Santa, Baby!

<p>🎄It’s 2001, and a magical partridge is sending me on a coat drive for some kind of Karate Kid-style Santa training.  </p><p>Hop in our light blue ’54 convertible and buckle up as we take you on a joyride through the very last and most forgotten Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a mostly black cast starring Patti LaBelle, Gregory Hines, and a criminally underused Eartha Kitt as a talking cat.  </p><p>****  </p><h2>🎙 Guests:  </h2><p>Andre Bennett (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/206911463966508">Cult Cinema Cloister</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PCRPSOfficial/">Philadelphia Championship Rock Paper Scissors</a>).  </p><p>Tim Babb (<a href="https://cantwaitforchristmaspod.com/">Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast</a>).  </p><p>****  </p><h2>💬 Topics & Tangents:  </h2><p>1. This special was co-written by <a href="https://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com">Suzanne Collins</a>, who went on to write “The Hunger Games.”  </p><p>2. The other co-writer, Peter Bakalian, also has a book series. It’s called “<a href="https://peterbakalian.com/product/fart-top-secret-no-kids-allowed-the-fart-diaries">The F.A.R.T. Diaries</a>.”  </p><p>3. Patti LaBelle in Philadelphia’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Gv4_Ws_2o">Get to Know Us</a>” tourism campaign, 1985.  </p><p>4. Patti LaBelle on “Sesame Street” singing “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_udnGyuVvD4">How I Miss My X</a>.”  </p><p>5. IMDb’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358103/mediaindex/">photo gallery for “Santa, Baby!”</a> is full of high-quality promotional images.  </p><p>6. RankinBass.com’s <a href="http://www.rankinbass.com/news1201.htm">first look at “Santa, Baby!”</a> from December 2001.  </p><p>7. Gregory Hines in “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nike5eLfy8&t=25s">The Muppets Take Manhattan</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjKoaNcefSU">Running Scared</a>.”  </p><p>8. Rankin/Bass finally includes “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” in a Christmas special.  </p><p>8. Natalie Toro