“A Charlie Brown Christmas” turns 50

A Charlie Brown Christmas was looked down on by TV executives and criticized for reciting the story of Jesus’ birth and upholding it as the true meaning of the holidays – but 50 years on, the animated feature has become an annual Christmas tradition on television at least once a year all around the world. It aired for the first time on TV in 1965. Children, not the customary adult voice actors, spoke for the characters. Violet has failed to send Charlie Brown a Christmas card, and mocks him when he mentions that fact.

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (2002): This aired on ABC and has been released on DVD along with the third special I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003), which also aired on ABC.

“The network was a little leery of it”, Mr. Mendelson said. The animation was crude, clunky. “And the jazz music was a big deal, too”. But in Mendelson’s house, you needn’t look hard at all because there is a lot of Charlie Brown stuff.

“‘Linus and Lucy, ‘ there’s something about it”, Benoit said.

Derrick Bang, who wrote the 2012 biography, “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano”, said Guaraldi’s Peanuts compositions were “happy, friendly, cheerful bossa nova tunes”. “You can not listen to Guaraldi’s original compositions without smiling”. In the inaugural airing of the Christmas show, Schulz’s first foray into TV, Snoopy spins Charlie Brown and Linus around on a frozen pond, sending the former crashing into a tree underneath the special’s title, followed by Linus plowing into a sign that reads, “Brought to you by the people in your town who bottle Coca-Cola”. Mendelson, however, knew Charlie Brown and the “Peanuts” always stood a strong chance. “It was already a popular strip, and so not to include that kind of melancholia would’ve been a mistake”. Again, Schulz – who according to his biographer was engaged in a lifelong internal struggle over his own Christian beliefs – was insistent: “We can’t avoid it”.

“We thought there would be one broadcast and I would go back to making documentaries”.