Olive, the Other Reindeer

<p>As we inch closer to Christmas Eve, strap on your cardboard wings and buckle up as we take a 2-dimensional flight back to 1999 to revisit the Matt Groening-produced TV special, “Olive, the Other Reindeer,” starring the voices of Drew Barrymore, Joe Pantoliano, Dan Castellaneta, and Ed Asner as Santa four years before “Elf.”</p><hr /><h4>On This Episode:</h4><ol><li><strong>Mike Westfall</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/fallwestmike">@fallwestmike</a>), unemployed penguin ready to make you a deal on an extremely valuable watch.</li><li><strong>Erin Evans</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/mserinmevans">@mserinmevans</a>), my hard-of-hearing pet flea who’s only here to mistakenly tell you your family doesn’t want you here.</li><li><strong>Joey O.</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ImGonnaDJ24">@ImGonnaDJ24</a>), an injured reindeer’s flightless cousin who’s very excited to be introduced as this, from <a href="http://ynotradio.net">Y-Not Radio</a> and <a href="http://www.ynotradio.net/nerds">Words With Nerds</a>.</li></ol><hr /><h4>Topics and Tangents:</h4><ol><li>This special premiered exactly 10 years to the minute after the first episode of “The Simpsons.”</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq_edajqmXM">The Making of “Olive, the Other Reindeer”</a> takes you behind the scenes to watch the computer animation slowly render on what appears to be a Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 98.</li><li>We compare the animation style to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2UDyLcl3CU">PaRappa the Rapper</a>.</li><li>“<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Lunch-Takes-Plane-Ride/dp/0670847755">Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride</a>,” the first book by “Olive” creators Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold, was the first children’s picture book created with digital media.</li><li>“<a href="https://goonies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Goonies_II">The Goonies II</a>,” a video-game-only sequel for the Nintendo Entertainment System in which the Fratellis kidnap a mermaid.</li><li>Jay Mohr in “<a href="https://www.youtube.c