2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the Captain Kangaroo TV series. This long-running program was broadcast on CBS for the next three decades. Thanksgiving was always a special time at the Treasure House and the Captain's Place, so here's a YouTube Short I produced for my YouTube channel. Please click here to see the video. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!
To recreate Norman Rockwell's famed (and often parodied) painting, "Freedom From Want," the Muppets team up for a Thanksgiving feast.
Celebrating Thanksgiving week with this publicity photo of images from the Rankin-Bass TV special, The Mouse on the Mayflower. This Rankin-Bass special debuted on NBC on November 23, 1968, Thanksgiving Day that year. Read my analysis about this unusual Thanksgiving animated treat (including a very Baloo-like, in terms of design at least, bear) here.
October 31st is here, and our 2025 Countdown is over. Once again this year, I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted to with my countdown, as logistics and circumstances (such as work) interfered. So to all my followers and visitors this year, I hope you were able to enjoy what was here. To say Happy Halloween, here is a Sixty Years with Mickey-themed trick-or-treat bag. A tie-in with Mars Inc. to promote their line of confections (M & Ms, Snickers, Milky Way, etc.), these plastic bags were given away free in supermarkets. Happy Halloween to all!
Check out my latest YouTube Short starring Spider-Man and some not so Marvel-ous monsters from classic Marvel comics. The short was created especially for Halloween. And while you’re at my YouTube channel, head to my Halloween Playlist for other end-of-October fun. It’s all at Tulgey Wood TV.
That comic-book/comic strip Archie superstar is a Countdown to Halloween perennial...but that redhead from Riverdale is nowhere near to be found in this monstrously captivating cover (attributed to Samm Schwartz) for Laugh no. 130 1962, all the better to include that classic monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
There are good Gremlins and bad Gremlins, but the problem is that the good leads to the bad (but only when fed after midnight). Released in 1984, Gremlins was heavily merchandised (a lunch box, trading cards, publications, Golden Books), including this glorious Colorforms Adventure Set. Featured are lovable Gizmo, evil Stripe, and even Gizmo’s human friend Billy (Zach Galligan). Enjoy the ghastly Sticks Like Magic setup as we Countdown to Halloween.
Jack Pumpkinhead from L. Frank Baum’s Oz books is a most suitable character for the spooky season. He is, after all, a living jack o’lantern. Here’s Jack front and center on the poster for the cult-classic Disney film Return to Oz (1985), celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This artful poster also serves as a tribute to acclaimed artist Drew Struzan, who died today, October 13, 2025. This celebrated illustrator created iconic posters for everything from Star Wars to The Muppet Movie. Can you find Drew Struzan’s famous “drew” signature within the poster’s art?
For Countdown to Halloween 2025: One of the least well-known but most delightful cartoon witches, Granny Goodwitch was created as a foil for Post Cereal spokes-bear Sugar Bear in his animated commercials for Sugar Crisp. When the Linus the Lion Hearted TV series—with a cast of Post's animated cereal mascots—debuted on CBS in 1964, Sugar Bear was naturally included, but so was Granny (wonderfully voiced by the great Ruth Buzzi), as seen here on the cover of the Linus tie-in LP record. Episodes of Linus the Lion Hearted are now seen each week on Sunday night on the indispensable Me TV Toons channel. Word has it that a DVD of the masterfully remastered and restored Linus episodes will be released in the not-so-distant future. (Dare we hope that at least some of the Post cereal commercials will be included?) Of all the Post mascots that star in the show, only Sugar Bear is still active, as seen on every box of Golden Crisp (known as Sugar Crisp)—but unfortunately without Granny Goodwitch.
