As we creep into the holidays, once again we're looking back at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades of the past. (Debbie Gibson is scheduled to perform at this year's parade, so you should all be road-tripping to Manhattan RIGHT NOW.) We start with the 2015 parade (featuring that top-hatted honey-roasted freak, Mr. Peanut), then keep jumping back ten years at a time, all the way to the premiere of the Underdog balloon in 1965. (Underdog has been watching us from above ever since, and he is most displeased.) Along the way, we'll meet some of our favorite pop culture stars (even Alice from The Brady Bunch shows up), and we'll pay our respects to the giant balloon characters that were torn apart by trees and lamp posts. (Now we know why Kermit the Frog and Pink Panther hate Thanksgiving.) So fix yourself a festive plate of popcorn, jelly beans, pretzels, and toast, and enjoy.

The Mayor on The Doctor's Beard podcast!

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This week's promo: Earth Station Trek!

When our favorite 1980s soft rock band comes to the town where we spent the 1980s, you know we'll be there. And so Kevin has a report from the sold out Air Supply concert at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, Rhode Island! (We were front row center. Close enough to catch an official Air Supply guitar pick? You bet.) Also: The Mayor of Chickentown joins the Early Birds Club! Kevin accidentally runs a half marathon! And Finnish nannies sing Badfinger! Next week we'll have some holiday stuff. This week we're just being goofy.

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This week's promo: Cosmic Pizza!

We're back with our full report on the city of Seattle, which turned out to be way over on the other side of the continent. (Probably should have packed a bag or something...) How many weird and silly activities could we squish into just a few days out west? Let's find out. Including: Retro-futuristic fun at the Space Needle! A robot on the monorail! Angry otters at the aquarium! A massive collection of nerd stuff at the Museum of Pop Culture! Giant trolls! A visit to Archie McPhee's Rubber Chicken Museum! A visit to filming locations from Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure! A fortune-telling psychic chicken! And yikes, even more. Why, we'll even teach you the proper way to pronounce "Seattle," if you believe everything from The Brady Bunch. And we do.

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This week's promo: The 42cast!

This week's promo: Monkeeing Around!

It's been about a year since we killed a whole episode flipping through an issue of Dynamite, that classic magazine for kids of the 70s and 80s, so let's do it. We have an issue from 1976 (compliments of Chris from Sci Fi Explosion!) and on the cover are America's favorite toothy Mormons, Donny and Marie Osmond! Also in this issue: Fashion tips direct from Medford, Massachusetts; an Elton John pinball machine; a remarkable new gadget called the Betamax; the adventures of the Dynamite Duo and their new superhero pal, Jive Turkey; Magic Wanda in her painter's pants; a visit to Marvel Comics to learn about Spider-Man; weird nicknames for Ron Howard; how to start your own sky-writing business; how to cook ping pong balls; a sad trombone player; Dynamite Bummers; and much more. It's fantastic. So when your teacher hands out this month's school book club order form... you know what to do.

The Mayor on The Doctor's Beard podcast!

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This week's promo: EnterpriseSplaining!

For our Halloween episode, we're revisiting a favorite subject: the cheapo department store Halloween costumes produced for decades by the Ben Cooper company. Kids loved slipping into their uncomfortable plastic masks and weird vinyl smocks for an evening of begging the neighbors for Twix bars. We look at superhero costumes (including some odd ones like Web Woman), Krofft costumes (you could be a Sleestak, a Bugaloo, or even Dr. Shrinker), and lots more, including the infamous Fonzie "He-e-y!" costume. Also: The classic Universal monster movies! A brilliant new monster t-shirt from cartoonist Kerry Callen! And the new Muppet-style versions of Franken Berry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula! So have a festive Halloween, kids. We recommend shivering in a pumpkin patch all night until your angry sister drags you inside.

Jason Young's Oldtimes Digest books!

The 1980 Ben Cooper catalog on plaidstallions.com!

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This week's promo: Luke Ski's Animation & Stuff Podcast!

We're back from a quick visit to Albany, New York, where Kevin ran a half marathon (finishing in 309th place, probably not qualifying for the Olympics) and learned the shocking truth about Alice from The Brady Bunch. Now here in Chickentown, we're looking at an odd 1959 comic book called Weather-Bird. It stars a chicken and a goat, and the whole thing is a promotional gimmick to sell children's shoes. We love it. And we were reminded of some other weird comic book shoe ads. Several 1970s ads star a shoe-themed superhero called the AAU Shuperstar. One of his enemies is called Missile-Toe. And we can't stop thinking about them. We might have a problem.

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This week's promo: BatChums!

It's no secret that we're rather obsessed with the 80s around here, so this week we're chatting with author Debby Meltzer Quick. Debby's first novel (the first of several!) is May I Have Your Attention Please, a mid-80s high school romance set in Eastboro, Massachusetts. Kevin and Debby discuss the novel itself, how much pop culture nostalgia to include in a story, how to draw from one's own life without getting too autobiographical, and much more. Including: 80s movies both well-remembered (The Breakfast Club) and largely forgotten (Give My Regards to Broad Street); going to the Worcester Centrum to see Van Halen, Ratt, and U2 (but alas, not Journey); getting up early for Underdog cartoons; working at the cookie shop at the mall; the weirdness of Orange Julius; early video game systems; bad coffee; new Coke; and the dining room carpet Debby has not been allowed to walk on for forty years and counting. We really enjoyed this conversation, and you will too. And if you can find Eastboro, Massachusetts on a map, please let us know.

Debby's website!

Debby on Amazon!

The Mayor of Chickentown discussing Travelers on The 42cast!

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This week's promo: The Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon!

We didn't make any big plans for our big 700th episode, because that would have required effort, which is frowned upon around here. Instead we have a hastily assembled pile of random stuff, just for you. Including: Our ongoing cluelessness about Buc-ee's! An update on our favorite Bugaloo from Dragon Con! The 700th biggest song of the 1980s (according to our Ranking the 80s book)! The 700th biggest movie of all time (according to some list we found)! The upcoming Jukebox Thrillers anthology of 80s music-inspired short stories! And a Chickens in the News segment about Nike the rescued rooster! Hope you enjoy it. Hey, give us another 700 episodes, and maybe we'll start to get our act together.

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This week's promo: Modern Musicology!

Our Dragon Con review finally concludes, just in time for us to get ready for next year's Dragon Con. We're looking at the last two days of the convention, including: Muppet talk with Muppet performers/designers Bill Barretta, Kevin Clash, Bonnie Erickson, and Dave Goelz! Actual trick-or-treating in the American Sci-Fi Classics Track room at Halloween Con! The science of Severance (it seems like a good idea)! Our British New Wave panel (with nary a Duran in sight, alas)! Our Hollywood Hits the Arcade panel (during which Joy Sticks was finally recognized as a cinematic masterpiece)! The Agatha All Along panel! Another wonderful Sci-Fi Explosion presentation, featuring Sico the Robot and drunk Ewoks! Another Roll-a-Panel, featuring the spectacular failure of our Ghost singalong! The Peacemaker panel! And our annual Dragon Con costume review, with Jaws costumes, Devo costumes, Caddyshack costumes, a Labyrinth Firey, a Bugaloo (!!!), and a whole lot of chickens. It was magnificent. See you next year, weird people!

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promo: Earth Station DCU!

Our coverage of Dragon Con (Atlanta's massive Labor Day weekend nerd convention) continues! Thrill to every single weird thing we did on Friday and Saturday! Including: The Geek Girls Run! The Muppet Mayhem tournament! The return of the Music Video Book Club (during which Carly Simon hooked up with Sico the Robot)! Fantastic Four cartoons with Chris from Sci-Fi Explosion! The return of Classic Sci-Fi Court (during which Kevin defended a lost Justice League TV pilot)! ESO's Misfits of Science Fiction TV 1985 presentation (basically an excuse to make Courteney Cox badge ribbons)! The Mayor's Severance panel! Remy's Jaws panel! Kevin's Creature Commandos panel! Dave's Batman Forever panel! Even more panels with the casts of The Magicians, Arrow, and the Muppets! A late night show by nerd-funk band Raspberry Pie! And, of course, much more. And we're still not done! But next week we'll wrap up the whole silly weekend. Hopefully.

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Our music is by The Sponge Awareness Foundation!

This week's promo: Dragon Con Report!