Instead of a beloved and critically-acclaimed feature, today we're watching a cheesy-as-hell TV special by Rankin and Bass. They're the same folks that brought us the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer we've all seen a million times - but this is better (in my humble opinion).

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is a Santa origin story, tracing his life from orphaned baby to jolly old man delivering toys. Along the way, it answers all the burning questions you've always had about Santa (how do the reindeer fly?), but Eric has lived his whole life in the dark.

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What's this? Why, it's another bonus episode of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b!

Most of the time, people who say "Happy Holidays" aren't thinking of Halloween, but that might change once you see "The Nightmare Before Christmas," a 1993 stop-motion classic directed by Henry Selick and inspired by a poem written by Tim Burton. Emily, despite being the more musical half of the podcast, has never seen it, so whether you're a n00b like her or a geek like Eric, join us!

If you're listening to this episode when it comes out, there's a pretty good chance you can find "Nightmare" on TV. But you can also rent it for $3 from Amazon, iTunes, Google Play or Vudu, or buy it for $10 from all of those places.

If you're new to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b, please subscribe to the show on iTunes or Google Play Music. And you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Merry Christmas, and see you tomorrow for Part 2! We'll be continuing with stop-motion holiday movies, but in a very different way, when we watch "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town."

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Surprise! Just in time for Thanksgiving, have an extra serving of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b!

While you're recovering from your food coma this week, join us for six delightful episodes of turkey-flavored TV: Three from "Bob's Burgers," which Eric has seen relatively little of, and three from "WKRP in Cincinnati," which Emily hadn't even heard of.

The three Bob's Burgers episodes on tap are: S3E5, "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal"; S4E5, "Turkey in a Can"; and S5E4, "Dawn of the Peck." You can stream them all on Netflix, or rent them for $2 apiece from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu or Google Play.

Since we're starting from scratch on "WKRP," we watched the first two episodes (S1E1 "Pilot: Part 1" and S1E2 "Pilot: Part 2" — such clever names!) before jumping ahead to the main dish: S1E7, "Turkeys Away." You don't have to watch the first two, but if you're new to the show they teach you who all the characters are. You can stream all those on Hulu, or rent them for $1 apiece from Amazon or iTunes.

If you're new to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b, please subscribe to the show on iTunes or Google Play Music. And you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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How did a bastard orphan immigrant become one of America's founding fathers? How did the country forget about him? And how — and why? — did he become the subject of a wildly popular hip-hop musical 200 years after his death?

In trying to answer these tricky questions, we quickly struck a roadblock: Neither Emily nor Eric had seen or listened to the soundtrack of "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit 2015 Broadway musical about the rise and fall of Alexander Hamilton. Enter Eric's friend and coworker Amy Keyishian, a "Hamilton" devotee and our first-ever guest geek.

None of the three of us have seen Hamilton, still, but we listened to the original Broadway cast recording twice: Once in isolation, and a second time with the annotated lyrics from Genius in front of us. And boy, did we have a lot to say about it!

You can find the "Hamilton" soundtrack pretty much anywhere you listen to music, in physical or digital formats. But if you're not sure about paying for it, and you don't subscribe to any music streaming services, you can still listen for free on YouTube. You can also play each track from its respective Genius lyrics page.

This is part two of our civics-minded pre-Election Day weekend, and it's also the end of Season 4 for Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b. If you missed yesterday's discussion of The West Wing, check it out right here! We'll be back for season 5 in 2017, but stay subscribed to this channel ... we'll be dropping a couple holiday-minded goodies in the interim. 

What?! You're not subscribed? Do that here: iTunes or Google Play Music.

If you like this, give Emily and me a follow on Twitter. Or, if Facebook is more your thing, like our FB page here.

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Topic: The West Wing

Geek(s): Emily and Eric

We've got American politics on the brain (can't imagine why that would be), so it seems high time we get to a particularly stellar bit of political fantasy we're both more than a little obsessed with - the West Wing.

Since we need a n00b to enlighten/inflict this on, we're enlisting help from my dear friend Reilly Mesco, who has somehow never seen the show. A travesty, we agree, and one that must be corrected.

In case you're somehow also in the n00b category on this one, the West Wing is an Aaron Sorkin drama that premiered in 1999 and followed the senior staff of a fictional White House under the leadership of Martin Sheen's President Jed Bartlet. It's fantastic, but you'll have to listen to find out if Reilly agrees.

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What if you could put your finger in a machine and find out how you were going to die? What if that machine were always right?

And what if that machine was also kind of a jerk, dispensing cryptic predictions that often came true in cruelly ironic ways? 

That is the delightful-slash-terrifying premise of "Machine of Death," an anthology of short stories collected and first published in 2010 by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki. And it's what we're talking about today on the podcast!

For this discussion, we're only reading the first half of "Machine of Death," which goes from the preface through the short story "Exhaustion From Having Sex With a Minor." Feel free to read more if you'd like, but that's as far as we read before turning on our recorders.

You can find "Machine of Death" on Amazon, TopatoCo or lots of other places where dead trees are sold and loaned. Like, say, a bookstore, or a library?

If you like this, give Emily and me a follow on Twitter. Or, if Facebook is more your thing, like our FB page here! And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b on iTunes or Google Play Music.

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Topic: Steely Dan

Geek: Emily

Steely Dan is a 1970s band that gets knocked a lot for being stereotypical dad music. But have you ever really listened to them? Eric never has. But even if you think you know them, I'd encourage you to pay closer attention this time. There's a lot going on there, folks.

We're diving in to our close read with their 1976 album The Royal Scam. Give it a listen, then listen to this.

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On one of the first episodes of this podcast, I made Emily watch Doctor Who. On a later episode, which sadly never saw the light of day because we lost the audio, I made her watch Back to the Future.

Today, we complete the trifecta with "Rick and Morty," the irreverent animated Adult Swim show that synthesizes those series, Futurama, and like a million other sci-fi influences into a hilarious, chaotic and occasionally traumatizing experience.

Come on, it'll be fun!

If you've never seen Rick and Morty, don't worry, you don't have to watch the whole show. For today, we're just watching five episodes from season one: Episodes 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7. That's the pilot, plus "Lawnmower Dog," "Meeseeks and Destroy," "Rick Potion #9" and "Raising Gazorpazorp."

You can stream those episodes on Hulu Plus, or buy them for $2 apiece from Amazon, Vudu or Google Play. 

If you like this, give Emily and me a follow on Twitter. Or, if Facebook is more your thing, like our FB page here! And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b on iTunes or Google Play Music.

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Topic: Gilmore Girls

Geek: Emily

If you're out on the road, feeling lonely and so cold, all you have to do is call on Gilmore Girls and they'll be there on the next train.

I've tortured this so that it doesn't actually rhyme, but you see, this is more or less how I feel about this beloved TV show. And I'm not alone! There's so much love out there for Gilmore Girls that it's getting its very own Netflix revival. Huzzah for Stars Hollow, Connecticut!

Eric, however, has never seen it, and with the new episodes coming it seemed about time. Listen on to see how he fared.

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The last time we visited the zombie apocalypse, when we watched "The Walking Dead," most everything was bleak: People were fighting, some of them got killed, and there was little hope for the future.

What if, instead, we all decided to have fun? That's part of the appeal of this week's movie, "Zombieland," a roadtrip comedy that just happens to coincide with the world's destruction via flesh-hungry monsters.

And — as if you needed another reason to watch this movie with us — "Zombieland" has a pretty amazing cast, featuring Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin.

Make sure you do watch if you haven't seen it before, as we spoil everything after the 5-minute mark, including one of the movie's biggest surprises. At the time of this writing, you can rent it from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play or Vudu for $3, or buy it from any of those places for $10.

If you like this, give Eric and Emily a follow on Twitter. Or, if Facebook is more your thing, like our FB page here! And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b on iTunes or Google Play Music.

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