🎄 For its first Christmas special after the success of “Rudolph,” Rankin/Bass presented us with a Dickens of a story, but not that one. 

🎙️ Brian Earl from Christmas Past podcast visits the Advent Calendar House to experience 1967’s “Cricket on the Hearth,” as told by Danny Thomas, featuring a bizarre, burlesque performance of a song about Fish ’n’ Chips, and a clearly implied, off-camera murder. 

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💬 Topics & Tangents: 

The history of legends about crickets on hearths bringing good luck. 

The full “Cricket on the Hearth” soundtrack is on YouTube. 

Christmas Past on Golden Age Christmas TV Cartoons. 

Christmas TV History’s Joanna Wilson on Rankin/Bass Voice Actors. 

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“Cricket on the Hearth” ©1967 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. 

Find us at adventcalendar.house.