["Buzz Pinsals"]
Buzz Pinsals.
Yeah.
Grattles, pencils, and bust them.
12 shows of Christmas.
You don't want to miss this.
Johnny Luke, connect it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, Jacob.
What a morning.
Busted pencils.
Fully let it education talk.
Educated educators.
Talking education.
Friday.
Producer's choice.
Special show today.
And I don't know.
I don't think that intro will ever get old to me.
You know, I love the jingle bells at the beginning.
The festive, you know,
feeling to the whole thing.
But, man, I crack up every time I hear it.
I'm a big fan.
Jacob, you flex.
Yeah, it rocks.
You flex in those skills.
Chairman of the board.
But let's jump into it, man.
Because today is, you know,
want to come to be one of our most favorite days of the week.
Friday.
And, you know, sometimes we record a day or so ahead of things.
And so, you know, we're thinking about the day.
But today's special, Jacob, because we are present.
In the actual day.
So we're recording it, you know.
And I was trying to go for a little like Christmas.
It is Christmas time trying to go for a Christmas pun there.
That I fumbled on.
But, you know, get it.
You get it.
And I'm going to be a little bit more present for the present of being a Christmas season show here.
As we jump on the holiday.
But Jacob, man, how are you doing?
I'm doing good, Johnny, because it's the ninth show of Christmas.
Holy cow, how exciting.
You know, there's 12 of them.
We only have three left after this.
And I'm going to miss it when it's gone.
Because I have grown to love.
Our custom busted pencils, 12 shows of Christmas theme song.
It's I listen to it just for fun.
Well, here's good news for you, Jacob.
It happens again next year.
Woo.
So we can we can get back to regular programming.
And then, you know, have that excitement.
It's like getting the Christmas decorations out of the holiday decorations.
However, you celebrate your holidays.
You know, it's like you put that stuff away a little bit after the holiday and then boom.
As soon as it's back that that that time of year again, it comes back out.
So it will be gone, but not lost.
Jacob, it comes back around every year.
And we'll be doing this, you know, again next year.
But before we even begin thinking about the future, remember, we're in the present.
And we have presents for you today with Jacobs producer's choice.
Let's dig into it.
My guy for two, two producer.
A Jacobs choice chairman of the board.
You and I will have two choices.
Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Oh, Jacob chairman of the board.
I've got the board. It's spelled B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the pool.
Life's a tough choice.
We chose one.
Johnny, I hope you're ready for this.
Well, I'm always ready, Jacob. Let's go.
Welcome back one and all to the final producer's choice show before Christmas.
That's right, folks. We've only got six days to go before the big day and all around America.
And indeed the world.
There are people preparing for the zenith of the holiday season.
It's a time when those that are dear to us gather near to us and do one special thing.
That's right, Johnny. Watch Christmas movies.
Oh, yeah.
Every era has its own classics.
Every family has their own special tradition.
And every person has their own personal favorite Christmas movie.
That's why today I've asked an expert movie watcher to join me here.
To reminisce about our favorite Christmas classics.
I've got Dr. Johnny Lupinacci.
Johnny, you want to talk about Christmas movies with me today?
Oh, Jacob, I absolutely do.
I love this topic. I mean, I love movies.
You know, so I'm excited about that anytime we could talk shop in that department.
And especially Christmas movies, one of my favorite topics.
So let's do it, Jacob. Let's do a producer's choice.
Christmas movies edition.
Now, before we begin, Johnny, I just want to say that this is an inclusive podcast.
So if you want to pick eight crazy nights, you are allowed to do so.
I'm going to allow you to pick Adam Sandler's eight crazy nights as a as a movie to talk about.
That's a good one.
Is it a good one?
I mean, I'm, you know, this is the thing, Jacob.
You're going to find really quickly with my selection of Christmas movies.
I've got all kinds of categories for them.
And, you know, man, especially Adam Sandler, I'm always a big fan of stuff.
So it's up there with with some of my favorites.
Let me surprise you. Let me surprise you, my guy.
You drive this bus.
I like the bum, diddy, diddy bum, bum song as much as anybody.
So I can't knock you too much.
I'll just start us off real quick with our first question, Johnny.
Did your family have a go to Christmas movie when you were a kid?
Oh, when I was a kid, let me think we didn't really have a go to Christmas movie.
But I will say this.
I guess I could still be considered a kid when this movie came out.
I mean, I wasn't too young.
But we definitely watched it regularly as a family.
Alf was a big, big popular one in our, in our household.
We just always found welfare, a hilarious.
I can't imagine anybody not finding him hilarious.
The man's of national treasure to call things comedic.
Absolutely.
But, but Alf was a big one.
But Jacob, you know, always big when I was little when I was really much younger.
And it was probably something listeners can relate to.
We always looked forward to as kids, the Christmas specials.
Yeah.
So it wasn't as much Christmas movies.
Maybe a Muppets Christmas was a pretty popular one back then.
But the Christmas specials would come out, you know, the, you know,
the frosty, the snowman, the Rudolph, the red nose reindeer.
You know, it was like a mixture of puppets and claimations that would be spread across.
Different, you know, half hour specials on television networks.
Those were big always reminded me, you know, of the Christmas season.
And those are my biggest memories around like television viewing as a kid.
Because there wasn't, I mean, I guess there were Christmas movies.
But when I was, you know, again, dating myself, you didn't watch movies at home.
You went to the theater to see movies.
And then as I got a little older, you would, you would, I think Tim and I have joked about this.
You'd rent a VCR occasionally and, and bring home a VHS couple of VHS tapes.
And then when I was a little older, it became more popular to have like, you know,
cable television movies, movie channels.
And then then it was always like a constant rotation of Christmas movies.
But our family was never big on like Miracle on 34th Street.
Or the Christmas story.
You know, it was, for us, man, we watched Christmas specials.
And then it was, you know, when Alf little later came around, man, we all found that movie hilarious on heartfelt.
And so it was like, it was, it was a staple.
You got me thinking when you mentioned Christmas specials.
Not just about the older stuff like with Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer, but every TV show for, I don't know how long has been committing itself.
It seems to having a Christmas episode of the show, whether it's, you know, something like family guy or kids shows.
I mean, every show for as long as I can remember has always been interested in doing it.
Looking back, do you have a favorite TV shows Christmas special that sticks out in your mind is like, oh, that was a good one.
Because they're hitting this.
Yeah, they are. I'm trying to think.
Going back to like watching sitcoms.
And they did. They always, they always, you know, knew the time that Christmas episode.
You know what I think it's, it's probably a recency bias on this.
I was a big fan of.
Well, two.
Yeah, I wouldn't have to go with Bob's burgers, man.
They're holiday specials.
I mean, that shows never a miss for me.
You know, it's, it's good animation. It's great. It's great comedy.
But yeah, man, I think like their Christmas ones always, you know, always crack me up.
And it's like, you know, everything about them just, just, just hits all the marks.
So that's my recency bias.
And there was like a, like, like, I don't know like a cognitive dissonance around a flurry of Christmas TV moments.
You know, that popped into my head and I couldn't quite nail them down.
Like, it was like, if you can imagine like all the different noise of like, you know, playing 15 different CDs at the same time.
That's what I was seeing scenes from them all.
And I didn't want to get it wrong, but I can, I can't quite remember which one belonged to each show.
So I went with a recency bias of Bob's burgers.
I think that's a fair answer.
And I appreciate that you showed your work too.
So I can, I can see your process.
And, uh, yes.
Talk through.
Yeah.
Talk through things here on bus defenseless.
So, yeah.
That's what we do.
For me, I'm thinking about the, the future Rama Christmas episode with robot Santa coming to blow everybody up.
I don't know if that necessarily reflects Christmas cheer or if it's a bit more cynical to take.
But I think it had a positive message at the end or of some sort.
Johnny, I want to ask you, no, it's a wonderful life anywhere in this, this story of either, you know, the familial traditions or what?
Jimmy Stewart.
You know, um, yeah, I, I mean, again, I'm as old timey as I can get always felt old timey to me.
I'm not, I'm not, you know, it's a wonderful life big fan.
I mean, first of all, you know, I, I got the ADHD man sitting down and watching a movie.
It's got to be like, like you, you talked to me about Christmas movies from my youth.
And I'm like, I'm like, Gremlins.
How about that one?
That was a Christmas movie.
Yeah.
How about die hard?
That's technically a Christmas movie.
I'm going to take that angle, you know, I know people like to debate that one.
Jacob, it popped into my head.
Man, this show stuck with me for a while.
And, and you know what?
I, I remember it.
And I wasn't quite a kid, but my soul called life.
Yeah.
Remember that series?
Pretty epic.
Pretty epic series coming of age kind of, you know, television drama, especially for my, we talked about MTV.
We talked about MTV generation recently.
Yeah.
But my soul called life kind of nails that home.
They had a Christmas episode.
I couldn't remember right off the top of my head when you asked if it was my soul called life for 90210,
because those were sort of like coming of age shows for like early teenage young Johnny here.
But yeah, there was the my soul called life Christmas episode, you know, and I think character,
one of the characters in there became homeless.
And there was a lot of like good heartfelt stuff around, you know, things that matter to teenagers at the time.
I remember that episode just sitting with me and I couldn't quite put my finger.
I was like, what's that show called?
What's that show called with Claire dance?
Oh, yeah.
My soul called life.
So that's that one sticks with me as one of my favorite Christmas TV episodes.
Johnny, I have not seen my so called life.
But as somebody who has seen every episode of boy meets world.
I can understand where you're coming from with a dramatic twist on Christmas
to give young people a taste of, whoa, this is so real.
These storylines are complicated and hardcore.
Exactly.
And every generation has theirs, right?
So for me, it was like my soul called life for you, boy meets world.
It's like, these are these are real important.
I would I wish Tim were here because I would love to hear what Tim's big, you know,
like heavy teenage Christmas document or drama series on TV was, uh,
leave it to be for I believe for Tim, his generation.
Yeah.
I like to poke fun at him.
Maybe I shouldn't do it if he's not here to get back at me.
He's not that old folks.
I'm just young and impetuous.
They didn't have TV when Tim experienced Christmas.
Tim, what telegraph messages did you enjoy over Christmas back when you were a kid?
Um, no, no, everybody Tim is young and vigorous.
Johnny, I've got another question for you.
This beautiful Christmas edition of producer's choice.
What is your favorite Christmas movie now?
Oh, that's a good question.
Uh, he started at health as a youngster.
And yeah, what's adult Johnny thinking about on Christmas?
You know, I, I like, I like so many of them.
I'm going to have to stay.
I'm going to say it's raining champ Elf.
It's my number one.
And I like, I like so many.
Elf is my number one.
I like home alone.
That's a close.
The original home alone is really close there with Elf for me.
I mean, I, I liked it when it came out.
It was cool.
But man, as I watch it every year, it seems to get better and better.
For me, I just crack up about, you know, it's, it's, it's probably one of my favorites.
It's a close second to Elf.
I'd say those two remain sort of with me as like the champs.
And then there's just like a, like a flurry of romcom kind of, you know, more heavier.
Like exciting Christmas ones that I can never remember the name of.
There's like, again, a blur of them.
I think there's always the hallmark Christmas movies every year.
So it's hard to remember.
Yeah.
And, and they're, and they're all, and there's a few that are, you know, Christmas vacations.
God, you're there.
Oh, you know, I'd say Elf, home alone at Christmas vacation.
Top three.
So National Lampoon's Christmas vacation.
You know, Clark, Chris Wald.
Christmas is pretty, it's pretty tough to top that.
And then there's a flurry of the eye.
And can never remember the names of them.
You know, but they're always on the Netflix or whatever.
You know, you stream and they pop up and you're like, oh, yeah, this is actually a really good one.
And their Christmas theme sort of feel good.
Big heavy like family kind of dynamics.
Everyone comes home for Christmas.
Stop, you know, all there's a lot of heartfelt, you know, good vibes to it.
And, and those movies always, I'll always get sucked into those movies.
I'll watch, you know, any of them and all of them.
They all blur together.
But, you know, my go to Elf, home alone and National Lampoon's Christmas vacation.
Good old Chevy Chase.
Clark, Chris Wald.
And I've got to say one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever got was my uncle got me a
Griswald Blackhawks jersey.
Oh, that's a, that's a big time one.
Nice.
It's a great jersey.
And, you know, I think it's expressive of, of me and my, my taste.
The funnest thing for me was going to a Blackhawks game.
And you can actually see if you look around.
Oh, yeah, there's a Griswald.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, there's a Griswald.
So we keep pride in our Chicago based John Hughes movies here in the area for sure.
And I'm glad that you brought up Christmas vacation because that is my answer for all of these questions.
It's our family movie.
We've always watched it every Christmas.
It is my favorite Christmas movie.
I, it's just a classic.
It's so popular.
And so, you know, going back to your talk about, you know, this so-called life and boy means world and stuff.
Those moments where you're a young person and you're like, oh, am I allowed to see this, this movie or this show?
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Christmas vacation is, is that sort of movie for a lot of people growing up, I think, where it's.
Yes, exactly.
These jokes are pretty risque.
Can I hear that?
And I was so surprised when, when I was in middle school, our science teacher on Christmas just brought the TV out and let us watch Christmas vacation.
Oh, nice.
This is when they went for it.
Yeah.
That was all.
It's a classic.
It's a classic.
I really approved of it, Johnny, to be honest with you because some of the other, you know, classmates of mine hadn't seen it before.
No, wait, this is one you want to pay attention to.
This actually is a good movie.
It's not ferngully.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, though.
So that's a pretty epic moment in your education memory, man.
I bet.
What a, that teacher knocked it out of the park.
Absolutely.
You know, Jacob, I would say to.
It's cliche, but.
The.
The gym carry Grinch.
It's a pretty good movie, man.
You know, like the Grinch is timeless thing, you know, the, how the Grinch stole Christmas is always a great special.
The catch.
I love that.
The, I guess it's animated.
I'd call it version of the film of the show too that the more recent movie that came out.
It's a good one.
But the gym carry Grinch.
Pretty, pretty, pretty epic too up there for me.
I like that one.
Well, you got to say, even if you don't like the movie, could they ever have found somebody who could be the Grinch in a live action movie as well as Jim.
Like they'll never find another guy who can be the Grinch in a, in a real movie again.
Jim carries just the only guy who can be a cartoon in real life.
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's, it's so well done.
It's perfect, man.
I remember watching that for the first time and thinking, oh, this is going to be terrible.
Come on, man.
Like we all know the story, like how do you turn it into a whole movie live action?
And then just being like, wait, this is one that goes on almost every year.
Another one, Jacob, I, you, you sparked the fires here in my brain.
I guess it's technically Christmas film, but also a Halloween film.
It's like on the fence.
It's the nightmare before Christmas.
Well, it's got Sandy Claus in it.
I mean, you, you have to say it's a Christmas movie.
Yeah, it's in the title, Johnny.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Or what's another one that I'm trying to remember?
You can help me with Bill Murray.
It's the older movie, but Bill Murray.
I mean, how could he played Scrooge ones?
That's the one, man.
Scrooge.
So that's another good one to, or bad.
Now I'm thinking of all these other movies that aren't maybe like as family friendly,
but not bad, really, but bad Santa.
Yeah.
That Santa was another Billy Pop Thorne and bad, bad Santa is another.
Don't sleep on that on that one.
That was a pretty good one.
That Santa was a good one.
Speaking of good ones, Johnny, my last big question for us today is,
what do you think are the important components of a good Christmas movie?
What makes these movies stick out in your mind as being great Christmas movies?
Oh, you know, I think for me, I think here it is.
I'm going to go because it's hard because there's so many different categories, right?
Yeah.
But I think what goes across all of them is that they bring out some big emotion,
whether it's humor, whether it's heartfelt warm, whether it's, you know,
dealing with something like heavy and sad.
And then there's a turn of events that that brightens everybody up or, you know,
is reflective of the year and like somebody who's really grumpy or down, you know,
sees the spark and gets a little of that Christmas magic.
I think that's it, Jacob, for me, even the serious ones,
even like Christmas horror thriller as a genre,
there's always this element of like something magical that happens, right?
Not like, so I think that's it, the common ingredient other than the holiday
or like the snow or like the whole, even if it's not, you know,
it's set in a warm place.
There's always some kind of twist around the season.
But I think for me, the magic, the ingredient is the magic.
The Christmas magic is sort of woven into the story in some sense,
whether it's a comedy or it's, you know, like a drama or it's, you know,
even something as fringe as like an action Christmas movie.
Yes, they exist, you know, die hard, right?
I mean, there's all kinds of different ones that are set in the Christmas season.
They have some little element of like the Christmas magic,
like the twist that comes to it that is, you know, special about the season
that appeals to the more emotional side of all of us.
Yeah, absolutely.
That magical element is such a big part of Christmas,
whether it's for kids movies, you know, especially you lean into it for kids movies.
But even adults, it's giving you that feeling of something special about the season
and reminds you of all those good things about it.
I think the big key to a great Christmas movie, Johnny,
is when the movies acknowledge how hard Christmas can be.
You know, they show the stress around the season or trying to get all this stuff together
or, you know, you love seeing your family, but also your uncles are annoying
and, you know, you bring in all these things.
And then in the end, it's also family and coming together and stuff that gets you through all those hard times.
I think that is what really gets a great Christmas movie over the line.
You know, whether it's an elf with buddy's dad getting fed up with them
because, you know, it's hard to have your wacky elf son come from the North Pole
and the family breaks up.
But then you go out and find them and we come together.
You know, I think it gives people a sense of relief.
They're like, yes, I'm not the only one who finds this to be a really hard day to get through.
And also, you know, it gives that great lesson about coming together.
And despite how tough Christmas can be, it's still good to be with your family.
And at the end of the day, we all celebrate together.
So I think that's why Christmas movies really hit the way they do for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
Christmas can be hard.
Don't feed, you know, a grandma and after midnight.
You know, there's there's there's stressful situations you can find yourself.
You know, was that a little cute little guy gets moldy fed him after.
And don't get wet either.
That's right.
There's really only two rules.
I don't know what's wrong with that kid, but what are you going to do?
Jared, a really cool, real cool movie scary fast as a kid.
I was like, pretty terrified of what happened.
It got pretty spooky real fast.
That's one movie.
Were you ever confused with Gremlins that you thought it was a Steven Spielberg movie for a long time?
Because it always I think the box and at the beginning of the movie, it says like a Spielberg presents film.
But he didn't actually direct it.
I didn't know that kind of assumed it was always like, yeah, that's guy did Star Wars.
Let's go.
Yes.
The guy who did Star Wars was George Lucas.
Oh, even better.
Isn't that a Steven, isn't that who Steven Spielberg is?
Yes.
Steven Spielberg is George Lucas.
Oh, broken news breaking here on busted pencils.
That's the kind of education I got.
You know, classic, the classics, not not the specifics, the classics.
Very good.
You know, they, yeah, it's not called specific in session.
It's class in session.
So we just go for the classics.
Classics.
It's Friday morning.
And I promise that we have not Jacob and I have not had any of the egg nog yet for the Christmas season.
No, though, not, you know, Steven Spielberg is George Lucas.
George Lucas is not Steven Spielberg.
Those two, you know, Steven Spielberg did make Star Wars.
George Lucas did Gremlins.
We're misinformation here.
This information all over the place.
No.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Hey, everybody.
Merry Christmas information.
Johnny, what a great show.
Thank you for being here.
We produced this choice, man.
We're going right onto the buzzer.
You know, whatever it is, though, great topic because there's nothing better than just, you know, you know, getting cozy.
You know, maybe with some friends, some families, some people that were close with, you know, just watching Christmas movies.
It's part of the season, where they're funny ones are their serious ones.
It's just, it just kind of goes, you know, it's one of those things.
It's just digging.
Hopefully you enjoy your Christmas season.
Last show before Christmas, isn't it, Jacob?
This is the last producer's choice show before Christmas.
We've got some exciting holiday content coming for everybody all through these holidays with Christmas and New Year's.
Don't worry.
We're still here with you, but for producer's choice, this is our last one.
And Johnny, that means that means this will be the last 60 second question before Christmas as well.
This one I was ready for.
Let's go.
Let's go.
Johnny, you've got 60 seconds.
What's the better Christmas movie?
Gremlins or die hard?
Gremlins.
Correct.
That's an easy one.
That was my three second question.
Man, I was terrified of that movie for a lot of years.
I probably watched it way too young.
It was scary to me, you know, so good one.
Although I love the movie die hard, I always like to get into arguments with a lot of my film.
Friends who are like nerds about what?
What kind of genre or what kind of film is what and which actors and actresses won what awards?
And, you know, who wrote the film and who did the score?
They know all that stuff.
Clearly listener, you know, I don't know that stuff.
I mean, the the fumble with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
I actually did think Steven Spielberg did Star Wars.
You know, so I get the Warriors crossed.
But one thing I do love is, you know, have a good conversation around something that we watch together or that we, you know, have a common experience around.
And Jacob, thank you for bringing the holiday spirit to, you know, watching holiday movies, holiday specials, holiday TV shows.
Hopefully you listener out there get to do that and enjoy that with people that you're close with.
So have a good holiday season.
I'm enjoy the holiday content. Be safe out there and you know what?
It's coming up. Happy holidays.
And we'll see you soon.
And now it's time for your moment of Zen.
I can understand pessimism, but I don't believe in it.
It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence, not overwhelming evidence.
Just enough to give hope because for hope, we don't need certainty, only possibility.
Thank you for listening to this episode of producer's choice.
And remember to grab great podcasts packed full with more busted pencils content on Apple podcasts, Spotify.
And of course, on the civic media website.
Hey, and don't be late for home room on Monday and be sure next week to grab class and session on Wednesday.
And if you don't already know, well, then you're going to love this.
You can catch busted pencils broadcast at 3 p.m. Central time across every civic media network station on Saturdays for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars.
Tim and Johnny that keeps busted pencils.
Thanks for watching.