Charlie Brown’s War on Christmas

The StarTribune ran a fascinating OpEd this week on what happened when A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired:

Schulz said he would write the screenplay. He had never written one before. Then he declared that there would be no laugh track, something unheard of in the day.

Then he included a scene in which Linus read from the Gospel of Luke. Melendez argued against it: “You can’t have the Bible on television.”

Schulz countered: “If we don’t do it, who will?” And so they did.

Predictably, the show fell behind schedule as the animators worked feverishly to complete it. CBS had been heavily plugging the special without quite knowing what they would be showing.

When they finally got a private screening, they were horrified.

The special opened with Charlie Brown moaning, “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I don’t feel happy.”

A child says this? It got worse. No laugh track. Jazz music. Wobbly children’s voices. Linus quoting from the Bible and then proclaiming, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Worst of all, Charlie Brown constantly inveighs against the crass commercialism of the Christmas season. What would the sponsors think?

Read the rest to find out what the sponsors did think: Charlie Brown Christmas vs. Bill O’Reilly | StarTribune.com.