CliqueClack (Christmas) Kids: A Charlie Brown Christmas

When you think of Peanuts in newspaper form, what comes to mind? Probably a comic strip that, when created, was heralded for its social commentary and barbs on current events. Originally running from 1950 to February 13, 2000 (one day after creator Charles Schultz’s death), Peanuts was one of the longest running series about one person — a round-headed, luckless boy — and the world around him.

Now, when you think of Peanuts on television what comes to mind? Why, holidays of course! From Christmas to Easter to Arbor Day, Charlie Brown and the gang have covered pretty much every major and minor holiday since first being animated for the small screen in the mid-1960s. The earliest ones have become holiday classics that are honored, imitated and broadcast somewhere around the world on a daily basis. The earliest of these, A Charlie Brown Christmas, gave us melodies and scenes that we still remember from our childhood. It also gave us a message, thanks to a little boy with a security blanket and a round-headed kid with a tiny, sickly Christmas tree, about the real meaning of the holiday.

A Charlie Brown Christmas centered around Charlie Brown, who, in an attempt to feel good about the holiday, tries to find the true spirit of Christmas amongst all of its commercialism. Becoming director of the school’s Nativity play (at the behest of Lucy), Charlie Brown decides to forgo all of the modernization of the story and go the more traditional route.

This doesn’t fall onto receptive ears. Especially after he purchases a small, real Christmas tree for the play rather than a garish pink, aluminum one. Dejected, Charlie Brown ponders aloud if he really knows the true meaning of the holiday. To this Linus responds with a powerful monologue, quoting scripture, under a solitary spotlight, from the Gospel of Luke, verses 8 to 14. It’s at that point that Charlie Brown realizes that he doesn’t have to be commercial to enjoy the holiday. So, he takes his tree and departs for other pastures.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA

Arriving back home he decides to take care of the little tree on his own. Unfortunately, after adding just one ornament to the paltry fir, it collapses under the weight. This causes Charlie Brown to exclaim, “I’ve killed it. AUGHH! Everything I touch gets ruined!”, and walk away from his tree totally dejected. Sometime later, the rest of the gang, who realize they were a bit harsh to Charlie Brown, show up, see the tree, and decide to nurse it back to health. When Charlie Brown returns to the scene, he is greeted by the shout of “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!” and is surprised to find a healthy, shining little tree. The special ends with the entire cast singing a rendition of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”.

As you can see, A Charlie Brown Christmas was not your typical animated, holiday special of that time. Instead of going the standard route like Rankin-Bass studios did in their specials, The Peanuts special touched on a number of themes of the holiday season. Particularly the commercial and religious sides of Christmas, as well as what the true meaning of the holiday was. Because of these themes, as well the script and the special’s soundtrack, A Charlie Brown Christmas was not an instant sell.

In fact, it was barely any sell at all. When the special was first proposed to CBS by Charles Schultz, it was not greeted with open arms by the network. Both Schultz and producer Bill Melendez needed to fight with the suits in order to have their visions appear on the small screen. This included Linus’ reciting of the ‘Birth of Christ’. During a 2001 special on the making of A Charlie Brown Christmas, a story was told of Schultz saying to the network executives of Linus’ speech, “If we don’t tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?”

Another problem the network bigwigs had was with the show’s soundtrack of jazz compositions created by the musician Vince Guaraldi. Previous animated holiday fare focused more on the classic rendering of Christmas tunes rather than a more modern slant on them. Schultz disagreed and had Guaraldi produce a number of jazz-inspired songs. This was an ironic point, since the theme of A Charlie Brown Christmas was a focus on traditional rather than modern holiday beliefs.

All of these factors, combined with the choppy animation and soundtrack that was produced on a shoestring budget, gave the network executives over at CBS nightmares. This, despite the sponsorship of Coca-Cola. Nevertheless, they decided to give a greenlight to the program. Worse come to worse, the special would be a total flop and the investment would be a one-time loss.

However, the special did very much the opposite of what the network executives thought. When it premiered on December 9th, 1965 — preempting The Munsters — it became a critical and commercial success, with 50% of all televisions switching over to CBS. It won both a Peabody and an Emmy and produced a successful soundtrack that not only lasted the ages, but gave us the instrumental titled “Linus and Lucy,” a song that eventually became the signature theme for future Peanuts specials.

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It also lasted on the CBS schedule, where it continued to be hosted by Coca-Cola for the first three airings. By 1968, sponsorship was taken up by Dolly Madison, with McDonald’s following suit throughout the 70s and 80s. The network continued to air the special, albeit with several cuts due to increased advertising, well into the 1990s. When ABC bought the rights to air A Charlie Brown Christmas, it restored all of the cut scenes.

A Charlie Brown Christmas was not the only Christmas-themed special that was produced. Twenty-seven years after the initial show premiered, CBS aired It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. Rather than focusing on an on-going story, like the original, Christmastime Again featured different stories of various Peanuts characters that originally came from the comic strip. Two more Christmas specials – Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales and I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown – premiered on the ABC network in the early 2000’s.

A Charlie Brown Christmas still remains an extremely popular holiday special. It has become significantly more important as the holiday has become more and more commercial and the true reason for the celebration has become less significant. Airing in countries around the world, Charles Schultz’s vision has become a calling card for others to embrace the lessons the holiday has taught us and to realize that, sometimes, little miracles do exist.

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Dec 15, 2008 @ 12:00 EST5EDT