- As we ring in the new year, let's celebrate the old.

- And let's show some of the best of.

- And maybe some of the worst of.

- You gotta see this.

(lively music) - For our first best of, I'd say this might be your favorite story maybe of all time of "You Gotta See This!"

- It really is.

One of the best things about doing this show is you get to meet amazing people.

And Marcus, he is definitely on the top of the list.

Let's check it out.

(upbeat music) (engine roaring) Meet 24-year-old Marcus Jackson.

He works for Peoria Production Solutions, enjoys bowling, supporting his church, and attending monster truck events around central Illinois.

But today he takes the driver's seat as a history-maker, a record breaker, and he doesn't let obstacles get in his way.

(engine roaring) - We're kind of making history today of me being the first ever Black, 24-year-old autistic man to drive a 12,000-pound monster truck from an auction item from Best Buddies is awesome to me.

- [Julie] Through the Best Buddies organization, Marcus is living out a lifelong dream of being behind the wheel of a monster truck.

(engine roaring) - Marcus is like the best face for this.

He has so much energy.

He can talk about, you know, talk about his dreams, his passion, his excitement all day.

And he works closely with one of our program managers, Lanada Cunningham, to put together his speeches and all of his kind of presentations.

But he does an absolutely great job, and I think that that just goes to show what our participants are also capable of.

- [Marcus] As an official, I'm on board to go Over Bored.

- [Julie] Thanks to the owner and driver of the Over Bored Monster Truck, Jamey Garner, Marcus is learning the ropes.

- I'm gonna start it for you anyway.

- Watch your ears, guys.

- So fuel's on, ignition's on.

All you do is flip this up.

Accumulator dumps the oil.

You watch your oil pressure go up.

(engine roaring) - [Julie] With a smile lighting up his face, Marcus is suited up, strapped in, and ready to attempt his first wheelie.

(engine roaring) - [Announcer] Let's hear it for Marcus Jam one more time.

Makes some noise.

- Whoo-hoo-hoo.

(spectators cheering) Hearing the roars of the engine was just real, the adrenaline rush.

But just seeing the drivers interact with the fans before and after the shows, it's just awesome to me.

(spectators cheering) (engine roaring) (Marcus laughing) - [Spectator] Ready to go, Marcus?

- [Marcus] Yoo-hoo!

- [Julie] This avid monster truck watcher has now turned into an experienced driver with a couple of wheelies under his belt.

The next hurdle is to take on a few race passes and a 60-second freestyle.

- You looking like a professional out there, man.

- [Marcus] First time ever in my life.

- [Julie] Marcus's love of driving and enthusiasm for the sport is infectious as the crowd of onlooker cheers on this one-of-a-kind champion, - There's no words to even explain the experience I just went through with this truck right here, baby, whoo!

- Whoo.

- Whoo.

- [Spectator] Whoo!

- [Julie] With an attitude like Marcus's, there are no hurdles (engine roaring) that he won't overcome in his lifetime.

- This has been Marcus Jam when Marcus Jackson went Over Bored.

(spectators cheering) - Mark, you did a really fun story, and it was kind of kooky too.

- Little bit kooky.

I went to the Wednesday Addams Airbnb in Lincoln, Illinois to find out what the mysterious black house was all about.

- Let's check it out.

("The Addams Family" by Vic Mizzy) - Hey, guys, we are in Lincoln.

We're outside of the famous black house, which is now known as Wednesday's Lair, and I'm excited to get a tour.

(creepy whimsical music) I dressed all in black just for this occasion.

We're gonna talk to Liz Ritter.

She just bought this house, and it is gonna be a hot Airbnb.

Can't wait to hear about it.

Hi.

Wednesday?

- Yes.

Can I help you?

- Oh, I was here for a tour.

Can you give me a tour?

- I guess.

- Okay, this is obviously not Liz.

We'll meet her in a minute.

First young Wednesday of "The Addams Family" is going to take me for a not so grand tour of the viral Airbnb named after her.

- Living room.

Bedroom two.

- Boy, is she straight to the point.

This home built in the early '90s is shaped like an octagon, but it wasn't until Lincoln realtor Seth Goodman bought the house in 2021 that it really took shape.

- I just knew I wanted a black roof, so they started with a black roof, and then that was all it took for me to get hooked on the black color.

So the contractors then had the custom-order the siding because that color siding is hard to get.

Then I asked them to paint the walls black, and then they were not too keen on that and left the ceilings white.

I came in here, said, "There's no way," so they paint the ceilings black, and then here it is today.

- Bathroom two.

- Seth lived here a few months, then put the house up for sale in late 2021.

That was the first time the home went viral, with more than 400,000 shares on social media.

It sold quickly, and the new owners turned it into an Airbnb.

Just a year later, they asked Seth to put it back on the market, and right away someone was ready to jump into the octagon.

- I messaged him that like probably within five minutes, and I was like, "Seth, I want it."

And he's like, "Are you sure," you know that type, and I was like, "No, yeah, I really do want it."

- Master bedroom.

- It is.

It's the master bedroom.

- Liz Ritter's love of "The Addams Family" and the popularity of Wednesday on Netflix made branding the unique Airbnb a no-brainer.

- There's weddings coming up here.

There's two weddings, one with 85 people.

There's I think four to five birthday parties coming up the next couple months and a lot of just people that are going to shows in Peoria or somewhere that want to just have somewhere to stay.

- Bathroom.

- Nice.

The house has everything you need for a comfortable stay.

- And I wanna keep it really happy and family-friendly, so I make sure the rooms stay... Like I don't want anything scary or anything like that.

I want it to have like a fun feel.

- [Mark] Liz plans on opening up Wednesday's Lair on Halloween for people to trick-or-treat and take pictures.

And if you decide to rent the lair, just remember Wednesday is not included.

- Finally, my favorite part, the crawl space.

- Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

- 2023 saw murals popping up all over Peoria.

- So we popped all around the city to find out what they were all about.

- Take a look.

- [Mark] "Whale, Hello There," - [Phil] I wonder if there's a tail regarding that big mural.

- [Mark] Oh, I could spout off about Peoria murals all day.

- [Phil] That's because murals have exploded in and around Peoria.

And we know that from an organization called Big Picture Peoria.

- [Mark] The group supports and promotes arts in Peoria, even matching building owners who want murals and the artists who want to paint them.

- [Phil] And the Big Picture Peoria website now features a map showing the addresses and other info for about 50 area murals.

- We refer to it as kind of this renaissance, this blooming of public arts.

Public art lets you know that a city has a positive outlook about itself.

It believes in its vibrancy, and it just promotes a lot of foot traffic.

People get out to see a mural.

- [Mark] And that's what we did, a walking tour of some of the murals.

- Here's what we found.

You cast a rather interesting shadow there.

- I'll tell you what, who knew that Bigfoot had googly eyes?

- He's friendlier than ever, right?

- Yeah.

- What do we got here?

- Looks we got a monarch getting it on with some kind of flower.

- [Phil] Yeah, doing that old nectar sucky thing.

- Yep.

- And some trees.

It's cool, very bright and brilliant, so that's one.

This guy got a whole splotch of stuff.

- Well, speaking of whole splotch, where are we exactly?

- This is, old timers...

I guess that would be me, call it Meyer Alley.

- What street are we on?

Is this a street or an alley?

We don't know.

- 202 something, I don't know what that means.

We're at C.T.

Gabbert, the back of his place.

So I don't know what that is except it's one of those things with art.

It's like, don't know it.

I like it.

It's neat.

- Sure.

- Yeah, yeah.

Here's some lips.

- Yeah, here we got the mouth from "Rocky Horror Picture Show."

- Kissy, kissy, smoochy, smoochy.

That's neat.

- There's an eyeball.

- Another eyeball.

- Not googly.

- Another eyeball here.

Lots of eyes on us here.

That's good 'cause we're TV.

We want the eyes on us.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, here's probably a friend of Sasquatch, a little man from another world coming to Peoria.

- [Mark] Oh, isn't that nice?

- He probably likes this place.

I like Peoria.

- Very colorful.

- Yeah.

- Puts me in a good mood.

- Well, this might be the shortest mural on the tour.

What are you, about six feet?

- Yep.

- So it's about one inch shorter than six feet.

There we go.

We're at Water and Walnut behind Kellehers, kind of.

Freight train goes by here, so that makes sense.

It's a train.

- It is a train, and there's a picture of an older gentleman.

Kind of looks like a stock picture of every guy you've seen in the 1950s going to work.

- Actually, he kind of looks like George Manias, Shoeshine George.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Maybe that's him.

I don't know.

Maybe this is how they took pictures back then.

- They cut the feet off though.

- You'll never know.

- (laughs) We won't know.

And then right next to him, look at that one.

It's like one of your furry friends.

- It is.

- It's a dog getting on that train.

And I like this here with this palace with "Now playing: Whiskey City," this homage to Peoria's theater history.

So I guess that would be the playwright owned that, and then these folks went to The Palace, which was a theater somewhere in Peoria.

I forget where that was.

- We need a theater in Peoria again.

- Oh, that'd be cool.

- It would be.

- And some typewriters.

- And some typewriters.

- We need it all.

Well, that was fun.

I really wish we had a way to capture this moment.

- Hm.

(camera shutter clicks) - You know what I love?

A screaming rock-and-roll guitar.

- Well, we did do a good story about a guitar.

It's not your typical guitar, and it's certainly not your typical player.

We did that story on, remember Stumpy Joe?

- He's an interesting fella.

- He's a character.

Let's find out more about what he's doing.

- Gotta see this.

("U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer) Gotta see this.

Only on PBS.

(string reverberates) - [Julie] This is the story of a Mackinac Man, a few recycled household items, and his music.

This is the story of Stumpy Joe.

- I travel around and play this.

You know, it makes people smile.

It just takes 'em by such surprise, and it just blows their mind how this thing sounds and plays, same with these things.

It just, they're just, and they instantly, they're laughing and smiling.

And I thought if I got something that can make people laugh and smile, then I should be all right.

So I'm not gonna worry about money.

I'm not gonna worry about that.

I'm just gonna focus on making people smile and laugh, and, man, what a change my life has taken.

- [Julie] Music has always been a part of his life, but four years ago, Stumpy Joe, as his friends like to call him, quit his day job as an iron worker, cashed in his pension, and started following his passion.

(upbeat folksy music) - Yeah, I'd like you to meet Farney, right here, my one-string washtub bass, my best friend right here, my best friend forever.

We've been traveling around for 18 years now.

- [Julie] But Farney the washtub bass is sometimes a little big to take everywhere, so he got creative.

Stumpy Joe walked out into his workshop in bare feet, of course, and took a 30-inch boat paddle and crafted it into a one-string bass guitar, known now as the Stumpy Bass.

(slow bass music) A fellow guitar inventor encouraged him to take his musical creation and sell it at NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants trade show in California.

It's one of the biggest shows in the music industry.

- This was the original one I took out to the NAMM Show.

I drew that on with a Sharpie, you know, came up with a idea and threw that on there.

And I thought, "Man, I'm gonna get laughed out of this place."

This is the biggest trade show, you know, with the best guitars, the most amazing cutting-edge technology stuff in music.

And it turned out it wasn't like that at all.

People loved it.

Everybody who saw it laugh and smiled and thought that was the coolest thing ever.

- [Julie] From there, he came back to his shop and started production, and he also started his new company called Five Pound Bass, named after a Robert Earl Keen song, "Five Pound Bass."

♪ Ready, here I come, you five-pound bass ♪ - [Julie] From simple designs to complicated custom orders, Stumpy creates them all by hand.

- The custom ones, you know, I stripped them down and start from scratch, and you know, it's more of a creative process.

And people always ask for different things on there.

It's hard to believe all the different things.

You know, I can put a picture on it, any color or, you know.

Probably the most popular ones is the old ones.

Everybody wants one that looks old.

Even like, I'll take the new one and make it look old.

This one I just made 'cause I was going to Florida, and so I like to take a nautical theme down.

- [Julie] Not only do these handmade instruments look beautiful.

They sound amazing too.

(slow bass music) But it is a little different than your traditional guitar.

- One of the biggest difference, obviously, is it's only got one string on it.

And that's (laughs) what throws most four-string players for a loop.

You know, you're just playing patterns on a fretboard.

And then with this, you actually have to know what note you're hitting.

- Okay.

- So this one, I simplified it.

As can you see, this one's got the- - [Julie] Okay.

- Actually has the frets put right on there.

So you could play this yourself.

If you wanna play a G, there's a G. - What?

(slow bass music) It takes some getting used to, but you don't have to be an expert to play.

- There, just hold it.

Yeah, just hold the string down.

- Okay.

- Just like that.

- And then I... (string plinking) Well, maybe not everybody can play it, but it is the music that keeps driving Stumpy to create.

(upbeat folksy music) - And when I was out there at the NAMM Show, it makes you realize how important music is to people, you know, how big that show is.

It really makes you think that music is so vital to human beings.

You know, it's part of our DNA, and it's just as important as air and water really.

You know, you have to have it.

You know, we wouldn't survive without it.

- [Julie] Joe travels around the country with Farney the washtub bass at his side and creates Stumpy basses to keep the smile on his customers' faces.

- You wanna sing along?

Can't touch this.

(Julie laughs) ("Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer) If I can do that, if I can play music the rest of my life and break even, you know, I'll be a rich man.

That makes me a very rich man.

(relaxing upbeat music) - You know how I feel about snakes.

They are not my friends.

That's why you had this story, not me.

- Well, this tale, if snakes had tails.

They kind of, they got- - I think so.

- Rear end something, whatever.

Anyway, this story is about a professor, and you think about professors, they're kind of buttoned-down, prim and proper.

- Yeah.

- And this guy is kind of like that.

But he also, once a year, he helicopters into South America to check out reptiles and all sorts of critters.

And this time he found a new species of snake.

Let's see it now.

(dramatic music) This is an unlikely tale of two college professors.

You might be familiar with this one, Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr., also known by his nickname Indiana Jones.

And there's Dr. Edward Lehr, who has no swashbuckling nickname.

Jones is a professor of archeology at the fictional Marshall College.

Lehr is a professor of biology at the very real Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

One likes snakes.

The other (snake hissing) does not.

- Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?

- [Phil] Yet the worlds of these two professors collided recently.

Dr. Lehr, a swashbuckler in his own right, went to South America and helped discover a new species of snake.

He named the species after Dr. Jones, or more accurately, the actor who portrays Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford, an animal rights advocate.

- Indiana Jones hates snakes, but Harrison Ford, he's an advocate for conservation.

- [Phil] Lehr teaches biology and herpetology at Illinois Wesleyan, a private school with 1,500 students in Bloomington.

In his native Germany, by age five, he'd already found his life's mission.

- I grew up being exposed to nature, looking for animals, taking photos, collecting beetles.

So I was fascinated for discovering something and appreciating the colors, the beauty of nature.

And I knew when I was five years old I wanted to become a biologist.

- [Phil] In 1997, he started making regular trips to far-flung areas of Peru.

The more remote, the better.

- And we identify areas where nobody has been.

So I want to go to places where nobody has been to explore them to see what lives there, what kind of amphibian species, what reptile species are there.

- [Phil] A favorite spot is Otishi National Park, more than 10,000 feet above sea level and accessible only by helicopter.

(helicopter blades whirring) And in such a remote area, he always travels with an expedition team.

- Researchers have disappeared, yeah, and so you want to make sure...

Accidents can happen.

The nature's unpredictable.

So you want to have colleagues that are doing the same work like you do.

- [Phil] In Peru, over the years, Lehr has contributed to the discovery of more than 100 new amphibians and reptiles.

He attributes his finds to a keen eye and persistence.

- The size, often it's the coloration, or combination of both.

And when you are in an area that is so remote and so isolated, then you can practically say everything is potentially new, you know, because it's not connected with other species.

- [Phil] On his most recent trip, Lehr was near a colleague looking through a swampy area.

- And then suddenly he jumped and waving his hands, and he was holding a snake in his hands.

It was a positive surprise.

- [Phil] The slender snake measures 16 inches long.

It is pale, yellowish brown with scattered black blotches, a black belly, and copper-colored eye.

It eats lizards, frogs, and other small animals, but not people.

- It's not dangerous for humans, and it has rear fangs so it will kind of give some venom to lizards or frogs.

But for humans, it's not dangerous.

It's not aggressive at all.

- [Phil] Naming new animal species is important as part of the process of identifying and protecting them, Lehr says.

In seeking a name for the snake, Lehr thought of the famous snake seen by Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

- And I thought this would be a fun part to name the snake with the purpose, of course, to honor Harrison Ford but also to create awareness.

- [Phil] Lehr gave the snake the Latin name Tachymenoides harrisonfordi, which translates to Harrison Ford's slender snake.

What did the actor think?

Ford, who already had inspired the name of an ant and a spider joked to "The Hollywood Reporter" about his snake honor.

He said, "These scientists keep naming critters after me, but it's always the ones that terrify children.

I don't understand."

All kidding aside, the animal conservationist said, "In all seriousness, this discovery is humbling.

It's a reminder that there's still so much to learn about our wild world and that humans are only one small part of an impossibly vast biosphere."

Meantime in Bloomington, Dr. Lehr sounds ready for his next trip to the wilds of Peru and his next discovery.

- Then of course, when you go to areas where nobody has been before, then you can find surprises.

- You know, we're looking pretty good so far.

We got some great stories.

It's really the best of the best.

- Well, it's easy to look good with the best of.

What about the worst of?

- Ah, there's plenty of those too.

- Time for bloopers.

(broadcast signal blares) - Ooh.

Ooh.

(crew member laughs) - Someone get my head outta here.

I feel like poo.

- Where do I work?

PBS.

Where do I work?

PBS.

- Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, holy crap, I'm a moron.

(laughs) ♪ Hard to get my feel ♪ Everybody wants a thrill (crew members laughing) Help..... You gotta see this.

Hey, you gotta get in here.

(groaning) You gotta see this.

- Look at me.

I'm like Bob Ross.

♪ All together ooky, the Addams family ♪ ♪ Da, da, da, da - Grunting, we're gonna hang out with the Peoria Pygmies.

Oh my gosh.

That's not what... - Don't pat his face.

He doesn't like that.

- He doesn't like it.

- He's my friend.

- No.

(Phil and Julie humming) - It's a good sign.

- And we do love viewers of- - "You Gotta See This."

- Aw.

- You step on it.

(babbling) (Julie babbling) - That was a pretty scrumptious episode.

- (laughs) What was the... - Scrip-shus, I tried to save it.

I tried to save it.

- Insane character.

Scripshus Shoopy-Shoo.

I didn't know what accent to go with.

(neighs) Oh, and the giraffe.

- And the long cat.

- The long cat or giraffe neck.

There it is.

There it is.

That's it.

♪ The neck of a giant giraffe ♪ It's a short giraffe I love here.

- Oh yeah.

(snorts and trumpets) - All right, guys.

(Phil whistling) - Eh, eh.

- Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.

(Phil laughs) That's an added move.

It's been a crazy year.

We've had some great stories, met some amazing people.

I don't even know what we could do to top it.

- Well, you'll have to come back next time to see more great stories, more great people on?

- "You Gotta See This."

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) - Thank you.

- No, thank you.

- Thank you.

- No, you.

- And you behind the camera and that cat over there and everyone.

(festive music)