Mr. T, Deney Terrio, and the Island of Misfit Holiday Specials

Carolyn Cochrane 0:01

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Michelle Newman 1:22

but you guys, it looks like someone put Nelly Olson through like a Playboy bunny machine, like she went in as Nelly Olson and it spit her out, and she is supposed to be like serving drinks at the play. At the play bunny club, it's a Playboy Mansion at Christmas.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:42

Come on, get

Speaker 1 1:47

happy is what we'll be bringing we'll make you happy.

Michelle Newman 1:53

Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who really would like to be a pepper too. We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.

Carolyn Cochrane 2:13

And today we're saving the misfit Holiday Special, those one and done TV gems that screen Gen X and one in particular that we have wanted to talk about for an entire year. I'm Carolyn,

Michelle Newman 2:26

I'm Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Carolyn Cochrane 2:36

All right, so buckle up, everybody. We're going to hop into Santa sleigh to revisit a few of the weird, wacky and dare I say, wonderful TV specials of our Gen X youth. And honestly, you guys, there were a lot of shows that could fall into this category. The 70s and 80s provided us with some of the oddest holiday programming, crazy celebrity pairings, strange story lines, just downright weird stuff. And I wanted to chat about a few of those with you guys today, and one in particular that just might take the cake for the oddest Christmas special of them all. But just to give you a little flavor for at least some of the titles that were out there for some of these Christmas specials, just listen to this. We had specials, like a claymation Christmas celebration featuring the California Raisins.

Kristin Nilsen 3:25

I remember that one. I totally remember that, yeah. And I was like, have we really, like, elevated this commercial to its own show, right? Yeah, I know.

Michelle Newman 3:35

Well, come on. We had the little toy figures, you know, that were, like, almost a little

Kristin Nilsen 3:40

Smurfs, good for McDonald's marketing,

Carolyn Cochrane 3:41

advertising. Person who ever came up with that whole campaign? There was the he man, she ra a Christmas special, okay? Pee Wee's Playhouse, Christmas al special, Christmas, always Christmas. Christmas comes to PAC land, featuring our friends, the Pac Man. Wait

Kristin Nilsen 4:00

like Pac Man. Like Pac Man.

Carolyn Cochrane 4:03

Yes, it was a 1981 Christmas special. And like I said in the earlier part of the introduction, many of these were one and done. So if I missed them that first go round, it might have missed them forever, except now you can find the way. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 4:15

let's not forget how I think sometimes we tend to forget the Pac Man craze was real. I mean, there was a cereal that were shaped like, that's RAC men. And so I think sometimes now we're like Pac Man. But it was, it was a phenomenon about it against

Carolyn Cochrane 4:33

one of those things of Gen X that just bonds us. I remember it as the big arcade game. Yes, for sure,

Kristin Nilsen 4:39

it was in the vestibule at Apple bombs the grocery store. It's the only video game I play.

Michelle Newman 4:44

You guys were the Pac Man generation. Let's just we need to make a list of all this stuff. But that's why one, yeah, that's yeah, 100%

Carolyn Cochrane 4:53

okay, but first we have to start, I think, by acknowledging there's one particular Christmas special. That really pops into everyone's mind when we think of weird Christmas programming. And that's the Star Wars Holiday Special, Friday.

Speaker 1 5:06

Blast off to a galaxy far, far away. It's the Star Wars Holiday Special starring all your Star Wars favorites. Will Chewbacca get home to his planet in time for the big Wookie holiday celebration. Watch and oh

Kristin Nilsen 5:19

yeah, that's gonna get its own episode someday. I think

Carolyn Cochrane 5:22

it and, well, it should. And for so long, because it was so bad, it wasn't on, you couldn't find it, like, talk about one and done. I mean, it was like, deeply buried in the vaults of wherever you did not find it after it came out, all of those cast members, because we're talking like Harrison Ford is on it, Mark Hamill, you know, everybody, Carrie Fisher, they like, would not even acknowledge that they were in it. And if it ever came up in like, an interview, they like, I've never seen it, I don't know. So it was it was bad. It was bad. But interestingly enough, in 2008 the Paley Center for Media, they did a little survey asking people their favorite holiday special, and in an online poll, which allowed users to vote on five titles, beating a Charlie Brown Christmas at 34.6 How the Grinch Stole Christmas at 31.3 and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at 28.4 you have the Star Wars Holiday Special coming in at Number 150

Kristin Nilsen 6:19

9% of the boy are you even talking about?

Carolyn Cochrane 6:23

I know, I don't know who they actually surveyed for this 2008 survey, but yeah, I guess they're Star Wars fans or people, you know, those people that love to hate stuff like it's so bad,

Kristin Nilsen 6:36

yes, good, yes, that's for sure. What is Yeah, because it has a cult following. It certainly has a cult following. You can't rank it against, like, actual specials, apples and oranges.

Carolyn Cochrane 6:48

I I'm not exactly sure of the parameters, but nonetheless, it got a hefty amount of votes. That's huge.

Kristin Nilsen 6:54

That is huge. It's a cheeky, ironic bunch that made that one win. That's what it is. Yeah, yes. Those kids who love irony, they were like, tell your friends to

Carolyn Cochrane 7:04

vote like, did you know this existed? And we will include a link to that in our show notes.

So I just want to talk about a couple of crazy TV specials that kind of sum up what I think our generation was used to. And I'm going to start with the Mr. T Christmas special. But this is not the Mr. T we know, with the big gold chains and kind of the Mohawk hair, no gold chains. Oh, he's not Mr. T. No, he's not Mr. T. Okay, so we meet Mr. T on the street corner, as he is a homeless Santa ringing a bell, and Emmanuel Lewis is the one who wanders up to meet this timeless Santa name whose real name is Teddy. Okay? And guess what? Emmanuel Lewis, he just he has lost the spirit of Christmas. He doesn't even if he doesn't like it. And Mr. T is just gobsmacked, like, how on earth can this be? Well, you know what I'm done with my shift Webster. I'm going to take you around New York, and we I'm going to put this feeling of Christmas back into you. So come on. So sure enough, after Mr. T changes out of a Santa suit, he and Webster hop into one of those horse drawn carriages in New York City, and they start to go through the city to find all the things that will bring Emmanuel Lewis's heart and make it happy again. First off, they go to FAO Schwartz. And guess who is in there? David Copperfield. David Copperfield is no way doing a magic show, which somehow it involves a cigarette. It's just bizarre in a toy store. Yeah, in a toy store, yeah. And he brings starts to, like, rekindle, maybe the little spirit in Webster, but no Webster still. So Mr. T's thinking, I know we will go down to Rockefeller Center, to the ice skating rink, and you will be able to see ice skaters. And there is just, it's Christmas all over. Guess what? Ty Babylonian, Randy Gardner,

Kristin Nilsen 9:18

are skating. I did not see that coming,

Carolyn Cochrane 9:20

but I love that. Neither did I. I don't think you'll see really a lot of this coming, and I don't think the viewers probably did either. But sure enough, Ty and Randy do a very nice but long routine on the ice. Okay, are we feeling it at all? Webster kind of do you think about it? Well, Mayor Ed Koch comes by to say, Come on Merry Christmas. I think this is also, like, maybe an ad for New York City at

Kristin Nilsen 9:44

the time, because, Oh, I bet it is going to Hawaii. Yeah, correct, especially with the mayor, because the mayor's there, he's, yeah, the mayor's there's done anything in connection with, like, the Chamber of Commerce or something, exactly.

Carolyn Cochrane 9:55

And so where else do you think you might need to go, guys to feel the New York City? Weird, probably cats. Yeah, beat the rockets. So sure enough, we go and see them. We see them practicing, and then all of a sudden, they become toy soldiers, and they do nice little high kicks. Okay, then it's really getting bleak. Here you guys. Are we going to get the holiday spirit into Carolyn Webster? Emmanuel Lewis, what are you well? If anyone can do it, it would be the sweet voice of Maureen McGovern,

Michelle Newman 10:27

absolutely, sorry. Yes. She started singing, oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel.

Carolyn Cochrane 10:42

She does sing three songs, but Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel was not one of them. Okay,

Kristin Nilsen 10:46

that is a miss. I'm sorry. Can we call up the past and just say that is a huge miss, because it's the whole theme of the show, exactly. Oh come, Emmanuel.

Carolyn Cochrane 10:58

I think that they totally missed out. Maybe there can be a revisiting of, I don't know. Is Mr. T

Kristin Nilsen 11:04

still alive? Oh, yeah, I think so. Cut down all of his trees on his property in Chicago. I

Carolyn Cochrane 11:10

know I remember that in Lake Forest, yeah, because he had allergies, he had bad allergies. Oh, that's right, is what he said. All right. Well, when all else fails, you guys,

Michelle Newman 11:18

I just love how a little trivia nugget that people can take away from this episode after everything said and done, is that Mr. T has bad allergies. Yeah? Just that is just so random, yeah, but I love it, yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 11:33

Before you get too worried, there is the chance that Willie Tyler, the rent trilogist and Lester his dummy, might be able to do it. Oh, my God, I don't know, but they don't even when Willie brings out his puppet that is Mr. T brings out Mr. T puppet that's very meta, that is wearing the chains and the Mohawk, and does say something about what's Mr. T's line. Again, what you

Kristin Nilsen 12:00

talking about Willis?

Carolyn Cochrane 12:04

It's not that. It's something along those lines like

Michelle Newman 12:07

this, yeah, what is, why can't we come up with this? Is driving me crazy.

Kristin Nilsen 12:14

Um, yeah, yeah. Pity the fool. Pity the fool. Yeah. Oh, thank God we have,

Carolyn Cochrane 12:20

yeah, so we have our Mr. T puppet saying, pity the fool and pointing to Mr. T, not Mr. T the the Santa, the homeless Santa. The homeless Santa. Yeah, and how soon that works, we're pretty much at our last straw. Let's head to a little party that Mr. T and his friends are putting together. Let's invite the boys choir of New York. Bring back Maureen McGovern. And you know, what have Mr. T tell the Christmas story that's gonna do it. So, sure enough, Mr. T, but no, he's not Mr. T. Oh yeah, sounds like Charles Barkley. Actually, as I was watching this. But anyway, so he tells the Christmas story, and by the end, lo and behold, the Christmas spirit is rekindled in Emmanuel Lewis. He is happy. We all break out in song. The show ends, and you will never see it again until it comes on on YouTube.

Kristin Nilsen 13:18

I have to ask, did they call it the Mr. T? Christmas special they did with me wasn't Mr. T, he wasn't Mr. T, but they called it the Mr. T. That's they do. It was a nice because everyone is showing up for the pity the fool, and then they get on House Santa. And that must have been a disappointment.

Carolyn Cochrane 13:36

It might have been yeah until the puppet

Michelle Newman 13:37

came out. Finally, was redeemed.

Carolyn Cochrane 13:41

But I mean, just if you take again these crazy celebrity pairings, Mr. T, I could almost see Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis. Like, okay, that's kind of funny, whatever. They're both popular at the big small, yeah, that whole thing. But then you throw in Ty Babylonian, Randy Gardner, and then, if that's not weird enough, you got Mayor Ed Koch, and then David Copperfield, then the rockets, then Maureen McGovern, like for several songs, Willie Tyler and Lester. It was, it was a lot, you guys. It's too much. It's too much, I guess I have to ask you guys. So this was in 1984 were the viewers as amazed with this lineup as we were now watching it? Or were they just like, of course. I mean, were we just used to these kind of crazy mish mash of celebrities?

Kristin Nilsen 14:26

We were used Yeah, absolutely. This was how a TV special went right to

Carolyn Cochrane 14:34

read those names and say they were all in one program. It's just crazy. Yeah, and let's not

Michelle Newman 14:39

forget, we're coming off the era from the mid to late 70s of variety shows where you talked about this, like on the Don Ann Marie show, it was just bizarre. I mean, could be Abe Vigo to and Christine. Yeah, it could just be the weirdest pairing. So we, I felt like we were, we were kind of used to it, and it

Kristin Nilsen 14:56

was really about who you could get. It wasn't curated. It was not highly. Curated. It's like, who said yes and yeah, and it's now, right now, I think about David Copperfield must have had a fantastic publicist, because he's on all these shows. And I don't think it's because everyone loved David Copperfield.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:13

Yeah, we love magic back then. I mean, when you think about it, there was David Copperfield, there was that weird guy we talk about in the car

Kristin Nilsen 15:20

printers Christmas special. Yeah, Doug, Doug

Carolyn Cochrane 15:24

Henning and we had a real thing for magic, her real thing for magic. All right. That was crazy, as we said, but I think perhaps the craziest, at least for the three of us, would be what we're going to talk about next, an episode of Dance Fever that we have wanted to talk about for an entire year. So buckle up friends, because this is one wild ride music.

Kristin Nilsen 16:04

Merry Christmas. So in January of last year, we released an episode devoted entirely to the dance competition show Dance Fever, with Danny Terrio and motion. Let's not forget motion. Super important, forget motion. And we watched a handful of episodes, and they were all spectacular, but there was one episode in particular that was so epic, so outlandish, and poor Carolyn was so overcome with what she called the awesome awfulness of this one episode that we couldn't contain her. And I was like, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, let's do a whole episode on the Dance Fever Christmas special next year, and here we are. You're welcome. You are welcome. It was, it was too good to be a side note. It deserved our full attention. And so we promised our listeners next year, this will be our holiday episode. And here we are, my God, they've been waiting so

Michelle Newman 16:58

long, you guys. It's now. It's now. The

Carolyn Cochrane 17:03

weight is over. The weight is over. People, the

Kristin Nilsen 17:06

Dance Fever Christmas special aired in 1980 which is basically the 70s. It's still the 70s. It's still all disco. It's still all Denny TARIO all the time. And every opening of Dance Fever started the same exact way, just so everyone

Carolyn Cochrane 17:22

knows, Michelle and I are already laughing. All

Michelle Newman 17:27

started the same way. My first thought is with one of the motion girls pantomime are using a giant scissors to cut Danny TARIO out of a box.

Kristin Nilsen 17:37

So it's just the Christmas Special. Is just an episode of Dance Fever in the same exact format, except with Christmas decorations. And so they open every show with a dance number by Denny Terry. Oh, and motion. And in my notes from watching this yesterday, I wrote, OMG, they're in sacks like Amazon Gift bags. So motion are tied up in these sacks, and they're they're wiggling in their bags like they're supposed to be going, what word like the viewer is supposed to be going, what's in those bags? They're wiggling. What is it? And then they pop out of the bags like, surprise, it's motion. And then they dance over to the to the big, giant gift box, not a sack. Denny Terry gets his own gift box, and surprise, it's Denny Terry. Oh. And then what happens next. Really makes me wish that this were a visual medium, because I just don't know how to describe the opening choreography. When the box opens, Denny Terry, oh, comes out of the gift box doing that dance that your grandpa used to you know

Michelle Newman 18:35

what I called it? And in my notes, it says, Denny comes out doing what I can only describe as the Shirley Temple dance move,

Kristin Nilsen 18:41

Yes, surely Yes. You put one hand on your hip, and then you wiggle your finger in the air, like the good ship lollipop, yes, the good ship lollipop, yes. And then all together motion, and any Terry do this variation on the twist that looks like something that toddlers do on the dance floor at a wedding. I'm like, that is not choreography. That's your I don't know what you're doing. Okay, then there's some trick photography where you're looking at the face of one half of motion, and then, boom, she's wearing a Rudolph nose. And then it happens to both halves of motion, they're both wearing Rudolph noses, and they stare, yes, they just stare at the camera with their Rudolph nose. And then, I kid you not, Denny Terry, oh, puts a faux harness on them and drives them around the stage. And I'm like, oh, motion, don't, don't do this. I

Michelle Newman 19:30

wrote in my notes. Then Denny harnesses motion with what looks like toilet paper, and they track over to the tree. Are so

Kristin Nilsen 19:41

long enough. No, it wasn't. It wasn't, and it was again, a break, and they're just like, pretending to prance like, like, little it was bad. It's just so bad. And I feel bad for motion. Okay,

Carolyn Cochrane 19:51

if you remember, on the regular Dance Fever episodes, after this opening dance sequence, we would get to meet our judges, and so. Since this is and I want to say this, they say this probably 10 times during the episode. They call this the first annual Dance Fever Christmas. Planning on having more of these, but unfortunately, that did not happen. A little different spin on this episode, because we don't just have three judges. We actually have six, because we have three judges who bring along their children to help them judge this the dances. So we have Robert Blake of Beretta fame, and also he like, murdered someone,

Kristin Nilsen 20:35

but yeah, it's possibly his wife. Yeah, yeah, okay, Robert

Carolyn Cochrane 20:38

Blake of Beretta fame and his daughter, Delina, that they called Deli.

Kristin Nilsen 20:43

Really, I could not figure out what her name was, and she's wearing her little her she's wearing her classic dance and leotard with her designer jeans. But I feel so bad. She's clearly happy to be there, but I'm she's not wearing a bra, and she really looks like she's wishing she had a bra on, because, you know they're they're all dancing, and I'm sorry, deli. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm just gonna it's just like, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, and she knows it, and so she's like, kind of like hunching her shoulders a little bit. Yeah, I actually

Michelle Newman 21:13

wrote to so funny. You guys listening. Understand, we watch these things separately. This is so interesting, but yet, we've all kind of developed the same brain for watching. Because I also wrote down Robert Blake's 14 year old daughter in her leotard and jeans, and she had like those, almost like those wooden heels, those he like candy. She looked very 14 years old. She's in 1980 but I have two with no bra, which was a mistake. Like she thought it was a mistake, but that was the look. You have to say exactly. And

Kristin Nilsen 21:45

if she had, if she had been comfortable with it, it can be the times, but she was not comfortable. And I was like, sorry, does one of those

Michelle Newman 21:52

14 year old decisions where she's like, I'm gonna wear this. This is cool. The other kids that are coming on are much younger than me. I want to look older. And then in that second when they she had to walk out on stage and dance, she regretted it.

Kristin Nilsen 22:03

She was like, Oops, I forgot about the dancing part.

Carolyn Cochrane 22:06

Yes. So listeners, if you remember, when the judges are announced, they dance out, uh huh, we've got Chad Everett. And Chad Everett's daughter is nine years old. Her name is Shannon, and they come dancing out, poor Shannon. I don't think she wanted to be there. She was entire show.

Kristin Nilsen 22:23

She just stiff as a board, and they're supposed to be booing down with dentario. And she even at one point she looks behind shed Everett. I'm like, Are you trying to escape? Like, why are you looking behind him? I think she

Carolyn Cochrane 22:34

was crying the whole time. And Chad was looking very Chad, okay, he has on his like, kind of his photo

Kristin Nilsen 22:40

grays is yes. Photo, grays, his wire photo, gray glasses, Giants

Carolyn Cochrane 22:45

kind of sunglasses, kind of thing. And you're thinking, why do you need those? But he always seemed to be in those his leisure suit. So they do their

Kristin Nilsen 22:53

little, big side burns, the giant side burns. Oh yeah, the hair helmet. And

Carolyn Cochrane 22:57

last was Connie Stevens and her 11 year old daughter, and they, you know, they did an okay job. I'd totally forgotten about Connie Stevens, yeah,

Michelle Newman 23:05

oh my gosh. Okay, so Connie Stevens, which I loved on every time she was on The Love Boat. But that's Trisha Lee Stevens. First of all, I just have to say that the thing I wrote in my notes is that I would have loved her outfit, and we're the same old age. So like, she had the little ribbons in her hair, like the barrette with the long ribbons, and her hair was kind of feathered back. She had a little vest, and she have a vest, yeah? And I looked her up, and you guys, so she is Carrie Fisher's half sister, and her sister is Jolie Fisher, who you guys might know she's been, she's an actress, and Tricia Lee has also kind of always been, you know, like C list singer. She still sings in nightclubs and stuff like that. If you look her up now, Tricia Lee Fisher, I think you would recognize her, don't? You guys think, though she was darling and very well spoken. She was

Kristin Nilsen 23:54

very comfortable on TV, in a way that poor Shannon was not. Shannon was like, get me the fog out of here. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing about poor Tricia, though, that I felt so bad about is that she comes out on stage and and Denny Terry, Oh, does something that looks like it might require consent, like he puts his arms around her little body, yes. And you're like, What is he going to do? And Trisha Lee is like, Ah, dude, I don't, I'm not supposed to do that.

Michelle Newman 24:22

Well, in 1980 though, you just, you didn't know, right? You just were like, Oh no, dips sir, that's right, yeah, and it's just like, he envelops her and she's 11. We're gonna come back to the issue of consent when we talk about Denny's solo later. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 24:40

oh yeah, oh yeah, gross, gross, gross. That's our lineup of guest judges. But those aren't our only guests on this. Oh

Michelle Newman 24:47

no, we have some guest stars. Of course. You know what would, what would a show be in 1980 without an appearance by David Copperfield? Copperfield,

Kristin Nilsen 24:55

of course, the PR come you know, his publicist is just on fire. Yeah. I'm

Carolyn Cochrane 25:00

sitting there thinking, does he dance like I thought he's a magician. How was he on the show? Right?

Michelle Newman 25:04

Exactly. Yes. Then there's always a musical, you know, a musical appearance. Well, it's 1980 we're gonna have the Gap Band. Nothing says Merry Christmas like the Gap Band. And then, I don't know if you guys remember, but we're gonna need a guest DJ, and the guest DJ for this Christmas Spectacular is nasty Nellie Olson, as Denny introduces her, the guest

Speaker 2 25:30

DJ for our special is in her seventh season as nasty Nellie Olsen on Little House on the ferry. She also is a popular stand up comedian and is guaranteed to take the chill out of the North Pole. Here's Allison arngram.

Michelle Newman 25:45

We cut to Allison arngram, who this is, listen, Allison, we love you. But I think even you would look back at this appearance and just kind of laugh and shake your head. But you guys, it looks like someone put Nellie Olson through like a Playboy bunny machine, like she went in as Nelly Olson and it spit her out. And she is supposed to be, like, serving drinks at the play, at the play bunny club. She's a play by mansion at Christmas. Yeah, she's got on the strapless, white fur trimmed Santa suit with a little mini, like little flared skirt Mini, and then the, you know, her beautiful yellow blonde hair, but like, not like we see with Nelly, where it's always up in an updo. It's all been hot rollered, and it's like feather, and then feathery, and then the Santa hat just perched so gently on top, and the bright red lips. And then when she opens her mouth to speak, you wonder if she has, like, taken a class at the Audrey landers school of acting. Yes, because it's the wide eye, the real eyes

Carolyn Cochrane 26:39

she looks like Audrey Landers. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 26:43

it's just kind of the wide eyed, kind of clueless expression and breathy voice as she introduces everybody. It's like

Kristin Nilsen 26:50

she was coached by Denny Terry. Oh,

Michelle Newman 26:51

it really was. And, and so, you know what? But I, in her defense, I will say that it had to have been thrilling to get to break out after seven years Nelly Olson, it had to be thrilling to be able to show that side of yourself watching,

Kristin Nilsen 27:09

you know, after seven years as Nelly Olson, you're probably wondering, what kinds of roles will I be able to get in the future? I better show people that I'm a woman. Yeah. And so here's my opportunity, and it's just not, it's just not comfortable for the viewer, maybe because of the fact that we only know her in Prairie dresses, but I just didn't want it, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 27:31

but I wonder again, were we like, good for Nelly? Like, Oh my gosh, we know Nelly, or were we like, eek?

Kristin Nilsen 27:39

We were like, yeah. We were like, what again, like, what did we expect? Did we think that she was gonna wear a prairie dress wherever she went? No,

Michelle Newman 27:49

she's a real person, and that's why I think she was super excited to break that for sure. Well.

Kristin Nilsen 27:53

And let's also be honest, like adolescence is tough, trying to figure out where you are in terms of, Am I a woman or a child. Oh, here I'm a sexual being. How do I do that? And you're not exactly sure how to do that. Well, she was giving it her best shot. I mean, it was sexual. You think you're definitely sexual? Yeah, well,

Carolyn Cochrane 28:14

and also, I mean, we've got little else on the prairie is going to be coming to an end. Denny also mentions the fact that she is a stand up comedian. So this is when her comedy act is starting to take off. So she really wants, probably every opportunity for people to see her visually, obviously see her not in a prairie dress with those ringlets and that kind of thing. So that's right again, maybe better way to get maybe it

Kristin Nilsen 28:37

should have been incremental, like, maybe start with, like, a skirt at your knees and

Michelle Newman 28:44

a unitard. You know what? She just won the Red unitard, like half the dancers did. And

Carolyn Cochrane 28:49

again, Allison, we love you, and you're such a part of our growing up. But of all the stars and celebrities of the time, like, I'm just curious how, how did that she got on the radar to be that guest DJ. Person, I don't know. She

Michelle Newman 29:04

had a good she has a good manager.

Kristin Nilsen 29:07

Person, okay, so now it's on to the competition. There are lots of instructions from Denny Terry, oh, I will say he's a communicator. He wants to make sure that we know all the rules. Oh, and I was like, Oh, Danny, come on. Wrap It Up. Wrap It Up. Let's do this. And then our contestants will be averaged. The groups of four will take the scores. Judges will provide us with four numbers, and the four numbers will go into a giant machine and will come out

Michelle Newman 29:32

with a winner. And then the seniors will dance one, but the juniors, because they are younger and they can't

Carolyn Cochrane 29:41

I'm sorry, listeners, I'm having fun. I don't know about you guys, too bad, because this is so funny, because also he's reading it, you can tell off of like a teleprompter. And he would say stuff like, and the scores will be judged by the he would end a thing in the middle of the sentence, he thought, because the line ended on the teleprompter. Yeah, and there's probably, it's probably just

Kristin Nilsen 30:01

cue cards. It probably wasn't, and the numbers will be judged.

Carolyn Cochrane 30:09

Yeah. Okay,

Kristin Nilsen 30:10

so our contestants are divided into four groups, the north, the south, the east and the west, and in each direction, we have an adult couple and a junior couple. That's what's gonna differentiate this Christmas special. So Allison, in her little kittenly way, introduces couple. Number one, very provocatively. And oh, her eyes are so where are they from? Well, the people from the north are from Minneapolis. Of course, they are. Of course they are. They always. It always comes back to Minnesota, spirit

Speaker 2 30:43

of the season, our Minnesota couple chooses Gloria Nedley by the jokers.

Kristin Nilsen 30:47

They come out and they're wearing green unitards, and they have a strand of silver garland from Target stapled to their green unitards like around their leg, like spiraling down their leg.

Michelle Newman 30:57

Kristen, did you say from Target? I say no, but I see green unit hurts with tinsel from Walgreens stapled around their torso.

Carolyn Cochrane 31:06

Yeah, I don't even think it was as upgraded as target. I think it was too high class. Yeah, that's right, yes. It's like they were on their way to the show and they're driving and then, like, Huh? We probably should try to up these a little there's the Walgreens on the corner. Let's go. I

Kristin Nilsen 31:22

think they were backstage, and the producer is like, what the hell you guys, it's a Christmas special. You show up with, like, unitards on some intern to run. Find some garland at Target. Terry, rip

Carolyn Cochrane 31:35

it off. Like, yeah, the props in the back, yes. Oh my gosh. Okay. And

Kristin Nilsen 31:38

honestly, you know they so the couple from Minneapolis, they they look pretty non plussed by the whole thing, and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but they kind of look like they learned their routine in an after school program. And then all they did was spin. And not very well. They shouldn't even find each other. That's

Michelle Newman 31:57

all they did, spin, spin, and then the junior couple

Kristin Nilsen 32:01

from the north is also from Minnesota. They are from Stillwater, Minnesota, and they also have silver silver garland stapled to their units a sale in

Carolyn Cochrane 32:15

Minnesota airport. I want to say to that when Allison introduces them, I think she says they're a 12 year old couple from Stillwater. And then, you know, she kind of says, what song that they're gonna do? And she said, they're they're gonna take a lovers holiday.

Kristin Nilsen 32:30

No, well, no, they're 12, no. And because they're 12, the boy is so much smaller than the girl, because one of us has hit puberty, and one of us has not, and we're definitely not gonna be lovers. So it took me about two and a half seconds to literally know what dance studio these kids were from. I'm not even kidding you. 1980 that was my dance prime, and I spent a fair amount of time at dance competitions around the city, and these kids were definitely from the Larkin dance studio.

Michelle Newman 33:02

They were, yeah, I know Larkin because I spent a lot of years at dance competitions with

Kristin Nilsen 33:07

my daughter. Sure I could tell by their body roles, where they would do, like, their legs wide and then they would go down into a body roll. Well, I just wrote on

Michelle Newman 33:14

my notes. All I wrote is they suck. That's all I wrote. Hey, there. You're going on now.

Kristin Nilsen 33:23

Okay, so now it's time for the couple from the East. They are from New York City, and their names are,

get ready for Michelangelo and the lady. And they did not practice. It's like they can't even find the beat when the first song starts, and they're doing the same thing at completely different times, like they did not practice. I wrote,

Michelle Newman 33:53

not sure they heard their music start. Are they making this dance up as they go along?

Kristin Nilsen 34:00

I'm like, you guys got to practice before Dance Fever. It's just like, Okay, I was gonna say, Are you masturbating? Because I just but it was the wrong person. I had a conversation yesterday, and it wasn't with you when we were talking about Deanie. Oh, you're masturbating. That's

Carolyn Cochrane 34:19

what I'm gonna say. Oh my gosh,

Kristin Nilsen 34:27

without the visuals. When I say, Are you masturbating? People get a much different picture.

Michelle Newman 34:31

Thank you for actually, though than describing what I was doing.

Kristin Nilsen 34:40

So I mean, across the board, all of these so far, all of these performances are really rough, and I think, you know, just like me, just like you guys, I think they made these up in their basement, and they've never done it full out, because they just don't have that kind of room in their basement. But at the same time, these are true amateurs, right? Not like today. Day where professional dancers are trying out for So You Think You Can Dance. So I appreciate it. I'm here for it. Okay, so then we have the West Coast couple. They are cookie and gym, and they wear some gold lemon, lots and lots of gold. LeMay and I have in my notes, they're gonna win. Yes, they're gonna win. They better fucking win, because they're the only people who practice. I

Michelle Newman 35:22

write down. I write gold LeMay Saturday Night Fever dress, yeah, I already like them best. They've got moves. And in all caps, I wrote, they're clearly the winners. Yeah, they're gonna win. You know why it was part of it was that gold LeMay Saturday Night Fever dress, because when she went, when she did spends, you got that skirt action. So it actually it's kind of smoke and mirrors, right? If they are amateurs, you kind of are just watching that beautiful dress, and they

Kristin Nilsen 35:46

did all of their moves. They were together. They realize that's a low bar that you should do things like synchronized, but they are the only ones who do so we're gonna give them lots of points for that. But the best part of their routine is right at the end, when they take their bow, and cookie throws her arm out for her bow just as Denny Therriault is coming up on stage, and she essentially thwacks him in the solar plexus. But there's no take too they just like, Okay, thank you, cookie and Jim, yeah.

Michelle Newman 36:16

But in their defense, he walked up too fast. He did? He cut them off. He prematurely

Kristin Nilsen 36:23

ejaculated. He

Michelle Newman 36:25

deserved to get hit with solar plexus. He

Kristin Nilsen 36:29

totally did. Okay. So the junior couple from the West, they danced to hot lunch jam, and they do the funniest interpretation of the robot I have ever seen. It is the whitest robot. It's on the planet. It's like if a cheerleader did the robot, and I am loving it. And then the boy does a little rerun. He goes to the front. He's like, whack and whack, and I'm rerun. I'm watching. Did

Michelle Newman 36:50

you see him try to do the moonwalk though that? Oh, I missed that back. Well, you know what the girl with the unfortunate bangs was in the front doing her little thing? Yeah. And he goes to the back because he's already got, he's already gotten his spotlight with his rerun, his white robot. And then he goes to the back while the girl with the unfortunate banks is doing, I don't know, a kick or a spin or a split or something, and he starts moonwalking. It's worth a re watch. Oh my. It's so bad. It's like

Carolyn Cochrane 37:14

I remember seeing it and thinking, this is pre Michael Jackson doing it, right? Oh, good. 1980

Michelle Newman 37:21

Well, watch it. It's he's trying to moonwalk. So

Kristin Nilsen 37:25

whatever he's doing,

Michelle Newman 37:26

yeah, maybe it wasn't a moonwalk at all. It was something else. And that's why I just thought it was

Carolyn Cochrane 37:34

such a do very well, maybe Michael Jackson was watching the Dance Fever, the

Kristin Nilsen 37:39

junior dancer from the west doing hot lunch jam. He looked

Michelle Newman 37:43

like I felt like Jimmy Osmond when I first is

Kristin Nilsen 37:46

he is 100% Jimmy Osmond and the girl, then, after a rerun and bad moonwalk, she does a one handed cartwheel. I am so there, and it's super funny, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I rewound it and I watched it again. Okay, so then the couple from the south, the couple from the south, does a disco interpretation of the Charleston, and he's wearing those skin tight spandex pants with pockets, and they do the white robot too, with a little of Laurel are already thrown in. Sorry, they look

Carolyn Cochrane 38:14

like shields and Yarnell. They totally did.

Kristin Nilsen 38:17

Yes, they did. Yeah. And

Michelle Newman 38:18

did you notice in his back pocket of his spandex. He had a little white pocket square

Kristin Nilsen 38:23

in the back in the back pocket. Well, that is distant also. Didn't you guys think

Michelle Newman 38:28

that when they look like when they then when they're not dancing, they they probably both sell insurance.

Kristin Nilsen 38:33

Oh, absolutely like Amway. She probably does. Amway on the side too well. And the junior couple are wearing cowboy hats because they're from Dallas, lots of fingers

Carolyn Cochrane 38:46

because, yeah, are they not dancing to, like Little Drummer Boy or something? I think they're dancing, you know, like

Kristin Nilsen 38:55

a disco, a disco him. They're dancing to a disco. Finger gun, fingers, yes, and all this is just proof that you can make anything disc go

Michelle Newman 39:03

well, I was really uncomfortable watching them, and I feel like it had a lot to do with the constant use of finger guns. But then at the end, they do that whole, like she does, like the whole, you know, the cartwheel into splits, which is the big move by the juniors, but over her in the back, he's doing, like, that kind of horsey, like whipping the ass. How to do it as, like, sex, a sexy dance. And I had to look away,

Kristin Nilsen 39:27

because they're children. Remember, these are the this is the junior couple, and so he's like, 12, and he's smacking her ass. Okay, so after that, we didn't have a place in the in the outline for this, but we just have to talk about Denny Terry's solo for a minute. It's mostly him hiding behind giant candy canes, and it is reminiscent of the Dance Fever episode we did previously, where he danced mostly hiding behind a jukebox, a jukebox. That's his thing. He can't decide what to do, and so he hides behind a big thing. I. Really don't think he choreographs this. And I think he improvises the whole thing, because all he does is string together all of his signature moves, and he kind of pauses in between, like he'll do, do whacking, then stop. Oh, do a half split.

Michelle Newman 40:12

No, he does this. Kristen, I swear to God, we have the same brain when we're watching this, because my notes say Danny solo, hiding behind candy cane, almost pulls over a candy cane again. Looks like he's making up this dance on the spot, freestyling it, and he just does those Russian splits. Isn't that? What they're called, where you go down on your knees and then pop back up and you're on your heels. He's doing that cracker down and nut cracker knees, nut cracker, yeah, like, and then a cracker. He does it, like, 20 times, and that's all he does. And it's exactly like that episode with the jukebox, because we wonder too, oh, he he's just, he's improvising this. He's

Kristin Nilsen 40:46

sitting behind the jukebox trying to figure out what he's gonna do well. And in

Michelle Newman 40:50

this one the cameras roll, he's back behind the candy cane, and he pops out, like, Hello, yeah. And then the candy canes, like, jiggle. And I'm like, oh, good lord, they're coming down like dominoes pretty soon,

Kristin Nilsen 40:59

yep. And that is not part of the act, and they're not going to do a second take. But here's the part where we need to chat a little bit. Then he grabs a prop from under the Christmas tree, the Dance Fever Christmas tree, and he grabs a bag, and he opens the bag, and he goes out into the audience, which, by the way, is very small. It's like 45 people, and he starts handing out candy canes, a la Santa Claus, and everyone who gets a candy cane also gets a big kiss on the lips,

Michelle Newman 41:26

except for the last lady who was treated to did eaterio Pumping over her head, his hips like at her head, because she's like a picture, he's like she's sitting below him because she's in like a theater seat. Hands for a candy cane, and then does the hip thrust? Hip thrust right at her head.

Kristin Nilsen 41:44

It's go, gross. And it's not like when, when we're talking about kissing on the lips, we're not talking Richard Dawson like, No, it's not landing, it's not a peck. It's not where he's leading with the lips. And they come. No, it's like, he's like, grabbing their head and smashing his face into their face. It's bad, Denny, you need to ask. None of those people wanted that. They

Carolyn Cochrane 42:09

all looked very surprised like you know, and when Jimmy Fallon goes into the audience or something, those people know that they're gonna be asked a question or that they're part of the gig. I don't think anyone knew what was happening to them. They had no idea.

Michelle Newman 42:21

Well, it was kind of Denny's thing. Remember, he always kisses the member of motion who brings him the results, the results. And then sometimes, if there's a woman guest, like a celebrity guest at the beginning, when they're dancing out, he'll spin her to him, and he'll kiss her on the lips before he spins her out.

Kristin Nilsen 42:38

And then that was, I was so nervous when they brought those kids out, because I knew that was his stick, and when he grabs on to Connie Stevens's daughter, I'm like, do not kiss her mouth.

Michelle Newman 42:49

Yeah, it was a different time, man. Mm, hmm, because I don't think that necessarily shocked us.

Kristin Nilsen 42:54

Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. It did not. I mean,

Michelle Newman 42:57

we're coming off, you know, ice castles, where we and everybody else thought it was great for the, what, 35 year old, you know, newscaster, to date the 16 year old ice skater and kiss her in public.

Kristin Nilsen 43:07

And it's clear they're sleeping together, right, right?

Michelle Newman 43:11

Well, we can't forget, you know, our special guest star, David Copperfield, who, according to Denny, David Copperfield, who was called by one New York newspaper the greatest magician in the world. That's really an impressive really, no, it's probably one of those free papers that because he just says he doesn't name it by one

Kristin Nilsen 43:36

newsletter for an apartment building. Yeah. So

Michelle Newman 43:40

this is a young David Copperfield. No matter what era of David Copperfield, he a lot of people think he's gorgeous, but to me, he's just got those kind of creeper piercing like little black teddy bear eyes and the pointy nose. Anyway, so settle in, because apparently it's story time before we're gonna start magic. And right away, you guys, it's creepy. He says, When I was in high school, I sat next to this girl, and even though she never noticed me in my imagination, we were madly in love. And after my last TV special, she sent me this letter, and she finally noticed me, and I went up to my attic and found her picture and some of her fingernail clippings. No, just kidding. He didn't really say that, but he

Kristin Nilsen 44:26

didn't have a feeling like that, because this is

Michelle Newman 44:29

what I'm feeling. If he would have said and her fingernail clippings, I would not have been surprised, because this is the this is the feeling I'm getting from this story, right? And it brought back a lot of memories, so I'm already way disturbed by this story, but I love magic, so I keep watching. And he goes, memories are so important because sometimes they're all you have. And as Gary man of those weekend in New England starts, and I'm already like, Don't denigrate this song, David, I know

Carolyn Cochrane 44:56

Barry, let that happen, doesn't he have to say, okay, oh,

Michelle Newman 44:59

we're. Treated to a silent Panama of David, and he's looking at her picture of who we are to believe as the girl he was madly in love with in his imagination, she comes out and embraces him, and then suddenly she's his magician's assistant,

Kristin Nilsen 45:15

and it's creepy the way she like here the camera is on him, and then you just see her, her hands, fingernails come down, yes, chest, yes. And you're like, what's happening? Is it the ghost of Christmas past Mary

Carolyn Cochrane 45:29

is playing in the background. Like, just, let's not forget that it's very Mary and my favorite song, weekend in New England are playing the

Kristin Nilsen 45:37

background. You know what else is in the background? It's like a six point buck. Did you notice that?

Michelle Newman 45:42

Oh, they had it. Yeah, they have the whole decorated like we're in his attic. Because, don't forget, he says, I just will always go back to this part, and even though she never noticed me in my imagination, we were madly in love. I'm like, Ah, he's gonna, like, cut her in half. But

Kristin Nilsen 46:00

he's like, gonna, actually, not in half. It's gonna be like, four or five pieces, and put it in his trunk.

Michelle Newman 46:04

They do some fairly light magic, in my opinion. And eventually she ends up covering, climbing on a table, covering herself with a sheet. And I was nervous, you guys, because did you notice it doesn't go all the way to the floor? No, she adjusts it. She kind of wiggles in there. And then, of course, he makes her disappear. He pulls the sheet off, and she's gone. I don't know. The real question to me is, was she even there? Oh, was this all supposed to just be in her imagination? Existential? It really was the perfect routine for the bizarreness of this whole show. Yeah, it really like, if he would have come out and done really great, classy, like, some, some really impressive magic, we might have been like, what are you doing on this show? No one. New York newspaper has claimed him, the greatest magician ever. Well, you

Kristin Nilsen 46:53

know what else, though, as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, This show doesn't need magic. Like, why it went on forever. It just stopped the show cold. It's a dance competition show, and we don't need something to stop it in the middle. There's nothing that has to do, like music makes sense. Because you need music to dance. You don't need magic to dance. So this is just stopping the action. It was too long. It was

Carolyn Cochrane 47:16

the beginning of the end of his career, because then a couple years later, of course, we get him in Mr. T's Christmas Special, Webster, that's true, and a cigarette and

Kristin Nilsen 47:27

well. So after the magic, we have the musical performance, which does make sense, because you do need music to dance, and you also have the Gap Band, which is music that you would even dance to. So it actually makes sense. But what I'm thinking as I'm watching this performance by the Gap Band, they sing party life, by the way, which is an awesome song. I'm thinking I really miss lip syncing. I love a segment on a show where it's like a whole band, but there are only three people there, but you have the whole full orchestration, and they're just jamming out. They're just jamming and singing, and then the music fades out. But they're still jamming. They're still doing something, but there's no music. It's over. They just faded it out. I just really missed that.

Carolyn Cochrane 48:09

And I love the Gap Band. I love the college sound track. Love, love.

Kristin Nilsen 48:14

And they do just kill it, and they're so sparkly, and they look great in front of a Christmas tree. So this fairy really works.

And also they cut it really short. They don't do the whole song because, of course, they fade it out like halfway. So they started

Carolyn Cochrane 48:37

to run out of time because of the David Copperfield,

Kristin Nilsen 48:42

yes, because of Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 48:44

imaginary girl, ridiculous. So after we hear the Gap Band, the adults and the kids are going to dance together like

Michelle Newman 48:51

they're one last look at the team from the west. And they all four come out together, and they do, like, what's maybe 15 seconds, that ends up in a bow, right? Yeah, it's one minute. They get one minute, yeah? So they dance together. So now we've got the adult men picking up the little girls and spinning them and, you know, this kind of stuff where they all kind of switch partners. The team from Texas, though, really blew my mind, because were they lip syncing to the chipmunks. They were dressed as dolls. They were but they were dressed as dolls, not chipmunks,

Kristin Nilsen 49:16

and they spend like, the first 30 seconds just mouthing the monolog of Alvin the Chipmunk, they take up half of your teen time, just mouthing the words very before they start dancing. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 49:28

yeah, that was bizarre. All of those, to me, were a little bit bizarre, and I think it was because we had these adult men lifting these young girls at times, doing things that just did not sit right, not to mention, like, the height difference and stuff. But yes, that just kind of creeped me out a little. But it was the judges last opportunity to get to see the dancers in action before we were going to get the final scores. I

Kristin Nilsen 49:53

do have to say, though, at one point, watching, watching the the judges give the score. Wars with their kids. There is variation in how comfortable those kids are. And Chad Everett was like, Shannon, you gotta speak up, and Shannon would not look up. Shannon's like, we gave them a 90.

Michelle Newman 50:11

I thought, though that they were, I thought all the kids were really well spoken, and I thought that they did a good job. Instead of just saying like, we liked them, they would be like, would they had great showmanship, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun and whatever. But also, giving them a 92 they 60,

Carolyn Cochrane 50:29

yeah, I totally agree. The variations in the score, you know, it would be like Robert Blake saying, we thought the their costumes were great, and their act was great. We give them a 96 and then Chad Everett would be they were good. They had great personality. We give them an 84 there would be like, these huge discrepancies, no.

Kristin Nilsen 50:48

And then, did you notice that one time? This is neither here nor there, but it's just something that really stood out to me. So at one point, Robert Blake leans back, and it looks like he's tickling his nipples. And he's just doing this. He's just circling his nipples, circling his nipples. And I figured out what he's doing is he's playing with the buttons on the pockets on his shirt. And I'm like, does somebody tell Robert Blake to Stop tickling his nipples on he's like, talking. It's like, almost like a nervous hand face, yeah, talking and tickling his nipples. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. I got poor Deli in her leotard, or dancing leotard with her bouncy boobs, is probably daddy. Stop it.

Carolyn Cochrane 51:29

Oh, you guys, I just have to say, the joy for me was watching this, anticipating what Kristen and Michelle say. As I said earlier, I look like Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer right now because I laughed so hard, my nose has been running the whole time. I can't

Michelle Newman 51:47

listen. I will watch dance shows all damn day and write up critiques of them. I love it, especially where they're crap, because, like you said earlier, Christian, we're used to now watching even a dancing with the stars when the people can't dance, and if it's like, some NFL player or whatever, who can't even, like, get the beat, you've got their pro with them, so at least you've got someone who you're, who I enjoy watching, or whatever. And then I was just, I'm just shocked at the level, the low level of any of these people, like, when they would do a kick, their kick wouldn't even make it to their waist. No

Kristin Nilsen 52:26

pointed toes anywhere, no pointed toes. Their

Michelle Newman 52:29

leaps were just crap. Oh yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 52:31

it was hilarious

Carolyn Cochrane 52:33

well, and I got the impression the way that Denny was kind of introducing them as like they're representing, like they won their the West, like there was a competition out in the west before they

Kristin Nilsen 52:46

even got back. Yes, they won their spot. They didn't like show up and say, can I be on Dance Fever? They won that spot. Somebody was worse than them. That's right,

Carolyn Cochrane 52:57

a lot of people, probably. But you know, they want the $7,500 wise, for the adults, the poor kids, they only get a $2,000 savings bond, a savings bond. Anyone who's ever had a savings bond, you know, it takes forever for it to be worth the face value of it. So now

Kristin Nilsen 53:15

we're at the end of the show where it's when it's time to reveal the results. And even though the judges are like 94 for those people who can't dance. Still, Michelle and I are predictive abilities are really strong. And the people from California, from the west and the gold lemme, they do actually win. The juniors and the seniors, they win together. And this is expected, but they didn't expect it like they thought maybe the green unitards with the garland from target might actually win, and that signifies, to me, a self esteem problem. But they are so excited, they are jumping so hard they're going to take down for Danny Terry, oh,

Michelle Newman 53:51

like they've won the Showcase Showdown offices, right? And

Kristin Nilsen 53:55

then this is really bothersome, the little girl from the junior team, she jumps up and she's trying to kiss Danny Terry on the lips. I'm worried about her. There was so much kissing. And not only am I worried about the fact that she's trying to kiss Danny Terry and he's the one struggling to get away, but I'm worried that somebody's gonna bash their teeth like she's gonna break they're so excited. Yeah, yes. I'm like, Honey, stop trying to kiss Danny Terrio, yeah. I mean, yeah, he would have done it, but it was like, there was a moment Danny Terrio figured out that I'm not supposed to kiss 12 year olds. And so he's, like, trying to move away

Michelle Newman 54:30

from, well, there are some he has. There's some court sanction that has told him that probably from about 1978 Hey, we should ask Allison armgram If we ever get around the show if he tried to kiss her? Oh, yes, he

Carolyn Cochrane 54:42

did. I thought I that in the end, didn't he kiss her? And she kisses him,

Kristin Nilsen 54:47

she does. She runs up. Okay. So Renee Olson runs up in her Santa outfit, and she throws her arms around him, and she shows off her little buns because her Santa skirt jumps up and you can see her red Santa underwear. And her buns peeking out, and she just like,

Carolyn Cochrane 55:05

yeah. And so then I think fake snow falls. We're all so happy. I think the judges come up on the stage. We're all dancing, yeah. Allison comes out from behind somewhere, and the credits roll, but they remind us time and time again, like, stay tuned for next year when it's gonna be the second annual dance Weaver Christmas special. I mean, they really thought this was a franchise.

Michelle Newman 55:26

Was there a second? No,

Carolyn Cochrane 55:30

I think somebody had the just wherewithal or something to say this sucked, and you're not ever doing this again, and we're never we're putting this in a vault and locking get away and throwing away the key, but yet, welcome the internet, and poor Allison. She was probably thought this was long gone and she'd never have to think about it again. Oh,

Michelle Newman 55:49

Allison loves it, I bet, right? I bet she loves such a great sense of humor. And that's true, so funny, and she's so self deprecating, but in a, in a, like, a funny way, like she, you know, she obviously is a whole one woman show, basically poking fun of herself on Little House on the Prairie. But I think she she would think that was hilarious to watch well, and it

Kristin Nilsen 56:10

is a part of her development really. I mean, God bless her. Nobody wants to be Nelly Olson forever. That's a big problem. How is she going to get out of that situation? And here was a way out. Yeah, there you go. We understand Allison. We totally understand. Okay, can we? Can we just say that this very special holiday episode of Dance Fever ranks as one of the most perfect examples of late 70s, early 80s culture that we have on film. The reason it's so fun to talk about these things is because it was kind of a ridiculous time. The whole era had so much ridiculousness to it, the silk pants and the giant mustaches, the performative sexuality, the very earnest lip syncing to songs that are clearly performed to the full orchestra. And do we remember these things fondly? Oh, hell yes. Did we know they were ridiculous at the time.

Michelle Newman 57:02

I don't know. Oh no, I don't think so. I don't

Kristin Nilsen 57:05

think so. But if we are to be true Gen Xers, we have to own the absurdity and love it for what it is. I don't want a picture perfect childhood. I want a childhood with people in spandex lip syncing to the chipmunks. That is a good childhood, right? There are we making fun of Dance Fever? Absolutely. But would we want to live in a world without Dance Fever? Never, never. Thank you so much for joining us today. Have a very merry holiday season, and we will see you next time. Thank

Michelle Newman 57:36

you so much for listening today, and thank you to our wonderful, wonderful supporters on Patreon, you guys, we honestly could not do this without them. And I know we sound like a broken record, but we have to say it every time, because it's so true. We owe all of this well to us, but also they help us in so many different ways, not just by their listening support, but by their monetary support, and we we thank them so much. Today we are giving a special shout out to Joanna, Donovan, Magdalena, Sandy, Mike, Alice, Alyssa, Miriam and Linda,

Carolyn Cochrane 58:16

wow. Thanks you guys so much that means a lot to us.

Kristin Nilsen 58:19

Thank you so much to all of you. In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of our old pals from the Regal Beagle in Santa Monica, California, two good times, two

Unknown Speaker 58:29

Happy Days,

Carolyn Cochrane 58:30

Two Little House on the Prairie. Cheers. You.

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