Pete emerges from deathbed... It's a Wonderful Life!! (12-29-2025--Hour1)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio and Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to Thepete calendarshow dot com make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support Pete Calendar here, and thanks a lot for hanging out. I appreciate it. Thank you also to Tony Marino and Chris Crock for filling in last week. I hope you had a great Christmas. All I got for Christmas was sick. That's not true. I actually did get some presents too, but I got sick taken down by some quasiflu. I'm not really sure what it was. You could still hear it if you'd like. I can cough, not into the mic because that would be gross, but like towards the producers, I can do that. So you just to you know, to confirm that I still love a bunch of the crud hanging out in the Chestel area a bit of a stuff he knows. But I'm okay, I am okay. I have noticed a pattern, though, like when I am on vacation, I get sick, or maybe I schedule my sicknesses, or maybe the solution is I just don't take any more vacation time ever again, and this way I won't be sick ever again. The logic is undeniable. Now I was able to monitor news from my Nike will induced semi comatost bed. I was able to do that, you know, because you're never really off on vacation because if you, you know, the longer you're out from this job, it's much like a hamster wheel or a treadmill that once you get off, it's very difficult to jump back on because it's still moving, you know. I learned this after I was out when well, my first stint at WBT, when I was a host was let go in twenty eleven, and it was about six months I take it back, about nine months before I ended up back in radio up in Ashville. And in the meantime, I had gone to work for a TV station where I was covering local beat stories. Right, so I realized being sort of out of the news cycle off the treadmill for nine months. I spent so much time trying to catch back up to what I was not able to keep up with in real time, because it's easier to just follow the headlines, keep up with stuff as it's happening, then to unplug for a while and then come back. And I like to this day there are there are If there's a story that I'm not aware of, or there's some reporting and I'm like, I don't remember this, chances are it happened during that nine month window. So that's why even when I'm sick, even when I'm on vacation or a sick cation, as I now apparently tend today, I still make an effort to follow the news. And so one of the things that I noticed from my deathbed was a Twitter account called Jimmy Stewart Fans. Not a race car driver. Jimmy Stewart was an actor and he was in the famous Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, if not the best movie of all time, it is my favorite movie. I've said that for twenty years. It's my favorite movie. I watch it every single Christmas. I get something new out of it every time I watch it. And Jimmy Stewart fans twitter account said, did literally everybody watch It's a Wonderful Life this year? I don't think I've ever seen so many tweets about it, But I'm not complaining, and I have to admit I did see an unusual amount of tweets from people who said that they had never seen the movie but had watched it this year. There's a professor of philosophies and he's a Catholic. His name is Edward Fesser, and he said his guest would be that the people that are watching it now may be particularly wistful for the basic decency, community, spirit, and simplicity of life that the movie represents. Yes, it's a movie and life was never exactly like that, but what we once idealized tells us much about what we once were. Right, the thing like, that's what the thing that we are drawn to, you know, it's the old gaze upon something too long and you'll become like it, you know, that kind of a deal. And the thing that people aspired to be like versus, say, what's the modern incarnation in the exact inverse would be what bad Santa? Something like that. I've never seen the movie. I have no desire to see the movie. I did see one movie this week that I was pleasantly surprised at, which was Red One with The Rock Dwayne the Rock Johnson. It was entertaining. I mean it was entertaining. And Christy and I we have a series of Christmas movies that we own on DVD because she can never trust the streamers. At some point, you know, they may pull the plug on one of Oh, which reminds me. Did you hear about the controversy about It's a Wonderful Life on Amazon Prime? Do you hear this? Amazon Prime video came under fire for streaming a version of Its Wonderful Life that omits about twenty two minutes. Okay, so they edited out twenty two minutes. Well, okay, Amazon Prime did not edit it out. If you had to guess which twenty two minutes would have been edited out, which do you think it would have been? Well, if you guessed it's the entire portion of the alternate life where George never existed, you would be correct. That was the part that got edited out, which makes the movie completely worthless, right because without that sequence you see George Bailey punched in the face standing over a bridge asking God to show him the way, and then he's gonna jump off the bridge. But then Clarance, the Guardian Angel, jumps off the spoiler alert by the way here jumps off the bridge in order to save George, and which he does. But that's all gone now, so they chop that out, and the next thing you have George celebrating, joyful to be alive and running back home. The whole part called the Pottersville part. All of that that has gone, Hey, what's the point of the movie then, So people obviously became outraged, which I would be too if I had known this was occurring at the time. I found out afterwards, I mean, after my sickness and the fever broken. All the missing sequence is largely regarded to be the emotional core of the movie right now. The existence of this abridged version is actually rooted in a creative choice not made by Amazon, but in the film's famously tangled copyright history. Plus you. For nearly two decades, television stations freely aired the film because in nineteen seventy four, the distributor failed to renew the movie's copyright, which means that it's now in the public domain and now people can air it without paying royalties. Okay, but that changed in the nineties. While the film itself had fallen into the public domain, the rights to two underlying elements had been properly maintained, so they kept their paperwork up to date for two underlying references. One was a short story called The Greatest Gift by Philip van doren Stern and the musical score by Dimitri Timokin. Republic Pictures was later acquired by Paramount. They used those copyrights to effectively reclaim control over the movie's distribution, saying any exhibition of the film required licensing the copyrighted story and the music, and so the workaround for these TV stations that wanted to air the movie without paying the rights was to chop out the entire Pottersville portion. That's how Amazon Prime came to air this version, which is shorter, but they also did they were quick to point out, like, we offer the longer version two. But the problem was people didn't know which version they were fixing to watch until they get to the bridge scene. 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That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. By the way, the phone number seven O four five seven zero one oh seven nine that is also the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick gmc oh that sounds a lot better with the chest congestion, GMC. Can we record that and isolate that? No, just kidding. On the text line, Mary says, so glad you are back, Pete, but things were broken while you were gone. It wasn't me, that's I have Yes, I have heard. I have heard of a great many things that got broken while I wasn't here. Chris, welcome back. You've really been missed. Thank you, Chris, and Concord. Billy says, I found out this year that asbestos was used as snow in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. I did not know that. That's man. I bet that any survivors probably got paid big time with the mesothelioma lawsuits. Right where the asbestos fell like rain or in this case, snow, The snow is weird. I did notice that this year. I don't know why. I've never noticed it before, but the snow was weird. First off. Okay, when I watch movies, I always go into it with the understanding that these are professional liars, right, I mean, that's what actors are. They're professional liars. They get paid more if they are better liars. Okay, not all cases, but some people get paid a lot of money and they're not good liars, but it is difficult for me to suspend disbelief. I just I go into all movies like that. So one of the things that I always notice in movies is the snow. And I got a beef when people walk around in snow and they handle the snow with bare hands and they act like, you know, it's not freezing water, right, like it's not ice, when it is, like, it's snow that's really cold. I grew up in the Northeast, there was snow. Trust me, it's cold. You don't last very long out in the snow if you're getting all covered in it, because then it melts on you and now you're cold and wet, and that's how you'll catch your death. That's how you get the flu. And I wasn't even anywhere near any snow and I got it this year. So anyway, the snow I noticed this year was weird because it doesn't melt on them, and it was like puffy and it would just kind of move all around, and I was just kind of wondering, I wonder what that is. So thank you, Concord Billy. I did not know it was asbestos can you still use that for like a snow machine on your front yard. It's outside. But Jordan says, I started listening to you, Pete because of when the levy breaks as your theme song. But I think as a native North Carolinian, it's cultural appropriation for you to play wagon Wheel. Well, you know you know who wrote wagon Wheel twas Bob Dylan, and then an extra verse added by the Old Crow Medicine Show. So I'd say there's probably equal claim North versus South there Bob Dylan being from Minnesota a as he was. Richie asks if I was actually I was gone last week. Yes, in more ways than one, just completely out of it. Dave says, this year I watched Fat Man. I had never heard of it until this year. If you don't mind dark comedies about Christmas, I recommend it. I've never heard of it. Is that about Santa. We also last year began a new tradition of rewatching gremlins, so we watch that again this year, which one of the cops, not the chief of the police, of the two man police department, that were both drunk while the gremlins savaged the city. The younger guy, the younger cop, you know who that was Mike from Breaking Bed and better call Saul the bald headed guy. That's who that was. And by the way, both of them should be fired, complete and utter drunken cowards. While they're watching these gremlins murder people in the streets, they drive away, they flee cowards. That's another takeaway I got out of that movie. Also, I'm curious how how the old man from the guy that sold the gremlin or had the gremlin stolen from him by his grandson. I'm curiou how he tracked down the gremlin at the house at the end of the movie spoiler alert. Let me go over here and talk with Alex. Sure, Alex, how are you Merry Christmas? Hey, Merry Christmas for your two Pete. Yeah, I just want to say, I don't even watch the all the modern crap on TV nowadays, the current stuff. I like watching reruns of The Andy Griffiths Show and The Waltons and guns Smoke. That's what I grew up watching, and that's just it's almost like comfort food to me. No, yeah, that's that's fair. I get that. I will say, like, like I tried going back and watching some of the shows that were the pop culture shows when I was a kid, and they just they were not good. Like Miami Vice. I started watching some of those on some rerun channel and they were just awful, just awful. But I loved every when it was on. I love Miami Vice. Quantum Leap was still good. I did like Quantum Leap. That was good. You ever watched Quantum Leap basionally back then? Yeah? I think and Andy Griffiths show, Will you know That'll be funny one hundred years from now? Well, to each their own. I think it's Andy Griffin. Yeah, is it the Andy Griffin Show? Griffith? No, I think it's Griffin. I'm pretty sure. Hello is Griffith like d W. Griffith the film director? No, I mean like there were two guys that did the afternoons here at WBT for years and uh and they they did deep dives on Andy Griffin episodes and yeah, they were very out of it because they had that same fight, Alex. I appreciate the call. I'm pretty sure that's what inspires the Krantz taught me because, like I grew up, I did not watch Andy Griffin. That was kind of before my time. So one of the things about It's a Wonderful Life that I learned this year. Do you know? The FBI thought that it was communist classic FBI, right, but you gotta remember the time too, here right, this is nineteen forty six, okay, And according to history dot com, FBI informants viewed It's a Wonderful Life as potentially subversive. Why well, they argued that the character of mister Potter, who, by the way, do you know who mister Potter was? You know who he was in real life? Lionel Barrymore, father of Drew Barrymore. So anyway, they argued that mister Potter, who was described by George Bailey as an old money grubbing buzzard, that he was unfairly villainized or that no, sorry, he as this character unfairly villainized bankers and the upper class. So, according to the FBI, the picture deliberately maligned the upper class as mean and despicable. The film represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a scrooge type so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. Well, I think, I mean it's kind of stupid because the very fact that you describe him as Scrooge type sort of gives away the stupidity here, right, it's it's tapping into the Scrooge character from why am I drawing a blank now on the Christmas carrot? Yeah, Christmas Carol. Right, this is the Ebene's a Scrooge visited by the three ghosts Christmas, Present, past, and future. So that was that's how I always took his character, and that you have to have the you know, man versus man dynamic in the in the screenplay, you got the versus himself and you have the man versus man. All right, Holiday football has arrived right With Draft Kings sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL, the Unexpected can turn game day into payday. And don't forget Draft Kings as you're back with early exit. Pretty neat function here. If your player goes down in the first half, you still get paid in cash. Download the Draft Kings sports book app and use the code PETE. That's code pete. 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Well, I mean doesn't everybody? Scott says the snow was not asbestos in It's a Wonderful Life. It was a safer mix of fomite, soap flakes, sugar and water. Asbestos was used pre nineteen forty in movies like The Wizard of Oz. Interesting Ritchie is claiming that it's Indy Griffith with a th that's not correct, Dawn says Griffith with a no, that can't be correct. Somebody sent to Wikipedia link. I don't click links, so I'm not going to look at that. Uh. Somebody has another link here. I'm not going to look at that. H Lionel Barrymore was Drew Barrymore's great uncle, not her father, says Stan, Thank you, Stan. Okay, so still related great uncle or maybe not so great of an uncle. I don't know, but they're related. So the the FBI informants, who uh who attacked It's a Wonderful Life through their uh their you know, reporting to the was It House on American Affairs Committee, the h u a C or the HUAC as I call it, which, by the way, the hu AC ultimately did not take any action against the movie It's a Wonderful Life, but the bureau targeted the film's screenwriters, husband and wife team Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett, saying they quote practically lived with known communists and were observed eating lunch daily with two communist screenwriters. The bureau failed to mention that Dalton Trumbo, who penned an earlier version of the script, and several uncredited script contributors, including Albert Maltz, Michael Wilson, and Clifford Odetts, were current or former Communist Party members, which is I'm just as shocked as you are to find Communists in Hollywood. The Committee's nineteen forty seven hearings led to the blacklisting of the so called Hollywood Ten, and two of the ten were Trumboe and Maltz, two of the people that worked on this film. I would simply point out here for like, I understand you got commies writing scripts, and sure be aware of it. You know, want to always be on guard for the I mean, look at the rewrite of Animal Farm. Have you heard about this. They're redoing Animal Farm in like a cartoon version, and they're making capitalism the enemy, which is literally the exact opposite of what Animal Farm was about. Right, So you should always be on guard for you know, this kind of subliminal, underhanded, ulterior kinds of injecting of these types of philosophies and ideas. To be sure, but I would simply point out that when watching the movie as a free market kind of guy, see the difference is that the government did not force George Bailey to make any of the sacrifices that he made throughout his life. Gov Go didn't do that to him. He did so on his own. Now, he didn't like it, He fought against it. He didn't want to do these things, but he did them out of a sense of loyalty to his family, out of a sense of kindness, right versus wrong. Dare I say there is more of a religious reason for why he's doing these things, an ethical code that he is following. He's not being forced to give up his dreams of travel and building big bridges and all of this stuff because the government says, no, you got to go work for the old building and loan. And he and his family marry and the kids. Right, what do they do in the times of trouble is they turned to God. There was a write up a couple of years ago by a fella named Jason Fraley at WTP and he named It's a Wonderful Life as the number one Christmas film of all time. And I agree with him. It's been my favorite, like I said, for decades. And he wrote about it. He wrote this about the film, It's become such a fixture in our homes each holiday season. It's amazing how much Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Light still has the ability to shock viewers with the same reaction quote, I forgot how dark it is, how serious, how little it actually focuses on Christmas. Indeed, Capra uses the holidays as a framing device for an in depth character study into one man's life of disappointment, As critic David Thompson writes, quote, the film that had failed in nineteen forty seven had become a token of uplifting fellowship. Yet it was a film noir full of regret, self pity, and the temptation of suicide. How could so many people convince themselves that it was cheery? The answer can only be that Capra shines through the darkness with such blinding truth. It's a fable of mankind's interconnectedness, where each of us is an irremovable cause in a wheel, where you can only take that which you have given, and where no man is a failure who has friends. The infamous Capracorn, as they called it, had finally found its proper doses, providing proving rather that we need the darkness, to see the light, the lows, to feel the highs, the despair, to feel the inspiration, in my case this past week, sickness, to feel healthy, to appreciate, to be grateful for your health. Steven Spielberg called it a five hanky movie tearjerker, saying it's one of the three movies he watches before shooting every film. It was recently named in the named the most inspirational film of all time by the AFI. What better tribute than the fact that Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart always considered this movie the best film either of them had ever made in their lives. There was a piece from twenty thirteen I still have it. It's a piece by Matt Lewis written atthweek dot com and this was republished recently in like twenty fifteen. I think with the anniversary of Love Actually, which is okay, movie not safe for kids, but I mean I like it fine, Christy and I watch that movie every year as well. Different kind of message. But it's a wonderful life. In contrast to Love Actually, it's a wonderful life Actually has good lessons ranging from moral to financial to practical. Number One that your life has purpose. One of the obvious points of the film is that without George Bailey around, so many things would have been different. Right. The impact of his life stretched far beyond the small town of Bedford Falls, and so too does yours. Your life. You have no idea how significant you are in the lives of other people. You'll never know, Like, you will literally never know what impact you have had on other people. That's only part of the reason of value your life. Though, aside from serving others, our lives should be viewed as a gift. Right at exactly ten forty five tonight Earth time, that man will be seriously thinking of throwing away God's greatest gift. Oh no, says Clarence, right, like that's talking about suicide. That's the like, that's the gift of your life. Another lesson keeping up with the Joneses is for or SAPs. This message message is subtly sprinkled throughout the film. What's the matter with our car? Remember? Is it a good enough for you? I don't do a good Jimmy Stewart impression. Just sorry. George's ambition to be more than he is creates a lot of his own problems and is the cause for a lot of his restlessness and his unhappiness, right constantly overlooking all of the things that he has in his life because he wants to do these other things. This is what I want. Is not to say you shouldn't strive to be better, but that maturity requires that you find a balance. Learning to fully appreciate the blessings we have is a daily struggle for a lot of us. But most of today's pop culture just reinforces consumerism and naked ambition. The question is, how are we defining our worth these days? It's a wonderful life leaves a with a clear message that no man is a failure who has friends? Right, So how do you define worth? Your worth? How do you define your purpose? And are are you being drawn to a purpose that you don't want to do but maybe you should? All right, I'll pick it up there with some more lessons from Matt Lewis, which again I've kept this piece for now twelve years because I think he hits every one of these lessons right on the head. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Going over, it's a wonderful life I was. I was told that during the week of my near death flew at also Christmas vacation, that a lot of the best of shows were all filled with very lighthearted topics, and then you know, my best of was Raymond Ibrahim talking about fourteen hundred years of violence between Muslims and Christs. So okay, so this is me making a meen, but it's not. I usually do this topic every year because it again, I watch the movie every year and the lessons I think are worth remembering as you start the new year. In fact, there was another write by Tony Saruga, who is a substack GUYE whistleblower investigator guy, and he was talking about It's a Wonderful Life on Twitter and he said, in connection to the points I made before the break, he said, the film's deepest insight isn't just that no man is a failure, who has a failure, who has friends. It's that real impact is almost always invisible in the moment. The lives that you steady, the small kindnesses that you extend, the responsibilities that you shoulder when nobody else will. These things ripple outward in a way that you may never see. A strong sense of purpose does not erase pain. It transforms it. The sense of purpose transforms pain. It doesn't merely explain why hard things happened. It asks what are you now responsible for because they did happen. Faith at its best does the same. It doesn't promise that everything was meant to be in order to make suffering palatable. It invites you to look at what has been entrusted to you in light of what you have endured. He says. Georgie's story reminds us that meaning is rarely found in the grand escape, but in the faithful presence sticking around. The dreams we surrender don't always vanish. They often become the raw material for something more enduring than we even imagined. If you are carrying the weight of roads not taken, of dreams deferred, of a life that feels smaller than you once hoped, watch this movie not as nostalgia but as revelation. You may not see the full difference that you have made yet, but it is there, and it matters more than you know. Another lesson from Matt lewis bad guys don't always get punished. And this has been when I read this twelve years ago, Like this one has stuck with me ever since. Nothing bad happens to Potter. He gets to keep Uncle Billy's envelope of cash. Spoiler alert, The movie deserves credit for not solving every problem with the tinkling of a bell. Did you know that in the nineteen forties the Motion Picture Production Code definitely stipulated that criminals must be punished for their crimes. That was part of the rules. If you were making a movie, you had to do that. And the case has been made that mister Potter might have been guilty of lars. In addition to avoiding a predictably sappy trope, By the way, there is an alternate ending that they found. It was first aired I don't know, probably about ten or fifteen years ago. You can find it too if you find just Google. It's a wonderful life. Alternate ending Saturday Night Live, where Uncle Billy remembers that Potter took the envelope and they go and they they drag them through the streets. Anyway, in addition to avoiding a predictably sappy trophe, he says, Capra also reminded us that sometimes bad people get away with doing bad things. Also, this is a very good lesson too. Don't hire someone just because their family. This is admittedly more of a practical maxim but with all the touchy feely lessons in the film, it's important to cull some not so obvious and not so pleasant realities as well. Uncle Billy, the brother of George's father, nearly ruined the business. He drank on the job. He didn't really seem to be a very productive employee, you know, even in the best of times. He had too many wild animals in his house too. Like there's probably a lesson about like raby shots in there too. So just because he's your uncle, if the guy's drinking on the job and losing thousands of dollars risking your very liberty, probably not wise to keep him on the payroll. Also, appreciate how blessed you already are, which is kind of related to an earlier point. But his whole perspective, Bailey's whole perspective changes, right, because the stuff that does matter, family, friends, faith, right has now risen to such pre eminence in his life that all the rest of it doesn't matter. Here's another lesson, how to deliver a good toast. Remember when Martini moves into the house, may help him move his help move Martini into the house and into one of the Bailey homes. And they give the toast. George and Mary deliver a toast bread that this house may never know hunger, salt, that life may always have flavor and wine, that joy and prosperity may rain forever. That's a good toast. You might want to like commit that to memory or something for the next housewarming. I mean, you could swap out the bread and salt, not the wine, obviously, but you could swap out the bread and salt for something else. But like, it's a good toast. Should always have a good toast, you know, ready to go. And no I'm not talking about the toast that you gave in college at the drinking game. Okay. Also, marry the right person. George's mother in the movie tells him that Mary is the quote kind who will help you find your answers. Mary was in town all along, right under his nose the whole time. Once they get married, she sticks with him through thick and thin. Romance is one of the themes in the film, but not the dominant theme like it is in the movie Love Actually, and the romance between Mary and George is deeper and more palpable. Matt Lewis says, I would argue This is because real romantic love transcends the superficial love at first sight belooney that Hollywood sells us. Now I have added to this list, I would add, you know, don't mouth off to a stranger in a bar unless you want to get your face punched. That's a good lesson from the movie as well. Also a lesson after watching it this year, I noticed this for the first time. I've seen it obviously dozens of times, but for some reason, I never really thought about it much when i'd seen it before. But this year I noticed it, and I thought, this is a lesson we should take from this movie, which is, don't be like Bert, the cop who shoots wildly into a crowd in order to gun down George Bailey in the street as he's running away. Like, first off, you're shooting a guy who's running away, And what did he do to warrant you to shoot him? Nothing? Like he didn't like he was trying to get away. He's like, I'll get out of my way, Bert, although I do think he punched Burt. Okay, So there's another lesson. Don't punch a cop or you'll get shot at Two good lessons from that one interaction because that as Bailey runs down the street, Burt just starts shooting out. He's just like firing his gun down the street. I'm like, what is he doing? He could kill somebody. But that's Pottersville, you know, it's a whole different world than Bedford Falls. Spencer Claven he said, there's no such thing as true schmaltz. Oh sorry, there is such a thing as true schmaltz. And it's unendurable, right, it's insufferable true schmaltz. But then there are sincerities so tender and true that C. S. Lewis says, we take our revenge on them by calling them names like sentimentalism and naivete. People do this to the movie. It's a wonderful life. People smear it. They make fun of it, not because it's too saccharin, but because it is too profound. It touches deeper where we hurt more. It touches deeper than we care to admit. And I think that's why people bash this movie. Although I have noticed there are way fewer people that are willing to do so publicly now than I remember twenty years ago. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also be become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.