After These Messages: Santa's Comin' To Advertise

Fouhy, Geoffrey's improv group friend comes back to talk about commercials related to a the Rankin and Bass stop motion Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town! You can catch Fouhy in Improvised History at the Democracy Center in Harvard Square, or in Junebug, a Firefly-inspired improv show (which our own Geoffrey is in, too). The next Junebug appearance is February 23rd, 2020 at Improv Boston. We kicked off this session by watching a bit of Bruce Springsteen's live performance of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. What a hat, huh?Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town with commercials from 1981 We watched through all the commercials up until about 27:35 in this video, and that left us really curious about the sitcoms advertised, so we watched the opening themes. Open All Night #1We just watched the theme song… but wow that was a lot of info. Here's a breakdown of the facts:*This is the Story of Gordon Feester*Born in Ohio the day before Easter*Graduated from Columbus High in 1962*Went to college, but got suspended*Was in the Army (stationed at Fort Hood)*Never went overseas (Spent a year peeling potatoes and a year copping zees)*After that he drifted and at times he seemed to struggle but always paid the rent *By 1974 he owned a grocery store*Married a woman named Gretchen who hangs around the house*Gretchen has a son named Terry by a previous spouseNow he's open all night, which we repeat rather ominously like… eight? times???This was A LOT.It's a Living S02E01Again we only watched the theme, and again… wow. Leprechaun's Christmas Gold: Christmas in KillarneyFouhy notes that the young man is the same model as Jack Frost from another Rankin Bass special. If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at [email protected]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe