Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

🎄It’s 1995, and Robert Downey Jr. may or may not be holding Kermit the Frog hostage until he gets his perfect Christmas tree.  

The Advent Calendar House is back in time for a freakin’ country bear jamberoo as a family of Muppet mice risk their lives to bring home the top of the top of the top of the top of a Christmas tree fit for an eccentric future Iron Man. Also starring shy butler Leslie Nielsen, homesick Swedish maid Stockard Channing, and a pre-Bobo Bobo the Bear.  

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🎙 Guests:

Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along, Bluesky)  

Tim Babb (Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast)  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree: 1995 broadcast with commercials.  

2. Muppet Wiki entry.  

3. The original book.  

4. An odd TV promo featuring Brian Cummings’ Kermit the Frog impression.  

5. Kermit and Miss Piggy’s music video of “She Drives Me Crazy,” featuring Leslie Nielsen.  

6. Movin’ Right Along talks Kermit: Unpigged.  

7. The Sesame Street Muppets on “The West Wing” with Stockard Channing.  

8. Mama and Papa Bear are Beth from “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and the future Bobo from “Muppets Tonight.”  

9. “Jim Henson’s Animal Show” on Owls… and Humans.  

10. Sandra Bullock plays the glass harp in “Miss Congeniality.”  

11. An Oreo commercial where a mall Santa takes off his beard way too quickly.  

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📼 Commercial Break:

Dizzy Grizzlies and Ritz Air Crisps (1995)  

“Santa in His Own Words,” a book by North Pole Radio’s Matt Spaulding.  

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“Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” © 1995 Jim Henson Productions, Inc.  

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