? Experience Rankin/Bass’s first festive follow-up to Rudolph through our eyes as we explore a 1967 TV special based on Charles Dickens’s other Christmas story.  ****  ? Guest:  Brian Earl (Christmas Past, @XmasPastPodcast).  ****  ? Topics & Tangents:  1. The history of legends about crickets on hearths bringing good luck.  2. The Cricket on the Hearth soundtrack.  3. Brian’s Christmas Past episode on Golden Age Christmas TV Cartoons.  4. Christmas TV History’s Joanna Wilson on Rankin/Bass Voice Actors.  5. This special takes a bizarre, hard left turn into a song about Fish ’n’ Chips.  6. A clearly implied, off-camera murder in the Christmas show for families, right before cutting to commercial.****  “Cricket on the Hearth” ©1967 Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.  Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.