How Peanuts Creator, Charles M Schulz Fought with Producers to Keep the Message of Jesus in the TV classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Precy Dumlao : Nov 30, 2015
Gospel Herald

The only animated mainstream Christmas classic that plainly states the REAL reason for the season; "A Charlie Brown Christmas," with Linus reciting the Bible passage from Luke chapter 2 has endured for 5 decades.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" was looked down on by TV executives and criticized for reciting the story of Jesus' birth and upholding it as the true meaning of the holidays—but 50 years on, the animated feature has become an annual Christmas tradition on television at least once a year all around the world. (Screengrab via Gospel Herald)

According to the Los Angeles Times, though the cartoon special would soon become a holiday classic that "in retrospect seem preordained," not many were impressed when the animated feature was reviewed by television bigwigs prior to its first airing during the Yuletide holidays of 1965.

CBS screened the feature in New York a week before coming out in December that year. According to the report, the "executives watched in stony silence" and gave television producer Lee Mendelson a condescending and less than enthusiastic response: "Well, you gave it a good try."

There were other things that the Peanuts creator Charles M Schulz insisted on which producers did not agree with: Schulz hated canned laughter and would under no circumstances use laugh tracks in the feature. (Screengrab via L.A. Times)

Finally Schulz and Mendelson got into an argument about whether a reciting of the story of Jesus' birth according to the passage in St. Luke should even be mentioned, much less declared as the true meaning of Christmas. Schulz was adamant despite Mendelson's belief that religion should not be mentioned on prime-time entertainment.

In the end, Schulz kept his stand and the rest was history. But he wasn't the only one who believed...

Read more here.