Sunday, November 23, 2025

Flopcast 707: Holiday Torso Mishaps

As we creep into the holidays, once again we're looking back at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades of the past. (Debbie Gibson is scheduled to perform at this year's parade, so you should all be road-tripping to Manhattan RIGHT NOW.) We start with the 2015 parade (featuring that top-hatted honey-roasted freak, Mr. Peanut), then keep jumping back ten years at a time, all the way to the premiere of the Underdog balloon in 1965. (Underdog has been watching us from above ever since, and he is most displeased.) Along the way, we'll meet some of our favorite pop culture stars (even Alice from The Brady Bunch shows up), and we'll pay our respects to the giant balloon characters that were torn apart by trees and lamp posts. (Now we know why Kermit the Frog and Pink Panther hate Thanksgiving.) So fix yourself a festive plate of popcorn, jelly beans, pretzels, and toast, and enjoy.

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Show Notes

Check out the exciting lineup of the 99th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. You can even view the stats for each balloon!

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Meanwhile, the Fandom wiki has many categories to aid in your research, such as Balloon Defects. Underdog, Kevin's personal favorite, debuted in 1965 and ran into trouble in 1978, 1980, and 1984.

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A very festive episode of The Doctor's Beard features Felicity once again, talking about more Doctors than usual with more guests than usual!