Saturday Supercade Segment 2: Frosty the Snowman (w/ Mike and Matt)

What’s up, dudes? It’s the First Sunday of Advent, and I’ve got Mike Westfall from Advent Calendar House and Matt Eurich from TGIPodcast here to talk the Rankin Bass special “Frosty the Snowman” for my 100th episode! Is Prof. Hinkle really Sideshow Bob? Does Santa only have four reindeer with him because this is just a side quest? What is Christmas snow? Oatmeal?!?! So grab your magic hat and broom, join the parade, and march along to this episode! 

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram,  Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com!  Later, dudes!

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

Happy first day. We're talking frosty the snowman did it. It was the 1980s. Kenner launched its mask toyline. Michael Jackson starred in Moonwalker. Microsoft created an operating system for IBM computers, and a Magic Hat brought a snowman to life. I'm your host, Jerry D, with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now joining me are two Totally Rad Christmas All-Stars. You'll know the first as the host of the Tubular Advent Calendar House. It's Mike Westfall. Mike, how's it going?

SPEAKER_10 1:17

Great. Sorry I'm late. I got a ride from Santa and he just left me on the roof.

SPEAKER_08 1:25

You know, he tends to do that. I noticed. Apparently. Oh man. Our next guest is the host of the Bodacious TGI podcast. It's Matt Urick. Matt, what's happening? Happy birthday.

SPEAKER_07 1:43

What a happy Jolly Snow with a coconut piece about a nose and two eyes.

SPEAKER_09 1:50

Jerry, Mike, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited, very excited to talk about this special.

SPEAKER_08 1:55

Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is one of my all-time favorites. It's not Christmas if I don't watch this.

SPEAKER_10 2:01

Yeah, no, this is absolutely in my regular rotation. This is on uh one of my DVDs that my mom burned of our old VHS tapes. This one was standard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 2:12

That's awesome. I was gonna say it's the same for me. It's this is a have to watch it every year. It was on a VHS for us growing up. It was my comfort movie. Yeah, it was if I was sick, if it was the middle of summer, it didn't matter. I wanted to watch this movie, I love it so much. And it's today, I was so like I usually hold off to watch this one until December here in my adult ages, but I was super excited to watch it today to refresh my memory, and it was just as good as I remember. Still holds up, yep, still holds up.

SPEAKER_08 2:50

Yeah, I completely agree. This is one well, we didn't have it recorded because we had a beta VCR for a long time, and we just didn't really know how to record on it for the longest time. We're not very tech savvy family.

unknown 3:04

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_08 3:06

Yeah, funny thing about the Betamax, we still my dad still has it, and we still have like a video just full of 80s like videos recorded off MTV.

SPEAKER_10 3:16

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_08 3:17

So we after we finally figured out how to like record on, then we were able to actually uh record some videos from MTV. But so we don't we don't have this one recorded, so growing up it was just like whenever it was on, I would I I would have to catch it, and so we would try to schedule things around it. It's like, no, we didn't have C C D that night. We had we had to watch Frosty. Yeah, this is just it's it's so comforting, and it's a little bit it's different from when you know when you think rank and bass, most of the time you think the the animagic, the stop motion puppets, you know, and or at least most people do. Very few think of the the actual animated cell style. You know, I think of Thundercats, of course, and the Hobbit and and all that, but really, I mean, this was kind of this was kind of like the big one for them as far as the the the you know the animation in traditional cell style.

SPEAKER_10 4:11

Yeah, this was this was the second one they did traditionally animated. They did Cricket on the Hearth, and you can see kind of the transition into what would become their traditional animated style. Right. Start in Cricket of the Hearth and get developed better here, and it grows even more when they do that show festival of family classics, and then you see it like as a template in Twas the Night Before Christmas, and that going forward, like the Hobbit, you can see all the connections and you can see it all here kind of start to take its shape.

SPEAKER_08 4:45

Yes, so Cricket on the Hearth, it it was good, but it never it didn't really get the traction that this one did. Part of it could have been could be, I think, just because of the content. I mean, how many people have actually read Cricket on the Hearth and and know, you know, that it's like a Dickensian, you know, novella? Right. You know, whereas Frosty, by this time, everybody had heard the song. I mean, it was it was already really popular, popularized by Gene Autry, especially. And so, you know, it's like, oh, Frosty the Snowman, okay. And then, yeah, the animation themselves, I think it was done by what Mushi animation. It's just it's a lot tighter than the cricket was. It still has, like you said, that same style, that Paul Coker Jr. style, but it really just kind of started to gel here. And you're right, you can see, especially in uh 'twas the night before Christmas. Yeah. You know, some of them have those like elongated noses and yeah, the bigger eyes, and that we see again in in some of the later specials. Oh, yeah. But I I actually got to meet Paul Coker, he was a really cool guy. Yeah, it was about uh let's see, it was back in like 2018 or so, or seven 2017-2018, and it was really cool. I just he I got to meet him and Rick Goldschmidt, and we were just kind of talking for a bit. I mean, he would just tell me that, like, you know, he he would get the script, and usually they would kind of describe the characters fairly well, and then he would just draw, just draw a whole bunch of things, and then they would send it off to the animation studio, whoever it was going to be, whether it was traditional cell or whether it was, you know, the the stop motion, and then they would just kind of interpret it. And because each one was done for a different actual studio, you know, like ABC, NBC, CBS, they kind of wanted their own original thing, and so a lot of what was done before was kind of scrapped, usually, and they would kind of start over. So they would take his design and kind of just mold it into something new, and which I thought was kind of fascinating because, like you said, you can really see that through line, but it could just be that you know the different studios and and going with those different you know companies to get it done really just kind of tightened it up until we get the final version, if you will, of rank and bass.

SPEAKER_10 6:51

That makes sense now that I hear that whole story.

SPEAKER_08 6:55

Yeah, usually he said he was not really super involved, he would just kind of do his drawings, and then that was like that was about it. He would just send it off and go nuts. Exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_09 7:06

Well, I mean, it's cool at least that he had sort of that freedom too to just that they weren't necessarily this is specifically how we want something that it was this is kind of what we want and go with it. So I think that's that's pretty interesting. I've never really heard that before about how he was just given sort of free reign. So I think that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_08 7:26

Yeah, I mean, and you don't really see that nowadays, especially you know, you talk in movies. I mean, everything's got to be approved by the you know the director, and the usually the the production artists will draw like hundreds of different designs for just one character before they finally you know decide on something. But pretty much he just kind of did a few drawings and would send them off, and and that was it, which is unbelievable to me because that's unheard of, you know, nowadays. But at this point, we're like fully solidified with Don Duga, you know, as like one of the continuity and production designers as well. So it was Tony Peters for Rudolph, and he kind of did a lot of the earlier stuff in the 50s, and then you know, some of all the way to the mid-60s, and then Don Duga and Paul Coker pretty much took over as the production design team. So you can really see that there was a that continuity as well, because they did a quite a few in a row that you get that sense of, you know. I I mean I don't want to say continuity again, but you know, you get that sense of just that through line that was Paul Coker and Don Duga. So I again that's that's something that I think is really cool because you know it's there's a few directors that like to use the same guys over and over again, you know, like Christopher Nolan and Willie Fister and all those. But I mean, most of the time it's you know, it's just okay, I'm gonna hire this guy and I'll hire this one for this project. And so yeah, I like it when uh when they're loyal to their their base, I suppose.

SPEAKER_10 8:46

They do, and and well, we know that Rankin Bass is very loyal, especially to their acting base, too.

SPEAKER_08 8:53

Yes. Well, the Arthur Rankin famously said that the Paul Freeze was his good luck charm, and so he put him he put him in everything. He sure did. In fact, I think Paul Freeze is Santa in this one, isn't he?

SPEAKER_10 9:06

He is, yeah, this is my favorite Rankin Bass Santa as far as voice goes. Oh no, I like his voice better than Mickey Rooney, I like it better than Stant Francis.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

If you so much as lay a finger on the brim, I'll never bring you another Christmas present as long as you live.

SPEAKER_10 9:24

I don't know, it just sounds more like Santa to me.

SPEAKER_08 9:27

Like what you imagine Santa to be.

SPEAKER_09 9:28

Yeah, I'm I'm with Mike on that too. I have that written down in my notes that this is not only is this like my Santa voice, this was my Santa, even as a kid, knowing this was a cartoon, this was what I thought Santa was. Was this guy in this, yeah, that voice, that is Santa to me. And so I hear whenever I hear Paul Freeze's voice, which a lot of things he does sounds very similar. I hear Santa Claus always, and that's like I'm so glad that that Mike's on the same on the same spot with me on that because I feel the exact same way. That is my Santa voice, that's what he sounds like in my head to this day, is that voice, and it's just it's perfect to me.

SPEAKER_10 10:14

Gonna remember that next time I ride the haunted mansion and just laugh and laugh, just think of Santa Claus.

SPEAKER_08 10:19

You're gonna think of Santa as long as you don't think of the version from Twist the Night Before Christmas, uh, you're okay. Yeah, I hate that version. I mean, I don't hate it.

SPEAKER_10 10:28

He looks like a hobbit. That's where they get that. He really does because I saw that Hobbit be right around the same time. I don't want to say before, but right around the same time because the Disney Channel aired both of them. Yes, they did around the same time.

SPEAKER_08 10:44

Yep, I remember that very well. Uh, because I was the same way that I saw, of course, the Hobbit before I read the book, but the same thing. It was like I saw right around that time that I saw twice the night before Christmas, yeah. Which, by the way, I do really love, and I was devastated when they stopped playing it, you know, every year. But yes, I mean, as far as design goes, that Santa design is no thanks. I'll take I'll take this frosty design any day of the week. Oh, yeah. But actually, Paul Freeze voiced Santa in quite a few other things. So he was a voice of Santa in Here Comes Peter Cottontail, he was the voice of Santa in The Easter Bunnies, no, not that one, um the first Easter rabbit, that one, and I want to say there was another one. Pinocchio, Pinocchio's Christmas.

SPEAKER_10 11:26

He has maybe one line, yeah, but it's in there, and it's that's the one, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 11:32

Yeah, and so I you're right. There is something about Paul Freeze's voice in general. I mean, it is also kind of hard for me to separate uh Kubla Kraus and Burgermeister Meister Burger from it. Yeah, well, you know, nobody's perfect. Oh man, but frosty. So you guys grew up with it. We kind of already got into our memories and and history about it. But what is it really about this particular special that really stands out to you? Like if you had to choose between like this one and Rudolph or or some of the other ones, what is it about this one that would stand out?

SPEAKER_09 12:08

I think personally for myself, that you know, outside of just the pure nostalgia and everything I have for it, I love the way this one looks. And I think it took me a long time to realize this was the rankin' embass that I associate with Rudolph or uh the year without a Santa Claus or something like that, because it is obviously different from a visual standpoint, right? And it always stuck with me because it's it's the song is so ubiquitous, it's something we all know, right? It's short and sweet. They basically, I mean, they pound this thing out in 24 minutes, whatever it is. And so it holds my attention span. Where there are times in Rudolph, and I love Rudolph, that I'm like, I could do without this, I could do without this, like this number. This number's a little too much, or it's a little too long. I have no idea what you're talking about, right? And this one, it's like, we're gonna get you in, we're gonna get you out. Yeah, we're gonna they're gonna hit me with the feels, they're gonna give me the Santa I love, they're going to take this story where they don't really have to bend it so much as we see with some of the other ranking ranking bass stuff that's revolved around a song. So that's that's why I think this one kind of just connects and hits with me so much. Nice.

SPEAKER_10 13:31

It sticks with story and it's a nice tight story. Everything I'm echoing everything that Matt said. What I like about this specifically, as far as its visuals go, is none of the characters have the solid black outline, they have a thicker outline around them, but it's always like a muted, like a gray, or like their legs are just a darker version of their skin color. And Frosty and Hocus Pocus, who are both purely white characters, have that gray outline, and it just gives everything more of a softer glow to it than it would be if everybody just had that dark, thick black outline about them.

SPEAKER_08 14:11

Nice, and that's true, that's a good point. Something that I hadn't really thought of. Although I did notice while watching it this time today that uh yeah, Santa's boots as well were like a a reddish color, they were like a darker red, yeah. Which I mean, I don't think I've seen this a million times. I don't think I've ever noticed that before, and it kind of threw me off this time watching it. And it maybe it goes back to what you were saying about you know their legs being like a little bit darker color. Maybe it was just a way to to to save some time and not have to color everything in exactly right. I don't know, but uh what I do know is that it's kind of cool. It was it was a nice little a nice little difference to kind of set itself apart from everybody else. Santa usually has black boots, you know, or brown boots, but but the red boots is something cool. I've never seen that, you know. And but same thing with Santa. I I always loved the design of the Santa. He felt like the Santa that you think about when you think of Santa in your mind, you know, it's it's it's like you imagine this one here, and and so it was just for me as a kid, this one always stood out again over Grumpy Santa from Rudolph, or you know, or or just crazy Amish beard Santa from you know ginger Santa from from uh Santa Claus is coming to town and twist the night before Christmas, and so the like it was perfect. So whenever I would try to draw, because I was I was you know an aspiring artist, and so I would always try to draw Santa to look like this particular version. I don't think I ever did very well, but I tried my best.

SPEAKER_10 15:37

So it's a good model, and again, like you look at Rudolph Santa. I love Rudolph. Rudolph is my favorite Rankin Bass special, yeah. The Santa in that is a character that like it his model looks like all the other models in that special. So he's got the beady eyes, and he's a skinny Santa for most of it.

SPEAKER_06 15:58

Papa, you haven't touched a morsel. I'll have to take the suit in. Eat.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

I'm busy, mama. It's almost Christmas.

SPEAKER_06 16:07

Whoever heard of a skinny Santa? Eat, eat.

SPEAKER_10 16:12

Whereas this one is your classic Santa. He's got the bald head, he's got the full beard with the mustache, he's got the more booming voice. You sit down on Santa's lap when you were a little kid. He's a grown adult, he's a wise old man, and this is that same aesthetic from him.

SPEAKER_08 16:31

Yeah, yeah. The only thing that ever bothered me about the special was that Santa only had four reindeer. That's it.

SPEAKER_09 16:39

Hey, yeah. I never thought of that, but yeah, that's true. And it's funny because that's one of those things, especially as a kid, you would think we would all pinpoint like we've been told our entire lives it's not just four. So that is funny though, too. That I'd never really picked up on that.

SPEAKER_10 16:56

Well, he's also not going out on his route on his Christmas Eve run. I mean, it is Christmas Eve, but it could be like we're just seeing him do a side errand. He's on a side quest to say across the side. He must be like, All right, you four wait for me here or something. I'm just gonna do a quick trip over here. You'll get four gold save this snowman and uh drop this girl back at her house, and then we can keep going.

SPEAKER_08 17:25

Ten rupees for that quest. Yeah, yeah, and you and you're right, but I did love how he kind of I always thought this Santa felt a little more magical to me than the other the other ones, you know, especially Santa from Rudolph, who it doesn't really do much except kind of complain about the choir, and then the the Santa Claus is coming to town. Well, yeah, he could slide and go down chimneys and stuff, but this one actually, you know, he opened the door and he kind of commanded this the you know that that north wind or whatever it was to to bring the Christmas snow back and and revive frosty. I was like, Man, this guy's magic, that's cool.

SPEAKER_09 18:02

Well, and I like I like too that this Santa isn't just pure pushover, but he's also not a jerk because I think Santa and Rudolph's a jerk. Oh and whatever gave you that idea, yeah. And and and in this one, he's still sweet, but he's also not very happy with Professor Hinkle, and he's very stern with him. And just maybe I will give you a gift if you do this, you know. You write this, you know, how many times, hundreds millions of times, and then maybe, just maybe. So I like that he's not just well, just give it back, give the hat back, and that's all that matters, and then it's that. So I like that there's still he still has like this forcefulness over him, but he's not like scary, he's just right. You you know that he's going to, he's not just gonna be a pushover and all this. And I like that with my Santa. I don't like him being just like right. Well, every kid, no matter what you do, you're gonna get you're gonna get presents. Like, you gotta at least have a Santa who's willing to enforce the rules a little bit.

SPEAKER_08 19:12

Well, and then you know, he he does his tone does kind of betray that he's gonna give him a gift, he you know, he will give him a gift as long as he tries, as long as he tries, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 19:22

Well, it's an impossible task. I I did the math for when I did the this was the first episode of my podcast. I remember so I did the math of how long it would take you to write I Am Very Sorry for what I did to Frosty a hundred million times, which is an actual number. And if you started on Christmas Eve in 1969, you would stop around New Year's in 2008. So that's a long time.

SPEAKER_09 19:50

It's a long time. Now that should have been the follow-up sequel to this was Professor Hinkle finally ramped on it, and he finally gets his game. Well, his forearm is just massive, like he looks like Popeye. Yeah, that's the sequel I wanted.

SPEAKER_08 20:11

It seems like that's setting him up to become a supervillain, though, you know. Very true, or maybe you know, he does have brown hair and a mustache. Maybe he becomes fisto and moves to eternia.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

It should be quite a match. I only regret it that it shall not be I who will represent the side of good.

SPEAKER_08 20:31

I don't know, I'm just saying. Well, yeah, maybe not, but I mean, we've already kind of got into it, but I guess we can just go ahead and dive right into this plot here.

SPEAKER_10 20:44

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_08 20:44

You're right, it's pretty straightforward, and I also kind of like that it gets right to the point. You know, when they try to build a lot of these around songs, there's a lot of filler they gotta do to fill up an hour. So I think having it be a half-hour special really was like to their advantage because there wasn't room for a lot of just weirdness, and and I love the rank and bass weirdness, like that's just it's it's comic booky, it's stuff that I like to read, you know, it's world building. It's like, oh wow, there's a whole island run by like a lion with wings that cares for toys. I mean, that's I mean, like, I don't know where he came up with that, you know. But this one, there's not a lot of that. It's like basically, you know, nutshelling it is the song. It's literally they just they build Santa or they build Frosty, put a hat on him, he comes to life, and then he has to leave because it's getting hot.

SPEAKER_10 21:32

Well, and even then you get all the way through the song, and the special is only halfway done. That's exactly a quick song. It is a quick song, yes, it is.

SPEAKER_11 21:41

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_08 21:43

Yes, it is. I we've had to sing it. A buddy of mine, we we always play at the Knights of Columbus, they have like a big fourth degree dinner or something, and so they always ask us to like come play Christmas carols because it's always happens around like the 16th, 17th of December. So we always go play it, and usually that song's done in like a minute and a half, I think. Maybe two minutes tops, it's like really short. So yeah, there's still filler, but I guess because it wasn't as outlandish question mark. They they they didn't have so many crazy filler.

SPEAKER_10 22:15

It's like, well, he had to hurry on his way. Well, where to the North Pole. All right, let's get you there. And that's the second half of the plot.

SPEAKER_08 22:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

Well, I mean, we gotta see what happens, I guess. I suppose it all started with the snow. You see, it was a very special kind of snow. A snow to make the happy happy and the giddy even giddy. A snow to make a home coming homier, and natural enemies, friends. Naturally. For it was the first snow of the season. And as any child can tell you, there's a certain magic to the very first snow. Especially when it falls on the day before Christmas. For when the first snow is also a Christmas snow, well, something wonderful is bound to happen.

SPEAKER_08 23:08

But uh, I so it's essentially it starts out, it's like uh Christmas Eve, which apparently was still a thing, going to school on Christmas Eve in the 60s. As far as I recall, we were long out of school by that point. Like we usually had two, maybe three weeks of Christmas vacation, it just depended on what year it was, but usually it was about two weeks vacation, and so we were definitely way out of school by that that point.

SPEAKER_10 23:31

Growing up in New Jersey, the latest we would go is the 23rd. We would have a half day of school on the 23rd at the very latest. Oh wow, but then we would have Christmas Eve off, and then we'd come back January 2nd or thereabouts.

SPEAKER_08 23:45

Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, usually we had about a week before and a week after for two weeks.

SPEAKER_10 23:50

Yeah, that's what my kids have now. They have the week of Christmas and the week that uh New Year's falls in, and then they come back the first week of January at some point.

SPEAKER_08 24:01

Yeah, yeah. And that was pretty much what we did growing up too. Except every once in a while I was like three weeks off, which was super cool. Well, all right. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_09 24:09

But that was that was nice. Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think I ever got that lucky. I think I was kind of the kind of the same as Mike, like, especially because I went to a Catholic school that started late. So like we never started school until after Labor Day. Oh, we're yeah, so they would like compact us to where it was like, Well, we're gonna give you like eight days off. Like, like it was kind of just it was like the same. It was like, we're be back on January 2nd. I I think there were times I probably got out on the 23rd, but somewhere usually in that range. So once I got to high school in a public school, it was like, there we go. Like, I get my two weeks, like this is great. I'm not used to this.

SPEAKER_10 24:48

Whereas here it's like, well, we didn't get hit by any hurricane, so see a Martin Luther King weekend.

SPEAKER_08 24:53

That's right, yeah. Or in college, too, you know, where you'd get like a whole month off, basically.

SPEAKER_09 24:59

Oh, yeah, we'd have like five weeks off. That was the best. Yeah, it was like second you go home second week of December and you don't go back until Martin Luther King Day, like the next day. That's right. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_10 25:11

Our college did like a very quick mini intercession semester there. If you wanted to take a really quick course for four weeks, and I did that once and I survived, and it was all right, but didn't do it again.

SPEAKER_08 25:26

Yeah, no, I wanted my break. I was like, I'm going home because I, you know, I went to school about six hours away, so I was like, I'm going home, I'm gonna do nothing, and then I'll be ready to go back at it again. Yep, and so it was nice, but so they're there on Christmas Eve and they have like a class presentation, and Professor Hinkle, the magician, comes in to to do some tricks for them, which I love. I love his tricks. Essentially, his his little buddy Hocus Pocus, the rabbit, is kind of just a little mischievous guy, and he likes to mess around with Professor Hinkle, which is I I really, I really as a kid enjoyed Hocus Pocus. He was probably like my favorite part of the whole show. I think.

SPEAKER_11 26:08

Oh, yeah, this is great.

SPEAKER_09 26:10

I was gonna say he's the star of this thing. I love him. For for someone who has no speaking lines, he knows how to to take over this this this show. He's he's very funny.

SPEAKER_08 26:23

But like I it I did always wonder like what happened to him afterwards, you know. Did he yeah, did he go back with Professor Hinkle?

SPEAKER_09 26:31

Yeah, did he is he living in the forest with all of his new friends?

SPEAKER_08 26:34

Make it in show business, or does he go to the North Pole with Frosty and kind of hang out there?

SPEAKER_10 26:40

We don't see him in Frosty's Winter Wonderland, which was the follow-up to this, but uh we don't see anybody else in this. No, we don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 26:47

And the reason for that was because that was uh done that sequel was done on ABC, whereas Frosty was on CBS. So again, there was a whole little rights thing there, and so they didn't want any of the original characters, which is kind of a shame. Because I you know me, I'm a sucker for continuity. I I like yeah, I I like it all to kind of make sense, and so sure you know, I'm the guy that like tries to sit down and figure out where every single rank and bass thing fits in in the overall timeline, and I still haven't quite spoiled us with that. Yes, they have, they really have. So I I always wondered about hocus pocus, but in I think in my mind and my own head canon, I think he's living peacefully at the North Pole, just kind of chilling with the elves. Maybe, maybe he's putting on some shows for them on their downtime. Yeah, I like that. We'll stick with that. But so Professor Hinkle, all his tricks are going wrong. He throws away his hat because he's just so frustrated with hocus pocus and everything about it that he's just like you just can't take it anymore. So the kids go outside and build their snowman, just like the song says. They and they have to come up with the name, and we get all sorts of suggestions, including my favorite oatmeal.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Oatmeal. Oh, and they get so annoyed with that.

SPEAKER_10 28:04

It's like oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal's a great name for a snowman. All we all need to check really is Christopher Columbus.

SPEAKER_09 28:16

Agreed. I I make the oatmeal reference all the time when somebody's like, you know, what should we name this dog? Or whatever. Like my fiance, we do this thing a lot where we see like a dog on TV or something, or we'll see a dog walking down the street, and I'll go, What do you think his name is? And we do that all the time. And I all every five or six of them, I'll say oatmeal, and she'd be like, What are you talking about? I'd be like, Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_10 28:46

I was hoping that she would follow up with oatmeal.

SPEAKER_09 28:48

Yeah, see now that's that's flakes even. Yes, like that's the proper response. Yeah, but I say it all the time, and she still has not caught on to what this reference is, which is just terrible, but I love sharing it.

SPEAKER_10 29:02

She'll get there, and when she does, it'll be magical.

SPEAKER_09 29:05

That's when we that's when we know this whole getting married thing will be that's right.

SPEAKER_08 29:09

Yeah, you'll know she's the one if if you watch Frosty this year and then she and it clips the next time, yeah. Like Leah Campbell, of course. That's right, yeah. Yes, yep, for sure. But uh yeah, you're right. That's like a perfect snowman name. And I've only built like maybe one snowman my whole life because you know it doesn't really snow ever in the valley, and we've only built a snowman once. But I mean, it looked like oatmeal to me. I I I get it, I see where it's coming from. But they they you know put the scarf and all that stuff on him and the magic hat, and he comes to life with his famous happy birthday. And I do love I do love some of his lines. He's he almost has like a little mini existential crisis, you know. Like, like, how am I alive? How can I be saying these different things? I mean, it's it's just a little ridiculous, but I love it.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

It's hey, I said my first words, but but snowman can talk. All right, come on now, what's the joke? Could could I really be alive? I mean, I can make words, I can move, I can juggle, I can sweep.

SPEAKER_09 30:30

Yeah, when he questions, when he questions like his own existence. Yes, like a snowman can't talk. Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 30:39

I think a lot of that banter and a lot of his lines were kind of feeding Jackie Vernon, his voice actor, like especially the one which is like, what a neat thing to happen to a guy like me, is something that you would expect Jackie Vernon to say if you ever watched his stand-up or seen any of his movies. Like, that's a very Jackie Vernon line.

SPEAKER_08 30:59

Well, that makes sense then, because I've never I've never actually seen any of his any of his other stuff, like his live stuff. I to me, he's always just frosty.

SPEAKER_10 31:08

Yeah, I mean to most kids our age.

SPEAKER_08 31:11

Well, yeah, yeah, you're right about that. And but it's just it's still crack, it's just it's like just a little touch that rank and bass always kind of throws in, you know, a little thing here and there that just kind of throws, you know, it just kind of makes you turn your head and say, huh, okay. I like that.

SPEAKER_10 31:27

I like that they gave the snowman feet. You don't see that a lot when you're building actual snowmen.

SPEAKER_08 31:32

Yeah, usually you just kind of roll the you know, roll up the big ball of snow, and that's the base.

SPEAKER_09 31:38

Yeah, it feels like the work put into making legs and feet would be pretty difficult. I mean, you got to get a pretty good base there, situated behind the legs, oops, behind the legs to sort of get that going. I mean, as a person who's made more snowmen than I could count, I don't think I rub it in. I don't think I have ever even thought of the idea of putting feet or legs onto my snowman, you know.

SPEAKER_08 32:05

Maybe that's why he comes to life. That's because he's seeing very anthropomorphic.

SPEAKER_09 32:10

That was my problem. I never gave him legs, you never gave him legs, or yeah, it may have happened, it may have happened.

SPEAKER_08 32:18

Okay, quick question. This has nothing to do with anything, but if Frosty the Snowman were to get into a fight with Jack Frost, who would win? And not Jack Frost rank and bass, the Jack Frost Michael Keaton.

SPEAKER_09 32:30

Oh, I would say Jack Frost only because he and that movie was willing to like go all out. I mean, he was like melting out the road on the way. Uh gosh, I see my memory of that movie is not that great, but he just looks scarier. I think most people doesn't yeah, so he just he looks way scarier. Well, scary's not even the right word, more freaky, I guess, for lack of a better word.

SPEAKER_10 32:58

He's got Michael Keaton face, yes, but Frosty has legs, so we'll just kick him.

SPEAKER_08 33:04

There you go. Oh, I like that. That's true. Can run away pretty quick.

SPEAKER_10 33:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_09 33:09

But uh but I envision like a like a BB8 type movement for Frost.

SPEAKER_10 33:15

Is that how it works? That'd be that bottom ball model is just yeah.

SPEAKER_08 33:22

I like that, I like the BB8 action. Oh man, yeah, okay, so Frosty comes to life and immediately they start they want to go have fun. And of course, all throughout as as they're going on parade, because that's what a snowman does when he comes to life, is is have a parade. But throughout all this, you know, Professor Hinkle is noticing that his hat actually does something, and he wants his hat back as well. And so that's a little subplot that's going to return after we see Frosty's shenanigans in the parade. Uh, so we get the little bit with the cop, which was always my favorite when he swallows his whistle.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Silly snowman. Once they come to life, they don't know nothing.

SPEAKER_08 34:06

Come to life, it kind of terrified me a little bit of like blowing a whistle because I didn't want I didn't want to be startled and swallow it accidentally. But you know, I mean, I didn't, so I guess I guess I'm okay. I made it through.

SPEAKER_10 34:25

That looked painful.

SPEAKER_08 34:27

But I did think it was cool the way he would just kind of talk and the whistle noise would come out.

SPEAKER_10 34:32

Yeah, yeah, that was great.

SPEAKER_08 34:34

Yeah, so they you know they realize that it's getting hot, the sun's getting warmer, and so the the thermometer is getting redder, which means you know, frosty's gonna be melting soon. So they need to go find some place up north where it's cold, maybe the north pole, maybe with Santa. And from there, we get the whole train station bit. I don't know. I I just I didn't quite understand as much as a kid because trains weren't like a huge thing in the valley, you know, like buses were like the thing if you needed to go somewhere. You know, you wouldn't take a train, you just you'd hop on a bus and go somewhere, or you'd hop on a plane, you know. So it's like, okay, so they're they need to buy tickets, and then I it was a ridiculous amount, it was what like three thousand dollars or something.

SPEAKER_10 35:16

Well, okay when you go back and you listen to this route that they take and you try and plot it out on a map, it's kind of ridiculous.

SPEAKER_09 35:27

He's I've never I've never seen the Aurora Borealis on a map, right?

SPEAKER_10 35:32

That's the last stop. Well, that's how you get to the North Pole, or at least worth the Santa part of the North Pole, but before that, it goes to Saskatchewan, to Hudson Bay, to Gnome, Alaska, to the Klondike, and then the Aurora Boreal, like you're going in a zigzag.

SPEAKER_08 35:52

Maybe that's the only way to actually get to Santa's workshop.

SPEAKER_10 35:56

That's it. It's you gotta make all of those stops in that order.

SPEAKER_09 36:01

I also loved that the the train tickets were a stack, like a huge stack, like it was a huge stack. I understand you're making a handful of stops here, but that's a I mean, that's a big wad to just put in your pocket to to start dispensing while you're getting on your different trains. Like that's a lot to remember.

SPEAKER_08 36:21

Yeah, there's a lot of little substations before you get to the the main ones where you have gun switch.

SPEAKER_09 36:26

Yeah, I always love to the the sounds we hear of him with and he's stamping stuff, and you're hearing stuff getting knocked over, and it's just like clink and clinking sounds in the station or in the blind whistle in there. There you go.

SPEAKER_08 36:42

Which are you ever disappointed that when you're like getting handed tickets, you don't hear any of that stuff?

SPEAKER_10 36:48

No, stupid, competent people that I deal with at the train station doing their job correctly, whereas this guy's all frazzled. Like, give me some entertainment.

SPEAKER_08 37:02

Yeah, I'll take entertainment any day if I'm buying a ticket, especially one that gets three thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_10 37:09

Yeah, and sound like annoyed Paul Freeze while you're doing it.

SPEAKER_08 37:16

Well, of course, they don't have the money, so they gotta jump or hitch a ride, hobo style. Right. Maybe that's not the maybe that's not the correct word there. I don't know. They gotta stow away. I'll say stow away, that sounds better. They gotta stow away in a refrigeration car because why not? Gotta keep cold. Gotta keep cold. Yeah, frosty. Exactly. Frosty's gotta stay cold so he doesn't melt. But unfortunately, even though she's got her winter coat on and shorts, because I guess that's a thing you northerners do. I don't know. I don't we don't do that here in South Texas.

SPEAKER_10 37:53

No, I'm I'm not doing that, I know that for sure. No, it got down to 50 here in Orlando, and my kids were all bundled up.

SPEAKER_08 38:02

Yep, pretty much same here. I was like 47 degrees. No, no, put your big coat on. Yeah, she's just there freezing, which is not very good for her. And I love how we get Professor Hinkle sideshow Bob style, just trying to try to trying to invade and get the hat.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

This coffee's too hot. Hey kids, wanna drive through that cactus patch? No. Well, two against one.

SPEAKER_09 38:57

I never thought of that. That is such a great analogy for him in that moment. It's perfect.

SPEAKER_08 39:03

It's German for the Bart. The oh man, but so yeah, so they end up uh evading him again. And I love how he's just kind of stuck on the train, like, oh, that's not fair. His high-pitched voice.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

Oh, you tricked me! No fair.

SPEAKER_08 39:28

You tricked me. Did they really trick him?

SPEAKER_10 39:32

He is under the impression that because the hat was his, that he still has rightful ownership. He threw it away. He threw it away. He threw it away. So, of course, I had to look up. At what point does something you throw away stop being yours? And he threw it out the window of a school. If you take your garbage to the curb, that's public property now.

SPEAKER_12 39:56

If you can find a carrot hidden in this picture, then you can win a rum to our prize packed house where what you find is what you keep on Finder Keepers.

SPEAKER_10 40:07

Like, if you have to, like, if it's on your property, then yeah, you can't go trash picking it. But if you bring your trash to the curb and someone like decides to go through your trash can to see what's in there, no man, that's that's fair game. Yeah, you're in like a public school yard in a snowfield, and that you threw that hat out there, that's not your hat anymore.

SPEAKER_08 40:31

And you know, they say finders and somebody was weeping a lot in this in this. It's definitely Professor Hinkle. Yeah, so they evade him, and of course, they're getting closer to the North Pole, so they're still very, very cold. I mean, I don't know how far away from the North Pole they are, but you know, they're getting more closer to the Arctic in general, so they're at least in Canada. That's right, yeah. And so Karen is just freezing at this point, and so Frosty gets uh and uh Hocus Pocus, who's kind of joined their side now. He eventually he talks to some woodland creatures and convinces them to help build a fire. Which I really wish I could hear that conversation, like that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_10 41:18

Like a little treatment. They have the sound effect that they use for him, and it's and it works.

SPEAKER_08 41:28

It does, it does, but I'm I I always had me so curious to know what exactly he told them. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_10 41:34

Yeah, these animals are decorating the forest for Christmas, by the way. They have ornaments, they have lights, they have tinsel. So I think they're going all out.

SPEAKER_08 41:43

Yeah, they are, and I I think maybe Hocus Pocus. I I think you know, I'm changing my tune. I think Hocus Pocus stayed with them. Maybe they're his folks now. Could be, yeah. So that he he found his kindred spirits there. I'd love, I love this. They they build the fire to warm her up, and Professor Hinkle again kind of gets the drop on him. They decide to do the the what Jimmy Duranty, who's narrating this whole thing, by the way. I haven't mentioned that. He he calls uh Frosty the best belly whopper in no wild. Belly whopper. I've never I've never heard that until the special, I had never heard that. I was like, is that a thing? So I don't know if that's an old time thing. I could find nothing on belly whopper.

SPEAKER_10 42:28

So uh no, you you google belly whop snow and you end up at frosty.

SPEAKER_08 42:34

Exactly, yeah. That's it. So I don't know, but I I kind of hope that they created it just for this special.

SPEAKER_10 42:41

Man, I hope so.

SPEAKER_08 42:42

Yeah, so they get away that way, and they just happen to run across a greenhouse growing poinsettas. So maybe they're closer to the north pole than we think. Maybe you're right. That's why there's only four reindeer out. Maybe he's just kind of lighting them up.

SPEAKER_10 42:56

Yeah, it's like that that highway that you're driving on, and there's nothing, but then like there's a farmhouse and nothing else on the road. So there's the greenhouse there.

SPEAKER_08 43:06

Yeah, the one little gas station just right there. Just enough to make sure that you're full so you can make it to where you need to go. Yep. Yep. And so there's a greenhouse, and so Frosty takes Karen in to warm her up because by this time, you know, she's definitely freezing to death, as morbid as that is in a children's episode. But he makes a point to say, Hey, you know, I gotta get out of here soon, you know, or or I'm gonna melt. And of course, by that time, Professor Hinkle catches up with him and bam slams the door shut and is so thrilled that he's gonna get his hat back.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Now I've got you. And the minute you're all melted, the hat will be mine.

SPEAKER_08 43:53

I mean, I guess he's never considered that perhaps it's magic not because of him. You know, if it didn't work for him before. And all of a sudden it's magic. Like, I don't think he ever put two and two together. He's just, it's like, wow, it's magic now. It's mine. I need to have it back.

SPEAKER_10 44:08

He slams the door, but then he walks away. Just open the door. You're inside. We can't lock you inside the greenhouse. That's not how greenhouses work.

SPEAKER_08 44:21

I don't, I don't know. Maybe. No, I got nothing. I got nothing. But yeah, you're right. They could just escape. And aren't there usually like two doors in a greenhouse?

SPEAKER_10 44:35

I don't know enough about greenhouses for that. I know that you can't lock them from the point from the outside, though.

SPEAKER_09 44:42

Absolutely no purpose unless you're trapping some oh no, the plants might get out.

SPEAKER_10 44:48

Not that kind of greenhouse.

SPEAKER_08 44:52

It's pointsetas, I swear. I swear it's just pointsetas. Tropical point setas. Tropical pointsetas. Well, they all are. It's bushroots, uh bushroots screenhouse.

SPEAKER_07 45:03

I guess I'm just a silly old mutant plant.

SPEAKER_08 45:08

Beware. But but it's luckily Santa's coming by and he's able to rescue Frosty and Karen's weeping. He opens the door, Karen's just weeping.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

He's like, Too late? Why? Nonsense. Oh, don't cry, Karen. Frosty's not gone for good. You see, he was made out of Christmas snow, and Christmas snow can never disappear completely. Oh, it sometimes goes away for almost a year at a time and takes the form of spring and summer rain. But you can bet your boots that when a good jolly December wind kisses it, it'll turn into Christmas snow all over again.

SPEAKER_08 45:58

That's when he kind of uses that cool Santa magic that we talked about earlier. He he you know it's pretty neat. And then, of course, Professor Hinkle is shows up and tries to just take everything back. And Santa is awesome. And he, like Matt, like you were saying, he's like, Hey, don't you dare take that hat. It doesn't belong to you anymore, guy. You know, famous words of Santa, it doesn't belong to you anymore, guy.

SPEAKER_09 46:22

And I that's one of those things that everybody has on shirts with Chris with Santa on it. It's that sentence. That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 46:36

That's yeah, I need to sell that shirt now. It doesn't belong to you anymore, guy. Uh and uh, but so that's when he gets that you gotta write the hundred zillion times in that you know, kind of playful Santa voice, the ridiculously impossible task. And uh Professor Hinkle's like, not even like uh magic cards.

SPEAKER_10 46:55

I mean no more anything.

SPEAKER_08 47:00

Maybe, just maybe I'll put something in your stocking tomorrow. And so Professor Hinkle runs off, and everything's resolved. Frosty's gonna go to the North Pole and stay there with Santa, which we see later on. He is, you know, in the the follow-ups, he is at the north pole. So I did like that bit of continuity, but Karen is, as you alluded to earlier, just dropped off on her roof.

SPEAKER_10 47:26

Yeah, Santa brings Karen home, leaves her on the roof. This looks like the building has at least three floors. It's a big building.

SPEAKER_08 47:37

Yep, you know, I think she was just trained in acrobatics. Either that or maybe maybe Santa gave her like some crazy ninja powers.

SPEAKER_10 47:48

And I mean, at this kind of your dad's got a ladder, right?

SPEAKER_08 47:54

I I like how, by the way, I like how when she's leaving, she's like, Oh, you know, I'll just take a quick trip to the North Pole. As long as I'm back, you know, before dinner, mumble. As long as I'm no big deal.

SPEAKER_10 48:04

That's a I mean, that's cute childlike in ignorance, which is fine.

SPEAKER_08 48:09

Yeah, yeah. Which I at you know, when I was younger, it's like, yeah, no big deal. We'd go play with our friends, we'd stay out till it got dark. You just had to be home by the time the porch light came on, you know. But now, nowadays, as a parent, it's like, no, no, no, no. I need to know where my child is at all times.

SPEAKER_10 48:24

Oh, yeah, you're not allowed around the corner, buddy.

SPEAKER_08 48:27

No, no, I gotta see where I was. Yeah, forget, forget that we played in like canals and stuff like that. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 48:35

I'm gonna cross this woods into the next neighborhood, into the next zip code. You're not allowed around the corner.

SPEAKER_08 48:43

Yep. So, you know, maybe at this point she's like, hey, I'm back, everybody. Just kind of yell out, and her dad will go up and get her, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_10 48:53

Yeah, it's 1969. They were like, You were gone.

SPEAKER_09 48:56

Who are you again? Oh, yes, you're our seventh child, Karen.

SPEAKER_08 49:06

Oh man. And so we get we get Frosty and Santa flying off, presumably to go pick up the other reindeer so they can actually make their way to deliver all the toys on Christmas Eve. Yep. I hope so. And Santa earned his rupees and his XP, and from there he uh he went on to deliver his main quest.

SPEAKER_10 49:27

And then he comes back for a parade.

SPEAKER_08 49:29

And comes back for a parade, yep. And we get Jimmy Durante singing his song, Frosty the Snowman.

SPEAKER_10 49:37

That might be my favorite version of Frosty. Frosty the Snowman.

SPEAKER_04 49:42

What's a job? Happy Snow. What a pump, a pipe, and the button, and joy is made out of cold.

SPEAKER_08 49:51

It's just one of those growing up hearing it all the time. Every other version's are great, but it's just it's not the same. All right, like I need to hear the schnauz singing.

SPEAKER_10 50:00

Even the yeah, even the slow, sad frosties melted into a puddle version of just frosty the snow. And it like you can hear Jimmy Duranty pretending to like try and fight back tears. It looks great.

SPEAKER_08 50:18

I gotta say, I did prefer Jimmy Durante to Andy Griffith. Nothing against Andy Griffith. I thought he did a great job narrating that particular story, but of the two, I think it's just uh Jimmy Duranty is just so much better.

SPEAKER_10 50:33

Sure. And they drew Andy Griffith so weird, he looked like some kind of goblin. He did, yeah. Yep, yep. Well been out in the sun too long.

SPEAKER_08 50:48

You know, you never know what's gonna happen with Barney Fife around. And all the kids hearing this are like, what are they talking about? Oh man, but this was still in that era before Rankin Bass like started making it big and and casting just like big name stars, so it was really just like one star for their for their cast, you know, and he was usually the narrator or or you know that the main character, and then eventually the the following year, when we get the Santa Claus's coming to town, then we have like three stars as well. So, of course, Mickey Rooney and uh you know some of the others there, but it it's just like that's when they got used to actually producing with these bigger names. I mean, they'd done the daydreamer and all of those you know, you working with Hollywood actors, and so while they were still faithful, especially you know to Paul Freeze, you know, it was good luck charm, but while they were still faithful to a lot of their cast, I mean they they kind of started going outside of their usual suspects as well. In fact, June Foray was supposed to be uh she originally voiced Karen and then was replaced. Yeah, yeah. I don't recall the name of the person. In fact, I think it's just a rumor. It's I don't think it's ever been confirmed that the actual voice is uh the you know who it was.

SPEAKER_10 52:07

Oh, really? Yeah, because I remember like when I did this for my show, there wasn't a name for it. And then when I looked recently, they they had a name for Karen's actor. Let me see if I can look it up.

SPEAKER_08 52:21

Yeah, and I had it here.

SPEAKER_10 52:22

Suzanne Davidson, that's the one, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 52:25

And I don't know if it's ever actually been confirmed. I think it's that's just who they've attached the name to. They've they've assumed that's who it was. Which I mean, if it was me, I'd be like, hey, over here, I did it. I was Karen. Like, this is the only Karen that you want to be. Yeah, you know, that's just one of those things that like I would be shouting at everywhere I go, you know, like, hey, nice to meet you. Did you know I did the voice of Karen in uh Frosty the Snowman?

SPEAKER_09 52:53

Yeah, you would think you'd want to really lean into like you look at oh the woman who played Zuzu on It's a Wonderful Life. Like we know Todd had her on uh Christmas platter, yeah. And that was like she goes around and does these meet and greets. She, you know, you can go watch the film with her, and then she answers questions afterwards, she's done cookbooks. Like, whoever this Suzanne Davidson is, if this is her who actually did that voice, like lean into this. Like you could they people would book you all over the place just for that experience. And I think, like, I would assume all three of us have given the chance to go watch the film and like do a QA with the person who did that voice, like, we would jump at that chance because it'd be so interesting, especially for how young, presumably, they would have been when this came out. Like it would have been really cool. Like, I it it is kind of weird that we don't have some sort of definitive answer as to who this person is. Like, it's just so strange that it's like, well, it might be this person, but she won't fess up to it. Like, it's it's all very weird.

SPEAKER_10 53:58

If it is this Suzanne Davidson, she was also the girl in the 1970s remake of Miracle on 34th Street. So you got uh a double Christmas whammy there that you could just milk for all it's worth. Yeah, where are you, Suzanne Davidson?

SPEAKER_08 54:14

I don't know, but I think that's a call.

SPEAKER_10 54:16

Get on the convention circle for real.

SPEAKER_08 54:18

I think we need to have a big, you know, just Christmas podcast convention just for her, you know. We'll we'll do our own little thing.

SPEAKER_09 54:25

That should be our offshot, that should be our offshoot podcast, like finding Suzanne Davidson. And we go through all these channels trying to find her, and it's it's almost like one of those you know, murder mystery type podcasts, but it's us searching only murders in the building. We're searching for the clues to try and find her.

SPEAKER_08 54:47

I like your style. If only we all had the time, yeah. That's the downside, especially uh you know, now that we're right in the thick of the season, there's just no way I could do it. So I'll leave it up to you guys. The story again, written by Romeo Muller, he did most of the rank and bass stuff, and then he, of course, he went off to do other things that wasn't rank and bass as well. I think he did some care bears episodes. I know he did Rainbow Bright or Strawberry Shortcake. I mean, he did some strawberry shortcake episodes and things of that nature, so a lot of other specials. Apparently, he's just the nicest guy ever. He was like 6'2, I think 300 pounds. He looked intimidating, but he was just he was like uh the biggest teddy bear you'd ever meet. So to Romeo Muller, you know, may he rest in peace, but thank you for all the cool memories. And you know, I it does make me wonder though, guys, like what would you say is your hap, hap happiest memory or moment of frosty?

SPEAKER_10 55:41

Probably when my parents gave me those uh those DVDs that they burnt of the old special. Like this was something that we watched every year, and I didn't have a copy of it when I moved, and mom to the rescue, you know. Nice, but I I do have lots of memories growing up in a much colder wintery climate where I would we would build our own snowman. I would not give mine legs because I am not that good at uh 3D construction. But it was always frosty, it was always frosty the snowman. I didn't I wasn't clever in naming my snowman either, apparently.

SPEAKER_08 56:20

You know, it could have been oatmeal, but oatmeal.

SPEAKER_09 56:24

What about you, Matt? Mine, you know, like I talked about at the beginning, that this is just this is my special, this is my Christmas, this is what I associate it with. And I think for me, my hap, hap, happiest moment with this was it it has always been my comfort. It was on a VHS recorded off the TV that had Rudolph, it had this, and it had Muppets Family Christmas. And that's uh I mean that's an amazing thing. That's about as good as it gets with those three. That's a good TV, yeah, and a good lighting. And that was whenever I was sick from school, it didn't matter what time of year it was. After watching the prices right, I'm gonna throw on that VHS and watch those. And Frosty was just it was always my favorite. It's again, it's something I seek out every year. I have to watch it at least once, completely in a full sit down, you know, start to finish. It's just it it this one just kind of it just means Christmas to me, and it's it's just that weirdly important one to me that it's just if I don't see it, it's not Christmas.

SPEAKER_08 57:29

Nice. I think for me, I still have just the most vivid memory of my my parents would just throw out like a blanket on our tile floor, and then we would all just kind of sit around the blanket and and you know, drink hot chocolate and eat MM cookies while we would, you know, do a lot of different things. And one of them I remember it was David and I. I don't think Danny was born yet. And I just remember lying there in our Christmas pajamas watching Frosty. Of course, it was on CBS, and and but I think the most special memory was when I got to show my kids. Yeah, I think that's probably the one that that I just remember most is watching Frosty for the first time with my daughter. I think she was two when we first saw it with her, and it was just like just you know, seeing her face, and of course, she was two, so she's had a two-year-old ex attention span, but she sat through quite a bit of it and was just you know, just with her mouth open, just watching mesmerized, exactly, just it's completely memorized, mesmerized, memorized too, but mesmerized, and so I it was just fun, you know. I remember she was sitting right next to me and kind of I was kind of cradling her a little bit, and I mean it was just it was one of those like special moments, and so that's like forever burned in my brain. That's a good memory, it is a good memory, it is a good memory. But now we come to my favorite part of the episode, which is a little segment I like to call Gag Me with the Spoon. So, this is where we do our best impression of our least favorite part of the uh of the show, and I almost suggested doing something I decided uh against it last minute. I I was gonna have us all do a professor Hinkle line, but instead I'll uh I'll just let you all go first and um just go ahead and hit us with uh your best impressions here.

SPEAKER_10 59:13

Well, I picked a professor Hinkle line, I picked his first line because his little magic act for the school kids is terrible. So it goes, and so I put the eggs into my hat, abracadabra to coin a phrase, and voila, the eggs have turned into messy, messy, messy.

SPEAKER_08 59:39

That was good, that was good, that was really good.

SPEAKER_09 59:42

Oh, that was really good. What about you, Matt? Oh, so I have two, and I'm going back and forth on which we already sort of talked the the belly whopper, so I'm gonna skip over that one. I'm I'm gonna go also with a Professor Hinkle, although I think that my Jimmy Durante voice is better. But this quote from Professor Hinkle is when he catches up to Karen and Frosty, they're in the woods, he stumbles across Karen sitting by the campfire, and he says, Oh, a campfire!

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Isn't that all snug and comfy and blows it out?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:20

Yeah. Nice. I also picked Professor Hinkle. See, it all worked out, and I I I had two because I was afraid someone was gonna pick my first. And Mike, you actually picked the one I was gonna do with the messy, messy, messy. So instead, it's this is when they're telling him about Frosty coming to life, and he says, he says, You silly children believe everything you see. When you're grown up, you'll realize that snowmen can't come to life.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Silly, silly, silly.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:01

That was terrible. I'm sorry, you guys are so much better. The man loves to repeat his words, like because later on he says busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Yes, busy, busy, busy. Oh man, yeah, that's I like Professor Hinkle. As as as weird and and odd as they they make him out to be, he just he's definitely entertaining.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:27

He is a great, great villain because he's just so inept.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:33

So incompetent. Oh man, but you know, I I do have to ask. G. I Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle. What do you think the other half is?

SPEAKER_09 1:01:43

I would say if knowing is half the battle, the other half is booking your train ticket to the North Pole in advance so you avoid the massive surcharge just ahead of Christmas.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:58

Nice. The other half is getting down from the roof.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:07

That's definitely that's definitely a big battle right there. Yup. So I kind of went Matt's route. I was thinking, so if knowing's half the battle, the other half is saving train ticket money by stowing away on a refrigeration car. Here it is, guys. It's been so much fun talking with you, but you know, tell me about your awesome show.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:28

Well, you can find the TGI podcast where we discuss a lot of the classic TGIF shows and adjacent shows. So we don't we don't just stick to one grouping there. Jerry knows because we covered a I don't know what you're talking about, man. You know, if it's 80s-ish, but here, you know, for us it's it's eighties, nineties. We've had some 2000s. Jerry was on to cover an episode of Cheers. That was a Thanksgiving episode, which was a lot of fun. We do a lot of the classic T was a lot of fun, a lot of the classic TGIF shows, Boy Meets World, Full House. We do home improvement, which wasn't TGIF, but should have been. But we do Halloween specials, Thanksgiving. Christmas is obviously our big one. Go through, try to determine whether or not an episode is a classic, and it gets a a billing of either a you got it, dude, or a no way jose. So you can find us, we're everywhere on where all podcasts are available. You can find us on Facebook and on Instagram by searching TGI podcasts. Nice, Mike.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:33

A new season of the Advent Calendar House running December 2nd through Christmas Eve. It's at adventcalendar.house. And you can find me on Twitter at fallwestmike.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:44

I like it. Nice and easy. Guys, thanks again. This was this was a ton of fun. I love the special and I love talking to you guys about it. Thank you so much. Always a pleasure. And on that note, I'm gonna end it by saying Frosty's not gone for good. You see, he was made out of Christmas snow, and Christmas snow can never disappear completely. So check us out on our social media pages, Facebook and Instagram at Totally Rad Christmas and Twitter at Rad Christmas. And if you're feeling like Karen when Frosty returns to life, leave us a review on iTunes. Not only does it help us reach more people, but you also get a free sticker. Now don't forget to check out our merch shop on tpublic.com and our brand new website, totallyradchristmas.com, courtesy of Tis the Podcast Elf Tom Crow. Later, dudes.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Friday, it's two holiday trees. First, Bugs and all his pals offer loony Christmas tales. Then Frosty the Snowman brings joy to all the children he meets. Two classics Friday. This is CBS.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:40

Do you long for those casual Friday nights spent in on the couch, cuddled up with a blanket, maybe some delivery pizza without a care in the world? Then I have the podcast for you. Hey, I am Matt, and I am the host of TGI Podcast. As a product of the 1990s, I want to go back and take a look at all of the classic TGIF shows, as well as many other classic sitcoms from that era, to determine if they truly are a holiday classic. We've got you covered with Halloween and Thanksgiving in the fall before we go full steam ahead with Christmas in December. Come give us a listen if you want to take a trip down 90s not till July.

SPEAKER_10 1:05:40

From the must-watch Christmas classics to the lost treasures at the bottom of the bog and bin.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:46

I'm on it! I'm the other reindeer!

SPEAKER_10 1:05:48

Now I don't have to hook up a VCR to my color battery anymore. Thanks to AdventCalendar House. Visit AdventCalendar.house now to download your first episode free. And all the other ones free. It's a free pod. Just go listen. Gadgets, toys, greed, avarice.

SPEAKER_11 1:06:03

I love it.