Speaker 1: I live on one of those families now where anything
Speaker 1: that I say could show up in a podcast. Hello,
Speaker 1: Hello bro, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well
Speaker 1: as some listeners may know. My producer here, Max Williams,
Speaker 1: and myself are flesh and blood brothers. We go to
Speaker 1: the same home for Christmas. We are there now, yes,
Speaker 1: recording in a spare bedroom. So well, yeah, I'm saying
Speaker 1: we're just doing something a little different. Today's something a
Speaker 1: little fun. Um. There's a moment, uh in a recent
Speaker 1: episode that we did, the episode about Romeo Mueller and
Speaker 1: his ranking bass specials and so many Christmas specials over
Speaker 1: the years, and his last one, the last one that
Speaker 1: was produced in his lifetime, his last script. It was
Speaker 1: a movie called Noel. We have Rick Coachman talk about
Speaker 1: it for a second and I mentioned in brief passing
Speaker 1: that it was my personal childhood favorite, but I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like I did justice to just how fascinating I
Speaker 1: think that film is watched it probably every year at
Speaker 1: least while we were children. Like a lot of our
Speaker 1: things in our childhood, and you know, being a year
Speaker 1: and a half apart, I guess we're shared in that occasion.
Speaker 1: So I've watched no Welfield a bunch of times that
Speaker 1: I don't really remembering myself that well at all. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's about a little Christmas ornament
Speaker 1: who has very special conditions when he's being created. Of
Speaker 1: all the Christmas tree ornaments turned out that year very
Speaker 1: long ago, only one head of happiness. The glass blower
Speaker 1: that's making him receives a memo. A child break runs
Speaker 1: up to him with this little paper and runs away,
Speaker 1: and he's blowing this ornament with his other hand. He
Speaker 1: reads the memo and and the narrator, Charlton Heston, lets
Speaker 1: you know that his granddaughter, his first granddaughter, has been
Speaker 1: born or something, and he has a little tear of
Speaker 1: joy that runs down the glass blowing stick and it
Speaker 1: goes into the ornament. It was Noel. Is a good
Speaker 1: fortune that that one marriage year became heartet of him,
Speaker 1: And then down was this ornament who becomes known as
Speaker 1: Noel with a certain happiness. Is Noel. And I have
Speaker 1: seen it for one thing. It is directly about ephemera.
Speaker 1: It's about this box of a dozen Christmas ornaments, or
Speaker 1: a thing called a dozen. All of them together we're
Speaker 1: something called a dozen in a thing called a box.
Speaker 1: Where are we in the box? Thing stupid? In a
Speaker 1: thing called an attic, and a thing called a home.
Speaker 1: What's the hole? Thing? People? Things, books, and we're talking
Speaker 1: about this? And a thing called a podcast. Uh that
Speaker 1: that gets forgotten about, Noel. The rest of the dun
Speaker 1: were put into a high, dusty, dark thing called etch,
Speaker 1: where they became a thing called forgotten, And really the
Speaker 1: whole house gets forgotten about. Noel never heard the terrible
Speaker 1: final shown the lock bay as it shut off life
Speaker 1: and warmed the joy from the old empty house, leaving
Speaker 1: it with the ghosts of long ago Christmas is which
Speaker 1: everyone you'd forgotten. And as the years crept slowly by,
Speaker 1: the dozen slept on like the house, their bright colors
Speaker 1: faded and chipped. Indeed, everything seemed over. But to maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of Christmas magic, these forgotten objects get
Speaker 1: a chance at a second life. I say seemed over,
Speaker 1: because when you have a happiness, nothing has ever completely gone.
Speaker 1: So I went looking for a copy of it. Well
Speaker 1: as he was short, okay, Noel, the christ boum Google.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he only showed one or a few years
Speaker 1: around ninety two, when it came out. There was a
Speaker 1: Golden Book's adaptation during the television promotion leading up to
Speaker 1: the premier and it looks like, yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: vhsot that came out at the time. I went looking
Speaker 1: on Amazon to see if you could buy it. Well,
Speaker 1: n yeah, you can. You could get the VHS tape
Speaker 1: used starting from eight nine nine eBay. Oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you can get this out of print VHS rare on
Speaker 1: eBay forty nine plus shipping That sound like faby, I say, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not really easy to find. I knew it was
Speaker 1: on YouTube at the resolutions it's pretty low. It was
Speaker 1: really gonna that's what we got. That's what we got.
Speaker 1: That's what you get to do with. Unfortunately, oh we
Speaker 1: we Well, we might have it on VHS. I was
Speaker 1: so confident coming back home for the holidays that I
Speaker 1: would be able to find and Dad's extensive VHS archives.
Speaker 1: It was confident that I would be able to find
Speaker 1: the you know, the well worn, well loved copy of
Speaker 1: it that we played over and over. Dad. Do you
Speaker 1: do you think that we have no l on VHS? No?
Speaker 1: Do nothing we did before? Well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: happened to it if we did, and so we Yeah,
Speaker 1: we searched all over. Can I hear? And you looked
Speaker 1: up there? Yeah, that's all d ds. Okay, the closet
Speaker 1: to the closet, we shall go. You want to look
Speaker 1: at the top and I'll look at the bottom. Sure,
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown, Christmas can look for Noel. Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: funny that, like halving, these things are now in my handwriting. Well,
Speaker 1: here's children's Christmas videos. If we have it. It seems
Speaker 1: like it's going to be on that. I swear that
Speaker 1: tape is around. We looked extensively for it. I know
Speaker 1: there was a tape, and I remember the tape. You're talking, Well,
Speaker 1: I think that might all be for not And this
Speaker 1: is all that Dad would have gotten rid of it,
Speaker 1: though he didn't. He likes to say that he did,
Speaker 1: but I know he didn't. It's just I'm not in
Speaker 1: his nature. He never did. Like no help. I have
Speaker 1: had over the years these super passionate disagreements with Dad
Speaker 1: about that movie, which I think is is visionary and
Speaker 1: he thinks is just terrible, just unbearably unbearably bad. Why
Speaker 1: do you think that Dad dislikes this movie so much?
Speaker 1: Repetitive that's very very repuditive, which children like. But you
Speaker 1: didn't like that. It's a happiness, isn't this thing? He
Speaker 1: says the same things over and over again. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know you. You were a very big fan of it.
Speaker 1: I mean there's a you know ornament we're gonna call
Speaker 1: it that you made it as a child and was
Speaker 1: always on every Christmas tree. You're no wilds, they're on
Speaker 1: a little trick looks just like I forgot that I
Speaker 1: made a Noel. But what was cool as you just
Speaker 1: made that was like as a big fan, you just
Speaker 1: made that. You like founally supplies yourself and made it,
Speaker 1: you know, like nobody sat you down and said let's
Speaker 1: make it a well. I was just the most surprised
Speaker 1: about the biggest defender of Noel, who was not you.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you defended it. I did not. I
Speaker 1: don't have any horses. First, I am the constant. But
Speaker 1: Mom's feelings towards this movie. Do you remember the movie? Mom? Oh?
Speaker 1: I know it. I know well. I liked it. He
Speaker 1: got the happiness because the glassblowers found out that his
Speaker 1: granddaughter was born. Believes his only daughter you've just given
Speaker 1: birth to a baby. Good he was a grand at last.
Speaker 1: And then there's the cranky like the angel, the Angel,
Speaker 1: she's not angel, which she is? I am missed, Freezone,
Speaker 1: the ice Maiden. If you please, I am a very
Speaker 1: unusual friend. Gracious you have a different tree every year.
Speaker 1: My name is Brutus. That knows you season's gratings. Who's that?
Speaker 1: That's the train? J creet Hi, and then I'm January.
Speaker 1: First they get put in the attic and he's really
Speaker 1: traumatized at first, goodbye little fellow, goodbye he that happiness.
Speaker 1: Of course, never Noel ever saw Brutus again. And then
Speaker 1: he learns it gets to come out. Hi, I know it.
Speaker 1: Do you know? It's the same writer that wrote Rudolph.
Speaker 1: His name is Romeo and mother. He wrote Rudolph, He
Speaker 1: wrote Frosty, he wrote you were out of Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: He wrote Santa Claus Coming to Town. He wrote a
Speaker 1: Little Drummer Boy. He wrote all of those Rank of
Speaker 1: Bass movies. And this was his last movie while he
Speaker 1: was still alive. This was his last script. That's a
Speaker 1: good movie. We couldn't find the tape. I thought it'd
Speaker 1: be one of those who's not here. It's not here.
Speaker 1: We end up streaming on YouTube, watching it with mom
Speaker 1: and dad. Unless it was a better happy No, it's funny.
Speaker 1: It's also narrative by trying heston, I did not know that. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Noel, and I have a happiness. It
Speaker 1: was trying to who's breaking record. They're also creaky, yes, Noel,
Speaker 1: but I had a happiness. How terribly middle clubs. Hi,
Speaker 1: what a little bake? Baby's walking around? Don't shout? They
Speaker 1: are called people thing down him a little ack. Oh,
Speaker 1: honestly they are children. Then I don't know why they
Speaker 1: know everything and he doesn't. And he was blown the
Speaker 1: same r. It was a thing called the mother. Is
Speaker 1: it from possible? They look at everything that's Christmas? I
Speaker 1: love you, she loves me. What's that down there? Miss?
Speaker 1: I can't see inside? Trusted as a toy stable, So
Speaker 1: why would they have a toy table? Well, somehow that
Speaker 1: little stable is the thing that night is hold Moms.
Speaker 1: She was crying in the first act, before anything sad
Speaker 1: had happened. Yes, yes, when things were there the first act. Anyway,
Speaker 1: you guess your party cry if you want to. I
Speaker 1: definitely think that I got my sensitivity from mother. Oh
Speaker 1: me too. It's a running joke that it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna make me cry, And I know that's
Speaker 1: not a high bar to clear. They've done. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I'm down. There was a new tree named Harrob, but
Speaker 1: almost everything else was the same as the year before.
Speaker 1: But it seemed but almost before it started, Christmas was
Speaker 1: over again. Noel said goodbye to Harrow, to the attic,
Speaker 1: thank you his prison once more. And in this way
Speaker 1: year followed year, a bitter sweet, blended joy and attics.
Speaker 1: After Harold, there was Bernard. After Bernard, there was Anthony
Speaker 1: and Gregory and Irving Jock. Then one day, years later,
Speaker 1: Noel heard something terror from down below. Oh what's the use?
Speaker 1: Kids scattered all over the country with families of their own.
Speaker 1: Let's not bother with a tree this year, all right, dear,
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, Christmas. The animation is actually than I
Speaker 1: remember you know what it actually it is. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not Yogi Bearer, it's not. Perhaps it was the happiness working.
Speaker 1: It's magic. I found these old ornaments in the attic.
Speaker 1: These are just too chipped and old to use. Shipped
Speaker 1: an old bear. Con Wait, we could use this little
Speaker 1: fellow to balance out that branch in the back such
Speaker 1: a mom thing to say to balance out this branch
Speaker 1: of the bag, the little old red ornament. It's broken,
Speaker 1: but someone old Noil was still aware. He was on
Speaker 1: the floor. He knew that, and for the first time
Speaker 1: he could look into the tiny stable. Why there's little
Speaker 1: toy people think, and a little joy children think, think
Speaker 1: all found He was like all the different continents. Now
Speaker 1: I did not remember this part the continents, but now
Speaker 1: that his own last body was no more, the happiness
Speaker 1: that was really was released. So it was very nine.
Speaker 1: It was like the world some spoke, different tongue, different
Speaker 1: ways of life, something that never even heard of Christmas.
Speaker 1: But this last list, last line is we if I
Speaker 1: make just my case for it very succinctly. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that the message is really lovely in it,
Speaker 1: I think, and now I guess I think about it
Speaker 1: differently because I know a little bit about the backstory
Speaker 1: of the person. I think maybe the thing that I
Speaker 1: find that I found really interesting about it as a
Speaker 1: kid is it was about these like you know, forgotten artifacts,
Speaker 1: and you like the ephemorality. Yeah, I mean, I I
Speaker 1: think that certainly drew me to it as a kid.
Speaker 1: But you know, so I think that I think about
Speaker 1: it now. I think about this guy who spent a career,
Speaker 1: He spent three decades writing Christmas specials and this was
Speaker 1: the last one that he did. And the message of
Speaker 1: it is so like the material world is not going
Speaker 1: to last. You as a material being are not gonna last.
Speaker 1: And everyone's getting old, everyone's everything is changing, and like
Speaker 1: the houses are falling apart in the ornaments are getting older, cracks,
Speaker 1: and the kids are growing up and and getting married,
Speaker 1: going off to war. And I mean it doesn't really
Speaker 1: even though it's total really spoken to a kid, it
Speaker 1: doesn't sugarcoat a lot of things. You never see Bruce
Speaker 1: again when Bruce is dragged out, He's gone right there,
Speaker 1: You're super straight with you. You know, there's you know,
Speaker 1: they don't sort of dumb it down for for the
Speaker 1: child listeners, but just the fact that every material thing
Speaker 1: is going to go away, and the point of it
Speaker 1: all the meaning of Christmas. I mean, you could take
Speaker 1: it literally is the is the is the Christian meaning,
Speaker 1: that's the baby Jesus. But I also think that, like
Speaker 1: I think about the scene in the in the Manger
Speaker 1: down there is a family come together, right and it's
Speaker 1: all the message of all the baby, he got the
Speaker 1: happiness because of the baby. A baby, right, it's the
Speaker 1: message is community always a little weird, but but even
Speaker 1: I mean so, and it's it's very steeped in the
Speaker 1: aesthetic of the time that it was in. But it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: everywhere in the skyscrapers of New York and then the
Speaker 1: eaglues in the North Polem wherever like that, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter, and it doesn't even isn't necessarily it transcends
Speaker 1: like you know, one particular religious belief where it's like
Speaker 1: it's just how worthwhile it is to just embrace the
Speaker 1: people that you love. I think it's a beautiful message.
Speaker 1: And other thoughts, other thoughts on no, well, I just
Speaker 1: love no. Well. I liked it then the and we've
Speaker 1: got a little hokey for me back then. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's like they it's kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me a little those three students at the end, where
Speaker 1: like they don't know how to end it, so they
Speaker 1: just ending that was good. Yeah, I get how annoying
Speaker 1: the whole repetition thing is. It is. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think my complaints are fairly superficial. They're not. It's not
Speaker 1: that it's a bad story, but I think you enjoyed
Speaker 1: disliking it. Yeah, no, no, that's not will say the story.
Speaker 1: The story is a plus. It is a good story.
Speaker 1: Just get on you. I'm like, it's why are you
Speaker 1: mad at that? It's wholesome? They're watching something wholesome. It's
Speaker 1: got a good message. Why you like running down such
Speaker 1: a thing that's toldsome? They like it. I used to
Speaker 1: get mad at him because he was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a lot, a lot like the Power Arrangers were.
Speaker 1: They're beating each other up. Noel was good. I get
Speaker 1: the whole thing joke. But it's just into that ground.
Speaker 1: It's like kind of six minutes into it, it's running
Speaker 1: to the ground them. So like I think Christmas Specials,
Speaker 1: by their very nature have a tendency to be kind
Speaker 1: of saccharin and sort of like overly sappy and kind
Speaker 1: of goofy. They all already some extent, but they're like
Speaker 1: different for the different eras that they're in, right, Like
Speaker 1: Rudolph is super campy, but it's in like an aesthetic
Speaker 1: of your guy's time. It is because you were that
Speaker 1: was when it was first coming out that maybe being
Speaker 1: a nonconformist was okay, Yeah, that was new, that was
Speaker 1: a new concept. I didn't even think about Rudolph is counting.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because like him and Hermes were like outcast
Speaker 1: because Herms didn't like to make toys and Rudolf had
Speaker 1: that nose. Even Santa threw him out. It was terrible.
Speaker 1: You weren't supposed to be different in the sixties. Hermes
Speaker 1: was wanted to be a dentist, right, yeah, you weren't
Speaker 1: supposed to be different in the sixties. And even at
Speaker 1: the end, they said, even Santa realized he might have
Speaker 1: been a little hard on Rudolph, a little hard on Rudolph.
Speaker 1: He told Rudolph couldn't be he was main to him.
Speaker 1: So you know what, Mom, I think that I got
Speaker 1: my sensitivity from you. Well I know where you didn't
Speaker 1: get it from? What Dad? You have anything that no
Speaker 1: one will criticize you for two minutes. You have anything
Speaker 1: he likes to say about Noel, anybody feeling you know what,
Speaker 1: you don't go for it. This is this is your
Speaker 1: chance to The writing is a little a little rough
Speaker 1: in it, especially the repetition of the of the specific
Speaker 1: you know, motifs in the writing, like the thing thing
Speaker 1: you know, and and that as an adult watching uh,
Speaker 1: children's programming with their kids, especially when there's a lot
Speaker 1: of repetition of watching that same program at a certain
Speaker 1: time of year, for me, that's really really hard. And
Speaker 1: and that's why like Tom Stangon was better, like really
Speaker 1: clever things that were on TV. It sound like Doug
Speaker 1: better because they didn't make those concessions in their writing.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that it's just kind of cloying.
Speaker 1: Lee sweet it is, it is, It is awful sweet,
Speaker 1: it's a little it's like just like you said, Sachran
Speaker 1: and and so like it's not because the other ornaments
Speaker 1: are me wait, wait, wait, wait, do you want my
Speaker 1: opinion you're not thank you a second, okay. And I
Speaker 1: think those superficial things like the message of Noel's fine
Speaker 1: nothing world, the message of Noel He's uh, he's got
Speaker 1: the no actually, I mean, do you want the brutal trip, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there is that. I mean someone's gotta say he's got
Speaker 1: a happy venus. It is like a little too much
Speaker 1: of a pause. A lot of good times. I've heard
Speaker 1: it over and all I can hear now I've never
Speaker 1: heard that but now you're gonna send it like, wow,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't not hear that terrible, So there
Speaker 1: have you on to play it bad for you? And
Speaker 1: then the last time, the last time, he says, when
Speaker 1: he turns into a soul, when he's just the blowing orbit.
Speaker 1: After the ornament breaks, he goes around. He's like, my
Speaker 1: name is no Well, and I have of a no,
Speaker 1: I am a happy penis. It's not what they mean.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's not what they mean, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Sometimes sometimes it's what you're saying. Just say yeah. It's
Speaker 1: like you don't think they come so enjoyed it. It's
Speaker 1: going down so bad now, no, no, no, I get
Speaker 1: to edit it, mom, So I'm gonna make it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna win in the end. Yeah, of course, but anything
Speaker 1: else pops, anything else. She's like, da, No, I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty. I think it's I like, I do appreciate
Speaker 1: the fact that the permanent things are permanent and they
Speaker 1: don't things don't magically come back to life and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I think that's actually good scriptwriting um and
Speaker 1: good story planning. So I think as a Crystal special
Speaker 1: what it lacked in execution, it's themes were good, it
Speaker 1: just was really tough to watch for me with you
Speaker 1: guys when you're a little like, what do you all
Speaker 1: think the legacy of something like this should be? You know,
Speaker 1: like this movie came out nine two, it was made
Speaker 1: for tv UM. It did, I think have some kind
Speaker 1: of home VHS distribution and maybe showed a couple more years.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's got no legacy, particularly besides you
Speaker 1: know a little bit on YouTube and archive dot org.
Speaker 1: I can't I don't imagine it's every really gonna be
Speaker 1: reissue to put on DVD. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that? Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: a shame. I I don't believe that anything should be
Speaker 1: left to the dusty shelf that's been worth something to anyone.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's certainly a better quality than a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that's still a brand. I think was the
Speaker 1: quick to video, wasn't it. This whole era was like
Speaker 1: they were cranking out stuff at a pace that they
Speaker 1: hadn't before. Are because there was no such thing as
Speaker 1: on demand. That didn't exist yet. You had to buy
Speaker 1: the physical media or or get it from the video.
Speaker 1: I don't know who was playing it because I want
Speaker 1: to say you only they only played it once a year,
Speaker 1: but you know what, things weren't played once a year
Speaker 1: in two like when we were kids, Like you watched
Speaker 1: Peanuts Special at this time, and that's the only time
Speaker 1: you got to see it. So I don't as many
Speaker 1: times as we saw this, it had to have been recorded.
Speaker 1: Why I appreciate you guys watched it with me, especially
Speaker 1: honorable Mention and Dad for watching it and being and
Speaker 1: being so thoughtful with your criticisms. And I look forward
Speaker 1: to next year when we get to watch it again. Y'all.
Speaker 1: There we go. I loved it. I loved it for
Speaker 1: a minute of it, and I'm glad we had the
Speaker 1: actual Noel out. I totally didn't put that together. Do
Speaker 1: you all want to sing this song for Noel? What
Speaker 1: we can leave my place? Merry Christmas? Williams? Is that's
Speaker 1: going to the episode? Alright? Bro? Well thanks for watching
Speaker 1: Noel with me? Of course, bro coaxing woman, Dad? Did
Speaker 1: you're doing it? I don't think Mom needed much coaxing,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I don't think that needs I think that
Speaker 1: needs even less coaxing because he just wanted to say
Speaker 1: complain about it. What are you doing tomorrow? I am
Speaker 1: probably gonna presence with you, Okay, yeah, well I look
Speaker 1: forward to that. Um, I guess this is coming out
Speaker 1: tomorrow for so Merry Christmas. I hope you like what
Speaker 1: I got you. Thank you. I would be like what
Speaker 1: I got you too. Yeah, and Merry Christmas to anybody
Speaker 1: who managed to listen to this. Merry Christmas, y'all, Chris
Speaker 1: your fifteen commercial ads right now, we're gonna oh yeah,
Speaker 1: here's We're gonna put fifteen ads at the end. Merry Christmas.