"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas I guess. I like giving presents, and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. i always end up feeling depressed." Has there ever been a more brutally honest opening to a Christmas TV special? And the show itself is brilliant and DARK - The skies are properly wintry and grey and nighttime black. And the show's humor is mostly dry. It's the most perfect representation of the childhood pain and adult neuroses that was the lifeblood of Peanuts through the mid-seventies. Later Peanuts specials became progressively more 'kid-like'. And like the strip, in A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS Charlie Brown gets humiliated time and again. From Violet's typically smug "I didn't send you a Christmas card, Charlie Brown" to Lucy's last line "Charlie Brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree." Thee is something grim and joyless about the whole show, which is one of those things that make it so unique and unforgettable. In a good way. Santa Claus is barely mentioned. Of course by the time "Charle Brown's Christmas Stories" appeared a few decades later, cartoon cuteness took over with Snoopy in a Santa suit as "Snoopy Claus" . Though the anti-commercialism message of the show was ignored by Charles Schulz himself licensing Peanuts ornaments and Christmas cards, after his death, his wife and kids cashed out licensing the most Commercial " Christmas crap. This Nativity set offered by the "official" Peanuts store features Lucy as the Virgin Mary (!!!) and Woodstock as the Baby Jesus.
The unbearable melancholy of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 25, 2024 2:04 PM |
As a follow-up to the Rudolph thread....I think A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS deserves its own thread.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | December 8, 2024 3:07 AM |
Charlie Brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 8, 2024 3:18 AM |
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 8, 2024 3:20 AM |
I got a rock.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 8, 2024 3:27 AM |
r3: The golden moment for the minor characters 5 (the boy in the yellow shirt) and his little twin sisters 3 & 4 in purple.
None of these characters are referred to by name and none have speaking parts. I think 3 & 4 are in fewer than 10 actual strips.
I believe "Every Christmas it's the same. I always end up bein' a shepherd.:" is the only line Shermy speaks in any Peanuts special.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 8, 2024 3:31 AM |
I feel the opposite, his unyielding optimism made Christmas better for everyone, hardly a melancholy ending. The name calling I associate with that of close family or friends who have horrible nicknames for each other because they're so close. It's an odd dichotomy, but it plays in this.
Plus the soundtrack 🤌
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 8, 2024 3:44 AM |
"Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find, Charlie Brown! Maybe painted pink!"
Supposedly, this line caused a steady drop in the sales of Aluminum Christmas trees, introduced in 1959.
An 8-foot Pink Aluminum Christmas Tree sold on Ebay a few days ago for $10,750.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 8, 2024 4:00 AM |
R4, the “I got a rock” bit really stuck with me as a child. I felt like we were being prompted to laugh at him but it seemed so mean and unfair. What kind of grownups would keep rocks next to their candy and drop a rock in a kid’s bag if they thought he did a lousy job on his costume?
Well - ok, maybe Violet’s mom would, assuming Violet learned all that top drawer cuntitude from somewhere at such a young age.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 8, 2024 4:10 AM |
The Christmas special was peak Peanuts.
Soon afterward, Shultz started giving Snoopy human characteristics, and the strip went downhill fast.
That and eliminating the angst that made the strip so unique.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 8, 2024 4:12 AM |
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - 1964
A Charlie Brown Christmas - 1965
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - 1966
An amazing run.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 8, 2024 4:20 AM |
r8: At the story conference , Melendez and Mendelsohn suggested that Charlie Brown get only one rock, but Schulz thought if funnier if Charlie Brown got nothing but rocks.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 8, 2024 2:23 PM |
It's a shame it isn't broadcast anymore. There was something about watching it when everybody else did. Streaming isn't the same.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 25, 2024 9:40 AM |
Later Halloween night, Charlie Brown went out with the bag of rocks and returned them through various bay windows.
Or so I like to think.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 25, 2024 11:17 AM |
Charlie Brown: Thanks for the Christmas card, Violet!
Violet, in full bitch mode: I didn’t send you a Christmas card, Charlie Brown!
Violet needs to be a DL icon.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 25, 2024 11:37 AM |
R5, I thought I was alone. Marry me?
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 25, 2024 11:40 AM |
I found the rock idea truly depressing.
The Christmas special, on the other hand, is quite optimistic.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 25, 2024 12:36 PM |
Interesting given our current culture that cbs execs were wary of the special being too religious. And kudos to Charles Schultz for refusing to include a laugh track.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 25, 2024 12:57 PM |
[quote]Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - 1964
[quote]A Charlie Brown Christmas - 1965
[quote]How the Grinch Stole Christmas - 1966
[quote]An amazing run.
All preeceed in 1962 by Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for TV.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 25, 2024 1:10 PM |
R20, I love The Grinch, but Mr. Magoo is a masterpiece of music.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 25, 2024 1:17 PM |
Don’t you know sarcasm when you hear it?
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 25, 2024 2:04 PM |