You've probably lived your whole life seeing It's A Wonderful Life during the winter holidays. It's a schmaltzy movie about a man who a town rallies around with some edges of a raw psyche where Jimmy Stewart really does explore the darker side of post-war America (this episode is explicit because of the darker themes).

But it's not about the movie. It's about how it wormed its way into pop culture and especially tv pop culture. In this season finale, John and Magnus examine three episodes heavily influenced by It's A Wonderful Life

Season 5 of Boy Meets World's "A Very Topanga Christmas"

Season 8 of Family Matters "Father Time"

and Season 2 of Growing Pains "The Kid"

to examine how sitcoms use both the holidays and familiar film tropes as shorthand to tell moral tales with no wiggle rooms that sometimes miss the mark of their own message.

So grab your favorite holiday beverage, tune in, and try not to cringe too hard when John means to say It's a Wonderful Life and starts to say It's A Small World instead. There was a lot of eggnog imbibed during the recording of this episode- so thank you for your patience.