Culture on My Mind
Classic Christmas in Pac-Land
December 23, 2022

This week, I’m thinking about the holidays.

On December 16, 1982, the ABC television network in the United States aired an animated special that was a spin-off from the Pac-Man animated series. That series was conceived from the famous video game and was produced by Hanna-Barbera for Saturday morning cartoon blocks. This series was the first cartoon based on a video game and followed the ’80s trend of making holiday specials based on popular cartoons.

The series is a classic, and therefore is prime real estate for the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track. So, on December 19th, Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel were joined by ToniAnn Marini (@Jersey_Devil86 on Twitter), Chris Cummins (@scifiexplosion on Twitch and Twitter), Kevin Cafferty (Gleaming the Tube), and Kevin Eldridge (The FlopCast) for a dramatic reading of this holiday adventure.

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These Classic Track Quarantine Panels are typically held once every two weeks (or every fortnight, if you will). If you want to play along at home, grab your internet-capable device of choice and navigate the world wide webs to the track’s YouTube channel and/or the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.

Gary can also be found on A Podcask of Amontillado, a horror-themed podcast that he co-hosts with Erin McGourn.

If you want to connect with the track, Joe, and/or Gary on the socials, you can find them on Twitter (ClassicTrack, JoeCroweShow, and sneezythesquid) and Instagram (SciFiClassicTrack, JoeCroweShow, and Gary_Mitchel). And, of course, to celebrate more pop culture awesomeness, you can find Dragon Con all year round on the internet, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You can find those discussions and more every other Thursday as the American Sci-Fi Classics Track explores the vast reaches of classic American science fiction.

The episode art each week is generously provided by the talented Sue Kisenwether. You can find her (among other places) on Women at Warp: A Star Trek Podcast.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.