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It's Gonna Be an X Christmas! PART 1
11 Plays3 months ago
Join Josh Downing and pop culture guru, Tyler as they talk some Christmas memories. They'll laugh, then cry and then laugh again as remember things then quickly forget them again. They had so much to reminisce about they had to make this 2 episodes! So put on your jingle bells, grab some Nestle Tollhouse cookies and a glass of whole milk and joins us for a Yabba Zonkers Zoinks morning!
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Transcript
Introduction to Yabba Zonker Zoinks
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Yabba Zonker Zoinks, the Saturday morning podcast where your host Josh Downing, that's me, will yap with guests about their awesome Gen X childhood. You know, in front of the TV, in pajamas, eating bowls of crunchy sugar.
Focus on 70s and 80s Pop Culture
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm a Gen Xer toy collector, theater creator, and now podcast host with a series on pop culture stuff. You know, all that awesome cool stuff from the 70s and 80s, like cartoons and toys and TV shows.
00:00:28
Speaker
If you remember the Jetsons or HR Puff and Stuff or the Groovy Goolies, well, you're on the right channel.
Christmas Memories and Sears Wishbook
00:00:34
Speaker
This very special first episode will be a tribute to Christmas and the memories of television specials and the toys we circled in the Sears Wishbook and snacks that kept us in a sugar high for the entire holiday season. So put on your fluffy slippers and your cowboy pajamas and join us on a Saturday morning sleigh ride through our childhood.
00:01:00
Speaker
Welcome to Yappa Zonker Zoinks, the Saturday morning podcast that is like nothing else you've ever seen. So this is my Gen X ah Saturday morning celebration. I grew up in front of the TV. I grew up eating.
00:01:16
Speaker
you know, great big giant bowls of sugar.
Introducing Guest Host Tyler
00:01:18
Speaker
And, um, I've got with me here today, my best buddy, he is the, uh, expert of mass consumption. His name is Tyler and he's going to be my guest host and we're going to talk about the gen X stuff that we grew up with. And hopefully you can share some of those experiences with us as well. Tyler, welcome. Hi, Josh. Hello everyone.
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome to us talking about old stuff.
Unscripted Christmas Reflections
00:01:47
Speaker
ah Really old stuff. and This episode is really special because not only is it our number one episode, the very first episode, we're doing this without a net, without a script. I've got some scrappy little notes here, but this is also a Christmas episode. So we're going to start this whole thing about Christmas.
00:02:06
Speaker
because although I didn't have Christmas growing up, Tyler did. And I know Christmas is a really special time. and It's really part of that Genex Saturday morning experience that I think that we all had. Okay, so I'm going to start with my question. I'm going to ask you, what was your first Christmas memory?
Tyler's Earliest Christmas Memory
00:02:29
Speaker
Uh, I think my first Christmas memory is in our first house as a kid. Uh, so I'm probably two or three and I don't know if they woke me up Christmas morning. Cause normally they had to and.
00:02:46
Speaker
Here are my parents in my bedroom and my dad dressed as Santa Claus. And I just sat up in bed and said, hi daddy, and kind of ruined that surprise. I actually don't really know what they had in store, but you know, I,
00:03:04
Speaker
absolutely believed in Santa until I was about 10. So you know it didn't do any damage and it's a wonderful memory. And I do believe that's probably my first memory more than the tree or the gifts or even photographs that we have. We don't have that, but that would probably be my first memory. And that's a great first memory. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing.
Josh's Non-Christmas Childhood
00:03:28
Speaker
It's funny because in our first take that we didn't get recorded, ah we were actually talking about me not having Christmas. And it's it's it's just the way, I mean, my parents grew, they wanted to raise us in a way that um didn't have all those sort of trappings. So we we just didn't have those kinds of celebrations, birthdays, Christmases, all that kind of stuff. And I didn't know any difference. So for me growing up, that's just the way it was. And I didn't miss out on anything other than sometimes the toys.
00:03:56
Speaker
because ah my parents didn't buy toys those times of the years or those celebrations. And a lot of the toys we got were handed down from other families who were like, ah our kids aren't playing with this anymore. So you guys can have it. It's funny because I was talking to somebody and we we're talking about board games. And I said, well, often we had board games that were missing so many pieces that we would just have to put them all together and make up our own games because we had no idea how to play them. And there was no internet back then. So I couldn't, you know, look up, how do I play the Archie Bunker game?
00:04:25
Speaker
Archie Bunker game. That's a little sophisticated for children. Right. What did you guys do? Sit in the living room and trade racist comments? Yes, exactly. Sometimes we play the piano, smoke scars. My Meathead game piece is missing. Totally.
00:04:44
Speaker
Oh my goodness. I have a little baby Joey. Oh, it, uh, it was, uh, it was, I mean, that's just how I grew up. So it was just one of those things that we were kind of talking and trading stories about that. We were also talking about, and I can't remember the stuff we just talked about. We were having this amazing conversation about Christmases. Oh, you, you had that great story that about a Christmas memory of
Gift-Giving in the 90s
00:05:07
Speaker
me. Cause like you were saying,
00:05:09
Speaker
We've known each other for decades. Yes. Yes. And we had some amazing Christmases. So we have more than made up for the non-Christmas childhood and made up for it in my adulthood for sure. Yeah. And having met in the nineties, you know, if we're talking pop culture, when toys were finally available for everything that was current and a lot of things that were from the past.
00:05:35
Speaker
It certainly made gift giving easy because the selection was endless. you And it's funny because I see the the the retail price of toys now. And I think my gosh, that action figure is so small and it's $30. But then I think back to 94 power Rangers and it's like, Oh, well actually some of that stuff was crazy expensive at the time too. It sure was.
00:06:00
Speaker
we'll We'll get to that at some future episode, but yeah, we we had some ah pretty cool Power Ranger Christmas is is what I call them. They were a lot of fun. They were amazing because I was a Power Ranger collector and I had everything. Underline collector. Yeah, a couple of times. Bold collector. Yeah, no, it was it was a crazy time period. But and and we'll also have to talk about the Walmart Christmas layaways. Oh, my gosh. I remember I had that Jurassic Park Lost World trailer. I don't know what it was called, that vehicle. Oh, yeah. anyway at Walmart and Whitby. And I never went back.
00:06:42
Speaker
So they like the posit I didn't get the toy. And that's a bad layaway story. But otherwise we were very good with our layaways. Yes. We had a lot of fun with the leeway program at Walmart, but that's that's another episode. Yes.
Sears Wishbook Nostalgia
00:06:57
Speaker
So back to Christmas, one of the things that was really awesome, but also had mixed feelings for me was the Sears Christmas wish book. And I always have to bring that up because that was, that was the dream wish list.
00:07:12
Speaker
And even though we didn't celebrate, we still got that catalog and I still sat there feeling guilty, but flipping through and wishing about all those toys. But the the guilt came from, I knew i I shouldn't be wanting those things, but I did because I was a kid. I mean, you can't help it. Well, they're marketed directly to you. All your neighbors and and schoolmates are getting toys, you know, and you and your sisters aren't. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
How is that fair? Felt sometimes like an outsider when kids would be like, oh, hey, what'd you get for Christmas? And I'd be like, uh, the day off we went snowmobiling. Well, right. Because we have a child that has his own snowmobile. and We had to use somebody else's. And we down snowmobiles. And I had the the Tonka Jeep that came with the snowmobile on a trailer. Oh, that's wicked. right Tonka could do no wrong back then. No. And Tonka was probably one of the things that my my parents didn't feel bad about getting me.
00:08:15
Speaker
And gifts came whenever they came. Like it would be like, Hey, you you know, you got a great report card. We got you a Tonka truck and I'm like, Oh, we should have truck. An episode just about the Tonka Winnebago, but I never did have, you know, I never had one either. I don't know. I, it probably was in the Christmas wish book, but I had, I had the snow greater. Isn't that weird? It was this green.
00:08:41
Speaker
a great big long machine that was designed for like clearing roads of snow. and i'm I'm from the West Coast where there was almost never any snow. I was just going to ask you that. Yeah.
00:08:54
Speaker
But when I was a kid, there was a lot of snow and it was it was a lot of snow for me because it was not very big. There's pictures of me and my sister playing hot like street hockey. yeah That only happened once, but it was there, but there was snow and I used to play with my my ah my Jeep and my snowmobile in the snow, but I had a snow grader and I thought that was the weirdest thing because everybody else had you know dump trucks and race cars and I had this snow grader.
00:09:22
Speaker
It wasn't really sure what the play value was, but it was pretty cool looking and it was also like bright electric green. Oh, well the color is cool. Right? Yeah. It was probably to collect, you know, empty Corona bottles or something. I don't know. Yeah. That's what it was. It was for just cleaning up in general. Go environment, go.
00:09:47
Speaker
Right. Okay. So we're going to, we're going to play our first game and, uh, I've got, so right here, I've got my cereal box. Oh, look at that. he's made it's a real city Cap and crunch. Cap and crunch. is a crunn It's crunch berries, which were the best. Do you get, do you get surprises inside now or? just No, no.
00:10:07
Speaker
No, nothing. You get nothing. Don't even give us your email address and we'll well you know send your parents things. No, you get nothing.
Favorite Christmas Episodes
00:10:18
Speaker
Wow. What is your favorite Christmas cartoon episode? So you mean like an existing series that went and had a Christmas episode? Yeah. Okay. So not like a Christmas special. No, no. We'll we'll save Christmas specials for another one.
00:10:36
Speaker
It's probably, uh, can I have two answers? Yes. These literally are random questions. I i was not ready. I would say the, the Christmas episode of the Flintstones, because I had never seen that episode. It wasn't in syndication here. And when I bought the Hanna-Barbera laser disc or laser disc, that's how old they are. Uh, and it had.
00:11:04
Speaker
how the Flintstones saved Christmas on it, that when the disc played, it was actually the Flintstones Christmas episode. And I'm i'm sitting there, I'm like, what am I looking at? What am I looking at? I've never seen this. And it is so beautiful. Like, they really outdid themselves with the backgrounds. You know, the snow covered pink Christmas trees and It's a it's a musical episode two and just everything's on point. Everything's wonderful. I watch it every Christmas. um And it's just it's it's kind of a found thing for me because, you know, it is on the Blu-ray box set of the entire series. um And that's how I watch it now. um But yeah, ah top notch.
00:11:51
Speaker
can't live without it. It's a must. And I would also say, uh, the Christmas episodes they did more recently for gumball and also for the regular show, which I showed Josh last year, um, just. Even though they're modern, uh, wonderfully funny and kick ass animation and good job, you know, and again, every year I have a massive Christmas.
00:12:19
Speaker
collection of movies, specials, episodes. And, you know, I literally literally have a calendar and I'm marking them so that I don't miss something, you know, by mistake because that does happen sometimes. But anyway, I've talked a lot. Josh, what about you? So it's one of the things I want to say.
00:12:38
Speaker
was I thought it was kind of weird when I was doing my my research to kind of prepare some things to talk about. I realized that so many of the things that we grew up with that we remember on TV and Saturday morning and and after school TV happened way before we were even born.
00:12:58
Speaker
So even even as a GenXer, like these shows happened before I was born and they just, they reran every single year or they were constantly being recycled back into, you know, the cartoon ah packages that we saw.
Love for Rankin/Bass Animations
00:13:15
Speaker
So it always felt like they were new. I didn't realize that the Christmas Flintstone was was released in 1964. In the good old days when everything was cool. Right. yeah So it's it's pretty cool that all this kind of stuff happened and it was when I was looking at some of the shows and some of the things that were like some of the Christmas specials, a lot of it didn't really happen until the mid
00:13:39
Speaker
60s, and it was 64 that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Rankin and ba right ranking em Bass came out, Christmas Flintstone, um and then there was a number of other episodes for for other TV shows, but That was big. So Rudolph was one of the first shows that I was allowed to watch. Good. Because it only came out once a year. good And how could you how could you tell your kids you couldn't watch this? It was so magical. It was animagic. It was so animagic. It was like toys. Yes, exactly. Doing a skit, right? like It wasn't a cartoon and it wasn't real. It wasn't a bunch of old guys sitting around smoking. It was
00:14:24
Speaker
You know, toys and it was singing Japan where all the best shows came from Japan. And we'll get to that because ro my favorite shows came from Japan. So that's another episode. But yeah, like Rudolph was right there and it was, you know, mid sixties that that came out and that was probably Yeah, I was going to say, you pro which one was the sequel though? I don't remember. I have it and I've never watched it. It literally has a post it note on it. That means I need to watch me, but I haven't, I haven't watched it. It's a CGI from maybe 10 or 20 years ago, but I still haven't watched it.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, I probably wouldn't have. I was never really excited about the CGI versions of films. It was kind of like, you know, the Sony VHS version of a show. I love the jokes we make about those. The little cars. The little cars. The man in the jungle. The girl under the sea. The donkey with the candle. I don't know what that was. It just came out.
00:15:34
Speaker
But yeah, it just felt like that when they started doing the CGI. Like you you can't replace those Rankin and Bass. productions. They were just incredible. And I feel for the collectors because that merchandise just it doesn't stop, you know, every year there's so much. But I, but I tried to recently go back and take a look to see if I could complete my collection. Cause I have, I want to say it's, uh, the Santa Claus is coming to town.
00:16:08
Speaker
It must be. You're talking about the Fred Astaire, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not, uh, I believe that's what it's called as I'm sitting here. I don't remember. Yeah. You have him and you have the mail truck, right? I have him in the mail truck, but yeah I think he's from a different episode from the rest of my collection. Okay. Because the rest of my collection was, uh, with the, the snow beast and the dentist. Yeah. That's Rudolph. ruddo That's Rudolph, right? yeah yeah Yeah. So I, I, I got most of the Rudolph stuff. I ended up getting, um, the, the ice brother. I came here. He's from the other one. He's from, uh, that's here without a Santa Claus. Yeah, that's yours. So I got some of those and I was like, I want to get some more of these, but the prices, the prices, they're way crazy. Yeah. They all came out for one season. And even though they got reissued, it's time here was so brief in Canada.
00:17:01
Speaker
You know, but they did a great job on those. I had the, the, I don't know what it's called. I should, but I don't the Santa Claus castle for Rudolph with all the figures. I scored that on like boxing day in the States at a Toys R Us for next to nothing. And the details, like all the, the accessories were spot on for the show. Like those toys were literally made with love.
00:17:28
Speaker
and attention to detail. And even if they were under license restrictions, it doesn't matter because they pulled it off and they were great. So I don't have mine anymore, but good for you for having yours.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. I still set them up. Uh, it's, it's part of my, my Christmas rituals now is that I set up my, my toy shelf and it's all of my Rankin and Bass, you know, Santa Claus and Rudolph and, and all those characters that I have. And they're all just kind of around a little Christmas tree. So i I just, I love them. They're amazing. yeah But yeah, that and also Charlie Brown Christmas. So I, so I love Charlie Brown Christmas.
Charlie Brown's Christmas Impact
00:18:03
Speaker
It's one of the ones that stuck in my head. I think there was just something very different about it too. I think that sort of,
00:18:08
Speaker
that hollow soundtrack with the music kind of playing in the background just kind of hit a note with me. And I just, I felt this attachment to these kids cause they did, they didn't feel like they were the popular kids. They felt like they were the sort of misfit kids. There's a sort of maturity and a melancholy.
00:18:28
Speaker
to those early specials. And the music, like you say, was a huge part. you know It's such a major part of like it's its own character in those episodes. you know And they age very well. and There's really no issues. And those little actors do such a great job. you know I'm thinking specifically of Sally and Lucy. Just magic. Everything was magic back then.
00:18:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So much. So much incredible magic. Well, on that note, I'm going to throw a trivia question at you. Uh-oh. It was specific. It's not it's not a Christmas one, though. It's just a cartoon trivia question. All right. Because I just figured, you know what, let's just go for it and see what happens.
00:19:14
Speaker
Okay. Good luck, everyone. All right. Fingers
Wacky Races Trivia
00:19:17
Speaker
crossed. Yes. Who won the most races in the cartoon Wacky Races? Oh, okay. I'm going to delay my response with the wonderful story of how in Japan they would bet on the winners in bars when that show was on television.
00:19:37
Speaker
And I just think that's incredible. So drink up. um It's going to be somebody weird, right? it's And I don't want to drag this out. It's probably, I'm looking at my collection of wacky races, dorbs beside me. It's not going to be somebody cool, like the creepy coop.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's probably gonna be something weird like the professor or the Baron. Okay. This is a lame answer. I'm going to say it was Peter. Was it Peter? Well, okay. So here's the story. So the, the series ran from 68 to 69, 17 half hour episodes.
00:20:11
Speaker
There was two races per episode, so there was 34 races in total. Four teams tied for the most wins. Penelope Pitstop, Peter Perfect, okay and Hill Mob, ah and Luke and Blubber Bear.
00:20:29
Speaker
oh okay yeah well yeah well There's the answer everybody. There it is. I'm surprised it was Penelope and Peter makes sense. And I honestly, I would think the others are random.
00:20:44
Speaker
I don't know that there was any vehicle that had you know the upper hand over anybody. And I don't know why all those designs are just so incredible you know to see each vehicle so totally different from the next. Totally exciting. i don't know I know it got ah its own series again a couple of years ago, but I don't know why it's not more celebrated here. And I would love a CGI or live action movie of wacky races to come out. There's so many possibilities you could do. yeah you know That would be incredible. It'll probably happen you know one day. Yeah, that would be really cool. I'd watch that. It'll come from Japan. yeah They love you but she love it. Yes, they love it. Yes. No, that's awesome. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting. I didn't realize it was going to be a
00:21:29
Speaker
Uh, like a four way tie, they won four times each. So that's pretty cool. It's really interesting. Yeah. and You know, they always say that, you know, there was no continuity and the writers didn't care. And I don't think that's true. I think if it's your baby, you're going to make sure that, you know, there's a little bit of thought put into everything. But you know, as a kid watching that.
00:21:47
Speaker
I didn't care. I wasn't you know looking for character threads and you know great storytelling. I was having fun because it was an insane race every episode. They even raced in Canada. Right? Whoa! That's a big deal when you're stuck up here. So that was pretty cool.
00:22:06
Speaker
Okay, I got one more trivia question for you. Okay.
Barbie: The Best Selling Toy
00:22:08
Speaker
What is the number one best selling toy of all time? Oh no, of all time. Is it still currently available? Yes. I'm sure Josh will take out this long pause. It's going to be something so obvious. Best selling of all time? Yeah. When was it introduced?
00:22:28
Speaker
1959 1959. It's not Barbie ding, ding, ding. Okay. It's actually Barbie. Yeah. Barbie. All right. Of all really, I would have thought it was going to be something like, I'm like, is it slinky? I'm like, no etch a sketch. No, but I think it's something a little more lame.
00:22:45
Speaker
Well, you know what I mean by that. A lot of those toys are up there, but Barbie is still selling. i I think that's the big deal. I still want the Alfred Hitchcock Birds Barbie and I don't have it. One day I'll get it.
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, you got to find that. Yeah, yeah, I seriously do. One episode come up, I'll talk about my Barbies and my Barbie stories. Yeah, Rush had Barbies. I had lots of Barbies. And Kens. I had Ken dolls. And there was a time when those toys uber coolol you know think they You know, they had the best of homes, the best of vehicles. Everything was of the period. Super cool. um Best outfits. Yeah. Yeah. lots which always in Yeah. She was always in style and always, you know, changing her look and and it was just cool stuff.
Teaser for Part Two
00:23:40
Speaker
Hey listeners, would you look at the time? I just can't believe that we've run out of time in this episode. So I tell you what we're gonna do. We're going to split this into two parts. So just come on back for part two and you'll hear me challenge Tyler to a game of Keep Tosser Cell. I know. What is that? Keep Tosser Cell. We're going to play a bit of that. And then we're just going to wrap up our first episode ever. First amazing Christmas episode. And we can't wait to have you back. So see you soon. You've been listening to Yamba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast.
00:24:18
Speaker
Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any exciting episodes. You can reach out on Instagram at Gen X for Life podcast, that's Gen X number four life underscore podcast, or send an email at Gen X for Life podcast, all one word, at gmail.com. I'd love to hear about your favorite Gen X Saturday morning memory, maybe your favorite toy or the cereal you just couldn't wait to tear into.
00:24:43
Speaker
Until then, have a yabba zonkers wings day and I'll be back right and early next Saturday morning.