Best Mike Westfall Podcasts (2025)

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A Special Presentation 314: Commercial Break with Mike Westfall! 1:22:56

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17d ago1:22:56

1:22:56

Longtime friend of the pod Mike Westfall of Advent Calendar House has returned, and so have the comic strip-themed commercials! Mike, Mike, and Ethan get to wax nostalgic and share personal stories about their favorite comic strips and the products they advertised; Snoopy is certainly here, but you'll also see Popeye, Garfield, Annie, Andy Capp, an…

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A Special Presentation 316: For Gourd So Loved The World... 1:59:37

4d ago1:59:37

1:59:37

By now you've surely heard that, sadly, this is the last year Halloween will be legal in America. They can't stop us from tricking and/or treating! Join Mike and Ethan and our Halloween havoc-wreakers, Fattyatomicmutant, Rocketshark, DMXI and Glumdrop, as we gather around the TV in a candy-addled stupor to yell back at the screen. This year we've g…

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A Special Presentation 315: Wednesday w/ Steph Cherrywell 1:24:06

10d ago1:24:06

1:24:06

Steph Cherrywell, author of Unboxing Libby and The Ink Witch, joins us to talk about Wednesday, the rather Monster High-esque new Addams Family iteration. Jenna Ortega is finding her niche in a world with four different kinds of monsters and also whatever the hell the Addamses are supposed to be this time round.…

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A Special Presentation 313: Flash Gordon 1:16:00

24d ago1:16:00

1:16:00

It's Flash Gordon! Not the movie with Queen, it's a Filmation joint that's so incredibly boring that we got derailed into doing an improv session about the Monarch and Mrs. Dr. the Monarch from Venture Brothers dealing with an unexpected bout of blueberry inflation.

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A Special Presentation 312: Rock and Rule w/ Tom of Flash in the Pan [2of 2] 1:33:16

1M ago1:33:16

1:33:16

In honor of the passing of Nelvana, the little animation studio that could, we're joined by Tom of Flash in the Pan to look at their most ambitious project: Rock and Rule [1983], the rock and rule fantasmagoria about a cyberpunk furry future where legendary Superrocker Mok is on the hunt for a voice that can summon a demon for reasons of evil!…

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A Special Presentation 311: Rock and Rule w/ Tom of Flash in the Pan [1 of 2] 59:30

1M ago59:30

59:30

In honor of the passing of Nelvana, the little animation studio that could, we're joined by Tom of Flash in the Pan to look at their most ambitious project: Rock and Rule [1983], the rock and rule fantasmagoria about a cyberpunk furry future where legendary Superrocker Mok is on the hunt for a voice that can summon a demon for reasons of evil!…

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A Special Presentation 310: Snoopy Come Home 1:22:29

2M ago1:22:29

1:22:29

It's an actual Peanuts theatrical movie: Snoopy Come Home! It's both more and less than the Peanuts television specials. It's the special where we learn what the relationship between Charlie Brown and Snoopy is really about.

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A Special Presentation 309: Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown & Snoopy is Getting Married, Charlie Brown 1:10:20

2M ago1:10:20

1:10:20

We're back on our bullshit this week with TWO Peanuts specials wherein Snoopy almost leaves Charlie Brown for (the same?) girl dog.

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A Special Presentation 308: Big Johnson shirts 57:21

2M ago57:21

57:21

We intended to talk about two Peanuts specials, but we got distracted and just talked about Big Johnson shirts for an hour. It's a Big Johnathon!

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A Special Presentation 307: The Neighbors w/ Ryan Estrada 1:36:36

2M ago1:36:36

1:36:36

Friend of the pod Ryan Estrada returns to tell us about the exciting, intense, and lucrative world of Korean webcomics (or, as they call them in Korea, webtoons)... turns out that in Korea webcomicking is a profession that gets you some respect! Then we take a look at Korean thriller "The Neighbors," about a serial killer and his suspicious apartme…

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A Special Presentation 306: Fantastic Four FIRST STEPS 1:20:21

2M ago1:20:21

1:20:21

Can it actually be??? A good Fantastic Four movie? After Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four (2015), one would hardly even dare hope!

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A Special Presentation 305: Pokey the Penguin 1:13:53

3M ago1:13:53

1:13:53

The Ur-webcomic Pokey the Penguin is being adapted into animated form. And they said it couldn't be done!

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A Special Presentation 304: The Fantastic Four (2015) 1:24:26

3M ago1:24:26

1:24:26

The Fantastic Four are back and they're still not very fantastic! Boy! They suck!

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A Special Presentation 303: The Fantastic Four (2005) 1:01:59

3M ago1:01:59

1:01:59

They keep trying to make movies about the Fantastic Four and they keep SUCKING. There's nothing fantastic about this turkey, wah wah wahhhh!

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The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries: The Nutcracker Scoob 1:22:51

3M ago1:22:51

1:22:51

🎄 We wrap up Christmas in July with an old-fashioned scary ghost story. Adam Pope and Donnie Storms join the trip aboard the Mystery Machine back to 1984 for Scooby-Doo’s very first Christmas special, in which the gang tries to save an orphanage with the power of pageantry, and stop the mysterious Ghost of Christmas Never. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents:…

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The Thanksgiving Promise 1:43:12

3M ago1:43:12

1:43:12

🦃 This Thanksgiving in July, I’ve decided to treat y’all to a feast of a special I’ve had tucked away in my memory for decades, but it’s finally time to cross those Bridges. Chad Young and Tommy Coombs hop onto either side of our tractor for a hayride back to 1986 to watch a very special Disney family movie directed by Beau Bridges and featuring 3 …

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A Special Presentation 302: Dennis the Menace, Dinosaur Hunter 1:22:27

3M ago1:22:27

1:22:27

Before they made the Dennis the Menace theatrical movie, they made the Dennis the Menace made-for-TV movie, wherein Dennis discovers a dinosaur bone and shenanigans ensue.

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Taz-Mania: No Time for Christmas 48:49

3M ago48:49

48:49

🎄 Join us for a short spin back to 1993 as I spend 48 minutes blah blah blah yackety schmacketing with Sammy Hain and Joey O. about Taz’s attempt to spread Christmas cheer in a land that’s way under Down Under. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: Tasmania was once home to the world’s tallest decorated Christmas tree. John Astin (Bull Gator) in “Return of the…

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Santabear’s High Flying Adventure 1:05:43

4M ago1:05:43

1:05:43

🎄 This episode is stuffed with surprises, so get your propeller spinning and take off back to 1987 to go barnstorming — or bearnstorming — above the South Pole with Santabear. Ethan “The Hungry Reader” is our co-pilot as we nosedive into a Midwestern Christmas tradition we wish found a place to land elsewhere. You can find “Santabear’s High Flying …

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The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton 1:04:32

4M ago1:04:32

1:04:32

🎄 Now it’s time for a Muppety holiday fix, so let’s turn the clock back to 1996, to a show I’m excited to reintroduce: it’s “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.” The Advent Calendar House welcomes 2 of Muppet Wiki’s finest, Tony Whitaker and Shane Keating, to join our Jingle Day pageant. You can watch “Mrs. Zabarelli’s Holiday Baton” on the Jim Henso…

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A Special Presentation 301: The Beebee Beagle Show 1:01:17

4M ago1:01:17

1:01:17

Hanna Barbera is known for ripping stuff off, so of course they tried to rip off the Muppet Show. How did it? Ehhhhhhhhhh...

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Roseanne: Halloween IV 1:17:06

4M ago1:17:06

1:17:06

🎃 This year, Halloween in July has fallen on a Scrooge Sunday, so we’re hitting two holiday tropes with one garbage disposal. Gerry Davila and Brandon Medley join us on a journey back to 1992 to watch Roseanne endure a haunting by the Ghosts of Halloween Past, Present, and Future. At press time, the episode “Halloween IV” is available on Peacock. *…

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The Charmings: Yes, Lillian, There Is a Santa Claus 1:36:28

4M ago1:36:28

1:36:28

🎄 Hey, remember the Christmas episode of that show on ABC where Snow White and Prince Charming are transported by the Evil Queen to a land without magic and have to adjust to modern-day America? No, you don’t, because you’re thinking of “Once Upon a Time,” which didn’t have a Christmas episode, which was rude. But we’re going back an even longer ti…

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Christmas Aliens 1:02:58

4M ago1:02:58

1:02:58

🎄 Cowabunga! In nearly 40 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, 2004’s “The Christmas Aliens” is somehow their only animated Christmas episode. Anthony Strand, Shawn Robare, and Jaime Hood join the ride as we follow Michelangelo and a kitty named Klunk on a Christmas Eve car chase to save a truckload of stolen Little Orphan Alien dolls m…

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Here Comes Peter Cottontail 1:23:04

4M ago1:23:04

1:23:04

🐰 It’s Easter in July, and those two things together are the least confusing thing about today’s episode. It’s a race across the calendar with Michael May and Sammy Hain as we follow Peter Cottontail through time on his quest to reclaim the title of Chief Easter Bunny from the evil January Q. Irontail, voiced by Vincent Price, in Rankin/Bass’s firs…

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A Special Presentation 300: Saturday's the Place [2 of 2] 1:00:27

4M ago1:00:27

1:00:27

Did you know that cartooning is a waste of time and paper? Janet from Three' Company sure thinks so as a reporter assigned to interview veteran cartoonist Ted Knight in this attempt to get kids to watch Saturday morning cartoons!

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Not a Christmas Story 1:02:29

4M ago1:02:29

1:02:29

🎄 We’re snowed in a bit earlier than expected, so we’ve hunkered down to have a Christmas feast from around the world with the WJM TV family in a 1974 non-Christmas Christmas episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Joining the party is film critic and author Alonso Duralde, who recommended this episode. A newly Revised and Updated edition of Alonso…

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Futurama: A Tale of Two Santas 45:54

4M ago45:54

45:54

🌴 In Part 2 of our “Futurama” Xmas double-header, we meet the only thing worse than an evil robot Santa… two evil robot Santas. Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms return for 2001’s “A Tale of Two Santas.” **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “Box Car Blues” (1930). Santa’s Death Fortress sure looks like Elsa’s ice palace. Coolio’s fina…

1
Futurama: Xmas Story 1:04:57

4M ago1:04:57

1:04:57

🌴 The Advent Calendar House has awoken from what feels like a thousand-year slumber and a lame April Fool’s joke. As a peace offering, here’s the first of two back-to-back episodes celebrating Xmas as imagined by “Futurama.” It’s extra crowded in the cryogenic chamber as Michael DiGiovanni, Erin Evans, Joey O., and Donnie Storms drop in for 1999’s …

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A Special Presentation 299: Saturday's the Place [1 of 2] 59:33

4M ago59:33

59:33

Did you know that cartooning is a waste of time and paper? Janet from Three' Company sure thinks so as a reporter assigned to interview veteran cartoonist Ted Knight in this attempt to get kids to watch Saturday morning cartoons!

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A Special Presentation 298: Saturday Morning Supercade 1:28:46

4M ago1:28:46

1:28:46

Remember the good old days when they had to sell kids on the exciting cartoons that were going to be on Saturday morning by making a prime time special about Scott Baio opening a disco in Hazzard County, Alabama, and getting extorted by Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe Coltrane? Also the Sid and Marty Kroft puppet was there? We sure do.…

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A Special Presentation 297: Q*Bert 1:24:09

5M ago1:24:09

1:24:09

We're breaking our own rule to ostensibly talk about the Q*Bert cartoon from Saturday Morning Supercade, but actually we got distracted to talk about Hazbin Hotel and other stuff instead. Cuz Q*Bert suckkkks! The coloring book is way better.

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A Special Presentation 296: Rupert and the Frog Song 1:25:27

5M ago1:25:27

1:25:27

Paul McCartney is, as you might know, one of the Beatles. Then he did that frog song.

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A Special Presentation 295: The Huggabunch Movie w/ Mike Westfall 1:14:50

5M ago1:14:50

1:14:50

Oy Vey, Toy May! continues as Mike Westfall of ⁠Advent Calendar House⁠ joins us to talk about the Huggabunch movie, a bunch of babies who have one solution for every problem: HUGGING! It can cure death too.

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A Special Presentation 294: Dear Poochie w/ Mike Westfall 1:05:53

5M ago1:05:53

1:05:53

Oy Vey, Toy May! continues as Mike Westfall of Advent Calendar House joins us to talk about Dear Poochie, an anime about a dog who writes an advice column but also goes o globe-trotting adventures with her robot sidekick!

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A Special Presentation 293: Mad Balls 1:19:31

5M ago1:19:31

1:19:31

We continue Oy Vey, Toy May! with a look at TWO attempts to adapt Mad Balls, the classic 80s toy that combined the two great tastes that go great together (balls and grossness), to the small screen: A show about a punk rock group of Mad Balls who just wants to rock in defiance of the fascist government of the Mad Ball planet... and a show about Mad…

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A Special Presentation 292: My Pet Monster 1:24:47

6M ago1:24:47

1:24:47

It's Toy May, oy vey! And we're looking at the VHS live-action special made to promote the very heavily promoted late 80s toy My Pet Monster, whose unique selling proposition was that he came with orange breakaway handcuffs.

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A Special Presentation 291: LIVE FROM BABSCON!! -- MLP vs Transformers vs GI Joe 47:01

6M ago47:01

47:01

LIVE from BABScon 2025! We attended the final Bay Area Brony Spectacular, where we ran a panel comparing Hasbro's 1986 box office bombs -- My Little Pony the movie, GI Joe the movie, and Transformers the movie. Were they as bad as 1986 critics thought? The answer is maybe.

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A Special Presentation 290: Ghost World 1:40:05

6M ago1:40:05

1:40:05

This is the first time that we've looked at an AWARD WINNING comic adaptation... it's Ghost World, starring a young Scarlet Jo Hansen, a young Thora Birch, and a young Stephen Buschemi. Come for the Ghost World, stay for the UN-PC ranting about rude tourists!

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A Special Presentation 289: Garfield's Feline Fantasies 1:38:23

6M ago1:38:23

1:38:23

We're going back to the 80s to visit the last gasp of the classic Garfield TV specials -- Garfield's Feline Fantasies. What Garfield had an active imagination and imagined that he was James Bond and Indiana Jones at the same time? It would be kind of like this.

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A Special Presentation 288: The Freak Brothers [2 of 2] 1:26:02

7M ago1:26:02

1:26:02

We're continuing out look at adaptations of 1960s Underground comix with a look at this attempt to update Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to this modern, cell-phone-having world of 2020. The brothers are no longer furry or fabulous, they're just the Freak Brothers. Wow, I guess you can't even be fabulous or furry anymore because of …

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A Special Presentation 287: The Freak Brothers [1 of 2] 1:01:24

7M ago1:01:24

1:01:24

We're continuing out look at adaptations of 1960s Underground comix with a look at this attempt to update Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to this modern, cell-phone-having world of 2020. The brothers are no longer furry or fabulous, they're just the Freak Brothers. Wow, I guess you can't even be fabulous or furry anymore because of …

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A Special Presentation 286: The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat [2 of 2] 1:02:02

7M ago1:02:02

1:02:02

They made a sequel to Fritz the Cat and it doesn't involve either Robert Crumb or Ralph Bakshi, and, boy, you can really tell! They added more farts and racism, but somehow the old magic just isn't there!

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A Special Presentation 285: The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat [1 of 2] 1:01:43

7M ago1:01:43

1:01:43

They made a sequel to Fritz the Cat and it doesn't involve either Robert Crumb or Ralph Bakshi, and, boy, you can really tell! They added more farts and racism, but somehow the old magic just isn't there!

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A Special Presentation 284: Fritz the Cat [2 of 2] 1:07:55

8M ago1:07:55

1:07:55

Robert Crumb's Fritz the Cat is p much synonymous with underground comix and the 60s counterculture. Ralph Bakshi's interpretation is extremely Ralph Bakshi, and Crumb hated it. But Crumb hates everything cuz he's a CRUMugeon. We look at an adult cartoon that is extremely good at being a Ralph Bakshi joint. It beats Fire and Ice, that's for sure!…

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A Special Presentation 283: Fritz the Cat [1 of 2] 1:00:29

8M ago1:00:29

1:00:29

Robert Crumb's Fritz the Cat is p much synonymous with underground comix and the 60s counterculture. Ralph Bakshi's interpretation is extremely Ralph Bakshi, and Crumb hated it. But Crumb hates everything cuz he's a CRUMugeon. We look at an adult cartoon that is extremely good at being a Ralph Bakshi joint. It beats Fire and Ice, that's for sure!…

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A Special Presentation 282: The Boondocks [2 of 2] 54:57

8M ago54:57

54:57

We look at The Boondocks,the Adult Swim TV series adaptation of Aaron MacGruder's comic strip of the same name. In today's media environment, it may surprise you that a comic and TV show with such an unapologetic Black viewpoint (and so much George W Bush era satire) was able to get past all the old media gatekeepers. We discuss the comic strip tha…

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A Special Presentation 281: The Boondocks [1 of 2] 1:02:20

8M ago1:02:20

1:02:20

We look at The Boondocks,the Adult Swim TV series adaptation of Aaron MacGruder's comic strip of the same name. In today's media environment, it may surprise you that a comic and TV show with such an unapologetic Black viewpoint (and so much George W Bush era satire) was able to get past all the old media gatekeepers. We discuss the comic strip tha…

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A Special Presentation 280: Over the Hedge (2 of 2) 1:22:57

9M ago1:22:57

1:22:57

It's finally here... after 279 episodes, we're finally doing Over the Hedge, probably the biggest comic strip adaptation of all time until Garfield the Movie. It's based on the comic strip of the same name, but, since the original strip is the biggest nothingburger on the comics page, they had to give it a major glow-up... into a star-studded extra…

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A Special Presentation 279: Over the Hedge (1 of 2) 1:00:35

9M ago1:00:35

1:00:35

It's finally here... after 279 episodes, we're finally doing Over the Hedge, probably the biggest comic strip adaptation of all time until Garfield the Movie. It's based on the comic strip of the same name, but, since the original strip is the biggest nothingburger on the comics page, they had to give it a major glow-up... into a star-studded extra…