Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off
with us right here at 95 97.5 FM 1320 AM WF HR locally grown radio. Got your host, James
James J behind the mic. I am joined by Seth Habhacker. Good morning, all. We got entertainment
news and many right stories, good stories that the day all on the way for you. But we kick
things off on Thursdays at 9 o'clock hour with our pet of the week from the South of
County Maine Society, executive director over there. Madison, we're after joining us. Madison,
good morning. And morning. How are you doing? I'm good. Good. Good. Good. Good to hear.
We're doing good. Very cool. Very good to hear, Madison. We appreciate that. Always know
how we know how busy you are. So I don't need to keep you too long here, Madison. Let's get
right to our pet of the week. Our part of the week this week is Reba. And Reba, I could
not tell you what color pattern she is. I mean, if I'm going to take a best guess, she
looks like a signy's tortilla mix, but I could not tell you. Wow. A little Miss Reba is a
one-year-old female domestic short-haired cat. She came into us as a stirring. We don't
have a lot of history on her. She is stayed. Mike, you're just an up to date on vaccines.
And then personality wise, she's kind of more of a shy cat. She really just kind of keeps
to herself. And then once she's comfortable, she just to curl up in your lap and just
beat pad ends once it's nuggle. And that's, it just takes a little bit of time for her.
She's got a very unique coat, Madison. I could see how it'd be difficult to describe,
but it is beautiful. It's got a very nice cream and I think cream chocolate color to it
like you describe here on the website. You can find Reba at SWCHS.com. Her eyes, though,
Madison, those eyes. Those are beautiful. She's a gorgeous cat. I don't think I've ever
seen a color pattern like her before. Yeah. Blue-ish eyes before. But the colors I couldn't
even tell you what she is. Yeah. Yeah. Just you got to see her to find out the beautiful
cat. Very beautiful cat. And you say that her personality likes to keep to herself. So
it seems like it should be a good fit. And maybe a one person house or a quieter house
or a retirement home. Yeah, potentially. I think she could do well with a family. She
just really needs time to come out of her shell. She's been with us a couple of weeks
and she's now just starting to bluff them quite a bit. Where previously, she used to just
kind of hide under her beds and keep to herself. And now that she's had time to decompress,
she's now starting to kind of flourish a little bit. Nice. Madison, how are things going
over at the shop? How are things going right now? We're good. We're so busy. We still
have cats coming in daily. So we're definitely very full on cats. Our dog renovations are going
very well. So we're very excited for that. So hopefully that should be finished up before
the end of January. Very exciting. Drill passed the building this weekend. And I haven't gotten
a chance to in a while. And I saw it was looking at the where the dogs used to be. And just
imagining what that's going to look like. So those are going to be closed in shelters then.
Yep. And so we're in re doing the inside of our building. So the inside of our dog kennels.
So all of our kennels that we previously had are stepped. The concrete is ripped up. So
the new kennels that I'll be going in will have new floors, new kennels, new HVAC system. We
will have a dog playroom eventually. So that was something that has been a very longing project
we've needed. So we're very excited for that. It is a really exciting project. Yeah.
With that being said, though, Madison, there's some things that we got to do to kind of help you
guys out in this process. When it comes to dogs or cats are holding off on dropping them off
right now, correct? Well, we're holding off on taking in surrenders. So as a time we're
able to take surrenders, we're still able to take strings with our contract. So we do have dogs
we are holding currently, but we're very limited on kennel space. So it's kind of flipping and
slapping dogs a little bit. But with that being said, if it's something that you're looking to
surrender, we do ask that you call us so that we can add you to a wait list. We aren't able to
take them in at this time. But if it's something that you're looking for re-homing services,
we do have re-homing services we can provide you as well.
Madison, is there anything in need over there that we can help out with?
Yes, with it. So being kitten season, tracking me at the middle of December, we're still in need
of kitten food, kitten wax food, senior dry food. Pretty much any kind of cat food, cat litter,
you name it. And if people want to drop things off, if they want to help out or find out other
ways they can help out, Madison, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, they can give us a call
at 715 or 23050 size. Donations can always be dropped off during our business hours, which is
going to be Tuesday's Thursday's Fridays from 11 to 6 and Saturday's 10 to 4. Otherwise, they can
visit our website at swchs.com to view our donation list as well. Madison, did you guys name Reba?
We did name her Reba. I knew it. I knew it. She looks like a Reba, doesn't she? Nice.
Yeah, she's definitely, she looks like a Reba. I think it fits her personality.
Yeah, it really does. It really, like that's a Reba. Like, I look at that cat, even if it didn't have
the name up, but like that's Reba. That's a Reba. That's a great name. In a great cat, again,
you really have to see a picture of her to get a real great idea of what we're talking about
describing this beautiful cat. And all these other great animals over at the South of
County Main Society. Madison, we greatly appreciate everything you and your team over there do for
our community. You guys keep up the great work. We will talk next Thursday. I had to double-check
that next Thursday is not Christmas. Make Madison work with us at Christmas Eve. I'm not going to
do that to you, Madison. We appreciate you very much, Madison. Thanks so much for the time.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Take care. Again, Madison Rafter joins us every Thursday
in this 9 o'clock spot with our pet of the week. Find out about Reba and all these other great
animals over at the South of County Main Society. You can find out more at SWCHS.com, SWCHS.com.
You can also give them a call at 715-423-0505-423-0505. You can always email them as well.
They're email us SWCHS at SWCHS.com, SWCHS at SWCHS.com.
More Reba? Yeah, it's nicely done. We'll take a break. We'll come back and have some more fun
with entertainment on the Morning Show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everyone. Morning Show here at WFHR.
I know I know that voice.
Who is that? He's an older singer. Joe Williams. It is Joe Williams.
Yes. Kind of a remix version if you've seen the film Iron Man 3. Yes. Yes.
There's a scene when Tony plays that song in the movie. Well done, Mr. Bumper King.
Bumper King over here said that. Nice work. We dive into some entertainment news now,
but again, a big shout out to Madison Rafter and our friends at the South of County Main Society
appreciate them joining us for their pet in the week. Man, they got so much going on right now.
They're really, really busy time right there. I appreciate that she makes the time for us.
Yes. And everything she does in our community is she is amazing. She's amazing.
She really is. I want to talk about an amazing person right now. We lost over the weekend.
Andre Brower, maybe not a household name, but I think one of those actors that you see you
probably recognize. Yes. Maybe you remember him from the great work he did in the movie Glory,
which swear a lot of us first saw him in that one. Yeah. I know that I like many people out there
when I think of Andre Brower, I think of homicide life on the street. He was amazing in that show.
One of the grittiest shows in TV history. Right. Period. Yeah. It was it was criminally under,
I mean, washed and it was such a good show. The ensemble cast was amazing. And that these
interesting, fascinating story. I will never forget, speaking to his, him as an actor,
the storyline when his character has a stroke. Yeah. And then him acting coming back from that was
it was amazing. One of the great acting TV acting performances ever. He's one of the biggest
influences I have because of homicide life on the street because I didn't know him.
And I remember looking through the credits and being like, wow, which one is he?
Yeah, exactly. Andre Brower. Okay. I'm remembering that name. I will never forget that name.
That's how much he impacted me. Yeah. And I, I think his work on Brooklyn 9-1-1,
9-9-9, it has been great. I haven't seen that show that much, but I love Andy Sandberg. I love
him on that show. Great cast. And they've done a really good job with that show from what I've
heard from other police officers that they do a nice job on that show. Not only treating officers
with respect, but finding some humor in a very difficult thing. Right. Exactly. Now, Andre Brower's
work on homicide life on the street, nobody in, in, in, in, cop TV show history will ever be
better than getting somebody in the box than Andre Brower. Like when he had you in the box,
you are going to confess. That was going to happen. Right. Such a strong actor, such a committed
actor, almost every syllable you heard him say you believed. Right. And that may seem like, well,
that's the job of an actor. Well, you've all seen bad acting. You've all seen bad actors and
stuff. It stands out when the guy was really good at what he did. City of Angels, he was really good
in the frequency with another great role of his. Yeah. There's this, there's this TV show that he
led for a while. And I really liked it. It was canceled much too, much too soon. And I'm going to
look it up because it's, this is driving me, it's driving me crazy. What was it? Let's see.
You might have a certain age. Was it, was it TV? Was it Gideon? No, hack. Oh, wow. The crime
series hack. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He was the lead in that and he was really good. I forgot about that
show. That show was canceled. That was a good show. Yeah. Gideon's crossing another good performance
from him. Did it. That was a medical show. Yeah. And the last work that he did was a year ago,
the good fight. He was on that for about 10 episodes. Wow. But Brooklyn 9.9, I believe that he,
he hasn't been on there for a little while. It looks like so. Yeah. Yeah. He will be missed.
Yes. Very missed. Wonderful. Oh, way too young. Way too. 61. Yeah. And then he right.
This could be a that a right story, actually. Maybe not though. A stage musical based on the 1987
vampire classic, the lost boys is in the works. I'm not joking. That's, it's a real thing.
This is not a that a right story, everybody. The guys behind it include David Hornsby from
it's always sunny in Philadelphia, Patrick Wilson from like the conjuring movies and everything.
Yep. Yeah. Good actor. And the pop rock band, the rescues. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Casting hadn't been hasn't been announced yet. So maybe there, you know, we'll see what happens
with this and everything. There is expectations that it will hit in 2025. So I don't know what's
going to happen with this. But this speaks to more so the what what is happening right now in
the theater world and mostly with Broadway where they're desperate for hits. And every time they
get a hit, they don't seem to really treat it right. Whether we're talking about wicked or Hamilton
or any of the waitress or any of these big ones, they Broadway has like a lot of old money and a lot
of old people still kind of like with a lot of cloud around there. Yeah. The gatekeepers. Yeah.
And if it ain't Oklahoma, they're not really bending on it very much. I see why they doing this.
I also see that there's this like pull going on between the two organizations. Right. And I
bring all that up because it's very similar to what's going on in a lot of urban cities, a lot of
rural cities. You've got old and you know trying to trying to mend and trying to make things work.
Right. I I think it's fascinating. And and okay. So first of all, I got to quote the good book.
No, there's nothing new under the sun. Yes. Okay. So I don't I don't have a problem with them taking
these. Okay. The the last boys was a decent success when it came out 1987. But it didn't set the
world on fire. No. It became more of a cult classic afterwards with VCR and all that stuff.
I don't I guess I doesn't bother me that they might take a maybe questionable, you know,
source material to make a good music. You can do it. Little shop of horrors is a great example.
If you've ever seen the original movie, it's not very good. Okay. But they made it into a good
musical. Yeah. You can do that. I see that. But but then there's Spider-Man. Yeah. And you
can make some really terrible things too. I I you know, I love first I love the movie Little Shop
of Forest. It's not very good, but you're right. You're right about that. But I do love that move.
I do too. It's good stuff. That's a great example. Yeah. That's a perfect example of when you
can do this and make it work. Yes. And you can do it. Yeah. You also brought up the the prime
example of a not being able to work with Spider-Man. Was it in the darker or something like that or
into the darker or out of the darker. Yeah, kissing the dark hugging the I don't know what it was
some weird. But for those that don't know we're talking we're referencing the shortest lived
Broadway show ever like two nights. And one night it had to close early because of a set mouth
on technical issues. Yeah. So they actually weren't even open a full two nights of that show.
And it took like 10 years to get a lot of money. A lot of money there. You're paying you too
to do the music for that's a lot of money. Yeah. And again and this all ties into our next topic
actually because it it everything that you think might work doesn't always work whether it's on
stage or on screen. We see this all the time where we see popular TV movie actors go to Broadway or
go to the stage and some of them make it and do a really good job and some of them stay there
and some just can't make it work. Julia Roberts is one of the best actors of the
less 30 40 years. I don't think most people would fight me on that one. Even if you don't think
she's one of the best she's one of the most popular actors of the last 30 40 years certainly.
But she famously did Broadway and like one show and that was it. I think she did technically two
shows. Okay. But her performance was so bad that she did they recast her in the middle of it.
And with a no name actor nonetheless. It just it actually kind of set her career back a little
bit and everything and it's hard to imagine now but it kind of did. Yeah.
And Julia Roberts has been very honest about this. Been very honest about a lot of these things.
I admire a lot of the way that she handles herself in interviews. Have you ever wondered
where Julia Roberts various movie characters are going? Well she knows. She shared the information
on CBS Mornings the other day. Oh. I thought this was kind of interesting. Okay. So Darby Shaw
from the Pelican brief. She and Denzel Washington's character Gary Graetham are quote absolutely
absolutely together. Okay. All right. She believes it there. Now famously in that movie and this
is kind of famously known about Denzel Washington. He has in his contracts. He will not kiss women.
He is not going to do that. Denzel's maybe the greatest actor of his generation. He can pull off
anything but his wife is not allowing that. We mentioned to his wife before she's awesome.
But yeah. In more seriousness it's something that out of respect to his wife and not only his
wife but to his to his cast members partners. He's never wanted to cross that line. Which is
really interesting. Yeah. I've seen that very interesting. Yeah. But in this scenario there was
actually a scene in the Pelican brief where the characters kissed her and Denzel talked about it
before like in the pre-reading and we're like we don't think this works. But Julia Roberts for
many interviews has talked about this. Like I missed the opportunity to get since I watched it.
I love how like she's just a fan about it and stuff. Yeah. Can I do a quick sidebar here
about about that kind of thing in movies and thing. The last couple years you've seen something
or maybe you've heard something about what's called an intimacy coordinator on movie sets.
And they're basically there to make sure if there's any as simple as like you said a kissing scene.
They're there to make sure everyone's comfortable. Make sure there's no lines being crossed
to make sure that the crew and the director knows what's expected of them and all that it could go
from that to like the most intimate of scenes on there. And the fact that it's taken this long
to have something like that we've had stunt coordinators for how long since the movies have been
around to keep to what to keep them safe right. They're there to keep people safe. Well this is
so much more there's these intimate scenes that can have such a big psychological effect on actors
and everything. I'm so happy that they're starting to do that now and that they're starting to
have these people on there that that's their job on the set to make sure everything goes above board
that everyone's comfortable with what they're doing. And if something you know happens that they're
there to stop production to make sure that no one's hurt or anything like that. Our uncomfortable
ness with talking about sex and in any way when any shape or form in any layer or level of it
has been us shooting ourselves in the foot as a society for way too long. I agree. There's a lot of
things that have come from that from everything from people that have been abused feeling a shame
to come forward to many many other things that this has trickled into. Right. They probably could
use somebody like that on just about every movie Marlon Brando ever did. You know. Yeah if you
think of back about some of how they've treated these things back in the day it's like it's really bad.
That ain't art. That's not making that's exploitation. Yes. Yeah. That's a great point to make. I
appreciate you making that. Daisy from Mystic Pizza, her character Daisy. That's a throwback. That's
way back. Yeah. She's still together with Charles Adam Stroke and they have quote a bunch of cute
little kiddos. What about Maggie Carpenter from the runaway bride? The movie she did the back of the
day. She's still in a committed relationship with Ike also played by Richard gear. Julia said quote
he doesn't die in this one. Oh I love that. That's good. Change the ending. I love it. Did he die?
The original? I've never seen it. I would never saw it. I never saw it. No. No. No. And finally of course
maybe I think pretty safe to say her most famous role Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman. Yep. She's
now a business mogul after Edward played by Richard gear. Died peacefully in his sleep from a heart
attack that and she took over. I love that she's thought about this. It has already
ready answers for you. Like the interviewer just brought these things up and she just had them all
locked and she had them ready to go. Does anybody else that has ever acted before please tell me if
you've ever done this because I have have you. That's great though. Yeah. Almost every out of the 101
roles I've played. Yeah. I'd say at least 70 80 of them. I've done this with. I can't help my
future. That's good. That's cool though. Well as an actor we're taught early on even if there is
not a backstory, build a backstory for this character. It helps you make it helps make a character
that's 2D3D. Right. It helps make it more legitimate. If I believe it more the audience is going
to believe it more. That was the first lesson in acting to me. So the more I give of a depth
through this character they were born here. They broke their nose when they were 14. Like little
things like that. I believe the character more. Yeah. Just to the richness. But for some there's
no stop button. I can't just stop that. I end up thinking about what they're doing in retirement
or these other things and stuff. I get that you would do this. It makes a lot of sense to me.
I think you're right. A lot of actors do this. Yeah. I'm not saying it's not crazy. I'm not saying
it's not a form of insanity. But then again so is acting. We're playing pretend for a living.
I mean you got to be a little crazy. It just kind of shows that we as much as we enjoy TV
shows and stuff we don't have to take them that seriously. Yes. Okay. Do this. All right. You know
all the people out there that hated the way the sopranos ended. Come up with your own ending.
Yeah. Yeah. See no, no. I don't like that. I think this is what really happened. You can do that.
There's nothing wrong. You can come up with your own ending for stuff. If you don't like it go
ahead and do it. Especially endings like that where it doesn't give you a real ambiguous. Yes.
It leaves it open for interpretation. You can think whatever you want. Exactly. There's no wrong
answer for something. And that's to me. That's fun. That's cool to be able to do that. I love it.
I think it's one of the strongest ways to end things where I know a lot of people think it's lazy
or not giving a true ending. I think it's actually very creative to leave it on the audience with
you 100%. And finally an entertainment. Want to make sure that everybody goes to this great show
tonight. Let's give them a full house. A candle in the window. The most recent Wisconsin
Rapids Community Theater holiday production. It gets back into action tonight. They're going to
have a show tonight tomorrow and on Saturday. All these shows are at seven. Saturday the 11th
two o'clock matinee. Make sure to take that in. Wonderful Christmas play that is not maybe one of
those. The first ones you think of like it's a wonderful life or some of those. But boy a very
well written and going to be incredibly well acted play. Yes. Absolutely. We of course.
We're I mean we're so biased. But that's there's nothing wrong with that because we we we want
you to go and see this. Keep it alive everyone. We know you are going to have a good time.
A wonderful cast. And in fact if you can go to more than one night I encourage you to go to
wrc theater.org and see how they have two different sets of casts for this for the kids.
Yep. That's right. I'll be sure to you know check that out. Yep. Absolutely.
Check in and taking as many shows as you can and support local theater are great friends over
Wisconsin's rabbits community of theaters holiday production candle in the window. Nice. Back on
stage tonight live and direct at seven o'clock again tomorrow at seven and on Saturday at seven with
a two o'clock matinee. Get your. Obviously go check it out. Yeah get your tickets at wrc theater.org
or you can get in the day of right there at the front desk. We'll take a break and get to some
state and local news on the morning show here at WFHR.
Welcome back everyone. Morning show here at WFHR.
I take it back. This is my favorite Christmas song. We're playing all the hits today for you man.
Yeah. Yeah. This is definitely my number one. Number two. Christmas and holidays. Okay.
Yeah. This is definitely my number one. And I think it's always been my favorite Christmas song
because I remember being a little kid and watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. That's right.
Like many many many of you out there. And you know these bumpers play routinely randomly. We
don't know when they're going to come up. But they just for some reason sometimes they just line
up perfectly. I love it. And we are going into the best Christmas movies for kids now. How about
that? Just well played. Nicely done bumpers. Maybe there is AI that we're going to know about.
Tis the season for family movie nights. Entertainment Weekly put together a list of the best
Christmas movies for kids. All right. We're going to go ahead and there's 20 of these. We'll
burn through some of them. Yeah. Right. But at number 20 for us see this no man from 1969.
That's one of my all-time favorites. Love Jimmy Duranny. Has the narrator on that second
in a couple of songs. I love Jimmy Duranny. It's great. It's still holds up. It's really fun.
But Jimmy Duranny is the narrator. It's underrated. Yes. Oh, love it. Love it. That's good stuff.
Way, way low on the list. The Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993. Now that's my top three
favorite Christmas movies. But I also get that it's not necessarily considered a Christmas movie by some.
It is the Christmas. Is it Halloween? You know that's one of those things. It's like a little
confusing. When do I watch this? I also can see how it's maybe not a traditional kind of Christmas
movie for a lot of people out there too. Sean the sheep. The fight before Christmas from 2021.
I don't know that one. Sean the sheep is a more recent kid's show. It's kind of silly. It's
kind of funny. But I like that. I didn't realize they had a Christmas special on that. That's
pretty good. Prep and landing from 2009. Not sure what that is. That's another animated one.
A couple of elves. Yeah. A couple of elves. It's not too bad. Not too bad.
At 16, Miracle and 34th Street from 1947. Okay. Another classic. I would rate it a little higher myself.
But I love that movie. I love that movie. Is that like as far as Christmas classic movies,
is that the most underrated of them or one of them were under-talked about ones? Does it seem
like it's talked about as much as some of the others? But it's certainly one of those classics.
I'm telling you, you've got not only you have a young Natalie Wood,
brilliant as the little girl. You've got Marino Hara as her mom. Another really good actor. But
it's Ed was Edmund Edmund Gwynn, the man who played Santa. Perfect Santa. Yes.
The perfect Santa. Really hard to top that. Yeah. Yeah. Ed Asner was a really good Santa. He was.
But even his greatest Ed Asner is as an actor and all those things. I got to give you that one.
I got to tip my head on that one. That's a good one. He's the best Santa ever, I think.
The polar express comes in at number 15 2004. I've never watched it. It freaks me out.
You're not alone. Recently over the college football season, there were some kids that some
walk-ons that got in trouble because they were watching the polar express while a game was going on.
They came out afterwards and said, well, it just happened to be on TV in the room that they were in.
But what came out of this was a generation of kids coming out and saying that movie freaked
them out as kids and all that. They were really bothered by that movie. The animation style is
very distinct. Let's put it that way. I believe it was Robert Semeckas movie. One of the
better directors and everything. Tom Hanks. You got some great people in it. You have those
pieces and you immediately think, okay, we can rush this. You cannot rush animation. You cannot
have any form of it. We even rushed this animation, like the style of animation to movies and
everything. It wasn't ready for, we just got excited with this technology. We got to put
this up in a little crazy way. I think if they did a polar express 2023, it would look a lot
better and probably enough freak out as many kids. I would agree. Speaking of freaking kids out,
Clouse from 2019. Just laid right there. That was another one of those ones that I heard a
little bit about that book. Let's see. At number 13, the year without Santa from 1974.
I believe that would be my wife's favorite one. The year without a Santa Claus. Yes.
With the Heat Miser. The Cold Miser, of course. They're fun songs. Great voice cast,
Mickey Rooney. On there. Shirley Booth. It's a great one. That was one of the ones that I remember
the most growing up mainly because of the Heat Miser. It was a fun, interesting, weird character.
I love that one, but as far as what we were saying about the polar express, it makes more sense to
me when people are weirded out by some of that animation from the 70s and stuff. It was a similar
thing where it was this great new claymation, all this stuff that we were so excited to use. We
just rushed right with it and everything and I don't know. I think they still hold up those
specials and everything, but as a kid, they were a little weird to me. They were a little strange.
Still loved them. Still loved them. I think it's the way the characters move. That's kind of the
thing that's a little, it's a little jerky. I think people are a little, oh, that's weird.
Coming in at number 12, Emmett Otter's Jug band Christmas from 1977. Perfect. I have
think I have heard that show mentioned more in the last like three weeks in my life.
Yeah. As Seth is kind of nicely referencing there. My daughter and I, Bria, we do a podcast together
and we actually have, we have a new episode drop every Monday. This year Christmas lands on a
Monday and we thought, well, we could take it off or we could have a Christmas episode. So we did
a special episode all focused on Emmett Otter's Jug band Christmas. Awesome. Got a lot of interesting
stats and things that came out of that along with just a bunch of fun improv we did. I had not watched
that since I was a kid. I rewatched it just so that we could see this and Bria had never seen it.
Oh, wow. She knows now there's Bria's favorite animals are foxes. And in the history of the
Muppets, there's only been one Muppet fox and it was in Emmett Otter's Jug band and I want credit.
I want some points here because I did not, I did not spoil that for her. She found out real time.
Right as it happened and everything and I was, I, I, I've not had to bite my tongue like that in a
long time, but I didn't want to tell her. Be it a good father there. That's what you're doing. It's
a fun one. I think that's a fun one to watch. It is based on the gift of the magi loosely based,
I suppose, but it is a little bit based on that. I think that's fun too if you are a Muppet fan
to see. This is from 1977 and if you didn't know that watching it, you wouldn't guess that.
It's incredible how much these characters have evolved and at the same time the old techniques
still work. Still working. Yeah. Still working. Yeah. Really fun one. The Christmas chronicles comes in
at number, or I'm sorry, it would jump to the head. At number 11, home alone from 1990.
Okay. I can see that one. Yeah. It's still hard for me to see that as a Christmas movie.
I don't know why. I don't know why. Everybody in the world seems to be fine with it. I don't know why.
It's the Christmas is intricate to the plot. So without Christmas, it wouldn't work.
Right. So I can see my baby. It's a Christmas movie. I think of it to me as is just more of a like
a like a like a like a crazy like 80s movie. Like I know it came out in 1990, but that move
that script was greenlit in the 80s. It was directed by John Hughes. Right. Yes.
Like the director of the 80s, man. That's why it has that feeling. Yeah. Yeah.
Jingle Jingle, a Christmas journey from 2020 comes in at number 10. Don't know that one.
No clue. No clue. It do not know what that is. Moving on.
Number nine, the Christmas Chronicles from 2018. Okay.
Christmas Chronicles. Is that the one with the Russel of Santa?
Yes. Is that what that is? Okay. Now, it is a good Santa. Oh, yeah. I bet.
In the sequel or something like that, I guess Goldie Hawn plays Mrs. Clause.
Yes. I believe that is correct. And the only reason I've ever wanted to see those,
just to see those two work together. I love them too. And I'd like to see that at number
eight, Charlie Brown, Christmas from 1965. You know, I'm impressed it has held up so well.
It's a right of passage almost, you know, every week. It's passed down from generation to generation.
It's so cool. So many of these, when I see the name, I'm like, how is that not higher?
And then I see the names ahead of it. And I'm like, okay, I get it.
Like at number seven, a Christmas story from 1983. Yes. Yes. I'm not a big fan of that movie
personally, but I know for a lot of people, it's a special one. Yeah. Yeah. Really is.
It's not so much for me. And I don't even know if this, I think this might be the case for a lot of
people. It's not so much because the movie is great. It's not a bad movie. I love the movie.
I genuinely do. But I think it was played at a time on TV when we didn't have a lot of reruns.
When we didn't every year, at this time of year, it's a wonderful life would be on Christmas day.
And little things like that, we always knew we could count on.
Oh, the Charlie Brown Christmas is going to be on this, you know, whatever week before or whatever.
And a Christmas story was one of those movies. You just knew it was going to be on.
So you saw it. You saw even snippets of it. Or, oh, I'm going to stick around to see the scene
where he puts his tongue on the, you know, on the lamppost or whatever and stuff here.
It's one of those ones that I think it's more about the nostalgia than it is about the actual movie.
Speaking of nostalgia, the first time I ever saw a clip from that movie, get this.
Because I never watched it when I was a kid. I'm in the mall.
And I'm walking by sun coast pictures. Oh nice.
And you know, they have the screens out, you know, showing movies.
The first time I saw a clip from that was the Santa scene from a Christmas story.
Oh, I never, I didn't know anything about it. I'm like, what is this?
Yeah, yeah. It was very, wow, it was very weird.
It's one of my favorite scenes in any Christmas movie ever.
Oh, oh, and he just pushed it like the camera angle of seeing Robbie as he's going to be
perfectly done. Yeah, perfectly done.
How the Grinch stole Christmas comes in from 1966 comes in at number six.
All right, the classic with Borskarloff with the narrator and the great
Thurill Ravenscroft is the singer. Oh, that's, I love his voice.
I don't know if entertainment will ever have a better name than that.
Thurill Ravenscroft? No, never.
And I think that was his real name too.
It was his real name. Yeah, yeah, I had to look it up.
As a side note, Wolf Blitzer, I've heard so many people say,
well, Wolf Blitzer, that's his real name.
That's his real name.
His real name.
I just found that out like a little while ago and I find that so interesting.
The Santa Claus comes in at number five from 1994.
Yes, that's that's spawned an entire series now on Disney Plus.
Yeah, that's still very popular.
And it's, you know, it's really interesting to me.
Tim Allen has had a couple of roles that where he's Tim, the tool man Taylor,
you know, that kind of thing.
There's a generation that doesn't even think about that.
They think of him as Santa Claus.
It's Santa Claus. Absolutely.
It's pretty cool.
And that's pretty interesting.
I would imagine if I was him, if I was an actor,
I would feel a lot of pride in that that I have a number of roles,
not just one that people kind of always known me at.
Right, 100%.
Number four, it's a wonderful life from 1946.
Yes.
Even though Christmas only comes towards the end,
it's still a great movie.
I love it, yeah.
It's, I know this one is interesting to me,
because while it's a Christmas movie,
I think any time a year you could watch that movie and feel it's something from it
and get something from it.
I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to give credit to this movie
because I didn't have first half of my life until I actually did the play.
And doing the play and really, really like having to do a fast,
a really quick, you know, dive into this character and becoming this character and everything.
And I have such respect for Jimmy Stewart as an actor.
But I, it's a wonderful life is one of those roles of his that I didn't really put a lot of stock into as a kid.
It wasn't until as an adult seeing it and seeing the,
the depths that he went to in that role.
That you don't, you wouldn't think of it in a Christmas movie.
Right.
But because Jimmy Stewart's athespy and because he was a true actor,
he brought you to those spots where you actually do feel like a,
like all hope is lost.
That's the right points and things.
And it's, it's a really good performance by him.
Yeah, a couple of, a couple of things.
First of all, because I have done a radio version of, of a wonderful life.
And I played George Bailey.
First of all, for the first thing you had to do is get out of your system,
doing the, the Jimmy Stewart thing.
Yeah, well, Mary, it was a very interesting situation we had.
You have to get that out because it's, you know, Jimmy Stewart, you know,
say, so first do that.
Second, it's, it's such a fabulous, I remember doing it, you know,
we was just, you know, we were up and reading and doing our parts and stuff like that.
When, when we got to the end and George's, you know,
thinking, you know, thank you for giving me the second chance.
And you're doing the part.
And then out in the audience, you hear people sniffling.
Yeah.
And as an actor, you're like, oh, yeah, yep, yep.
Oh, yeah, it's nothing like it.
There's nothing like it.
Nothing like that.
One of the greatest roles I'll ever play.
Yeah, one of my favorite, that, that scene that you're talking about there.
And the scene where I've always wanted to do this.
And I finally got to in the show where I got to run into the,
audience, wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and all that.
And what would reference like people's hats and stuff like that?
Oh, that's fun.
Making eye contact with audience members,
which is the opposite of what we're talking about.
You're supposed to do, right?
Yeah.
That those two scenes two of my favorite scenes I'll ever do.
Awesome.
That's a good one.
That's a good one.
Number three, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer from 1964.
That's, that's a classic.
We have referenced it once already today.
Yeah, with the dentist elves.
And number two, Elf from 2003.
That is really climbed in the 20 years since it was released.
That one has, when I know it was a decent hit when it came out,
but who did, who did thunk that it would become like a musical
and an animated thing and all of this?
Who knew?
I mean, it's amazing.
Today, a little later today, Seth Melissa and I are going to get together to record
our Christmas episode of Directors Cut.
May have some random, weird fun facts about Elf in there for you.
That's right.
And at number one, in number one in Breahoy, it's list two,
the Muppet Christmas Carol from 1992.
That is so amazing.
This has been a long climb for it to get to number one,
but I think that's really cool.
That's amazing.
It's a classic.
It is.
It is.
It is really, really well done.
It is.
Especially for the time it came out.
So recently, I came across an article that I had to share
with Seth and Breah.
They interviewed Michael Cain recently,
and they were asking about iconic roles and favorite famous roles that he's done and everything.
And kind of out of that conversation came, he just kind of gave the information
of his favorite role he's ever played, the one that meant the most to him.
And it was, it was this.
It was a Christmas Carol.
Yeah, but he's just screwed on this one.
Yeah.
I mean, of all the roles I would have guessed,
that one wouldn't have come up, but it meant so much to him.
And you can tell if you go back and watch it.
Has he plays it serious?
Oh, 100%.
Michael Cain's one of the best actors there's ever been.
Yes.
Period.
And he approaches this like that.
He gives you that same level of skill and talent.
I think the real catch with working with muppets or animals or any of these things is
how good an actor is doesn't matter how much are they committed?
Yeah.
Are they all in?
You have to believe that you're acting with these puppets.
Otherwise, no one is going to believe you when you're acting.
Because you got to play off it just the right way.
Yep.
It took me a long time to give the credit finally to William Shatner about this.
But I think William Shatner's greatest asset as an actor,
as an entertainer is that.
That no matter what he does, he's all in.
100%.
Committed, yeah.
And the man has had hit TV shows in the last three or four decades and everything.
He's got to quite the career.
But nobody looks at me as a thespy.
And nobody looks at him as some one of the world's greatest actors or anything.
But his commitment is top notch, which makes you believe it more.
Exactly.
Which makes you all more in, all the more in.
We'll come back with some good stories,
that I write stories, and plenty more for you on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back to the morning show, everyone.
I said to baby, just slip a sable under the tree for me.
Bid it off for good boy, I said to baby,
so hurry down the chimney tonight.
Seth and James here with you,
playing in a little Christmas music for you right there.
Uh, who's that?
I was going to say you should let it play up a little bit because.
Oh.
Oh, yeah, it really picks up.
It really picks up.
That's that's a punk band by the name of me first in the gimme gimme's.
They do nothing but covers of songs you wouldn't expect a punk band to cover.
They're great.
They are great.
It's a good name for us.
Yeah, let's take a call from a listener real quick.
What's on your mind?
Well, I got to talk to you guys about your list.
Just went over the Christmas list.
Well, real quick, it wasn't our list.
It wasn't our list.
Just so you know, it wasn't our list.
The list you found.
Yes, but I guarantee it that my kids are not going to like,
me on Christmas day because I will be twin it into your podcast because I am
by huge fan.
I'm an our drug band Christmas man.
I'm ever watching as a kid.
You remember those laser discs?
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
It was on the laser disk and my dad had one of those.
Oh, man, you know, and it was just, you know, and then there's one
Chris actually rented.
I was thinking, at least red box, I think it was.
Or so, and we rented out our drug band Christmas and my kids hated me.
Oh, that's awesome.
That is awesome.
And they're like, really?
This was a classic.
If you ever watched them up, that was one of the classics you had to watch.
It really was.
It really was.
They did so many like things in that that they had never done before that were revolutionary
at the time and they continued to do this day with puppeteering and everything.
From that special and it's just fun.
It's just a fun great music and it's fun.
It's fun.
It is.
Thanks for the call, man.
We appreciate you.
The one thing I am having to play kind of is the name of the band, the riverbatter bottom.
Yeah, the riverbatter jug band.
Or you mean the monster band?
Yeah, the monster band.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can never remember the name of it either.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm going to find that though.
I'm going to find that before we wrap up the show.
I'll find it.
You have a good day, sir.
All right.
Do you guys have a great day?
Thank you, man.
The best list citizen radio right now.
Call up anytime 424-2600.
We'd love to hear from you.
I want to touch on this story real quick.
Shane McGoen, McAuen of the Celtic punk band, The Pogies,
passed away last month and was laid to rest last Friday at a church in Dublin.
Mortars included Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, Bob Gelloff,
and the president of Ireland was even there.
That's a beautiful moment.
After the funeral, there was a small invite-only celebration at a pub
called the Thatchet Cottage.
There's no word on who was there.
Presumably a lot of the people we just mentioned.
But one thing we do know, they didn't have to pay for the drinks.
Really?
Shane took care of that.
Before his death, he set aside.
First he did.
$12,500 for a tab.
And a friend of his said, quote, it was Shane's last request.
I'm not surprised.
If you know anything about The Pogies,
and the band that fused punk with Irish music,
basically is what they were.
Shane McGoen is a very, very talented songwriter.
In fact, there's a Christmas song that a lot of people play this time of year
that The Pogies did.
And it's a beautiful tune.
Shane liked his drink.
Yeah.
He really liked his booze.
Yeah.
So I'm not surprised in the least.
It's kind of a cool story.
Yeah, it is though.
I usually feature that eight-rate stories here.
So that's where I wanted to do it here.
Because I guess there might be some people out there that might think that about it.
To me, that's just a cool story.
It is.
You know, it's hard to lose people.
And to do something like that is pretty cool.
Yeah, he was a very talented songwriter.
So yeah, it's a rest in peace, Shane.
River Bottom Nightmare Band.
River Bottom Nightmare Band.
That's what it was.
That's our palette cleanser.
Seth, you had an honorable mention to the Christmas movie.
Oh, yeah, and I'm not surprised.
It wasn't on the list.
It's my favorite version of a Christmas Carol.
It was like 1984 or a TV movie.
I think it started George C. Scott.
My favorite Scrooge, by the way.
No, I'm speaking of playing it.
Playing it serious, man.
He really did.
But I think one of the reasons why that's not so popular.
So parts of it that are like actually scary.
Yeah.
The ghosts are actually a little bit terrifying in that.
So I can see why not as many people are.
All right, into that one.
Get to some local good stories of the day.
And we've got a bunch of stuff going on for you.
First off, I want to say a big shout out.
Thank you to Tom Heiser.
Tom joins us in the beginning of every month
with our monthly veterans updates
and got us a really nice Christmas card.
Oh, thank you, Tom.
I really like that card.
That's a nice card, Tom.
Nice pick.
We also got a great midday magazine lined up for you today.
And part one, we're going to talk to our friends
at the South of County YMCA.
Nice.
Catch up with them.
And in part two, Anna James Natural Resource Educator
with UW-Madison Extension.
I'm going to be with us.
Very cool.
I always learned something talking to Anna.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
Also wanted to remind everybody
that that mischievous merchant, Merlin Elf
is still out there.
We got a tip for you.
A little hint for you tomorrow
to be able to find this guy.
Find him.
Take a picture.
We'll post it to Facebook.
Yeah.
Keep that in mind.
And also keep in mind tonight
that we've got a really fun thing going on
to their sister station.
Y-1055, W-I-R-I-1055, Jingle.
Jingle us up.
Call us up.
Four to six today.
And put in those your little ones.
They want to get those last minute wishes in to Santa.
Let's do that.
You can do it.
And you can do this thanks to our great friends
at Current Technology, Solaris Quality Foods.
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
We want you to have some fun with this.
Call up.
Our Ls will answer your calls from four to six today
at 844-568-0636.
That's 844-568-0636.
Call up and get those last minute wishes in and everybody.
Yeah.
I appreciate you doing that.
Yeah, right.
And one of the also touch on, of course,
this week I'm going to line up Seth.
I know we have a very fun Seth Faces of Music
and Directors Cut lined up for people.
We're going to be actually recording the episode.
Christmas episode of Directors Cut
with Melissa a little later today.
You have anything lined up for Seth Faces of Music?
I do.
Last week, if you were listening, I did songs with a little.
So I got to do the opposite.
Big.
We're going big.
Going big.
Going big this week on Seth Faces of the Music.
So tune in from six to eight and check it out.
And from eight and stick around,
because from eight to nine,
we'll be doing our Christmas episode of Directors Cut.
That's right.
Got a couple of hours of great local content
for you every Sunday.
Be sure to check that out.
Indeed.
Saxophone Santa is in the news.
He's been playing holiday events in New England
for 39 years.
Wow.
A reporter caught up with him at a tree farm
in Connecticut the other day.
And he said Jingle Bells is still his most requested song.
It is the quintessential song.
I got to say Jingle Bells is the one.
I thought that was a pretty cool.
That's pretty cool that that's happening.
Seth, I want to remind everybody too
that we have the Winter Farmers Market this week.
We do.
It's the last one for the year,
as a matter of fact, everyone,
because of the holidays coming up.
This Saturday the 16th.
It'll be open from nine to one at the Moravian Church.
310, first Avenue South.
Go get your last opportunity.
Get some cool Christmas gifts.
Also have some food there.
And some other great vendors.
Go check out their Facebook page.
Type in Wisconsin Rapids.
Winter Farmers Market.
Find out who will be there.
The vendors that will be there this weekend.
Big shout out to all of our guests
that joined us today.
All you callers.
And it's certainly a shout out to Madison Raffer
from the South of County Main Society
with our pet of the week.
Find out about Reba.
This beautiful looking cat
and plenty of more great animals at SWCHS.com.
SWCHS.com.
I encourage you to do that.
Tomorrow, Terry John's going to be hanging out with us.
We're ready for the weekend.
A lot of good things lined up there.
Otherwise, be good to each other.
You know, Seth, my voice is going.
Would you mind taking care of the idea?
Let's get ready.
And WFHR, Wisconsin Rapids.
1320 AM and W248DE.
Broadcasting at 97.5 FM.
