A Charlie Brown Christmas
was the first prime-time animated TV special based on the comic strip
Peanuts,
by Charles M.
Schulz. It
was produced and directed by former Disney,
Warner Bros.
and UPA
animator
Bill
Meléndez,
who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy.
The special aired on CBS
from its debut in 1965 through 2000, and has aired on ABC every year since 2001. For many years it aired only once annually, but now
is telecast at least twice during the Christmas
season as well as airing on the ABC
Family
cable channel. The special has been honored with both an Emmy
and Peabody
award and has spawned 43 spinoffs with Charlie
Brown visiting
most if not all of American
holidays and traditions.
Ironically, the story of the
Peanuts
gang's
search for the true meaning of Christmas
was originally sponsored by Coca-Cola,
the company that exploited Christmas to sell its soda pop with their
famous Santa
Clause
Drinking a
Coke ad in
the late 1930's. The animated story of Charlie Brown's search for the perfect Christmas tree has undergone various edits and
revisions from its original cut, deleting product placement ads which
were positioned strategically throughout the program.
Another interesting side story is how Bill Melendez, the producer of the special, started as an animator for Walt Disney in the late 1930's. After a bitter labor strike in the early 1940's, Melendez was let go and his credit was deleted from the films he worked on along with those of other striking animators. In the early 21st Century, however, The Walt Disney Company (now the parent company of the ABC Television Network) bought the exclusive rights to all of the Charlie Brown Holiday Specials in a multi-million dollar acquisition, and now the specials delight children and adults annually on ABC cable, broadcast affiliates and streaming services.
