Recent Event Highlights: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Turns 45, Charlie Brown "Scrubs" In for Surgery, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debuts on CBS, and 9 more...
Created by idiamond on Dec 9, 2010
Last updated: 12/09/10 at 05:55 PM
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To commemorate the special's 45th anniversary, the Television Academy Foundation releases an exclusive interview with creators Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson. The special's 2010 airing is scheduled for Thursday, December 16 at 8pm on ABC.
http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/shows/charlie-brown-specials
Pop Waffle’s Erika Brooks Adickman creates a "Charlie Brown Christmas"-inspired cartoon drawn entirely in crayon and updated with some of 2007's most entertaining pop culture moments.
The cast and crew of ABC's "Scrubs" splice together their own dub of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," with Zach Braff as Charlie Brown and John McGinley as Linus.
National clothing and homegoods retailer Urban Outfitters begins selling a replica of the Charlie Brown's "pathetic" Christmas tree. For a mere $24, hipsters who identify all too closely with Charlie Brown, the poster child for existential crisis, can display their holiday spirit with just the right amount of irony.
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=18796375&navAction=jump&isProduct=true&parentid=MORE%20IDEAS&isProduct=true&cross-sell=true&guide-bn=true
Located in Santa Rosa, California (where Schulz lived and worked), the museum isn't far from the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, the skating rink that inspired the Christmas special's opening scenes.
http://www.snoopyshomeice.com/
"The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas" airs on ABC. Executive producer Lee Mendelson explains the origin of the special, which came about because Coca-Cola’s ad agency, McCann Erickson (the real-life agency recently referred to on "Mad Men"), approached the Peanuts team about sponsoring a Christmas special.
After acquiring the Rights to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 2000, ABC restores the special to its original length of 32 minutes with ads... but then undermines its seemingly good intentions by inserting commercial breaks in untimely places that don't match up with the original, already "built-in" fade-ins and fade-outs.
A VHS copy of the classic Christmas special is released, but is only available for a limited time and sold exclusively at Shell Oil gas stations
When Dolly Madison Snack Products and McDonald's replace Coca-Cola as sponsors of the Peanuts TV specials, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is edited to remove the Coca-Cola product placement that originally appeared throughout. That can that Linus knocks down with his blanket in the fence scene? It started out as a bright red Coke can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th1GdWQiYPM
After "A Charlie Brown Christmas" earns an Emmy nomination for Special Classificiation of Individual Achievements and wins an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program, Charles Shulz and his team create their second holiday classic, "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." This marks the beginning of a long (and sometimes questionably successful) tradition of Peanuts holiday specials, including 1973's "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," 1974's "It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown," 1976's "It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown," and 2000's "A Charlie Brown Kawnzaa."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tIhwITwhSg&feature=related
Despite the network’s apprehension over airing a cartoon without a laugh track, the special's blatant religious overtones, a not-necessarily-kid-friendly Vince Guaraldi jazz soundtrack, and obvious mistakes with the sound editing, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is an unexpected hit, drawing 15.4 million viewers.
The very first Peanuts comic strip, titled “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown” and written by Charles M. Schulz, appears in several newspapers.
http://comics.com/peanuts/1950-10-02/

