Santa's Sequel Sellouts - December 4: The Chanukah Song

Sequel to: The Chanukah Song (Song, 1995)

I featured Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song" back in the 2002 edition of Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music. Following the rules of the 25 Days, once a track is featured one year, it cannot be included again in future installments. This has made it rather difficult to avoid repeat performances in the 303 songs showcased over 12 years. (See, it's actually hard work to pull these off!)

Today's song is more of a sellout rather than a sequel, and we have to thank Neil Diamond for that. For some ridiculous reason, he decided to perform his own version of The Chanukah Song back in 2009… and it's weird. I'm not sure what he was thinking in following-up the original from Sandler, but the style is all wrong. There are also subtle changes in the lyrics, such as discouraging use of marijuana. Additionally, a line is changed from "Tom Cruise isn't but I heard his agent is" to "Tom Cruise isn't, but Jesus Christ is."

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Santa's Sequel Sellouts - December 3: All Alone On Christmas

Sequel to: Home Alone (Film, 1990)

The film Home Alone put Macaulay Culkin on the map in 1990, as well as created a new film that many associate with the holidays. It featured a Christmas-oriented plot, in addition to the integration of many holiday carols in the John Williams soundtrack.

There are now 5 films in the Home Alone franchise, with the latest being 2012's direct-to-cable release, Home Alone: The Holiday Heist. However, the only sequel that is probably worth your time is the 2nd of the series, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It stands out because it featured the same actors, director, producer, and creative team as the original. The rest of the series pretty much falls off a cliff after Home Alone 2.

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Santa's Sequel Sellouts - December 2: Frosty's Winter Wonderland (Finale)

Sequel to: Frosty the Snowman (TV Special, 1968)

The iconic Rankin-Bass Christmas TV special, Frosty the Snowman, debuted on CBS in 1968. It featured the voice talents of Jackie Vernon playing Frosty and Jimmy Durante as the narrator.

8 years later, we got a sequel… and today's song – Frosty's Winter Wonderland (Finale).

Unlike most sequels, however, the original production team was part of this project as well. This was another Rankin-Bass production, again with Vernon voicing Frosty. Curiously, Jimmy Durante didn't reprise his role as narrator. At first I thought it was he might have died, however a quick visit to Wikipedia shows that he passed away in 1980, 4 years after this special. Then again, he would have been 82 at the time of this project, so maybe that wouldn't have been the best choice. Instead, the narrator role was shifted to Andy Griffith, who, in my opinion, did a great job.

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Santa's Sequel Sellouts - December 1: Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa

Sequel to: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (Song, 1979)

This year's theme for Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music is "Santa's Sequel Sellotus," featuring obscure musical follow-ups to popular Christmas tunes, movies, and TV shows. (Learn more about this crazy collection in my Introduction.)

We kick things off with the first of 3 types of sequel styles, "Christmas Songs/Shows/Movies that are sequels to Christmas Songs/Shows/Movies." In this case, the original hit was "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," performed by Elmo and Patsy Shropshire in 1979. The couple eventually divorced, but Elmo decided to write a sequel to the song in 1992. Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa continues the story of the original song, with Grandpa legally going after Santa for killing his wife.

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Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music 2012 - Santa's Sequel Sellouts

In 1933, Walt Disney released a cartoon short as part of his Silly Symphony series. Titled Three Little Pigs, it was critically-acclaimed, financially successful, and won an Oscar. Of course, being a product from Hollywood, it prompted no less than 3 sequels — The Big Bad Wolf (1934), The Three Little Wolves (1936), and The Practical Pig (1939). The response to these follow-up shorts was less than positive on many fronts, prompting Walt to refocus on creating original content by noting, "you can't top pigs with pigs."

Why is there a Home Alone 5?
New ideas have their risks, and in today's media climate, our world seems risk-adverse to fresh concepts. It's often less financially strenuous to franchise a successful brand into follow-up entities, as customers are more willing to risk their limited entertainment dollars on something familiar vs. an unknown. Thus why the company that bears Walt's name has films like Star Wars 7, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, and Iron Man 3 in development. No matter what decade, sequels have long been part of the landscape, often with mixed results. Rarely are you blessed with something like The Empire Strikes Back; often you're stuck with The Phantom Menace instead. Nevertheless, they seem to perform well enough to keep the sequel train rolling down the track!

Christmas Music Isn't Immune
Thus, for our 12th season of Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music, we'll be exploring obscure musical follow-ups to popular Christmas tunes, movies, and TV shows. Welcome to Santa's Sequel Sellouts, where every day from December 1 through Christmas, I'll be posting a new song that ties into this theme. Fire up the photocopier as we jump into this audio advent calendar.  Don't miss these tunes that you probably won't hear on holiday radio anytime soon!

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Continuing a yearly tradition here on SteveandAmySly.com…

Halloween has come and gone… and so has It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Now that Turkey Day is soon upon us, why not revisit the special that doesn't get as much attention as its established Halloween and Christmas siblings, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

This episode first appeared on CBS back on November 20, 1973 and was the 9th primetime Peanuts special to air. Because its age is older than Christmas and Halloween, most of the voice talents are very different. Linus is voiced by the same person as in You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, Stephen Shea… who incidentally was the younger brother of the guy who originally voiced Linus in the Christmas episode, Christopher Shea. The episode won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming.

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The other day Amy brought home a bag of Tootsie Pops. As many know, Tootsie Rolls are my favorite candy. However, as I dug into the bag, something odd was inside. A Banana Tootsie Pop? Who thought this was a good idea?

Banana Tootsie Pops

Sure enough, it was true. And after a taste, it was also gross.

I was hoping that this wasn't a permanent change. Back in 2004, the company rolled out new flavors: Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Strawberry. In 2006, Lemon Lime was added, then Caramel in 2007. However, it seems like these were short-term additions, as they can no longer be found today.

Per the official Tootsie website, "the original five-flavor mix — Chocolate, Cherry, Orange, Grape and Raspberry — has been expanded to include a new sixth flavor that alternates among Pomegranate, Banana, and now Blueberry flavored hard candy."

I've had the Pomegranate. It's not bad. Haven't found Blueberry yet. But I can confirm that you should avoid any bags containing Banana.

As I mentioned on Twitter, "Banana Tootsie Pops are the reason vomiting was invented."

Continuing a yearly tradition here on SteveandAmySly.com…

With Tuesday being Election Day here in the United States, I'm happy to share audio from another Peanuts special, You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown.

1972's "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"

This episode debuted on CBS on October 29, 1972. Unlike the "classic 3" Peanuts television specials (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas), this episode features different voice talent and a distinctly 1970s vibe. As such, I think it's missing a bit of "heart" when compared to the more popular specials.

Linus ponders the student body presidency

The plotline focuses on Linus running for student body president at his school. During his campaign, he mentions the Great Pumpkin… and I'll let you figure out what happens after that. Because of that topic, this episode is often aired with the classic Great Pumpkin Halloween episode.  It's was bundled with the Halloween special on 2000 DVD release. Later, in 2008, You're Not Elected received its own DVD release as the featured title.

The Big Speech!

Unlike the previously-shared "made for LP" version of a TV special, this is just the audio from the show itself, so some of the scenes that are visually-based might not translate well. But hey, it's Peanuts and it's Election Day, so why not!

As a special Election Week feature, you can download this audio in MP3 format… but once the ballots are all counted, it's gone. Enjoy!

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I hit up the post-Halloween candy sales and came across M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn in the clearance area. Since we've looked at other M&M flavors in the past – M&M's Coconut, M&M's Mint Crisp, M&M's Wildly Cherry, M&M's Razzberry – I thought I'd give this a quick review.

M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn

Of note is that the packaging is designed vertically vs. the horizontal style typically seen in a bag of M&M's. These are obviously targeted at the Halloween market, with the M&M's guy dressed up like a candy corn.

Orange, White, and Yellow Colors

The candy itself has the same shape/style as Peanut Butter M&M's. Circle in shape and plump. The colors of white, orange, and yellow match the look of candy corn. But the taste? Pretty much like eating white chocolate chips… which is kinda gross. Amy thought they tasted like candy corn, but I didn't really sense much of that. Overall, there's an element of fake plastic flavor that just isn't very good. Yuck!

There's a good reason these were on clearance.

Continuing a yearly Halloween tradition here on SteveandAmySly.com…

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown debuted on October 27, 1966, as the third Peanuts television special (the first obviously being the Christmas one). It is here that most of the world who wasn't reading the comic strips was introduced to Linus Van Pelt's fascination with "the Great Pumpkin".

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown LP from 1978

Charles Schulz thought it would be funny to see what happens if a child confused Halloween with Christmas… and the rest was history. This year, the show is celebrating its 46th anniversary.

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