Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: MST3K #521 - Santa Claus

 

Here is a

"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"

a little spark of madness

that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Santa Claus It's Christmas time on the SOL! After Mike and the 'bots exchange gifts, they get to watch a movie where Santa Claus has to outwit Satan in order to deliver gifts.

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Your Shop Local Saturday "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY": Mr. Hoopers Egg Cream

 

Here is your Shop Local Saturday 

"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"

a little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Telly and Gordon want a "Mr. Hooper Egg Cream."

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: The Jack Benny Program - Christmas Shopping

 

Here is a 

"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"

a little spark of madness

that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.

The Jack Benny Program: Season 8, Episode 7 Christmas Shopping Show (15 Dec. 1957)

Happy Shopping 

Tony Figueroa

Your Holiday Sor-Bay: Thanksgiving 2025

  As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!

-Arthur Carlson

Here is a Thanksgiving "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" tradition.

This is a little brain candy to snack on while dinner is cooking.

May we all be thankful for what we are about to view...  

Station manager Arthur Carlson comes up with a big idea for a unique holiday promotion involving live turkeys and a helicopter. First aired on 40 years ago on October 30th 1978 (Season 1, Episode 7) 
In 1997 TV Guide ranked this episode number 40 on its '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list. 

This Week in TV History November 25th 2020 "Thanksgiving Edition"

Happy Thanksgiving

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Hallmark Channel Christmas Promo (James Franco) - SNL

 

Here is a

"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"

a little spark of madness

that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: November 2025 PART III

  

November 25, 1920

Noel Neill is born. 

She is best known as her portrayal of Lois Lane in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), and on the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. 

The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (with both parades being four years younger than the 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia). The three-hour Macy's event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1952.

The parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 as a result of World War II, owing to the need for rubber and helium in the war effort. The parade resumed in 1945 using the route that it followed until 2008. The parade became known nationwide after being prominently featured in the 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street, which included footage of the 1946 festivities. The event was first broadcast on network television in 1948 (see below). By this point the event, and Macy's sponsorship of it, were sufficiently well-known to give rise to the colloquialism "Macy's Day Parade". Since 1984, the balloons have been made by Raven Aerostar (a division of Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Raven Industries).

November 27, 1940

Bruce Lee born. 

Lee was born while his father, a Chinese opera star, was on tour in America. The Lee family moved back to Hong Kong in 1941. Growing up, Lee was a child actor who appeared in some 20 Chinese films; he also studied dancing and trained in the Wing Chun style of gung fu (also known as kung fu). In 1959, Lee returned to America, where he eventually attended the University of Washington and opened a martial-arts school in Seattle. In 1964, he married Linda Emery, who in 1965 gave birth to Brandon Lee, the first of the couple’s two children. In 1966, the Lees relocated to Los Angeles and Bruce appeared on the television program The Green Hornet (1966-1967), playing the Hornet’s acrobatic sidekick, Kato. Lee also appeared in karate tournaments around the United States and continued to teach martial arts to private clients, including the actor Steve McQueen.

November 27, 1980

 Bosom Buddies starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari debuted. 

An offbeat sitcom about two men disguising themselves as women, the show ran for four years and first brought Hanks to national attention.

Hanks studied acting in high school and played with a Shakespeare festival for three years. He appeared in a horror flick, He Knows You're Alone, in 1980, then Splash in 1984, followed by a huge success with Big in 1988, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His career took off again with Sleepless in Seattle (1993); he is now considered one of the top box office draws alive. He won the Best Actor Oscar twice, for Philadelphia in 1993 An offbeat sitcom about two men disguising themselves as women, the show ran for four years and first brought Hanks to national attention.

Hanks studied acting in high school and played with a Shakespeare festival for three years. He appeared in a horror flick, He Knows You're Alone, in 1980, the Bosom Buddies starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari debuted. 

An offbeat sitcom about two men disguising themselves as women, the show ran for four years and first brought Hanks to national attention.

Hanks studied acting in high school and played with a Shakespeare festival for three years. He appeared in a horror flick, He Knows You're Alone, in 1980, then Splash in 1984, followed by a huge success with Big in 1988, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His career took off again with Sleepless in Seattle (1993); he is now considered one of the top box office draws alive. He won the Best Actor Oscar twice, for Philadelphia in 1993 An offbeat sitcom about two men disguising themselves as women, the show ran for four years and first brought Hanks to national attention.

Hanks studied acting in high school and played with a S n Splash in 1984, followed by a huge success with Big in 1988, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His career took off again with Sleepless in Seattle (1993); he is now considered one of the top box office draws alive. He won the Best Actor Oscar twice, for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump in 1994. Peter Scolari was born September 12, 1955 later workedon Newhart and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show.

The Hollywood Christmas Parade (formerly the Hollywood Santa Parade or Santa Claus Lane Parade) is an annual parade that takes place on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in the Hollywood community in Los Angeles, California, United States. 

The parade follows a 3.5-mile route along Hollywood Boulevard, then back along Sunset Boulevard and features various celebrities among its participants.The Parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, but reopened in 1945 with record attendance.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Not a Christmas Story

 

Here is your

"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"

a little spark of madness 

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show S05E09 Not a Christmas Story Everyone is getting on each others nerves when they are trapped in the newsroom by a snowstorm.

                                                                                                    

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: November 2025 PART III

 

November 17, 1925

Roy Harold Scherer-later known as Rock Hudson-is born in Winnetka, Illinois.

As a child, Hudson auditioned for school plays but never landed a role. Later, he worked as a navy mechanic and a truck driver, then pursued an acting career after World War II. After extensive grooming, which included acting, dancing, and fencing lessons, Hudson became a leading actor with Universal. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he frequently starred in action films and melodramas, including The Desert Hawk (1950) and The Iron Man (1951). Later, he shone in comedies like Pillow Talk (1959), the first of his three pictures with Doris Day. He later worked in television, starring in the series McMillan and Wife from 1971 to 1977 and appearing in Dynasty in 1984 and 1985. Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, at the age of 59. As one of the first major celebrities to admit to having AIDS, Hudson boosted awareness about the epidemic.

November 18, 1985

The adults on Sesame Street finally meet Mr. Snuffleupagus.

Since Mr. Snuffleupagus made his first appearance in the Season 3 premiere, the adults had thought that Mr. Snuffleupagus was just an imaginary friend of Big Bird's. Big Bird would often try to arrange for them to see Mr. Snuffleupagus, face-to-face, but Snuffy would always be gone by the time they finally chose to look at him. After years of not seeing him and many near-misses, the adults finally got to see Mr. Snuffleupagus for the first time in this episode, and finally find out that he is real.

November 20, 1955

Bo Diddley makes his national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Bo Diddley opened his appearance on Ed Sullivan with the eponymously titled song “Bo Diddley,”. This now-famous number set portions of the children’s rhyme “Mockingbird” to what is now known as “the Bo Diddley beat”—a syncopated rhythm in 4/4 time that is the foundation of such rock-and-roll classics as Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and the Stangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” among countless others. Five months before Elvis Presley would make his famous Ed Sullivandebut, Diddley’s performance gave many Americans their first exposure to rock and roll, though that term was not yet familiar to mainstream audiences. Neither was the Bo Diddley beat, yet within just a few seconds of the drum-and-maraca opening of “Bo Diddley,” the live Ed Sullivan audience can be heard spontaneously clapping along to the distinctive rhythm in the surviving kinescope recording of the performance.

As Diddley would later tell the story, Ed Sullivan had expected him to perform only a cover version of “Tennessee” Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” and was furious enough with him for opening with “Bo Diddley” that Sullivan banned him from future appearances on his show. Be that as it may, Diddley’s appearance on this day in 1955 introduced a sound that would influence generations of followers. As blues-rock artist George Thorogood—who performed and recorded many Bo Diddley covers during his own career—once told Rolling Stone: “[Chuck Berry's] ‘Maybellene’ is a country song sped up… ‘Johnny B. Goode’ is blues sped up. But you listen to ‘Bo Diddley,’ and you say, ‘What in the Jesus is that?'”

November 21

World Television Day

World Television Day celebrates the daily value of television as a symbol of communication and globalization. Television is one of the single greatest technological advances of the 20th century, serving to educate, inform, entertain and influence our decisions and opinions.  It is estimated that approximately 90% of homes around the world have televisions, however, with the introduction of internet broadcasting, the number is declining in favor of computers. 

World Television Day was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1996. It is celebrated annually on November 21.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: November 2025 PART II

  

November 11, 1980

Too Close for Comfort debuted on ABC. 

This American sitcom which ran on the ABC network from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. It was modeled after the British seriesKeep It in the Family, which premiered nine months before Too Close for Comfort debuted in the United States. Its name was changed to The Ted Knight Show when the show was retooled for what would turn out to be its final season.

Ted Knight and Nancy Dussault star as respective characters Henry and Muriel Rush, owners of a two-family house in Mill Valley, California.^[1] The two story red house, seen at the opening and closing of each episode, was shot at 171–173 Buena Vista East Avenue in San Francisco, California.

Henry is a conservative cartoonist who authors a comic strip called Cosmic Cow. During scenes in which Henry draws in his bedroom, Knight used his earlier acquired ventriloquism talents for comical conversations with a hand-puppet version of "Cosmic Cow." Muriel is a laid back freelance photographer, having been a band singer in her earlier days. They have two grown children, older daughter, brunette Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) who works for a bank and younger daughter Sara (Lydia Cornell), a blonde bombshell and a college student atSan Francisco State University.

At the start of the premiere episode, Jackie and Sara are living with their parents in a cramped, awkward arrangement. Their longtime downstairs tenant, Myron (later called Neville) Rafkin, recently died. The family discovers Rafkin was a transvestite and the many strange women Henry had been opening the door for all those years were actually Rafkin himself. Jackie and Sara convince their parents to allow them to move into the now-vacant downstairs apartment. In a running gag, Henry falls off the girls' ultra-modern chairs or couch every time he attempts to sit down. Despite the daughters' push for independence and moving into the downstairs apartment, Henry proves to be a very protective father and constantly meddles in their affairs.

 

November 12, 1990

Actress Eve Arden, best known for playing the title role in the radio and TV series Our Miss Brooks, dies at age 78. 

Arden was born in Mill Valley, California, and began acting as a teenager. By age 22, she was appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies. She made two films under her birth name-Eunice Quedens-before her first picture as Eve Arden (Oh, Doctor! in 1937). She frequently played the kind-but-sarcastic girlfriend of the lead female role. Her films included No, No, Nanette (1940), Mildred Pierce (1945), and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Her last film was Grease II (1982). She published an autobiography, The Three Phases of Eve, in 1985.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa