The plot is thin. The pace is slow. The music is decidedly not rock ‘n’ roll.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a beloved piece of Americana, despite its flaws and idiosyncrasies, or maybe because of them. There’s reason to consider this cultural icon now because the animated TV special turns 40 this year.
That’s right, it was 40 years ago that Charlie Brown first decried the commercialization of Christmas.
Forty years ago he placed a single red ball on his sorry but real Christmas tree and lamented, “I’ve killed it!”
In a bit of irony, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and the show’s collaborators worried that the special, which airs Tuesday on ABC (7 p.m. on KMGH- Channel 7), would flop.
“We thought we had destroyed ‘Peanuts,”‘ said Lee Mendelson, executive producer of the show, in a recent interview. “It just didn’t work. And the network didn’t like it. It was too slow; we had used kids’ voices and that jazz music.”
When he first saw the show, Mendelson immediately thought the opening weak because of the instrumental music, which wasn’t exactly joyful.
Mendelson figured lyrics might help, and he came up with “Christmas Time Is Here.” Over the years, Vince Guaraldi’s tune with Mendelson’s lyrics grew into a holiday standard.
So why the Guaraldi score – a contemporary jazz sound – in the era of rock ‘n’ roll? Mendelson had used Guaraldi’s music for a 1963 documentary on Schulz and liked it. Guaraldi’s instrumental song “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” won a Grammy in 1963.
Mendelson credits Schulz for the success of the show.
“It was a hit because of the morals and humor of a great Midwestern guy,” Mendelson said about Schulz, who grew up in Minnesota.
The show’s anti-mercantile theme still resonates, including the discussion about the true meaning of Christmas.
In the show it’s Linus who moves center stage, blanket in tow, and recites the account of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke.
“It’s the whole denouement,” Mendelson said. “It’s totally unexpected. It was probably the first animated scene of someone reading out of the Bible. That was Schulz’s Midwestern roots.”
No doubt the humor in the admittedly sluggish story line and the peculiarities of Schulz’s characters are big factors in the show’s continued popularity.
Scenes from the show and “Peanuts” gags are cultural mainstays: Lucy in the psychiatry booth, Sally radiating hearts for Linus, Lucy trying desperately to get Schroeder to notice her noticing him.
In the 1960s, animated television was aimed at a very young audience. The action often was fast, and the music wacky or agitated.
The “Peanuts” special was different. One unusual approach was to use children to voice the characters instead of adults trying to sound like kids.
The special received an Emmy for best network animated special of 1965. Its popularity remains strong. Last December, TV Guide named the show “Best Christmas Special,” and its airing by ABC drew an audience of 13 million.
