killed on stage in Columbus, Ohio at the age of 38

2008 - Actor Robert Prosky passes away at the age of 77

2009 - 127 people are killed and another 448 are injured following a series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq

And for celebrity birthdays, I hope you've gotten comfortable, because we have a lot of them today!  Celebrating a birthday today are Duke Cunningham, Bobby Elliott, Bertie Higgins, John Rubinstein, Gregg Allman, Ray Shulman, Rick Baker, Kim Basinger, Roy Firestone, Norman Finkelstein, Warren Cuccurullo, Phil Collen, Ann Coulter, Wendell Pierce, Greg Howe, James Blundell, Teri Hatcher, David Harewood, Sinead O'Connor, Steve Van Wormer, Kevin Harvick, Dominic Monaghan, Elsa Benitez, Ian Somerhalder, Ingrid Michaelson, Chrisette Michele, Nicki Minaj, Katie StephensAnnaSophia Robb, and Tylen Jacob Williams.

Okay, I think I've kept all of you in suspense long enough.  It's time to see what year we're going back in time to this week.



Ah...December 8, 1976.  A day that...I was not around for.  And it's a real shame too because I missed out on some good old-fashioned Christmas fun.

And on this date, where was the place to go for Christmas celebrations?

Well, it was on ABC.  That particular night, two very special television programs aired.  One was the very first television special put on by the singing duo "The Carpenters"...and while the show was well received by viewers, I opted not to discuss it here because it was more a celebration of the Carpenters and less a celebration of Christmas.

But the program that aired before that...it mixed two of my favourite things together into one hour long show!

Disney and Christmas.



Yes, on December 8, 1976, ABC aired "Christmas In Disneyland", and it truly was an all-star extravaganza of talent and magic.

Of course, all of your favourite Disney characters made an appearance on the show.  You had Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf, and so many more Disney favourites. 

But you also had former Honeymooners star Art Carney who played the dual role of Dr. Wunderbar and a crusty old grandfather who is stuck with looking after his two grandchildren (Brad Savage and Terri Lynn Wood) at Disneyland for the Christmas holiday.  You had country singer Glen Campbell who lent his voice to several singing numbers in the show.  And playing the dual role of Snow White and Disneyland tour guide was Ms. Wheat Thins herself, Sandy Duncan, who I swear was like the happiest person on earth.

I suppose it's a good thing this show was filmed in one of the happiest places on earth, huh?



So, here's the gist of the special.  And yes, I've watched it on my iPad and capped some screenshots of the special to help tell the story.  You see, Gramps absolutely hates Christmas.  He hates Christmas to the point that he completely eschews the belief that Christmas magic is real.  His grandchildren do everything in their power to get him to believe in Christmas, and even tour guide Sandy Duncan does whatever it takes to get him to believe, but Gramps is almost as curmudgeonly as Scrooge McDuck (who doesn't make an appearance until "Mickey's Christmas Carol" is released seven years later.



But Sandy Duncan has a plan.  She apparently knows of a contest in which the person who hates Christmas the most has the chance to win a very special prize.  And naturally, our materialistic grandpa is quick to jump at the chance to get anything that is marked free.



So the adventure begins with Gramps, Sandy, and the kids meeting Dr. Wunderbar who goes over the rules of the contest.  Of course, the rules of the contest show that if he can make it through the day without checking off any of the items on a secret list (that list is a list of things one should NOT do on Christmas), and he'll be watching how well Gramps does through a special video monitor (which back in '76 was cutting edge).  If he can resist changing from a non-believer to a believer before the clock strikes midnight, he'll walk away a very rich man.

But what's really funny is that despite the fact that Gramps insists on not having any Christmas spirit in him, he sure finds himself in a lot of situations that make him show it in spades.



For instance, Sandy the tour guide attempts to make Gramps warm towards Christmas by shrinking down to the size of the Small World exhibit where she breaks into song.



When the bears in the Country Band Jamboree need assistance (as told by Glen Campbell), Gramps reluctantly gives them a hand. 



The same deal with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  When the productivity slows down with the elves for making toys for Christmas, the kids suggest using Bashful, Doc, Dopey, and all the other dwarves to help with the toy building.



But it's not until we get to the middle of the show that we learn the real reason why Gramps is so anti-Christmas.  He apparently has gone through his whole life not receiving any kind of Christmas present whatsoever, which of course the children feel terrible about.  And it sort of leads to a musical performance in which Gramps sort of compares himself to the Big Bad Wolf, as nobody ever gave him anything for Christmas either.



So, what happens when Mickey Mouse overhears Gramps telling his story?  And when Gramps makes a ridiculous wish (hint:  it has something to do with the fact that Disneyland is in California, and he wants a particular kind of weather to take place there), will it come true?  And will all of the good karma that he built up along his journey come back to reward him more than all the money in the world?

Well, I have a special treat for you.  If you click HERE and HERE, the whole special is available to watch online - at least for now.  Seriously, I know it was recorded back in 1976, and the video quality is not the greatest...but if you watch this, I bet you'll like it.  I know I did.

Seriously, even though this special is almost forty years old, it looks spectacular and wonderful and really gives us a look at what Disneyland looked like in the 1970s.  The amount of detail shown in each scene is worth its weight in gold, and the final few scenes are just like something out of a holiday card.

Truly recommend this wonderful Christmas tale.



And, well...since I'm periodically giving out gift suggestions for Christmas this year, why not pick up a copy of the Minions movie on DVD and Blu-Ray?  It comes out today, so if you are looking for last minute gift ideas, certainly this film works!  I don't know if it'll be as big as "Frozen" was last Christmas, but it's sure to be very popular indeed!