Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts has inspired no less than 50 different television specials; but of course, the best and most beloved is the one that started it all: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Last week in Webb, I named that as my single favorite holiday movie; so now let’s expand a bit with background and trivia on this very special special:
Having launched in 1950, Schulz’s daily newspaper strip had become a cultural institution by 1965. Producer Lee Mendelson was working on a documentary about the Peanuts creator when Coca-Cola reached out about a Christmas special for TV.
Though that documentary — A Boy Named Charlie Brown — never actually aired, it was key to launching the Peanuts on television: Mendelson had already lined up jazzer Vince Guaraldi for his movie’s score, along with Bill Melendez for some animation. The producer gave a “yes” to Coke, even though he hadn’t yet talked to Schulz or Mendelson.
Phoning the former, whose childhood nickname was Sparky (ironically, for a comic-strip character), Mendelson told him, “I think I may have just sold a Charlie Brown Christmas show.”
“And what show might that be?” Sparky asked.
“The one you need to make an outline for tomorrow,” said Mendelson — and the two of them promptly laid out a makeshift plot that remained the same throughout the busy sixth-month production.
The Mexican-born Melendez, who had done cartoon work for Disney and Warner Bros., wound up handling all the Peanuts specials. For this first, he produced over 13,000 drawings; so none of the artwork in those shows was done by Schulz, who recognized that animation required a special set of skills he did not have.
Meanwhile Guaraldi, whom Mendelson first contacted after hearing the pianist over his car radio, adapted existing music from the doc (including “Linus & Lucy”); he also added versions of familiar carols — some recorded with a children’s choir from a California church.
And Guaraldi likewise composed the brand-new songs “Skating” and “Christmas Time Is Here.” As production was coming down to the wire and a set of lyrics was needed for the latter — now pretty much a holiday standard — Mendelson jotted down a few stanzas “in about fifteen minutes on the back of an envelope,” the producer recalled.
Though Guaraldi died at only 47, he did score the first 15 specials; and Charlie Brown Christmas remains the second-best-selling jazz album ever (after Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue). One other trivia note: For bass and percussion on the album, Guaraldi was accompanied by different musicians than those on the actual TV soundtrack.
And speaking of sound:
Sparky absolutely refused to allow a laugh-track, though this was industry standard at the time. Likewise, Mendelson and crew broke with tradition by having actual children do the dialog, rather than adults as in most cartoons of the day.
In fact, six-year-old Cathy Steinberg, who played Sally, was not yet even able to read — so Melendez fed her the lines one at a time! There was also a moment of triumph when casting agent Hazel McMillen found their Linus: Christopher Shea, whose “slight lisp gave him a youthful sweetness while his emotional delivery gave him power and authority as well” — in Mendelson’s words.
Snoopy was handled by Melendez, who spouted gibberish and then sped up the tape so nobody could tell.
Remarkably, despite a very active young cast, all the vocals were nailed down in a single day, with Jefferson Airplane — who were recording next door — dropping over to get the kids’ autographs.
But initial response to the finished product was less than enthusiastic.
As Wikipedia puts it, “All involved believed the special would be a disaster.” In fact, after an initial screening, CBS execs complained so stridently that, Mendelson said, “I really believed, if it hadn’t been scheduled for the following week, there’s no way they were gonna broadcast that show.”
Fortunately, they were all dead wrong.
The special premiered on Dec. 9 in The Munsters’ time-slot, coming in second in viewership just behind Bonanza — a success it sustained throughout the coming decades. Critics raved, calling it “fascinating and haunting,” “a yule classic” and “the dramatic highlight of the season.” The Washington Post summed it up nicely: “natural-born loser Charlie Brown finally turned up a real winner last night.”
The show went on to win an Emmy and — another cool tidbit from Wikipedia — the business with Charlie Brown’s real tree “practically eliminated the popularity of the aluminum tree, which was a fad at the time.”
Having shown on regular television for 57 years, the special is currently available for viewing only on Apple TV. But of course, the DVD makes a nice affordable gift — for those of us who still have a player!
As Mendelson might say: It’s fun for all … that children call … their favorite time of year.
This article owes a debt to Mendelson’s book on the making of the special, pub. Harper, 2000.
