Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
With the holidays now upon us, I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my favourite
traditions, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Peanuts is synonymous with holidays, even the more obscure ones and in this video we
will see how Charles Schulz’s comic strip was first adapted to television and how it
became for many an annual holiday tradition.
Television was still a relatively new medium in mid-1960s, having replaced radio following
the second World War.
Like its predecessor, it had the ability to bring families together and when are families
together more than on the holidays.
As far as I found the first television Christmas special was Walt Disney’s One Hour In Wonderland.
Airing on Christmas Day 1950, this was Disney’s first television production and served as
a promotional tool for the upcoming release of Alice in Wonderland.
That same year, cartoonist Charles Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts debuted.
Schulz began his career in 1947 with Li’l Folks, a single panel precursor to Peanuts,
featuring many of the same archetypes and themes.
Schulz contacted the United Feature Syndicate with hopes of them distributing Li’l Folks
but around this time, he had also been developing a cast of characters for a four panel strip.
UFS accepted this strip and on October 2, 1950, Peanuts premiered, appearing in less
than ten newspapers.
By the end of the decade Peanuts would be a phenomenon, thanks its neurotic star Charlie
Brown.
I believe this character resonated so much because he is a celebration of everything
we usually keep locked up inside.
In many ways, Charlie Brown is our embarrassment personified, a reflection of our fears and
failures.
Unlike his peers, Schulz’s work took a sardonic tone and dealt openly with issues like depression
and existential dread.
The strip was so successful, that by the 1960s it was being read by 355 million people in
21 different languages daily.
In 1959, Schulz began a partnership with the Ford Motor Company.
The Peanuts characters began appearing in ads for their automobiles as well as during
the opening of their sponsored program the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.
These spots were animated by Bill Meléndez, who had previously worked for UPA, Warner
Bros. and Disney, where he took part in the strike of 1941.
More on that in our Faith and John Hubley video.
Meléndez would start his own production company in 1963.
Also in 1963, television producer Lee Mendelson approached Charles Schulz about making a documentary
on him and Peanuts.
Mendelson had produced the documentary A Man Named Mays on baseball player Willie Mays
and was drawn to Schulz not only for his popularity but also his apparent love of baseball.
The documentary, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, not to be confused with 1969 feature, would
never air, due to lack of network interest.
However, while it was being shopped around, The Coca-Cola Company reached out to Mendelson
about producing an animated Christmas special.
Yearly specials had become a television staple during the holidays, again family, togetherness,
and Peanuts recent Time Magazine cover story convinced executives of their mass appeal.
Mendelson and Schulz prepared their pitch in one day, which closely resembled the finished
product.
It would feature the Peanuts gang in winter scenes and a school play, to a soundtrack
of jazz and traditional Christmas music, with Schulz insisting, most controversially, religion
also play a part.
This pitch was accepted for a December broadcast, leaving a tight six months for production.
Mendelson and Schulz enlisted Bill Meléndez to direct and animate the special, given his
experience on the Ford ads.
Schulz was known for his sparse style and so Meléndez was limited in what personality
could be conveyed with movement alone.
However, with his backgrounds, he created a vibrant world for the Peanuts characters
to live in.
He also gave voice to the most expressive character, Snoopy.
Going against convention, the other characters were all voiced by children, most notably
eight-year old Peter Robbins, who provided Charlie Brown’s malaise.
Tracy Stratford was tasked with bringing the precocious Lucy to life and Christopher Shea’s
lisp fit Linus’ quiet, yet commanding, demeanour perfectly.
The final, and in my opinion, most enduring aspect of the special, is the music.
While Mendelson was producing the unaired Schulz documentary, he contacted jazz pianist
Vince Guaraldi to compose its score.
Guaraldi, who had found mainstream success with 1962’s Cast Your Fate to the Wind,
agreed, and penned the piece Linus and Lucy as the film’s theme.
This is probably the piece of music most closely associated with Peanuts.
Guaraldi was brought on to compose jazz instrumentals as well perform renditions of traditional
carols.
His originals, Christmas Is Coming and Christmas Time Is Here, have since become standards.
Now Guaraldi wasn’t exactly the best at crediting other musicians so I’d like to
acknowledge the contributions of bassists Fred Marshall, Monty Ludwig, Eugene Firth
and Al Obidinski as well as drummers Colin Bailey, Paul Distel, Jerry Granelli and Benny
Barth, all of which at one time were involved in the recording sessions.
A children’s choir from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church bookends the special, with vocal performances
of Christmas Time is Here and Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was completed a mere ten days before its scheduled broadcast.
When it premiered on December 9, 1965, all involved were convinced it would be a failure.
On the contrary, it was viewed by nearly 15 and half million people and received overwhelming
critical praise.
It would go on to win both an Emmy and a Peabody Award and influence everything that came after
it.
Watching it today, I must say there is still something so undeniably hip about A Charlie
Brown Christmas.
Many Peanuts specials followed, my favourite being The Great Pumpkin, but even with the
same team, I believe its magic was never quite replicated.
It was instantly a tradition.
For many years it was an annual must-see event, miss it, and that’s it.
It’s gone until next year.
Home video has somewhat negated this but 52 years after it’s premiere it continues to
air in prime time, along with its contemporaries.
To think, in the span of five years we had Rudolph, Peanuts, The Grinch and Frosty.
All of these are still shown yearly and treated as cultural institutions.
Many specials have been produced since, and while some have even enjoyed prolonged relevance,
none have had the staying power like the ones I just mentioned.
What is it about these specials that has allowed them to stand the test of time?
There is the obvious answer, these networks are programmed by people who grew up with
them.
It’s their nostalgia they’re simply prolonging and passing down.
However, I believe these specials endure because were produced at the time when television
was defining itself.
They are sewn into the fabric of the medium.
They still appear on television because they are television.
Putting sentimentality aside, A Charlie Brown Christmas, I believe, will come represent
what television was, in part, long after its last transmission.
As always I will post links to relevant material in the description.
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I have been Brian Clarke.
Thank you so much for watching.