Description
A Charlie Brown Christmas
I don’t often tell a story like this one, but this time I do so because it’s personal.
On Thursday, December 9, 1965, CBS television (one of the big three, and only three) took a big gamble in airing for the first time an animated children’s Christmas special—A Charlie Brown Christmas.
They had commissioned the special and Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comics, had agreed. Schulz and two colleagues only had six months to put it together, something they had never done before. In one day, they put together the script, most of the ideas coming from Charles Schulz. Schulz wanted the special to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and the ideas for the plot seemed to flow non-stop from him.
During the plot development, Schulz’s colleagues balked at the scene of Linus quoting from the Bible. Even then it was considered controversial, but Schulz insisted saying, “If we don’t do it, who will?” And the scene stayed. Schulz also insisted on real children’s voices as the actors, not adults. And even then, the children were not professional actors. In fact, Lucy was so young, at only six, that she could not read, so the producers had to give her one line at a time to read.
The music was unusual: a mix of Jazz, classical, and contemporary. It stood out and set a wonderful upbeat tone for the first ever Peanuts special.
Coca-Cola sponsored it. CBS didn’t like it, and everyone had their doubts. The producers themselves came together and watched it three weeks before it went to air, and one of them said to the others, “I think we’ve ruined Charlie Brown.” They fully expected it to air once and never be seen again.
Nevertheless, the die was cast and the contract signed. Expecting it to be a flop, it aired on Thursday December 9, 1965. At 7:30 pm. Fifteen million people, or 45% of all televisions in America that night, tuned in and watched. It was a huge success. The people loved it.
The following year, 1966, it aired again, and again on CBS until the year 2000. In 1966 it won a Tony award as well as an Emmy. A Charlie Brown Christmas was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007, and added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry list of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” American sound recordings in 2012.”
And it deserves to be there!
Way back when that show first aired, I was a little boy growing up on the ranch in the Hayden Creek Valley of Idaho. In those days and in that place, we only got one television channel and most of the programming was snow. Why? Because by the time the signal was bounced by repeater into the Lemhi mountains, the shows resembled a snowstorm.
Nonetheless, I saw it. And to this day, I can still hear Christopher Shea as the voice of Linus quoting Luke 2, when Linus comes to that part where he says,
“Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
I can still hear him emphasizing the words “A Savior.” I felt something new and wonderful when I heard that. I was not a Christian, but I heard that, and even though I did not understand what it meant, I felt something good, and I never forgot it. Later, I would learn and cherish what those words meant. I thank Charles M. Schulz who pushed back and insisted that the Bible was still relevant in a modern world.
Oh, and one more thing, did you ever notice that the moment when Linus declares, “Fear not,” is the first and only time in his entertainment career that Linus dropped his security blanket.
Was it intentional on Schulz’s part? Of course. And indeed, in Christ, our Savior, perfect love casteth out all fear.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas
copyright: Glenn Rawson 2024
