A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles M. Schulz’s beloved Yuletide classic, is set to return to ABC for two airings this holiday season.The digitally remastered 1965 special celebrates its 53 rd anniversary this year, with airings on December 6 and 20, according to ABC.The 30-minute special, Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales, airs immediately following the Emmy-winning animated classic.
Blooper: Given the insistence by Schulz and Mendelson on using actual children to play the Peanuts characters (and child-actors weren't really a thing in 1965), it's no surprise some lines were flubbed:
Lucy calls the fear of cats 'ailurophasia' instead of 'ailurophobia'.
Sally trips over the line 'All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.' This is due to the fact that the girl who voiced her was so young that she hadn't learned how to read yet and had to be fed her lines word by word, and in some cases, syllable by syllable.
Channel Hop: After airing on CBS for 36 straight years, the special moved to its present network home of ABC in 2001.
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Children Voicing Children: The very first, and boy, was it a hassle for the crew!
Christmas Rushed: Schulz and his team were given six months to complete the special in time for the holiday season, and animating didn't start until the third month in.* The result speaks for itself.
Dawson Casting: Famously averted. Schulz insisted on having actual children voice his characters, the first time something like that had ever been done in a cartoon. However, some of the kids in this special were so young they couldn't read well yet (or, in Sally's case, at all), so they had to be fed their lines, leading to the stilted delivery that became emblematic of the franchise.
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Defictionalization: Ironically, given the short's anti-commercialism message, replicas of the little flimsy tree Charlie Brown gets have become popular Christmas decorations.
Edited for Syndication: In its original 1965 broadcast, this cartoon clocked in at just over 26 minutes. Nowadays, American TV networks have a lot more time devoted to commercials than back then. So for most of its subsequent airings, several scenes have been cut short (the first dancing scene) or cut out entirely (much of the beginning). Even in its first VHS release, the scene of the kids throwing snowballs at the can on the fence was cut out. It was restored for its second VHS release and was re-instated in network broadcasts in 1997.
Coca-Cola was the special's original sponsor, and two brief shots were animated near the beginning of and at the very end of the special mentioning this. The first occurs after Snoopy slings Charlie Brown into the tree during the ice skating scene: Snoopy is shown slinging Linus in the opposite direction of Charlie Brown, and Linus skids across the ice before bumping into a sign with a Coke advert on it. The second is at the very end of the credits, which brings up the same advertisement message for a few seconds before cutting to the end card. Once Coke's sponsorship deal ended, these scenes were edited out, with later broadcasts simply fading to black before the adverts can show up. For decades, people thought that these adverts were permanently lost, with the only video evidence of their existence being sourced from low-quality VCR recordings.note However, in late 2018, a 16mm film positive of A Charlie Brown Christmas with the Coke ads intact was recovered, digitized, and dumped online, allowing one to view the uncut special in high quality. The only caveat though is the quality of the transfer: reds and greens are unnaturally prominent thanks to the dyes in the film stock having faded over the years, dust is noticeable here and there, and a linear scratch runs across the entire length of the print. Because this was a raw transfer, no restoration work was done, and an official restoration based on this print is unlikely due to rights issues regarding the Coca-Cola brand name.
Interestingly enough, Coca-Cola offered to restore the cut sponsor tags when the special was remastered, but Schulz's estate turned them down, believing A Charlie Brown Christmas to be perfectly fine without them. To be fair, they would undermine the anti-commercialism message of the story.
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The 21st-century showings on ABC (which generally broadcasts both the cut version and the uncut version over a given holiday season) have taken further cuts, removing such iconic moments as Lucy pestering Schroeder over the proper playing of 'Jingle Bells', to even cutting poor Shermy's only line.
The show is often paired with the much shorter Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales so that it can be shown intact and allowed to run over time.
Executive Meddling: Ultimately averted. CBS executives had issues with the special as it was originally put together. They objected to…
The Scripture quotation that Linus recites to explain the meaning of Christmas.
Using actual children to voice the Peanuts characters.
The absence of a laugh track.
The Vince Guaraldi jazz score.
The fact that Santa's not in it.
In other words, nearly everything that makes this program a timeless classic. Fortunately, Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson, and Bill Melendez stuck to their guns and were vindicated the moment it aired. note
Magnum Opus Dissonance:
Nobody behind the project thought it was any good when they finished; Lee Mendelson and the rest of the team felt they 'ruined Charlie Brown' when they looked at the final cut before it aired.
It apparently took a while for Charles Schulz himself to realize how iconic this special had become. In the late 1980's he fretted that he hadn't produced his 'own Citizen Kane' and invested a good deal of time and money on his intended masterpiece, the flop live-action/animated combo It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown. Any fan could've told him he'd already made his Citizen Kane way back in 1965. (For added irony, Orson Welles didn't consider the actual Citizen Kane to be his masterpiece either)
Network to the Rescue: CBS made some cuts to the special in the '90s because shows made more room for commercials by then (see Edited for Syndication above). When ABC acquired the rights in 2001, they blocked out a full hour for the special so that it could run uncut* , commissioning Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales to fill the extra time. Note that ABC also airs a cut version during the season, but there will be at least one full-length airing.
Never Work with Children or Animals: Schulz' insistence on using actual children as the voice actors for the cast meant that the recording sessions were apparently complete chaos, with many of the young actors (some of whom couldn't even read and had to be fed their lines one at a time) struggling with the complex dialogue and excited children running rampant around the recording studio. Impressively, despite the difficulty of working with actual children, they still managed to complete all the recording in one day.
Not Screened for Critics: CBS was so disappointed in A Charlie Brown Christmas before its first airing that they refused to let any TV critics see it beforehand, terrified that the inevitable avalanche of bad reviews would sink everyone's careers. They were eventually forced to relent in recognition of what happens when this trope is played, and let one writer from Time Magazine in – he watched the special at CBS's office and then left without saying a word. Initially, this vindicated CBS's decision, but when the next issue of Time came out, the critic's review of the special was glowing.
Off-Model: Several animation errors exist, thanks in no small part to its cheap and rushed production:
One that Schulz himself often pointed out was that Charlie Brown's tree inexplicably grows a few branches between its introduction and the point where Charlie 'kills' it.
The words on Lucy's 'Psychiatric Help 5¢' stand change twice in less than a minute.
In the original closing credits, with the Coke sponsor tag, Snoopy appears to be singing along with the kids, as his lips are flapping along with the music. His mouth is even moving when they all shout, 'Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!' This was later altered and fixed so now Snoopy is simply howling to the music. Additionally an error where the background characters overlap the foreground characters for one frame also occurs though strangely it is not present in the original 1965 version.
Pop Culture Urban Legends: There's a false rumor that the special originally featured characters throwing snowballs at a Coca Cola can that was removed when the sponsorship deal fell through. While the scene being cut to save on time was nothing out of the ordinary, possibly what sparked this rumor was the fact that it was also missing from home video releases (which aren't confined to time for commercials) for some amount of time, leading people to falsely believe that it had to be cut for that reason. Later, when the scene was added back in for certain broadcasts, viewers noticed that the kids were throwing snowballs at a generic tin food can, not a Coca-Cola can, leading to rumors that it was Edited for Syndication, again due to the Coca-Cola deal having lapsed. Both rumors were finally laid to rest when an old film print that still had the sponsorship tags intact resurfaced on the internet, showing that the food can was indeed always a food can.
The Red Stapler: Inversion: The special almost single-handedly destroyed the market for Aluminum Christmas Trees so completely that later generations have to be reminded that such a thing actually existed. That's the reason they're even a trope, tacky metal Christmas trees vanished from American culture overnight so thoroughly that many younger viewers thought they were something Charles Schulz had made up.
Throw It In!: Since the special ran on limited production time, the crew did this to a lot of the kids' lines. One notable example is Lucy misidentifying 'ailurophasia' as the fear of cats instead of 'ailurophobia'.
What Could Have Been:
When CBS ordered this special, they wanted a lighthearted goofy cartoon with the Peanuts characters that just happened to take place at Christmas time (evidently the suits hadn't read the comics very closely). They weren't expecting the potshots at commercialism or Linus's Bible recitation. It's a good thing the special didn't go this direction, because it wouldn't be nearly so memorable otherwise.
The slam against commercialism and the Bible recitation were only two of what the suits perceived as a laundry list of 'issues' with the show. Others were the lack of a Laugh Track† , the use of actual children for the voice acting instead of adults, and the Vince Guaraldi jazz score. (The tune 'Linus and Lucy' became an icon of the franchise, and Vince scored 17 otherPeanuts specials and the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown before his death). Thank goodness Schulz and Melendez stood their ground.
'Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales' seems to fit the idea of what CBS expected. So in a way, ABC got what CBS originally paid for.
Dave Brubeck and Cal Tjader both turned down offers to do the music, because they were too busy. Brubeck later did the score for This is America, Charlie Brown: The NASA Space Station.
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Melendez/Mendelson Productions (1965), Warner Home Video (October 7, 2008), 1 disc, 25 mins plus supplements, 1.33:1 original full frame ratio, Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, Not Rated, Retail: $19.98
Storyboard:
The very first Peanuts special sees Charlie Brown dejected at the commercialization of Christmas, but his friends still manage to help him discover the true meaning of Christmas.
The Sweatbox Review:
It’s a little odd to be writing this review at the tail end of reviewing several Peanuts specials. The Christmas one was the very first, back in 1965. It was so successful in establishing a template for future specials that dozens more followed over the next few decades. There was magic right from the start. And, though you’d never know it from watching this DVD, the magic started a couple of years earlier when a documentary producer named Lee Mendelson decided to pursue a professional relationship with Charles Schulz.
Mendelson had done a well-received documentary on Willie Mays, and decided to stick with baseball for his next subject; but this time, he wanted to profile the worst player in the world, Charlie Brown. Schulz lived not far from Mendelson in the bay area of California, and Schulz had himself seen and enjoyed the Mays documentary. This started the Schulz documentary project on the right foot, and then two more men fatefully became involved. Veteran animator Bill Melendez had already been handling the Peanuts characters for a series of Ford commercials, so it was only natural that he be enlisted to provide animation for the documentary. After all, he had already done animation designs for the characters, figured out their walk cycles, and so forth. The last piece of the puzzle was Bay jazz pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi, whose music would provide the perfect accent to the struggle between the joyful and the melancholy in the strip. The resulting documentary was A Boy Named Charlie Brown. It was one of the most important things to ever happen to Charles Schulz and Peanuts— and yet it never aired. No network ever agreed to play it, until it was re-edited and re-formed years later. However, it did get these four men together, which prepared them for a very important phone call in 1965.
Mendelson may not have sold his documentary, but it still attracted plenty of attention while he shopped it around. Coca-Cola became interested in partnering with Mendelson for a TV special, if Mendelson thought he had a Christmas special ready to go. Mendelson said he did, thinking there’d be plenty of time to come up with something. As it turned out, he was only given a few days, which led to what was probably a calm (on the outside) and desperate (on the inside) phone call to Charles Schulz. Melendez proudly informed Schulz that he had just likely sold A Charlie Brown Christmas. When Schulz asked what that was, Mendelson told him that it was what Schulz was going to write over the weekend.
Schulz did the script, while Mendelson and Melendez also helped to shape the planned special. This was new to all of them. After all, the very first animated Christmas special had just been done in 1962, when Mr. Magoo played Ebenezer Scrooge in his own special. They all had to learn the fundamentals of making an animated TV special— pacing, music, and a balance between gags and story. AND, of course, they had to capture the essence of a world-famous comic strip. The fact that they had all worked on A Boy Named Charlie Brown was a big advantage, but there was still much to be worked out.
Schulz came up with a story that seemed promising, at least until the details were getting worked out. Charlie Brown, despondent that he feels only depressed during the Christmas season, confides with Linus that he doesn’t seem to understand Christmas. This strains even Linus’ normally understanding nature, and Charlie gets passed on to Linus’ sister Lucy, who is operating a psychiatric booth. Unusually, she actually gives Charlie Brown good advice, and even an opportunity. She invites him to direct the gang’s Christmas play, the idea being that this will help him to feel more a part of things this season. This perks Charlie Brown up, but there are still things he sees that bother him. Even his dog Snoopy has fallen in with the commercialization of the holiday, as Snoopy has entered a home decorating contest that has a cash prize. Plus, his sister Sally shows only greed while Charlie helps her to write a letter to Santa. Nevertheless, Charlie Brown looks forward to directing the Christmas play.
The same cannot be said for the rest of the gang, who show a definite lack of enthusiasm when Lucy reveals their new director. Charlie Brown has difficulty getting cooperation, and finally Lucy sends him on an errand to buy a tree with Linus in order to provide inspiration to the players. This naturally goes wrong too, as the gang feels the little tree Charlie Brown chose is too plain and small and ordinary. Linus intervenes by quoting the Bible story of Jesus’ birth, and suddenly everything is placed into perspective. Somewhat heartened, Charlie Brown heads out into the night with his tree. With Linus’ words echoing in his head and heart, he becomes determined to not let commercialism wreck Christmas for him. Unfortunately, he has to endure just one more heartbreak, but then his friends manage to find the Christmas spirit and bring a smile to Charlie’s face. Cue spine tingle.
You know, I think that I appreciate this special more every year. As much as it looks like a kids’ special, the message is probably even stronger for adults, particularly those with kids of their own. As society becomes ever more secular, the message of A Charlie Brown Christmas becomes more important. After so many showings of this special over the years, it is amazing to consider that its moral seemed so revolutionary in its day. Many involved felt that they had maybe gone too far in using biblical text in the show, not to mention criticizing modern society and reminding everyone that the holiday was really about the birth of the son of God. Fortunately, Charles Schulz insisted. Oddly, Schulz always claimed that he was never preachy in his strip, but the Christian viewpoint comes out loud and clear in both the strip and this Christmas special. And really, where would that be more appropriate than here?
Aside from the classic story that we all remember, I’m amazed every year to be reminded just how deceptively great the animation is (look at Snoopy gliding on the ice in an early scene), and how many funny lines there are throughout. The good humor provides a nice counterbalance to what is otherwise a melancholy story, while suggesting the promise of a happy ending. And of course, the music is just gorgeous. I bought a soundtrack CD for this special a couple of years ago, and the music holds up excellently on its own.
With a balanced script that evokes laughter as easily as pathos, splendid animation, charming voice performances, and superb music, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a classic all the way.
Is This Thing Loaded?
The disc actually starts with promos for the Peanuts holiday DVDs, Jack Frost, and a Scooby-Doo interactive DVD game. More Trailers may be found from the menu, including Scooby-Doo And The Goblin King, Fred Claus, Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6, Popeye The Sailor Volume 2, and The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two.
Warner placed another special on this disc, the same one that Paramount chose with their A Charlie Brown Christmas disc. (There were actually a total of four Peanuts Christmas specials produced over the years, though one ran shorter than most; on the other hand, one was an hour.) It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown , which appears on this disc, was broadcast in 1992, about two months after being released as an exclusive promotional videotape at Shell gas stations. This special is the epitome of the “episodic” specials that Charlie Brown sometimes got. It includes various ruminations on the Christmas season, obviously directly adapted from the daily strip. Among the many mini-plots are Charlie Brown trying to sell Christmas wreaths door to door, and planning to buy gloves for Peggy Jean, a girl he met at camp that summer. Taken as essentially replacing the reading of the strips from the newspaper, it’s quite enjoyable; just don’t expect a full story.
A Christmas Miracle: The Making Of A Charlie Brown Christmas (15:57) is the requisite “Making of” featurette, following in the footsteps of the previous ones found on the Warner-produced discs. While this featurette is a keeper, it is not as rewarding as the “Making of” that aired in 2001 on ABC along with the actual special. The earlier featurette was also included (rather oddly) in the Paramount DVD of I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown. The newer version, while it does have some nice interview footage with Mendelson and Melendez, as well as Jeannie Schulz and others, totally ignores the tremendously important role of the A Boy Named Charlie Brown documentary in gathering the team that went on to do the Christmas special. It also barely acknowledges the early TV commercials, whereas the original featurette covered these things quite satisfactorily.
In the Peanuts Holiday Collection box set, this title comes with a second disc that is a soundtrack CD for the special. Six tracks are featured, including Linus And Lucy, but the memorable opening song Christmas Time Is Here is ironically NOT here.
Case Study:
Standard keepcase, with a bright & shiny, foil embossed slip-sleeve. Inside is an advertising insert, with instructions for downloading two Guaraldi tunes from Concorde Music Group. This DVD is also part of the Peanuts Deluxe Holiday Collection. In this set, which also has the Halloween and Thanksgiving DVDs, there are no foil slip-sleeves, but all three discs get the same cases otherwise and are packaged together in a foil embossed slipcase instead. In the box set, the Christmas DVD case has a tray for another disc (actually, the main case holds the music CD, while the tray holds the DVD itself).
Ink And Paint:
After the disappointment of the video quality in A Charlie brown Thanksgiving, I was braced for another letdown. Fortunately, that was unnecessary, as A Charlie Brown Christmas looks wonderful. It verges on looking brand-new, except for telltale signs that it was cel-animated. But even then, the amount of cel dust is relatively small, and the source material is nearly immaculate. I shouldn’t oversell it, I suppose, as this is still an old TV special, with a bit of grain and sometimes too-pink faces; but the picture here is sharp and bright, and A Charlie Brown Christmas has certainly never looked better.
Scratch Tracks:
This was the first time that most people would hear Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts music, including what has become the Peanuts “theme,” Linus And Lucy. And it sounds just great here on DVD. I have a remastered CD soundtrack, and to my ears it’s no better than what is found here. Listening to this music is just bliss, and brings me back to my childhood. All of the other noises (voices and sound effects) are just fine too, of course. And if the line deliveries sound a little amateurish, there’s a reason. Only two of the child actors were professionals, and no adults were allowed to voice the kids. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, but now it’s hard to imagine them ever doing it any other way. What studio executives thought sounded amateurish comes off as sincere and genuine to me.
Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese language tracks are also included, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Final Cut:
It would be nice to get more special features, notably some production artwork or an audio commentary, on the Warner Peanuts discs, but overall they are putting out a consistently good line of products. It’s very nice to have A Charlie Brown Christmas with such pristine audio and video, and the featurette is good if not perfect. The added special is a nice bonus, but the extras here are beside the point. This TV special was the very first Peanuts special, and given that it was a smashing success, the creative people involved never bettered it. Amazingly, they still managed to do dozens of specials that often came close; but there is just something about a Christmas special that gives it an advantage over anything else. And this is certainly one of the greatest ever.