We blur the lines of reality, time, and space and practice peace on Earth and good will to men, women, chickens, bears, and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1979 TV special, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.  

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🎙 Guests:  

Bill Hanstock (SBNation, IMDb, Progressive Boink, @sundownmotel).  

Carlin Trammel (Nerd Lunch, Dragonfly Ripple, @nerdlunch).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Bill’s Uncle Deadly tattoo.  

2. Pro-wrestler and Muppets Most Wanted cast member Hornswoggle’s tattoo tribute to the Muppets.  

3. The Muppet Show Season 4 DVD promised at Disney’s 2009 D23 Expo, but which never came.  

4. Miss Piggy makes a sex joke, lest we forget the Muppet Show pilot opened with “Sex and Violence.”  

5. John Denver’s linear notes for the album’s 1996 re-release cite the Muppets as an inspiration for writing Alfie, the Christmas Tree.  

6. A Baby Just Like You is one endpoint of the John Denver Christmas song emotional spectrum. The other is Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas).  

7. A brief examination of the logistics behind Rowlf’s piano playing.  

8. I Will Wait for You in Futurama.  

9. Jesus Christ has His own entry on Muppet Wiki.  

10. John’s son, Zachary: In the audience during Silent Night, and and at his father’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 2014.  

11. Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold singing When the River Meets the Sea at Jim Henson’s memorial service.  

12. Bill remembers Jim Henson on Scientific Podcast Goes Boink.  

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“John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together” © 1979 John Jer Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.