The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold

🎄 Sail back to 1981 as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni and Michael May stumble in to imbibe “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because Rankin/Bass had the rights to use the song “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Ken Jennings (the voice of Dinty Doyle, not the Jeopardy! guy) in the short-lived Epcot Center attraction, “The Astuter Computer Revue.”  Mag the Hag’s entrance reminds me of Rita Repulsa in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”  This special keeps adding new rules about how both banshees and rainbows work, like they’re Mogwai.  The Leprechauns’ “phantom island of Tralee” shares a name with an actual mainland town in Ireland, but is closer to Dursey Island, population (as of 2016): 4.  The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.  According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.  “Jack O’Lantern,” from Rankin/Bass’s Festival of Family Classics TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.  ****  📼 Commercials:  Gremlins Gizmo Plush Pet (1984)  The Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast.  ****  “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” © 1981 Rankin/Bass Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s4 #1980s #rankinbass