Santa Claus

Santa Claus was another guest character that was briefly featured alongside the Rock-afire Explosion. He appeared in late 1984 in a special themed showtape titled "Uncle Santa" which used a collection of classic Rock-afire Christmas songs (many re-recorded with the Sun and Moon in place of the absent Rolfe and Earl), along with several new skits including the finale segments where Santa appeared onstage.

Santa Claus was a cosmetically retrofitted Uncle Klunk, giving him the unique ability to pick up a telephone - which he used to call his head elf "Norman" back at the North Pole. Burt "Sal" Wilson was the voice actor behind Santa, who sounded quite similar to Fatz with the exception being that the style of speaking was adjusted to fit Santa's character.

During the showtape segments leading up to Santa's arrival, the band was beaming with excitement, and Looney Bird was attempting to track Santa's movement using his "Super Santa Scanner" between shows. The shows that actually involved Santa Claus had him singing along with the band, answering questions, and telling a long story about what his routine is like delivering presents around the world every Christmas. Although his stay was intended to be brief, the Rock-afire characters "persuaded" him into staying through another show. Only after a call to a frantic elf with a handful of problems back at the North Pole was Santa able to finally leave ShowBiz.

Having Santa Claus actually appear onstage at ShowBiz was a very unique and fun idea, however it was disappointingly short lived. ShowBiz was facing some difficult financial times following the absorption of Pizza Time Theatre. The restructuring period that ensued brought upon some major budget cuts - including many involving the presentation of the shows. Santa Claus was not only the final character from Creative Engineering to ever appear at ShowBiz, but the Uncle Santa showtape was one of the last showtapes to be fully produced and programmed for ShowBiz by Creative, as ShowBiz began producing their own tapes, complete with imitation voice actors.