The "surprise" Charlie Brown statue, Tom Everhart's "Who Let the Dots Out," could be seen at the Charles M. Schulz Museum.
These articles are arranged from the most recent down, so you'll always find the newest news about Charlie Brown and his friends toward the top; older articles will be located further down, or on previous pages.
Schulz broke with tradition to create a holiday classic
December 6, 2005
By Craig Hergert
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Its been 40 years since A Charlie Brown Christmas, which airs at 7 tonight on ABC (Channel 5), first appeared on network television. But back in 1965, working for CBS, Charles Schulz made the special his way, not according to the conventions of the time. And the network was sore afraid.
In the age of The Simpsons, its easy to forget that most prime-time cartoons in the 60s had laugh tracks. Way too many used incidental music of the hokiest sort, and it was standard to have professional adult actors voice animated characters, even when the characters were kids.
So what did this newcomer to television, Charles (Sparky) Schulz, have in mind? He wanted to junk the laugh track, feature children for the voice work, and use jazz for the soundtrack. And there was one more thing The script called for Linus to read from the Bible. In a childrens cartoon. During prime time. Good grief!
The shows storyline has Charlie Brown attempting to shove aside the commercial clutter to find the true meaning of Christmas by directing a Christmas program. When the program turns into a secular dance fest, he cries, Isnt there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!
Not surprisingly in the no-adults-allowed world of Peanuts, its a little child who leads him. Taking center stage, Linus quotes Luke 28-14, including the verse For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. He then adds, Thats what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
In A Charlie Brown Christmas The Making of a Tradition, Bill Melendez, who directed the animation in the program and voiced Snoopy, comments on Linus recitation When I first looked at that part of the story, I told Sparky, We cant do this, its too religious. And he said to me, Bill, if we dont do it, who else can?
Its generally accepted that Schulz was the only one with the clout to get the unconventional show on the air.
Everybody loves a classic. But its good to remember that a TV show -- or a play, a film or a book, for that matter -- cant reach that status if it isnt allowed to be made in the first place. Or if its tampered with so thoroughly that it no longer presents the artists vision. In a culture where the credo is Dont offend anyone even if it means boring everyone, classics rarely come to pass.
The Peanuts special, like the birth of the one it honors, is a story of humility. Most of the folks who worked on it didnt think it would see a second season. Executive producer Lee Mendelson recalls that after the staff watched a screening a week before airtime, We thought that perhaps we had somehow missed the boat. It was one of the animators, Ed Levitt, who saw the light, predicting A Charlie Brown Christmas will run for a hundred years.
Tune in 60 years from now to know that he was right.
Youre a Good Magnet for Holiday Ads, Charlie Brown
December 6, 2005
By Meg James
The Los Angeles Times
In a twist that might make its round-headed hero exclaim, Good grief, Charles M. Schulzs A Charlie Brown Christmas -- the animated television special about love conquering materialism that airs tonight on ABC -- now fuels a $1.2-billion-a-year global publishing, merchandising and marketing machine.
Millions of Americans will tune in, as they have every December for 40 years, to watch Charlie Brown and his gang learn that friendship and faith are more important than presents.
And this year, as every year, advertisers clamored to buy time during the cartoon to hype their holiday movies and toys. So many advertisers, in fact, that ABC had to turn some away.
They chase us for this show, said Geri Wang, ABCs senior vice president for prime-time sales. It provides a safe, warm and family-feel-good message.
Those who got into the coveted program paid as much as $200,000 for each 30-second spot, which is more than what advertisers have paid for such hot new hits as ABCs Commander in Chief.
That is just one reason Schulzs estate, the Charles M. Schulz Creative Assn., earned an estimated $35 million in 2004, according to Forbes magazine. Powered by Peanuts-related products that include clothing, cosmetics, dishes, toys and stationery, Schulz has become the second-most-profitable dead celebrity, Forbes found, with only the estate of Elvis Presley collecting more.
It is ironic that something so totally noncommercial has become so commercial, said Doug Stern, chief executive of United Media, the licensing arm and syndicator of the comic strip that still runs in 2,400 newspapers five years after Schulzs death.
Peanuts accounts for more than 90% of United Medias licensing revenue, according to regulatory filings. Last year, United Media took in more than $100 million in revenue.
In a sense, the financial success has been an unintended consequence, said Stern, who believed Schulz was more focused on drawing his comic strip than on the merchandise it generated. The artists soul shines through.
Schulz and his creations have had strong ties to corporate America almost since the beginning.
In 1950, after several failed attempts, Schulz sold his comic strip Lil Folks to United Feature Syndicate, which renamed the comic Peanuts -- a title Schulz never liked.
The strip was a hit, and within a few years marketers came calling. Eastman Kodak Co. featured the characters in a camera handbook in 1955. The first plastic Snoopy doll was produced in 1958.
Schulz then teamed up with Hallmark Cards, allowing the family-owned Kansas City, Mo., company to produce a line of greeting cards. Since they were first offered in 1960, Hallmark has sold more than 1.5 billion Peanuts cards.
But it was Schulzs relationship with Ford Motor Co. that would lead the comic strip characters to make their debut on television and cement their status as cultural icons.
When the car company first asked to use his gang of innocents in its TV commercials, Schulz -- known as Sparky to his family and friends -- initially resisted the idea. He changed his mind, however, when ad agency J. Walter Thompson introduced him to Bill Melendez.
A gregarious animator from Los Angeles who had worked at Walt Disney Co. on such classics as Pinocchio and Bambi, Melendez impressed Schulz by not embellishing his characters, instead taking care to duplicate the flat look and feel of the comic strip. The resulting black-and-white commercial of Linus and Lucy inspecting Fords line of 1962 Falcons preserved the characters sweetness, with Linus knocking his little cartoon fist on the Falcons simulated wood side panels for good luck.
Meanwhile, a young TV producer from San Francisco who had filmed a documentary for NBC about one of baseballs best players, Willie Mays, wanted to do a sequel about the worst player, Charlie Brown.
The producer, Lee Mendelson, spent much of 1963 working on the project, which featured animation by Melendez. But in the end, no network or advertising sponsors wanted to buy it.
That changed in April 1965, when the Peanuts characters were featured on the cover of Time magazine. Suddenly, an ad agency called Mendelson to say that Coca-Cola Co. wanted to sponsor an animated Charlie Brown Christmas special. Could they do that?
I said, Absolutely, Mendelson, now 72, recalled in an interview. Once I said it, I couldnt take it back, so I called Schulz and said I just sold A Charlie Brown Christmas. And he said, Whats that?
Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez scrambled to draw up an outline for the show, complete with a school play with Nativity scenes, a stubby tree and an undercurrent of anti-commercialism.
Mendelson suggested adding a laugh track, a popular device in the 1960s, but Schulz said no. Schulz also decreed that only childrens voices would be featured.
Schulz, a Midwesterner who had taught Sunday school, wanted Linus to quote a passage from the Bible about the birth of Jesus to present the true meaning of Christmas.
His collaborators worried it might feel preachy.
I was dead set against it, Melendez, now 89, recalled during an interview at his Sherman Oaks office. It was too religious, too dangerous.
Melendez has never forgotten Schulzs response Sparky said, Bill, if we dont do it, then who will?
Coca-Cola approved the story outline and agreed to cover production costs of less than $150,000. Schulz wrote the script and Melendez got busy on the drawings. For the soundtrack, producer Mendelson turned to a San Francisco jazz pianist, Vince Guaraldi. Mendelson wrote the lyrics for the shows opening number, Christmas Time Is Here, on an envelope.
When they finished about a week before the shows December premiere, Mendelson and Melendez were disappointed with the shows slow pace.
We thought that we had ruined Charlie Brown, Mendelson recalled.
CBS executives thought the show was awful, Mendelson said. They complained that there wasnt enough action and that the jazz soundtrack was all wrong for a childrens show. Besides, they asked, what kids would talk in such a grown-up manner?
With the premiere broadcast just days away, it was too late to pull the plug. But as others braced for a flop, there remained one true believer in the little Christmas show.
Sparky liked it from the beginning, Mendelson said.
In December 1965, the first viewers tuned in to see snowflakes gently falling on a frozen pond. Charlie Brown and his friend Linus trudge through the snow with ice skates slung over their shoulders. They stop at a brick wall.
I think theres something wrong with me, Charlie Brown confides, his round head cupped in his hand. Christmas is coming, but Im not happy. I just dont feel the way Im supposed to feel.
To cure his depression, he consults with Lucy at her 5-cent psychiatric booth. She ultimately tells him Lets face it. We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. Then she lowers her voice Its run by a big Eastern syndicate, you know.
Well, Charlie Brown says defiantly This is one play thats not going to be commercial.
The exchange was an inside joke for Schulz, who some believe intended the Eastern syndicate to refer to United Feature Syndicate, which still owns the copyright to his characters. Just as Charlie Brown vowed to direct a noncommercial play, Schulz was vowing to do the same in his Christmas special.
The show was an immediate success. Nearly half of all homes with TV sets tuned in that night in 1965, and the show would go on to win an Emmy for best animated special.
Over the years, the show would bring in more than $50 million to the producers, United Media, Schulz and, later, his estate, and the two networks that have broadcast it.
Last year, ABC raked in $5.75 million in ad revenue for its two telecasts of A Charlie Brown Christmas, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending. More than 13.6 million people watched the show, which led its time slot in all key demographic groups.
More than 30 companies bought ad time, collectively forking over five times the nearly $1 million in license fees that ABC paid to run the show.
ABC is anticipating another big audience tonight, and, thus, more happy advertisers. Companies that committed to buying time during the show last summer paid about $170,000 for a 30-second spot. Now, with so much demand, the price tag for latecomers has topped $200,000.
This year, the show attracted some companies that dont typically buy a lot of network prime time. Like Welchs.
Kids grew up watching this show, and now they are parents watching it with their kids, said Jim Callahan, spokesman for the Massachusetts-based grape farmers cooperative. It brings you back to your childhood, when you were drinking grape juice and getting a purple mustache.
Stacey Lynn Koerner, an executive vice president of Initiative, a major ad-buying firm, agreed.
It hearkens back to a much simpler time, she said. Even though we get caught up in the hustle and bustle and all of the buying, we hold up that ideal of what the holidays were back then.
A host of products are now on sale to tie in with the shows 40th anniversary a music CD, a puzzle, a commemorative book and, for $24, a pathetic Christmas tree -- just like the one in the special -- with droopy branches and one red ball ornament.
And Charlie Browns global reach is expanding. Snoopy dolls, cellphones, dishes and pans sell in Japan. In China, 120 Snoopy stores offer T-shirts, pajamas, plush dolls, cosmetics and skin-care products. Plans call for 240 such stores in mainland China within two years. And coming soon to Guangdong province Snoopy Fun Garden, a mini theme park.
What would Schulz think about all this? His widow, Jeannie, said in an interview that over the years, when he received complaints from fans about the commercial exploitation of the characters, he would say, Once you open the door, its somewhat out of your hands.
To Jeannie Schulz, the show endures in large part because of its innocence and honesty.
The things that Sparky felt strongly about are a big part of what made the show a success, she said. Besides, she added, Sparky said there would always be a market for innocence.
A TV tradition turns 40
Youre a classic, Charlie Brown Schulzs holiday delight almost wasnt aired
December 6, 2005
By Susan Swartz
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
And behold, in slunk a little round-faced kid toting a scraggly Christmas tree. And a dog danced and a little girl said all she wanted from Santa was real estate. Then a bunch of kids sang and a star appeared and, forever more, millions tuned in and hummed along.
The late Charles M. Schulz was pleased with what he created in 1965 when A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on TV. His collaborators werent so sure.
Executive producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez were worried.
We thought we had ruined Charlie Brown. We thought the show was too slow. People were used to Tom and Jerry, fast-action cartoons, Mendelson said. But Sparky (Schulz) liked it. And one of the crew told us Youre nuts to worry. This will run for 50 years.
So far, so good. Tonights airing on ABC marks the 40th anniversary of the animated Peanuts special. It has become as much a holiday classic as Its a Wonderful Life or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Some say its even bigger.
This show has maybe another good century to go, said Robert Thompson of Syracuse Universitys Center for the Study of Popular Television, who praises its jaw-dropping Zen-like simplicity and E.B. White linguistic economy.
Then, theres the hipness factor.
It was very hip then and it still is, said Thompson, 46, who has watched the show 35 times. Charlie Brown is about a kid who is essentially clinically depressed and has to make it through the holidays. That is a very modern idea. Unfortunately, he was too early for Prozac or Dr. Phil. But he really hits what so many see as part of the modern Christmas, the blessing and curse of an obligation to feel happy.
He said the cure for Charlie Browns malaise, the anti-commercial thesis, was also ahead of its time.
So ahead it of its time it almost didnt get made. In 1963, Mendelson produced a short film about Schulz with some animated scenes by Melendez. None of the TV networks wanted it, but an advertising agent for Coca-Cola saw it and pitched to Mendelson the idea for a Christmas special. He, Schulz and Melendez put it together in six months.
The trio knew they wanted to have ice skating, a school pageant, Vince Guaraldis jazz piano music and lots of snow, which Schulz had grown up with in the Midwest. They also wanted two innovations Using actual childrens voices for the characters and no laugh track.
Schulz, who once taught Bible study in Sebastopol, also insisted on a message about the birth of Jesus via his favorite Biblical passage from Luke, delivered by the Linus character.
When Sparky first suggested that, we said we didnt think anything from the Bible had been animated before, Mendelson recalled. He said, If we dont do it, who will?
When the show aired Dec. 9, 1965, 15 million homes tuned in, second only to Bonanza. Viewers wrote to Coca-Cola praising the show. It scored an Emmy Award for outstanding childrens program and a Peabody Award for excellence in programming.
Its a classic, said Baby Boomer culture historian James Von Schilling at Northampton College in Pennsylvania. It has the timeless themes of commercialism, cynicism and works on a variety of levels. Its entertaining for a little child who can see the humor in dog kisses, and it works up to an adult level, with the line about an Eastern syndicate running Christmas.
Perfectionist Schulz always thought it could have been improved, said his widow, Jeannie Schulz. Hed say, Oh, I hate that part, and I never could tell what it was -- maybe three seconds somewhere.
Still, hed make plans to watch it every December it was on TV. He preferred to see it live, and that being before TiVo, hed sometimes have a time conflict, she said. Then hed say, Darn, I missed it.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first of nearly 50 Peanuts TV specials, but Thompson called it the epitome of Charles Schulzs career.
There were the comic strips and scads of specials and books, Thompson said, but, I think if you had to point to the one creation that nailed it all in one time, this was Charlie Browns greatest appearance and here, in 25 minutes, the perfect expression of that Peanuts universe.
40 and still going strong
Schulzs holiday special is commemorated
December 6, 2005
By Chuck Barney
The Contra Costa Times [Walnut Creek, California]
Television executives can be such clueless blockheads. Consider, if you will, the case of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
After CBS bigwigs took their first peek at the 30-minute holiday special, they were convinced they had a stinker on their hands. The plot was too sluggish, the animation too crude. They disliked the shows jazz score and fretted over a scene in which Linus reads from the Bible.
Oh, great, executive producer Lee Mendelson recalls thinking, weve lost Charlie Brown forever.
Good grief, they couldnt have been more wrong. When A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted Dec. 9, 1965, nearly half the country tuned in. Charles Schulzs gentle poke at holiday commercialism went on to win an Emmy and take its place among Americas pop-cultural icons.
Tonight the program celebrates its 40th anniversary with an airing on ABC, and millions of fans will likely once again tune in to watch Linus recite his account of Jesus birth from a darkened stage, a materialistic Snoopy compete in -- and win -- a house-decorating contest and a forlorn Charlie Brown shower love upon a pitiful little tree.
It has lasted all these years partly because it touches upon all our vulnerabilities and our senses of wonder. People can see themselves in it, says Karen Johnson, director of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa. That, and of course, its very funny.
To commemorate the anniversary, the museum will hold a reunion and panel discussion later this month featuring Mendelson and some of the voice talent from A Charlie Brown Christmas, including Peter Robbins (Charlie) and Christopher Shea (Linus). The gang undoubtedly will have plenty of colorful stories to tell about the shows humble beginnings and how it made a wildly improbable journey into our national consciousness.
I honestly felt it would air one time and that would be it, says Mendelson, a resident of Hillsborough. I still watch it with the family every year and it still shocks me that it hit so big.
The concept for the show came together quickly over a weekend in 1965, says Mendelson, when he and his partner, Bill Melendez, met with Schulz in Santa Rosa to discuss how to best deploy his comic-strip characters in a holiday special for sponsor Coca-Cola.
Schulz, who died in 2000, insisted from the start that the show be more than just a bunch of mindless jingle-jangle and suggested they have Linus do a Bible reading. Melendez, the chief animator on the project, recalls shooting Mendelson a skeptical look.
I was aghast. I thought This is a cartoon. Why be so serious? says Melendez, who, at age 89, still runs an animation production company in Southern California. But Schulz insisted. He said, I want this to be about the true meaning of Christmas. If were just going to entertain people, lets not bother. I wasnt convinced at the time, but he was right about so many things.
For music Schulz wanted some Beethoven for Schroeder and, in addition, the team agreed to hire Vince Guaraldi to create a jazz score -- not exactly your typical approach for a cartoon.
Also highly unconventional was the decision to hire children to supply the voices of the characters. At the time, animation voice work was done exclusively by adults who did their best to sound like youngsters. Nine-year-old Robbins, who got his showbiz start in commercials, was assigned to Charlie Brown and initially had some trouble getting into character.
I couldnt understand why Christmas was so depressing for Charlie, says Robbins, contacted at his home in Van Nuys. Those arent the kinds of feelings little kids usually have -- unless, maybe, theyve just been told theres no Santa Claus.
But Robbins forged on (earning $400 for two days of work) and so did the rest of the crew, which crammed production into five months. The deadline rush necessitated some quick thinking -- Mendelson, for example, wrote the lyrics for the opening song Christmastime Is Here on an envelope in about 15 minutes.
It also led to some animation blunders. In one scene, Pigpen briefly vanishes from the screen midsong. In another, Schroeders fingers come off the piano, but the music continues to play.
And Charlies scrawny Christmas tree loses, then miraculously regains, a few branches.
We could have gone back and fixed them later, but we never did, says Melendez. I like the idea of leaving it as it is, warts and all. Collectively, its still OK.
So frenzied was the production process that the show didnt get delivered to CBS until a week before its air date -- a development that Mendelson is convinced helped their cause.
I truly believe that if we had given it to them a month or two early, they wouldnt have aired it. They would have just buried it, he says. But we left them with little choice.
The aspects of the special that network execs perceived as weaknesses are exactly what fans find so endearing four decades later. In an age when television routinely tosses pointless noise and slam-bang action our way, it offers a quiet and contemplative story. And its themes of anti-commercialism, seasonal anxiety and the search for a meaningful Christmas experience obviously continue to resonate.
Last December, TV Guide named A Charlie Brown Christmas the best Christmas special in television history. The ABC airing that month was seen by 13 million people -- an amazing number considering the program has been available for years on videotape and DVD. The simple little show that Mendelson thought would air once and vanish has become a holiday heirloom passed on through the generations.
The network guys were wrong and we got lucky, he says. And now we have our revenge.
Chuck Barney is the Times TV critic. Reach him at 925-952-2685 or cbarney@cctimes.com.
Good grief, its Christmas
The 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas is being commemorated in various ways this holiday season. Heres the rundown
The TV show The special has its annual airing at 8 tonight (Channels 7 and 10).
The exhibit The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa offers an exhibition of books, figurines and archival artifacts associated with the show. Now through Jan. 9.
The reunion Producer Lee Mendelson and several cast members involved in the making of the special will get together at the Schulz Museum for a panel discussion and viewing. Noon-5 p.m., Dec. 17.
The CD 40 Years -- A Charlie Brown Christmas features newly recorded versions of the original soundtrack and new songs by Vanessa Williams, David Benoit, Toni Braxton, Brian McKnight and others. (Peak Records, $14.98)
Glued to the tube
The making of a classic
December 6, 2005
By Diane Werts
Newsday
Its the ugly duckling of animation -- the little cartoon that could. Even its makers considered it a disappointment, and the network might have scrapped it altogether if it hadnt been scheduled for airing just days after completion, too close to call off.
Forty years later, its only a classic cherished by generation after generation, a landmark of pop culture known worldwide, and a poignant distillation of both the awe and the alienation stirred by the holiday season.
A Charlie Brown Christmas -- just say the title and you can hear the bouncy lines of pianist Vince Guaraldis jazzy Linus and Lucy. You can see sad little Charlie Brown moping at his empty mailbox, mulling the true meaning of Christmas. Theres his scrawny stick of a Christmas tree drooping under the weight of a single ornament. And blanket-dragging pal Linus finally proclaiming under a school stage spotlight what Christmas is all about.
This gentle 1965 holiday half-hour from Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz (airing tonight at 8 on ABC/7) encapsulates the contemporary American Christmas in a way other specials dont, no matter how much Santa Claus, reindeer, shopping and gingerbread they throw at us. Schulz understood the heart of Christmas lay not in such showy outward traditions, but in the tender yearnings annually inspired deep inside us by the promise of peace and love, togetherness and merry moments. All the mercantile tinsel piled upon the modern yule could make Christmas sag under the burden. Yet the holidays foundation -- the joy and salvation embodied in its biblical origin -- still stands strong beneath the razzle-dazzle. It needs only, like Charlies emaciated tree, a little love to make its significance resonate.
The soulful story of a sad boys search for meaning hardly seemed to have the makings of a cartoon blockbuster. No up-tempo pop sing-alongs, just a contemplative jazz score. And in lieu of professional actors, a bunch of real-life kids speaking for Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and the other Peanuts regulars. Todays tube viewers expect the unusual. But A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered in a day of just three networks, when chances were rarely taken. Nearly everything about this half-hour flouted convention, trusting instead in plain sincerity.
As producer Lee Mendelson tells it in his 2000 book A Charlie Brown Christmas The Making of a Tradition, Coca-Cola was looking to sponsor a 1965 Christmas special. Mendelson had done a documentary about Schulz and Charlie Brown, so he called his comic-sketching friend, who spouted some random ideas for an outline to meet a quick proposal deadline -- ice skating, a school play, a Christmas tree, reading from the Bible. Once approved, they were given just six months to produce the half-hour for a December airdate. Added to the thrifty team were animator Bill Melendez, whod done some brief cartoon footage for the documentary, and jazz favorite Guaraldi, whod scored it. Almost overnight, they would need to create walking, talking versions of the Peanuts characters otherwise seen in static, silent newspaper incarnations.
Decisions were made briskly, without the kind of rethinking in which brilliant inspiration gets watered down to blandness. Simplicity was the byword. Charlie Brown would sound blah. Lucy should be crabby. Linus had to spout a babes wisdom from a thumb-sucking mouth. Snoopy would not talk. The show would unpretentiously reflect the comic strips portrayal of a lovable loser always doing his best, falling short and picking himself up to try again. If on the newspaper page the reader was often the only one to appreciate Charlie Browns humble instincts, the television special would give the round-headed boy the chance to prove himself to all -- a worthy holiday gift.
But A Charlie Brown Christmas begins with Charlie being blue I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it? He bemoans Snoopys commercial Christmas and Lucys psychiatrist-stand greed. Instead of feeling happy about Christmas, he moans, I feel sort of let down.
That stark sentiment would soon be shared by the folks whod put together A Charlie Brown Christmas. Upon screening the laid-back finished product, the production team worried perhaps we had somehow missed the boat, Mendelson recalls. The network told him, It seems a little flat. The first critics review, in Time magazine, perked them up a bit; it called the special refreshingly low-key ... a special that really is special. And the ratings sent them over the moon. The lovable loser finished second in the Nielsen ratings only to Bonanza, then a network powerhouse, and a few months later, it won an Emmy for animated special.
And it has, of course, aired annually for 40 years now (first on CBS, the last four years on ABC). Families wanted to own their own VHS copies and later DVDs of A Charlie Brown Christmas, which spawned other Peanuts TV specials to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, Valentines Day, and even Arbor Day and baseball spring training. But none has quite matched the enduring appeal of Schulz & Co.s first burst of innocent insight.
Christmas touches our hearts -- even non-Christian hearts -- in a way no other holiday matches. It teases our imaginations and stirs our emotions. Over the years, we have imbued it with strains of significance from faith, family, material comfort and personal contentment. Every year, we get our hopes up that at Christmastime, no matter our state before or after, this moment will be perfect. And every year, we are, like Charlie Brown, let down by Christmas failure to meet our elevated expectations.
A Charlie Brown Christmas suggests we reassess our perspective and appreciate what we have. Even if its a stick of a tree. All it takes is a little love to make it great.
Youre a classic, Charlie Brown
Holiday favorite marking 40th year
December 5, 2005
By Darla Atlas
The Dallas Morning News
As part of the 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., is displaying letters that kids sent after the first airing in December 1965. The show, which was funded by Coca-Cola, clearly made an impression, says Jeannie Schulz, the artists widow.
One said, I promise to drink more Coke so you can put out more specials about Charlie Brown, she said in a recent telephone interview. She recalls her husband, who died in 2000, saying during the shows 25th anniversary that he was so proud. He was pleased that it had become a classic.
Not that it was destined to be one. The show wasnt well received by the suits at CBS, according to the book A Charlie Brown Christmas The Making of a Tradition. After watching a screening, they were so unimpressed that they decided to not let the Time magazine critic see it -- even though he was waiting out in the hall.
Quietly panicking, executive producer Lee Mendelson spoke up. Wont it be worse if we dont show it to him? he asked.
The execs relented, and the critic loved it. His review called it one childrens special this season that bears repeating. Which, of course, it has.
Why its still around Sure, there are flashier, even funnier, holiday shows out there. And including a Bible reading in the middle of a kids show is risky for many reasons. But if everyone was asked to name his or her favorite part of the show, most of us would quickly have an answer. (Those twins dancing, with their hair flopping from side to side, is oddly seared into our brains.) The shows staying power owes a lot to such nostalgia, Ms. Schulz says. But its not just that Its simple. Its simple and truthful.
The extras Although it kind of goes against the anti-commercialization message of the show, fans can buy stuff to commemorate its 40th year. Theres a Snoopy version of Monopoly; a special ornament that comes free with the purchase of a Keepsake model at Hallmark; a CD featuring new recordings of the shows music; and, best of all, a Charlie Brown tree of your very own. The pathetic, overgrown twig comes with a wooden stand and one red ornament, which the makers recommend be hung from the highest branch so it droops just so. The tree, selling at Urban Outfitters for $24, is inside a box that pleads, This Tree Needs You.
They dont make them like this anymore The concept of the story was Mr. Schulzs alone (with help in the execution from Mr. Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez). You look at how television shows are conceived today, and there are too many cooks, his wife says. Having a single storyteller gives it a presence and a cohesiveness.
Youre a bullied man, Charlie Brown The poor guy takes a beating in this show. A sampling of disses Boy, are you stupid, Charlie Brown. Youre hopeless, Charlie Brown, completely hopeless. Youve been dumb before, Charlie Brown, but this time youve really done it. Then they all laugh in his face for good measure. No wonder he seeks psychiatric help (although he gets it from Lucy, of all people). Nowadays, the show would end with the meanies being trotted off to sensitivity training.
The message part Even back in the 1960s, the idea of including Scripture from the book of Luke was controversial. When, according to Making of a Tradition, Mr. Melendez suggested that it seemed too religious and they shouldnt do it, Mr. Schulz replied, If we dont do it, who else can? If he was going to do a Christmas special, he said, it was going to include religion.
Candace Hackett Schively, who was part of the choir of kids singing the opening and closing numbers (Christmastime is Here and Hark the Herald Angels Sing) once wrote a letter to Mr. Schulz. She said, I cannot listen to the King James version of the Christmas story without hearing Linus voice adding, ... and thats what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Rest in heavenly peace Mr. Schulz died in his sleep the day before his final strip was scheduled to run in newspapers across the world. If youd written it like that, people would say, Well, its dramatic license, Ms. Schulz says, still amazed by the timing. Ms. Schulz says her continued involvement in the Peanuts industry has given me my life since he died. I continue to get to live in this space with him, with his memory right at my shoulder.
Working for Peanuts
Boy with paper route still caught his favorite show
December 5, 2005
By Doug MacGregor
The News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida)
The News-Press editorial cartoonist Doug MacGregor recalls his love for A Charlie Brown Christmas, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.
I was 8 years old when I first saw A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Ive loved it ever since.
I had been drawing Snoopy on his doghouse for two years and was getting darn good at it. Maybe someday, I thought, I could draw a comic strip like Charles Schulz and even have a TV show!
Not having missed A Charlie Brown Christmas for eight straight years, I had my own Charlie Brown-type experience in 10th grade.
My friend Tom in my hometown of Binghamton, N.Y., had an evening newspaper route. My brother and I had a morning route, which I loved because the paper was tabloid size and there were no inserts to deliver (or to drop).
Tom couldnt deliver his papers one evening, so I agreed to deliver them, not realizing that A Charlie Brown Christmas was on TV that night!
Good Grief!!
And there were no VCRs in those days to record anything. I hoped the newspaper truck would arrive early so I could get home before the movie started.
No such luck. No papers by 6 p.m. No papers by 630 p.m. No papers by 7 p.m.
Rats!!
Finally, the bundles arrived about 730 p.m., a half-hour before showtime. I had to stuff three inserts into each paper before heading out. No chance to see the show at home.
Double Rats!!
Fortunately, our neighborhood had houses with big living room windows. Of course every house had the show on. With a Charlie Brown grin, I watched the movie by walking house to house, peering into neighbors windows as I dodged snowmen of all sizes.
Who needed sound? I had most of the dialogue memorized, and I knew the songs by heart. So I talked and sang the show in the snow.
I hadnt missed A Charlie Brown Christmas. I was living it. Not only that, I had Christmas money when Tom paid me the next day.
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! And congratulations on bringing the holiday spirit to all for 40 years -- wherever we happened to watch it!
The Christmas classic that almost wasnt
December 5, 2005
By Bill Nichols
USA TODAY
When CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it.
They said it was slow, executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different There was no laugh track, real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi.
Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus.
We told Schulz, Look, you cant read from the Bible on network television, Mendelson says. When we finished the show and watched it, Melendez and I looked at each other and I said, Weve ruined Charlie Brown.
Good grief, were they wrong. The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nations viewers. When I started reading the reviews, I was absolutely shocked, says Melendez, 89. They actually liked it!
And when the program airs today at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary -- a run that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string of more than two dozen Peanuts specials.
Last year, 13.6 million people watched it, making it the 18th-most-popular show on television the week it aired; CSI was first. One advertiser on the show, financial services giant MetLife, has contracted to use Peanuts characters in its advertising since 1985 and will continue through at least 2012.
Schulz, who died in 2000, never doubted the power of his tale of Charlie Browns quest for the true meaning of Christmas amid the garish trappings of a commercialized holiday. It comes across in the voice of a child, says Jeannie Schulz, the wife of the cartoonist, whose friends called him Sparky. Sparky used to say there will always be a market for innocence.
Peter Robbins, now 49, was the voice of Charlie Brown. This show poses a question that I dont think had been asked before on television Does anybody know the meaning of Christmas?
Parents like Molly Kremidas, 39, who grew up adoring A Charlie Brown Christmas, watch it with their kids. Its the values in the story, says Kremidas, of Winston-Salem, N.C. Shell watch tonight with daughter Sofia, 6. Would there be any programs for children on today that could get away with talking about the real meaning of Christmas? I dont think so.
Erin Kane, 36, is eager for her 3-year-old son Tommy to watch the program for the first time tonight in their Boston home. The Christmas season doesnt start, Kane says, until Charlie Brown is on.
Hip but wholesome
On paper, the shows bare-bones script would seem to offer few clues to its enduring popularity. Mendelson says the show was written in several weeks, after Coca-Cola called him just six months before the program aired to ask if Schulz could come up with a Peanuts Christmas special.
Charlie Brown, depressed as always, cant seem to get into the Christmas spirit. His friend and nemesis Lucy suggests that he direct the gangs Christmas play. But the Peanuts crew is focused on how many presents theyre going to get, not on putting on a show.
Just send money. How about tens and twenties? says Charlies sister Sally as she dictates a letter to Santa Claus.
Charlie goes to find a Christmas tree to set the mood. He returns with a scrawny specimen that prompts his cohorts to mock him as a blockhead. In desperation, Charlie asks if anyone can explain to him what Christmas is all about.
Sure, I can, says his friend Linus, who proceeds to recite the story of the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke in the King James Version of the Bible. And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and goodwill toward men, Linus says. And thats what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Scholars of pop culture say that shining through the programs skeletal plot is the quirky and sophisticated genius that fueled the phenomenal popularity of Schulzs work, still carried by 2,400 newspapers worldwide even though its repeating old comic strips.
The Christmas special epitomizes the nostalgic appeal of holiday television classics for baby boomers raised as that medium gained prominence, says Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.
Thompson notes that other Christmas specials made during the same era -- such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman -- also air each year to strong ratings.
This is the only time in the year when TV programs from the LBJ years play on network television and do very, very well, he says. For millions of baby boomers, these things became as much a holiday tradition as hanging a stocking or putting up a tree.
What makes A Charlie Brown Christmas the gold standard in Thompsons view is that it somehow manages to convey an old-fashioned, overtly religious holiday theme thats coupled with Schulzs trademark sardonic, even hip, sense of humor.
While Schulz centers the piece on verses from the Bible, laced throughout are biting references to the modern materialism of the Christmas season. Lucy complains to Charlie that she never gets wants she really wants. What is it you want? Charlie asks. Real estate, she answers.
A key element in all of Schulzs work is his sense of mans place in the scheme of things in a theological sense as well as a psychological sense, says Thomas Inge, an English and humanities professor at Randolph-Macon College who edited a series of interviews with Schulz released in 2000. Then theres this slightly cynical attitude that makes everything work.
Parents say the combination of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. It does provide a balance, but its a balance that we as a society have forgotten about, says Patrick Lemp, 43, of West Hartford, Conn. Hell watch tonight with son Brendan, 13.
This is one of the last shows that actually comes out and talks about the meaning of Christmas. As a society, were taking religion out of a lot of the trappings of the holiday. This one is different.
A cultural footprint
Much about A Charlie Brown Christmas was revolutionary for network TV, even beyond its religious themes.
The voices of children had not been used before in animation, a technique Mendelson, Melendez and Schulz all wanted to try.
Lee didnt want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didnt have training, says Sally Dryer, 48, who did the voice of Violet -- the little girl who mocks Charlie Brown for not getting any Christmas cards. In later specials, she was Lucys voice.
Mendelson sent tape recorders home with all his employees in Burlingame, Calif. Dryer, then 8, was chosen because her sister worked for the Mendelson crew. Robbins and Christopher Shea, the voice of Linus, were the only children with professional acting experience in the cast.
The show was also novel in that it used no laugh track, an omnipresent device in animated and live-action comedies of the era. Schulz strongly believed that his audience could figure out when to laugh.
Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the show has been its score -- a piano-driven jazz suite that was absolutely unheard-of for childrens programming in 1965.
Guaraldi, the composer and pianist, was best known for a 1962 hit called Cast Your Fate To the Wind. Mendelson liked it so much that he hired Guaraldi to score a documentary about Schulz that never aired. When the Christmas program was sold, parts of that music were incorporated.
The driving tune that the Peanuts children keep dancing to in the special, called Linus and Lucy, has become a pop staple thats been recorded countless time in the intervening decades.
A new version of the soundtrack was released last month for the 40th anniversary. It features Vanessa Williams, Christian McBride, David Benoit and others.
The song that opens the program, Christmas Time is Here, was written only for piano by Guaraldi, but Mendelson decided to add words to appease other network concerns. When he found his songwriter friends in California were all tied up, Mendelson wrote the words himself on the back of an envelope.
So now its a standard, says Mendelson, now 72. Who knew? I tell people that Im old and Im lucky.
Jazz pianist George Winston, recorded a 1996 tribute album to Guaraldi, who died in 1976. He says that when he plays Guaraldi tunes at concerts, young children come up later and say, Hey, thats the Peanuts music!
Says Winston Vince made a stamp on our popular culture that will never go away. For an artist, thats the ultimate tribute.
A sweet memory
The Christmas special has become a key part of the Peanuts marketing empire, which racks up $1.2 billion in annual retail sales, $350 million of which come in the USA. Millions of VCR tapes and DVDs of the program are in circulation worldwide.
The 40th anniversary has spawned a long list of spinoff products, including a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree at Urban Outfitters and a paperback version of a book Mendelson wrote, The Making of a Tradition A Charlie Brown Christmas. And the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., where Schulz lived, plans a special commemoration on Dec. 17 with Mendelson and several cast members. The museum also has an exhibit on the Christmas show that runs through Jan. 9.
Its a tradition, along with White Christmas, A Christmas Carol and Its a Wonderful Life, says Marion Hull, 77, who toured the exhibit on Friday. Its simple, it tells a simple story, and its something that both adults and children can get something out of.
For those who worked to make the program -- as well as fans who watch it -- its material success seems ancillary. The word that keeps coming up is sweet.
Robbins, who is single, has no children and manages an apartment building in Encino, Calif., loves that kids of friends squeal with delight each Christmas that Uncle Pete used to be Charlie Brown.
Jeannie Schulz, who was the artists second wife when they married in 1973, says their five children, 25 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren see the show as a holiday tradition as well.
The reason its endured is because of its simplicity and its very basic honesty to real life, she says. Who would have thought this would last 40 years? How did that happen?
For many viewers, it is the speech by Linus from Luke near the end that packs the biggest emotional wallop.
Christopher Shea was just 7 when he did the part and credits Melendezs coaching and his moms doctorate in 17th-century British literature for Linus lilting eloquence with a Biblical text.
Shea, who now lives in Eureka, Calif., with two daughters, 11 and 16, answers quickly when asked why the special has proved so enduring. Its the words, he says.
Shea says that for years, in his teens and 20s, he didnt quite understand his soliloquys impact.
People kept coming up to me and saying, Every time I watch that, I cry, he says. But as I got older, I understood the words more, and I understood the power of what was going on. Now I cry, too.
USA TODAY reporter Bill Nichols first watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on Dec. 9, 1965. He was 7. This Thanksgiving, he watched a tape of it with his son, Charlie, 3, for the first time.
How Peanuts rates
A Charlie Brown Christmas drew 15.4 million viewers when it first aired in 1965, making it the second-most watched program on television that week.
The top show Bonanza.
Ratings last year for three cartoon favorites still airing
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), 14.9 million viewers. Tied for 15th place the week it ran. CBS.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, 13.6 million. 18th place the week it aired. ABC.
Frosty the Snowman (1969), 10.1 million. Tied for 38th place the week it aired. CBS.
A Classic Whose Message Endures
December 4, 2005
By Robert J. Thompson
Special to The Washington Post
We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. Its run by a big eastern syndicate, you know. So says Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which turns 40 this month.
By 1965, Charlie Brown and his friends already had penetrated American popular culture. Charles M. Schulzs Peanuts comic strip, which he started in 1950, already had inspired a best-selling book and a wide range of merchandising tie-ins, but Peanuts had yet to be featured in its own television show. Then Time magazine did a cover story about Schulz in April 1965. Eight months later, Schulz and former Disney animator Bill Melendez delivered the first of nearly 50 television specials.
Christmas television was on a roll in the 1960s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made its debut in 1964, How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1966 and Frosty the Snowman in 1969.
Somehow, though, A Charlie Brown Christmas remains the gold standard, perhaps because it still seems so modern. Its hard to believe that this show was made when Lyndon B. Johnson was in office and Bonanza was the biggest hit on television. It is, after all, a childrens Christmas story about a kid whos depressed.
I think there must be something wrong with me, Charlie tells Linus. Christmas is coming, but Im not happy. I dont feel the way Im supposed to feel. I always end up feeling depressed.
And Charlie relies on Lucy, a pre-adolescent quack who dispenses psychiatric advice at 5 cents per session. If we can find out what youre afraid of, she declares, we can label it. It was only 1965, but Lucy had seen the future.
With a little sleight of hand, the story then turns to the idea that the overcommercialization of the holiday is responsible for Charlies diminished emotional wellness. And the evidence is everywhere. Lucy, who delights in that beautiful sound of cold, hard cash, confesses that she hates her toys and bicycle and other presents of Christmas past -- what she really wants is real estate.
Little Sally, a toddler not yet old enough to write but with an acute sense of entitlement, dictates her letter to Santa with the request that he just send cash All I want is whats coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
Even Snoopy is made delirious by a flier for a neighborhood decorating contest that reads, Find the true meaning of Christmas. Win money, money, money.
Then the show does something extraordinary for network TV. In its low-key, minimalist way, with the cool jazz piano of Vince Guaraldi in the background,
