A Charlie Brown Christmas

News Clippings
and
Press Releases



All right, now, raise your hands: How many of you still vividly remember seeing A Charlie Brown Christmas the very first time it aired on television?



These articles are arranged from the most recent down, so you'll always find the newest news about Charlie Brown and his friends toward the top; older articles will be located further down, or on previous pages.



Snoopy's Legal Guardian

Jeannie Schulz wasn't trained to manage her husbands Peanuts empire, but it has thrived. The trapeze helps keep her balanced.

March 8, 2006

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart
The Los Angeles Times

SANTA ROSA -- During 27 years of marriage to Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, Jeannie Schulz sat by her husbands side at business dinners and sometimes visited his studio as he worked.

She was not his business partner, nor his creative other half. In the world of Peanuts, she had no title and that was fine with her.

Over the years, though, the cartoonist whom she and others called Sparky hinted that her relationship with his work might change one day. When Im gone all this is yours, he would tell her. You can be anything you want.

He was always kidding, she said. He kept everything he did light like that so you never really knew what he meant.

Then, six years ago, Charles Schulz died at age 77. Jeannie Schulz was 60, a grandmother devoted to her family and charity work. But suddenly, she was also the new chief of Creative Associates, the $35-million-a-year enterprise that managed a cartoon heritage loved by millions.

Although Charles Schulzs son Craig from a previous marriage would be there as president, she would be responsible for helping oversee decisions on everything from pro bono appearances of Peanuts characters to licensing agreements.

Before her husbands death, she had taken the lead on the creation of a museum honoring his legacy. Now it, too, was left to her to complete.

Her resume seemed unequal to the task. But having once conquered fear in the air, she learned also to trust herself on the ground.

If daring were genetic it would be easy to understand Jeannie Schulzs chutzpah.

In the 1960s -- before the womens movement propelled women into places they had never gone before -- her then 50-year-old mother began pilot training. Jeannie took lessons as well, and mother and daughter flew as pilot and co-pilot in the Powder Puff Derby, a cross-country, all-womens air race.

She was always more of a liberated woman than a housewife, Jeannie recalled.

In those early flying lessons Jeannie learned to handle her phobias as well as a plane. It wasnt that she was so brave, she simply knew how to put fear in its place.

Thats how she ended up on a trapeze.

In 1990, when she saw others flying trapeze at a Club Med in Mexico, Schulz joined the line, setting aside her fear of heights. She was 50 and already a grandmother, but why not try? On the climb up the tall, steel ladder, she said, she looked down, petrified. All she could do was keep climbing. Standing on a platform at the top of the ladder, she was supposed to grab a bar, lean backward, hang upside down by her knees, swing herself out, then release into the arms of a catcher.

How on earth did I get myself into this? she thought, as she listened to the instructions.

She couldnt do it. The best she could do was hang from the bar by her hands and then drop into a net below, humiliated. She looked at those who were flying and thought, Theyre no better than I am, no stronger.

Back home in Santa Rosa, each time she took her grandchildren to the playground, she did pull-ups on the monkey bars, as if preparing for the next meeting with the schoolyard bully.

She was always tenacious. Born in England to German parents, Jean Forsyth was raised mostly in California. She had worked as a telephone operator in her younger years, had earned a degree in English literature from Sonoma State, and was a divorcee when she met Schulz.

They met at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, the rink Schulz built in Santa Rosa.

In 1973 the two were married in a private ceremony at Schulzs home in Santa Rosa. It was the second marriage for Schulz, who had been divorced from his first wife earlier that year.

While he was busy drawing, she was busy too.

There was an active family life -- she had two children from her previous marriage, and he had five. There were the charities and civic groups, including the League of Women Voters and Canine Companions for Independence, which supplies trained dogs to people with disabilities. There was the Schulz family philanthropy to the town an ice skating show each Christmas, a baseball field and other donations. He was pleased with what I was doing, and probably glad I was staying out of his hair, she said.

But there were times when she influenced Peanuts without even trying. She is the reason Charlie Browns little sister, Sally, coos my Sweet Babboo to her crush, the blanket-toting Linus.

I used to call Sparky Sweet Babboo, and he took it for the comic strip, she said. Then I couldnt use it anymore.

Her years of flying with her mother became fodder for a 1975 strip with Peppermint Patty and Marcie flying atop Snoopys dog house.

You didnt give Sparky ideas, he took them, she said. *******

In 1995, author and philosopher Sam Keen erected a trapeze.

With a teacher like Keen, there was no reason for Jeannie to give her fear of heights a front-row seat inside her mind.

But after about seven weeks of driving 20 miles to Keens Sonoma farm and ranch, Jeannie had not flown through the air with the greatest of ease. In fact, she hadnt flown at all.

One day on the drive to the ranch, she told herself, I really dont have to do this. That day, she tried once more to follow the instructions that were supposed to make her airborne. This time she flew into the arms of the catcher.

At that point, she said, I was hooked.

Trapeze demands focus and timing. You must trust your partner to catch you. Trapeze is in some ways a team effort, some ways an individual sport.

Its not like a baseball game where you feel bad if you strike out, or tennis where if you miss an overhead youve blown something, Jeannie said. Here the performance is your own.

Trapeze was helping her learn to trust her body, to revel in its abilities age aside. This was not one of those loves, like golf, she shared with Sparky. It was hers alone.

She continued setting goals and reaching them.

I wanted to do a knee hang [without a safety belt] for my 60th birthday, she said, a feat that required, above all, courage.

While she practiced flying, she also practiced building.

Two longtime family friends Ed Anderson and Mark Cohen -- had been urging Schulz to create a museum, but Schulz had been reluctant. It was that self-effacing way that he dealt with almost everything that was flattering, Jeannie said. That was his way & to not set himself up for defeat.

At a meeting of Peanuts licensees in Arizona in 1997, Jeannie broke through. Present was Yoshiteru Otani, a Japanese artist Schulz admired for his imaginative treatment of Peanuts characters, his whimsy and understanding.

Jeannie Schulz posed a question What if Otani agreed to create works for the museum? The museum would be more than a repository of Peanuts. It would be a thoughtful celebration of Schulzs art and its influence.

Sparky simply said, Yes, and that was enough for me to go ahead, she recalled.

Otani was stunned by the invitation.

Jean Schulz asked me if I could be involved in a museum which celebrates Schulzs artwork, Otani said through an interpreter. I was as surprised when I was selected, as if Charlie Brown had kicked the ball that Lucy was holding.

She began assembling a museum board. With Anderson and Cohen ,she visited the presidential libraries of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and the museum in Salinas celebrating author John Steinbeck.

They brought their observations back to Schulz, and he had the final word.

Computer stations were out. The cartoonist never used them, knew nothing about them.

The happiest place on earth ambiance was out. I dont want this to be a Disneyland, he said.

Schulz was adamant that the museum focus on the strip, not him. If you want to know me, he often said, read my strip.

That request spoke to his modesty, but also to his relationship with other Peanuts products. Beginning in the late 1950s, Peanuts characters entered the lucrative world of merchandising. But with the exception of the early books and film productions, such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Schulz was not their creator.

He just wanted to be known for the thing he put so much effort into, she said.

Charlie Brown and the gang debuted in U.S. newspapers on Oct. 2, 1950. From then on Schulz drew, inked and lettered the strip by himself, creating more than 18,000 strips. Schulz had been generous over the years, giving original strips to friends, or fans, or nonprofits that auctioned them at fundraisers. As news of the museum spread, some friends and fans returned the strips. Jeannie also began purchasing others from auction houses, off eBay and from private sellers. The early strips cost as much as $10,000.

By the fall of 1999, the building plans were complete, permits granted. Soon the board would select a museum director. To top it off, Jeannie had met her 60th birthday goal on the trapeze.

Then came November.

Doctors informed Schulz that he had cancer. On Nov. 16, while at his studio, he complained of pain in his legs. He was taken to a hospital, where emergency surgery cleared a blockage in the abdominal aorta.

Schulz later suffered a series of small strokes that left him partially blind. Reading was difficult, and though he could still draw, he was unable to keep up his strip-a-day schedule.

By the end of the year, Schulz announced his retirement and the end of the strip. Before his illness, Jeannie had practiced trapeze three times a week. Even now, with everything changing around her, she did not break the routine.

Even when he was in the hospital, hed say, You go and do trapeze, Im OK. Its important for you. He knew that it was a big thing for me. And he was proud of me for doing it.

At Keens ranch she continued to practice. Now trapeze was a refuge, a place to be bold, to revel in small victories and put aside, while in the air, everything happening below.

In January 2000, Schulz sat in on interviews for a museum director and expressed his preference. The evening of Feb. 12, he went for a skate at his arena. That night he died in his sleep with Jeannie at his side. The National Cartoonist Society Web site posted a drawing of Snoopy weeping. Schulz was buried in nearby Sebastopol.

Jeannie hardly had time to mourn; the museum was underway and she had a legacy to tend.

Im a poor substitute, but Im the only thing theyve got and I take that seriously because I take his memory very seriously, she said.

Now, she offers the final word on her husbands genius She approved a labyrinth in the shape of Snoopys head, a garden with a kite-eating tree, a timeline of Sparkys life. She decided to recreate his studio, just as it had been when he died.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, a nonprofit built with $8 million in private money, has been open to the public since August 2002.

Guests walk through a gallery filled with strips and view them as if looking at old pictures in a family photo album. There are historically based exhibits as well, such as Top Dogs Comic Canines Before and After Snoopy, and a tribute to jazz musician Vince Guaraldi, father of the Peanuts sound.

We have fine people running these things and they could run it without me, Jeannie said, but as long as Im around theres always small details that Id like to know about. She spends a portion of each day reviewing, photographing and cataloging new Peanuts products. I periodically see things I dont care for, she said. And sometimes she rejects them, like the idea for an arcade crane game, in which players would manipulate large steel claws to grab a plush Snoopy. Most players, of course, would lose their money. In the version Jeannie ultimately approved, everyone who pays to play wins something.

Sometimes she still wonders what Sparky would say about all shes done. Would he like it?

More often she sounds sure of herself, the voice of a woman who has learned to trust herself in the sky and on the ground.


Olympia dog takes home title (got a photo for this one)

Joey is nations best Belgian sheepdog, but misses herding win

February 15, 2006

By Christian Hill
The Olympian [Washington state]

Joey is one cool pooch.

The Belgian sheepdog owned by Olympia resident Rachelle Bailey Austin won Best of Breed on Tuesday at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the nations premiere canine event.

But Joey, 6, whose registered name is Champion Isengards Joe Cool, didnt come out on top in group judging and therefore wasnt considered in the Best in Show competition.

Coltin, the year-old Pomeranian who was the shows other entrant from Olympia, failed to advance past the breed competition Monday.

Owner Julie Clemen said he had 17 tiny competitors. His showing was good, considering he was one of the youngest Poms making his first appearance at Westminster, she said.

His handler, Annette Sullivan, Clemens cousin, already has made plans to return with Coltin next year.

Hes done very well, Clemen said. Hes had a very successful, fast career. Hes gone gangbusters.

Sullivans attention shifted to Joey, as she helped Bailey Austin primp him for Tuesdays competition.

Joey competed against 10 other champion Belgian sheepdogs to win Best of Breed.

It was no surprise he was recognized as the nations top Belgian sheepdog, his owner said. But the top prize in the group of all herding dogs went to another sheepdog - an old English. Joey was competing against 18 other prize winners in the group, which includes sheepdogs and collies.

Joey did receive some national exposure as the group judging was televised on the USA Network late Tuesday.

The event is invitation-only and features 2,500 dogs representing 165 breeds.

Joeys registered name is a tribute to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Joe Cool was Snoopys sunglass-wearing alter ego in the comic strip, and Bailey named the dog shortly after Schulzs death on Feb. 12, 2000.


Dark Horse Deluxe Announces Peanuts Collectible Statuette Series

February 8, 2006

By Arune Singh
www.comicbookresources.com

Charles Schulzs Peanuts has won acclaim as one of the most popular comic strips of all time. Printed worldwide to this day, the familiar characters from this masterwork have been the basis for all sorts of entertainment, publishing, corporate identity, and merchandise projects. Dark Horse Deluxe, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics, Inc., is joining in the fun by creating a special series of limited-edition statuettes of vintage Peanuts characters.

Modeled after products that were popular in the 1930s and 40s, the eight new statuettes from Dark Horse are designed and manufactured in a style consistent with the earlier figures and are scheduled for monthly release starting in September 2006. The first of the statuettes will feature a new rendition of none other than Charlie Brown. Produced in a limited edition of hand-numbered copies, the figure is fully painted and ready to display. Lucy will be the second release, followed by Linus and the rest of the gang in a pattern of monthly releases.

We are blown away by the response to these retro-style figures, Dark Horse Comics Vice President of Product Development David Scroggy observed, and we will be continuing the category with new titles. We want to concentrate on classic, iconic subjects, and certainly the Peanuts lineup qualifies.

Dark Horses Peanuts-themed statuettes were inspired by syroco sculptures developed in the 1930s. While many syrocos were produced, of special note is a 1944 program where King Features Syndicate characters were used in a set of advertising premiums featuring famous comic strip characters. They have come to be known as syroco figurines, named after both the then-new wood-like resin material they were made from and the company that produced them. They are now highly prized by collectors.

Dark Horses Mike Richardson was inspired by these, and began a latter day series of statuettes depicting famous newspaper comic strip characters. Produced under license from comic strip syndicates and other property owners, these new editions were created in 3-D by the talents at Yoe! Studio, one of Americas top creative design shops.

Measuring between 4 and 5, these statuettes have been sculpted in the original style, described by Craig Yoe as primitive but charming. Nearly fifty were produced in the inaugural award-winning series, known collectively as Classic Comic Characters. A new series will also depict the Kelloggs cereal mascot characters in their vintage style.

The Peanuts series will depict the characters as they are presented currently, but also will deliberately be somewhat more rough-hewn than is common, with features including non-slick surface textures, visible seam lines and other slightly distressed aspects to retain the vintage feel.

The new Peanuts series echoes the packaging and special features of the previous Dark Horse series, but affords collectors the opportunity to start with the first release. Each hand-numbered statuette comes carefully packaged in a custom-tooled, full-color, litho-printed tin box. Also included is a small booklet about each character and a vintage-style pinback button of the character.

We have worked hard to create a superior package for these very special items, Scroggy remarked, and we think we have met the challenge with help from our manufacturing team and of course the creative and licensing team at United Media.

The first releases are Charlie Brown (September 2006), Lucy (October 2006), Linus (November 2006), Schroeder (December 2006), Pig Pen (January 2007), Peppermint Patty (February 2007), Sally (March 2007), Snoopy (April 2007), Woodstock (May 2007), and Marcie (June 2007).

The initial release is arguably Peanuts most beloved character, Charlie Brown. Since his debut in seven newspapers in 1950, Charles Schulzs round-headed little kid has personified the foibles and frustrations of growing up, and, by extension, the human condition. He perseveres through the agony of trying to kick a football that is always yanked away at the last second, or deals with his unrequited love for the little red-headed girl. But as our youngest everyman, he has won our hearts on a daily basis for over fifty years.


Snoopy is pop cultures top dog

February 2, 2006

By Misty Harris, CanWest News Service
The Vancouver Sun [British Columbia]

Snoopy probably wasnt what the Chinese had in mind when they declared 2006 the Year of the Dog.

But the comic-strip canine has claimed top honors in a countdown of the 100 greatest dogs in pop culture history released this week in honor of Chinese New Year.

With a resume that includes stints as a First World War flying ace, attorney to Peter Rabbit, acclaimed astronaut and Olympic skater, Snoopy easily earned the votes of a pop culture panel at Retrocrush.com. Although best known for his association with Charlie Brown, the venerable Peanuts pooch has achieved international fame on his own merits.

Certainly hes the most recognizable dog in pop culture history, says Robert Berry, founder of Retrocrush, which attracts more than a million visitors a month. He isnt just a cute little dog. He has a sarcastic sense of humor about him and is always living out his fantasies.

Chasing Snoopys tail in the No. 2 spot is Scooby Doo, a talking Great Dane whom Berry calls one of the greatest cartoon characters ever made. Film and TV legend Lassie, a gender-bending collie with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, rounds out the top three.

Theres really no genre where there hasnt been some kind of dog character, says Berry.

Youve got Hound of the Baskervilles, that Sherlock Holmes story. Youve got old comic strips from the 20s, like Little Orphan Annie, that had dogs featured prominently; television shows, from Benji to The Thin Man series. Theyre certainly endearing, which is why so many actors over the years have been afraid to work with dogs. They steal scenes.

The No. 4 spot bears the pawprints of Old Yeller, a fictional mixed-breed dog more famous for his death than his life.

Mention Old Yeller and people almost start to tear up right away, says Berry. Although none of us have to take our dogs into the backyard and kill them with a shotgun these days, [the story] still reminds us of how finite life can be.

Goofy, that upright-walking Disney darling, landed at No. 5 despite the ambiguity looming over his canine status. Berry cites the memorable scene in the 1986 movie Stand By Me in which River Phoenix claims Goofy cant be a dog because he wears a hat and drives a car.

Finishing off the top 10 are Ren Hoek of Ren and Stimpy, Benji, Gromit of Wallace and Gromit, White Fang, and Flash of The Dukes of Hazzard.

Other top dogs on Retrocrushs list include Mr. Peabody, Toto, Droopy, McGruff, Cujo, the Taco Bell chihuahua, Marmaduke, Clifford, Nana, the Family Guys Brian, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Canadian favorite The Littlest Hobo.

Rapper Snoop Dogg initially made it to No. 71 but has since been removed.


Redwood Empire Ice Arena functions as the house that Snoopy built

January 30, 2006

By Randy Schultz
www.usahockey.com

He wore uniform No. 9. He skated as a forward. He possessed a wrist shot that could beat the best of goaltenders.

No, were not talking about Neal Brotten or even Mike Modano.

Good grief, Charlie Brown! Were talking about none other than the creator of the world-famous Peanuts comic strip, the late Charles Schulz.

Until his death in 2000, Schulz played hockey as often as he could in the arena he had built for the city where he resided and worked -- Santa Rosa, Calif. It was a sport he began playing during his early childhood days in his native St. Paul, Minn.

Schulzs love of hockey is public knowledge, thanks to his comic strip with such characters as Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and the ever-popular Snoopy, who had a recurring role as the World Famous Hockey Player.

As a boy, Schulz and his friends -- many of whom are reputed to be characters in Peanuts -- didnt have the Minnesota North Stars, Minnesota Wild or the National Hockey League to consume their rooting passions.

Instead, Schulz and his friends believed they had something they felt was just as good, if not in caliber of play, at least in enjoyment.

We followed the United States Hockey League when I was growing up, said Schulz in a 1986 interview, because St. Paul had a team in the league at the time. I can remember going to my first game in 1935 when the general admission to a game was just 35 cents. One of my favorite players at that time was a guy by the name of Emile Hanson.

I just loved the way he would make rushes down the ice with the puck.

The NHL didnt mean anything to us at the time because we didnt have a team in the NHL from our area.

All of that changed after Schulz and his family moved west to California.

It didnt take long for Sparky -- as Schulz was known to many of his friends -- to become hooked on professional hockey.

After we moved out to California, we began to follow the California Golden Seals, said Schulz. I enjoyed the Seals. They were never that bad of a team. They could beat the good teams when they had to. I remember Bill Hicke as being one of the fan favorites. So was Carol Vadnais.

Schulzs loyalty to the Seals went so far as to create a cartoon mascot for the team, a seal who, interestingly enough, he named Sparky.

His love of the NHL continued after the Seals left and the San Jose Sharks arrived in the Bay area.

Schulz also gave back to his community in Santa Rosa. He was able to finance construction of the Redwood Empire Arena, a beautiful ice rink used by the community that was a gift from Schulz to the city.

The cartoonists love for hockey seemed endless. That love earned Schulz the Lester Patrick Trophy, one of hockeys most distinguished awards and annually presented for outstanding service to hockey in the United States, in 1981.

Schulz was also presented a silver hockey stick from the Northland Hockey Company for his contributions to hockey.

Despite his passion for hockey, Schulz still found it difficult to get the entire Peanuts gang involved in hockey at the same time -- as he did with baseball and football.

I tried drawing all of the kids playing hockey, but the formula wasnt there, Schulz said in a 1995 interview. Because there is so much action in hockey, not having the lulls which are part of the other sports and lend themselves to comments from the characters made the strip devoid of humor.

Thats when I put Snoopy in as the World Famous Hockey Player. With just one character to focus on, it is easier to draw my strip using hockey as a theme.

And, of course, with Snoopy you never know what is going to happen. He can certainly bring out hockeys more exciting points and insights.

And if there was one character that can do that, it is Snoopy. Everyday is an adventure with Snoopy.


The Charles Schulz Museum celebrates the 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas

Roger Colton returns from Santa Rosa with a tale about an event that honored this much beloved TV special

December 22, 2005

By Roger Colton
JimHillMedia.com

Forty years ago, Lee Mendelson wrote those words on the back on an envelope. Something quick to add a touch to a nice piece of music Vince Guaraldi had written.

Today, it is hard to imagine this simple sentiment not being a part of this holiday season. All because of a little animated television show that the world has come to love and cherish, called A Charlie Brown Christmas.

This past weekend, the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California hosted a retrospective for that little television show. Among the guests sharing their memories were Lee Mendelson (the shows producer), Peter Robbins (the voice of Charlie Brown for the first five Peanuts animated specials), David Guaraldi (son of composer and jazz legend Vince Guaraldi), and many of the members of the childrens choir that brought those words above into the hearts of millions of people.

Lee Mendelson was the first guest speaker of the event. As well as relating the tale of how the show came to be, he shared some stories of how Charles Schulz was to work with on the Peanuts specials. One in particular was during an early conference on A Charlie Brown Christmas with animator Bill Melendez and Sparky (Charles Schulz nickname, taken from Barney Googles horse, Sparkplug). Lee mentioned that the show was going to need a laugh track to help keep it moving along. Quietly, Charles Schulz stood up, walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Lee, rather shocked, asked Bill what that was all about. Bill replied, I guess that means were not having a laugh track!

One concern that came along early in the development of the show was that of the true meaning of Christmas. Even in those pre-Politically Correct days, religion was something that you didnt see or hear on prime time television. When Bill Melendez asked Charles Schulz about the reading of the Bible passage by Linus, he was told, If we dont do this, who else will?

Lee also related how Sparky loved to play jokes on him. Even going so far as to put him into the comic strips on occasion. In one where Snoopy is the World Famous Check Out Clerk at the grocery store, he asks Mrs. Mendelson if her husband has found work yet. In one Sunday strip, the gang is playing croquet and Charlie Browns ball has been knocked clear across town. So he calls Lucy and asks her to call him at a telephone number when it is his turn in the game. And yes, that phone number was Lees home number. So on that Sunday morning when the strip appeared, he got plenty of phone calls. One of them was answered by his then six year-old daughter. She was asked if Charlie Brown was there and replied, No, this is Lucy. All she heard was a click as the caller hung up the phone.

Another great story was how Charles Schulz hated telephone answering machines. At the time, Lee had an hour tape in his machine. One day he noticed he had a message and went to check it. Yes, it was from Sparky. Reading Tolstoys War and Peace; a book referenced on a number of occasions in the strips. This went on for Forty-Two minutes! At the end, all he heard was Schulz giggling and then hanging up.

The trio of Mendelson, Melendez and Schulz combined for over 70 animated projects, the last of which is being finished now, entitled, Hes A Bully, Charlie Brown. It features a game of Marbles. And according to the way Sparky had written the story, Charlie Brown actually wins that game. No one believes him, of course. Lucy even goes so far as to say the game was fixed! Look for that to air some time in the coming year.

Peter Robbins shared some of his memories from working on the first five Peanuts specials. As a child actor, he worked on a number of television shows, but this one has become his favorite. He told of how it was hard to be so depressed as he loved Christmas time. Working with Bill Melendez as a coach being fed the lines from the script, he got the timing down for the voice, even to the point of taking on some of Bills Hispanic phrasing for some of the words!

It was considered a big risk to use children for the voices in the show. At that time, the practice was to use adult voice talents because they were used to the pace of recording for such a show. They could handle the many retakes better, so it was thought. But the use of realistic voices was one of the successes of A Charlie Brown Christmas and all of the Peanuts specials. Lee related how they have always looked for voices similar to those used in the first show as people have come to know them so well over the years.

The same held true for the voices used to sing the Christmas songs for the show. A childrens choir from St. Pauls Episcopal Church, under the direction of Barry Minnah, in San Rafael, California was where those singers were from. In 1964, Vince Guaraldi was composing a jazz mass for performance at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and this choir was to be a part of that mass. About a year later, 12 children volunteered to help with a little choir project, that led them to a Fantasy Records studio on Treat Street in San Francisco. Several people remembered how much of a big thing it was to travel to San Francisco on a bus for those sessions and that they were allowed to stay up late on school nights. The retrospective was something of reunion for them with some members traveling from as far as way as Washington and Michigan. One of them even had a photostat (remember this was 1965, before Xerox and photo copies) of one of his paychecks from one of the recording sessions. They each were paid all of five dollars for a session.

The members of the Choir in attendance for the event were

David Willat, Dan Bernhard, Marcia Goodrich, Nancy Goodrich, Steve Kendall, Ted King, Debbie Presco, Mark Jordan, Cam Cedarblade and Kristin Minnah (daughter of Director Barry Minnah)

Lee Mendelson shared that this day was the first time he had ever met any of the choir as the completed tapes had just been delivered to him for the show. For forty years, he had been under the mistaken impression that the songs were sung by his son Glenns sixth grade class. He was glad to be able to finally know who these people were and could now give them the credit they so richly deserved for all those years.

The afternoon continued with showings of A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas (one of the special features found on the DVD of 2003s I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown) and a choral performance of Christmas favorite songs.

After the retrospective in the Museums auditorium, many of the guests were available for further questions as well as autographs. It was also the perfect time to explore the Museum, something I had not done before. After hearing Lee tell about the fiftieth special and the marbles, it was interesting to see a wooden box of marbles among the items on display of Charles Schulz office upstairs. Another exhibit that brought me a number of great laughs was the Ode to Schroeder. It brought back great memories of reading those strips as well as my own days of piano lessons. A nice complimentary item on display upstairs is the toy piano played by Schroeder for the music in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

If you havent been to the Charles Schulz Museum before, you need to make the trip. Considering just how much the work of this man has become a part of our culture, this museum is a wonderful chance to learn more about him. And it doesnt hurt that there is all of the wonderful artwork to see at the same time. This link has directions to the Museum and other information.

And dont forget to check in next door at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena a.k.a. Snoopys Home Ice as well as Snoopys Gallery and Gift Shop. Plenty of things to tempt even the mildest of Peanuts fans there.

Speaking of other things to tempt you, a newly remastered superdisc version of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas has arrived. A must for the audiophile or even just a fan of the great music of Vince Guaraldi. Check it out!


Good grief!

Producer Lee Mendelson helped Charles Schulz make TV history with the Charlie Brown gang

December 19, 2005

By Burl Burlingame
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Hawaii

Baseball has been very, very good to Lee Mendelson. More than four decades ago, the Bay area film producer had just wrapped a television documentary on Willie Mays and was leafing through the newspaper when a comic strip about baseball caught his eye -- hapless Charlie Brown laid low by a fastball.

He laughed. Then he thought, Ive done the best baseball player in the world, why not do the worst? So he called Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, who, as it turned out, lived right down the peninsula.

Like an effortless triple play, things just fell into place. Sparky Schulz had seen the Willie Mays documentary and immediately agreed to work with Mendelson. The documentary, Charlie Brown & Charles Schulz, introduced the shy artist to the public. While Mendelson was shopping it around, however, Coca-Colas advertising agency asked about doing an animated Christmas show.

He responded, Absolutely! and called Schulz and told him they had three days to outline a Charlie Brown Christmas show. Sparky wrote it up in just a few hours, and he knew animator Bill Melendez because they had just made some commercials for the new Ford Falcon. And composer Vince Guaraldi came to mind when I heard Cast Your Fate to the Wind on the car radio.

Forty years ago this holiday season, A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted on network television. This spring, the 50th animated special will air, the last one actually worked on by Schulz. In the meantime, Mendelson took a quick vacation in Hawaii that allowed time for an interview.

It hasnt been all Peanuts for Mendelson, who has produced more than 300 TV shows ranging from John Steinbecks America and Americans to several Bob Hope Christmas specials -- winning a dozen Emmy awards in the process. But Peanuts is why were here.

Just dont say Peanuts. Schulz disliked the strip handle so much that none of the animated specials uses it in the title.

Mendelson, a former Air Force navigator and Stanford creative-writing grad, got his first TV job at KPIX San Francisco in 1961, knocking out five-second public-service announcements. A chance discovery of original film from the 1915 Worlds Fair led to his first documentary. A Charlie Brown Christmas earned Mendelson his second Peabody and an Emmy Award.

Before he died, Schulz explained why the Mendelson-Melendez-Schulz home team meshed so well It was the perfect working relationship. We all contributed something, and we never trod on each others territory. ... It was Lees honesty, friendship and loyalty that kept us all together. He kept all of his promises, and so I trusted him. Hes not a Hollywood-producer type.

They continued to meet a couple of times a month right up to Schulzs death, and the upcoming spring show, Hes a Bully, Charlie Brown, marks the end of their personal collaboration.

And his values echoed those of Schulz. While theres a wholesome, God-loving patriotic streak in their work, its never cloying or childish. What was Peanuts anyway, except Schulzs half-century meditation on the dignity of loneliness?

Sparky wrote and drew more than 18,000 strips all by himself, with no help from anyone, marveled Mendelson. Our job was to stay true to the characters.

This month, A Charlie Brown Christmas was dubbed Best Christmas Special by TV Guide, ranking No. 1 across every age demographic. It was recently issued on DVD.

The other classic animated Christmas shows, beating Charlie Brown by a year, were Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Both had to be digitally restored recently. Charlie Brown Christmas hasnt aged, however, as Mendelson has consistently archived the originals onto high-definition stock.

What doesnt age well are the characters voices. Mendelson took some criticism at first for using the voices of real children on the soundtrack, and they kept growing up on him. That first special -- the kids are all in their 50s now! he laughs.

Next up -- get this! -- is the 40th anniversary of Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which first aired in October 1966.

Happiness is a warm VCR.


CBS was wrong about appeal of Charlie Brown

December 18, 2005

By Jane Ahlin
The Forum [Fargo/Grand Forks, North Dakota]

Good grief. Almost the first (definitely the best) cartoon Christmas special is 40 years old. A Charlie Brown Christmas, which debuted Dec. 9, 1965, was televised again a few weeks ago as it has been for the past 40 years. I was in the original audience and have seen it just about every year since. Watching this year, I marveled again that the cartoon remains fresh, its message simple, sweet, and strong as ever.

From todays vantage point, its hard to believe that in 1965 the show came close to being a non-starter. According to Bill Nichols writing in USA Today, it nearly didnt get airtime because CBS executives didnt like it. They were bothered by many things, including the sophisticated jazz music by Vince Guaraldi, the slow pace and minimal action, the lack of a laugh track, and the use of real childrens voices for the characters. And absolutely, in no uncertain terms, the CBS higher-ups told cartoon creator Charles Schulz that a cartoon character could not read from the Bible on network television.

Even the producer and animator thought the show might [ruin] Charlie Brown in the eyes of the American public. But the popularity of the Peanuts comic strip was so great that Charles Schulz got his way.

As we know now, Schulz was right and they were wrong. (So much for executive instinct.) The show was an immediate hit. There was magic in pairing lively, contemporary jazz with traditional Christmas carols.

And yet, what made A Charlie Brown Christmas successful in 1965 - and keeps it perennially relevant - is Charlie Browns angst. All generations identify with Charlie Browns haplessness and good intentions gone awry. When Charlie Brown puts the big red bulb on the small sad tree causing it to droop, we all understand his misery as he wails, I killed it. Oh, everything I touch gets ruined.

If the pain of meaning well and trying hard but failing touches all ages, the storyline for the Christmas special also resonates on another level. Parents and grandparents might be charmed along with children while watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer save Santas Christmas Eve flight, but Charlie Browns disillusionment with the commercialization of Christmas is an adult - not a childs - theme. It was a theme important to Charles Schulz and he gave it to his alter ego Charlie Brown to work out.

It wasnt a new theme. The notion that its hard to find real meaning in the secular hubbub of the holiday began in the post-war prosperity of the 1950s and was an established annual national discussion by 1965. It isnt overstating to say that Christians were bothered about Xmas and seasons greetings back then as much as they are bothered now. The difference is that in 1965, there were no political overtones, and nobody called it a war on Christmas. More to the point, the concern was not that horrible others had set out to destroy Christmas for Christians; rather, it was that we who cared about keeping Christmas might lose sight of the sacred. It wasnt about them; it was about us.

By all accounts, Charles Schulz was not interested in making a political or even a religious statement with A Charlie Brown Christmas. He wrote about his own personal angst in finding meaning in Christmas, and by doing so, he tapped into the commonality of that ordinary anxiety for many, many Americans. The box-of-Kleenex moment when the blanket-carrying Linus steps into the spotlight to recite from the Gospel of Luke for the benefit of Charlie Brown is Charles Schulzs answer to finding the meaning of Christmas for himself.

And then, of course, nobody else could ruin it for him, either.


Take heart, rekindle the Christmas of childhood

December 17, 2005

By Matt Johnson
The El Paso Times [Texas]

Christmas seems to come more quickly every year.

Remember being a kid, when it seemed like December was infinitely long?

You crossed off the days until you were finally out of school for that well- deserved winter sabbatical.

As a kid, you got to spend more time worrying about what to gifts to ask Santa for than what gifts to buy friends and family -- much less how to pay for those gifts.

Happy shopping

Its sad that materialism is the name of the game for what seems like the whole country.

I drove by Best Buy at about 1 oclock the morning after Thanksgiving, and there were already lines wrapped around the building.

Consume, consume.

Stuff, stuff, stuff.

I wont get off on a rant about the true meaning of Christmas -- youve got a plethora of options on where to learn that.

But my favorite take on the meaning of Christmas comes from good ol Charlie Brown.

This year marks 40 years since the first airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

We all know the story Charlie Brown is depressed about the holidays, sad that it has become infested with consumerism.

What does it say about us if old Chuck was worried about consumerism taking control of the holidays 40 years ago?

I may not have been around then, but I know that Wal-Mart wasnt open 24 hours a day in 1965.

Psychiatrist Lucy, after pontificating about the joy of hearing nickels plink into her can, tells Charlie to get involved in something that will propel him into the holiday spirit.

So Charlie Brown takes over as director of the gangs Christmas production. Faced with the task of selecting a Christmas tree for the play, he takes pity on a lame little sapling -- even though the other kids had requested a grand aluminum tree.

Oh, Charlie Brown, you cant do anything right.

Weve all been there

I think anyone whos often been in charge of picking a Christmas tree has been accused of selecting a Charlie Brown Tree.

I know Ive been there a few times.

But after Charlie Brown is berated by the Peanuts crew, the ever-wise Linus and his magic security blanket fix everything by finding the beauty in that sad little tree.

It might be silly that I feel a little sad about not having that same burst of excitement around Christmas that I did when I was 6, but somehow, watching A Charlie Brown Christmas always goes a long way to bring me around.

I might not be 6 years old anymore, but there are still ways to recapture that innocent feeling that we should all be fortunate enough to experience at least once a year.

We all have those special little ways of reliving our childhood memories, and its important to keep those memories and traditions going, all while creating new ones.

And no matter how rough the holidays can get, youve always got Charlie Brown.


Woodstock to star in California celebration

Santa Rosa has emulated St. Paul

December 17, 2005

By Laura Yuen
The St. Paul Pioneer Press

The Summer of Woodstock is coming to Santa Rosa, Calif. Thats the bird, not the music fest.

Yes, Snoopys little feathered confidant finally has earned a place for himself in Peanuts statue history as the latest tribute to his creator, Charles Schulz, who grew up in St. Paul but lived most of his life in Northern California.

Last summers polyurethane Charlie Browns drew about 27,000 people over three months to Santa Rosa.

Why Woodstock? One reason is because you didnt do it in St. Paul, said Patricia Fruiht, assistant to Santa Rosas city manager. (St. Pauls doghouse statue, however, did feature Snoopy with his erratically flying sidekick in the city promotions fifth and final summer tribute.)

Woodstock consistently ranks as one of the most popular characters from the comic strip, Fruiht added. We thought we might be able to entice more fans here for Woodstock.

The city has been pleased with the new statues, which, like St. Pauls, were made by TivoliToo Design and Sculpting Studios. Although they stand 5 feet tall, Woodstock himself is a diminutive 24 inches, sitting in a tree-stump nest. This scale helped keep Woodstock cute and non-threatening.

Otherwise, we were afraid hed look like a big chicken all over town, said Fruiht.

In 1958, Schulz moved to the Santa Rosa area, where he spent the next 40 years on the Peanuts strip and related efforts. The city of about 150,000 is also home to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. A permanent bronze statue of Charlie and Linus will be placed at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.

Woodstock makes his solo debut May 22.


Dog days are here to stay

December 16, 2005

By Akira Jan Fors
The Asahi Shimbum [Japans leading national newspaper]

Good grief, Charlie Brown! What have they done to Snoopy? Hes covered in spots, dried pasta and fake flowers. Hes starring in a strange film full of anthropomorphic creatures. No wonder hes climbing the wall! Or maybe theyre making him do that, too.

The beloved beagle of Peanuts fame is the star of Snoopy Life Design, an exhibition marking the 55th anniversary of the comic strip thats now under way at the Tokyo International Forum. Its a fun-filled look at the late Charles M. Schulzs clever cartoon canine through the eyes of some of Japans most cutting-edge artists, designers and architects.

Divided into sections titled Art Stage and Living Stage, the show features the work of Yayoi Kusama, Eri Utsugi, Naoto Fukasawa, Masataka Kurashina, Shigeru Ban and Atelier Bow-Wow, among others. Theres also an assortment of Snoopy-themed merchandise created for the exhibition, ranging from lingerie and perfume to T-shirts and nail art.

Santo Oshima, a curator at Osakas Suntory Museum, Tempozan, which organized the Art Stage section, says the aim of the show is to freshen up the image of Snoopy, the hapless Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang by putting them in a contemporary context.

The artists and designers who were given that challenge were asked to choose three prefab Snoopy statuettes from an array available in standing, sitting, sleeping, eating, flying and dancing poses. They were told they could decorate them with anything they liked-- paint, clothing, you name it.

You could say its quite similar to fashion designers using mannequins to express their creativity, Oshima says. So I selected artists and designers who are already taking that approach in their work.

The mixed results bring to mind a school art project. It looks like the artists had so much fun that you want to try it yourself.

Advertising art director Chie Morimotos Arigatou Snoopy (Thank you Snoopy) lets you do just that. Visitors can tinker with the illustration software on one of the two computers that project images on the white plaster Snoopy statuettes. If you arent artistically inclined, you can manipulate the images by dragging and dropping a template pattern -- fluttering butterflies, talking lips or waving grass -- to make the dogs come alive.

Yayoi Kusama, famed for soft sculptures speckled with dots and phallic protrusions, used jabs of green paint, red spots and gold-painted macaroni to decorate her Snoopys. Theyve got a certain something, but you hope its not contagious.

Some of the most elaborate pieces on display are by Masataka Kurashina, an illustrator and painter. Using an air brush and lacquer, he depicts a less-than-lovable beagle. The decorative detailing is strangely gothic in a creepy way.

Flowers are Crimson, from the Web design firm Team Lab, is a computer-generated video work starring Snoopy. Images rendered in the style of a sumi-e ink painting are populated with rabbits and frogs, as well as a flock of cranes that carry the regal beagle over snow-capped mountains to a lily pond where he finds a flower worthy of contemplation.

Fashion designer Eri Utsugi obviously had fun dressing Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown, Woodstock and Snoopy in cute, furry outfits, while the Mintdesigns group got all wound up knitting duds for the characters.

Of the architectural works on display, Shigeru Bans Three House is the most intriguing. The titular homes, constructed of brick, wood and cardboard, are in varying states of repair. The brick and wood doghouses are dilapidated. Only the cardboard structure is sound enough to allow Snoopy to snooze away on top. Its Bans way of reminding us that we must be creative in our use of building materials to meet the challenges posed by design and financial considerations.

The Living Stage section is a product-oriented exercise in branding brio. Among the stranger items on display is Snoopy 55 lessence de snoopy, a perfume created by art director Fabian Monheim.

Which just goes to show that 55 years after his debut, Snoopy is still marking his territory all over the world.

Snoopy Life Design runs through Jan. 15 at Tokyo International Forum Exhibition Room A, a one-minute walk from JR Yurakucho Station. Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (until 9 p.m. Dec. 24-31). 1,300 yen for adults, 800 yen for high school students and 500 yen for elementary school pupils. Call the Tokyo International Forum at 03-5221-9000.

Next year, the show travels to Suntory Museum, Tempozan, in Osaka for a July 8-Sept. 24 run.


Woodstock statues to adorn Santa Rosa

Second summer of Peanuts arts project to feature beloved bird; city hopes for more tourists, fewer vandals

December 14, 2005

By Dan Taylor
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

A flock of Woodstocks, 70 decorated statues depicting the Peanuts comic strip character, will perch in Santa Rosa next summer.

Encouraged by the public response to 55 Charlie Brown statues displayed around town from June to September, the city will open its Summer of Woodstock in May. The polyurethane figures of the frizzy-headed little bird will stand 5 feet tall, including a tree and nest.

Charlie Brown and four other Peanuts characters were featured in a similar project from 2000 to 2004 in St. Paul, Minn., where late Peanuts creator Charles Schulz grew up, but Woodstock wasnt one of them.

This hasnt been done before, said Schulzs son, Craig. When we polled people about which character they wanted to see next, Woodstock was always high on the list.

Last summer, the Charlie Brown statues attracted both tourists and vandals. The Santa Rosa Convention and Visitors Bureau, which handed out maps to the statue sites, reported 27,000 visitors over the three summer months, compared with 15,000 in 2004.

It was such a family activity, said City Councilwoman Janet Condron. Every time you drove by one of the statues, you saw children hugging it and families taking pictures.

Ten of the statues were vandalized, said Pat Fruiht, assistant to the Santa Rosa city manager. One was stolen but returned after two days. The new figures will be designed to resist breakage, and artists will be discouraged from decorating them with attachments that could be easily broken or stolen.

We will be stepping up security, Condron predicted.

The statues, made by TivoliToo Design and Sculpting Studios of St. Paul, cost $3,000 apiece to make. Sponsors pay $4,000 a statue, plus a $1,000 artists fee. Sponsorship covers manufacturing, shipping and other costs. A sponsor can buy the completed statue for $2,000 more. Unsold statues go to auction.

In September, 16 of the Charlie Brown statues were auctioned, raising $301,000. One statue was raffled off to raise an additional $10,600. Auction money went toward an art scholarship fund and a permanent, $250,000 bronze statue of Charlie Brown and Linus to be placed at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, so named by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to honor the late cartoonist.

The point of the bronze was to give some credence to the name of the airport, to make a connection with my father. Its my personal quest, Schulz said. I guess I could have just cut a check for the bronze, but we hosted all the events at our (museum and ice arena) complex and sponsored numerous statues. This isnt being done at the citys expense and the city is benefiting on many levels. And the airport gets a statue. Its a win-win-win situation.

Work is under way on the airport sculpture, scheduled for installation by 2007.

The city of Santa Rosa agreed to partner with the Schulz family on last summers Charlie Brown figurines to honor Charles Schulz and to boost tourism. The city plans to use future auction income for additional permanent bronze Peanuts character statues, said Condron, including one in Courthouse Square.

The scholarship fund stands at about $50,000 now but needs to grow to $150,000 to $200,000 to support an annual $5,000 art scholarship, Schulz said.

The statues will be painted by participating artists from May 11 to 14 and will be put up around town starting May 22, with related Summer of Woodstock events scheduled through the summer, ending with the statue auction Sept. 24.

Woodstock also was the name of the legendary 1969 rock festival in upstate New York, which suggests ideas for events during the sculpture project, Condron said, noting, There are already plans for a Woodstock music festival downtown.

Schulz said his family wants to continue the summer sculpture event at least through 2007 to honor his father. Charles Schulz made his home in Sonoma County from 1958 until his death in 2000.

This is a tribute to my dad, Craig Schulz said. It brings people back to the neighborhood of Charlie Brown, where the kids were nice to each other. They had their battles, but they were loyal. That is the spirit of Peanuts.


Christmas Time Is Here for Benoit

December 11, 2005

By Miriam Di Nunzio
The Chicago Sun-Times

Good grief. No really, good grief. Because A Charlie Brown Christmas is everything thats good and wonderful and magical about Christmas. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the beloved animated television special is best remembered for its music.

The music was the genius of the late jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose Christmas Time Is Here instantly calls to mind the Peanuts gang skating across an icy pond in the 1965 cartoon classic.

To celebrate this milestone, smooth jazz artist David Benoit has produced 40 Years A Charlie Brown Christmas (Peak Records), featuring newly recorded versions of Guaraldis most famous Peanuts themes, and other holiday favorites. Benoit enlisted the help of pals Vanessa Williams, Toni Braxton, Chaka Khan, Brian McKnight and Dave Koz to pay tribute to Guaraldis original concepts. Benoit is also writing a live stage musical based on A Charlie Brown Christmas with longtime Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson.

Benoit spoke to the Sun-Times about the project, which he says was very close to his heart.

Q. Why did you decide to create this special CD?

A. My relationship with Charlie Brown goes back to childhood. The TV special was my favorite, and Vinces music was just so wonderful. I wanted to revisit those themes -- not reinvent them -- to pay tribute to this wonderful jazz music. Sadly, Vince died very young and never lived to see the impact this program made on pop culture.

Q. How did you approach the music from new places and still stay true to the original Guaraldi vibe?

A. These songs have been done by so many artists over the 40 years and pretty much everyone of them has reinvented them in some way. Ive done that, too. But thats not what I wanted to do here. So I went back to the original recordings that Vince made in his basement with a piano and one microphone and really listened to how he did it. I basically used his arrangements as a template and then let each guest artist put his or her interpretation on that. In the studio, I asked the musicians and the engineers to listen to the original recordings, too, because those were our building blocks.

Q. Tell me about some of the artists on the album, specifically Toni Braxton and Chaka Khan, who have two of the coolest cuts on the disc.

A. Chaka Khan [on The Christmas Song] was amazing. She was one of the few artists who came into the studio and did the song live with the orchestra. She just nailed it in one or two takes. The piano trio behind her is just the way Vince did it originally, and she brought her own color and life to it.

Toni Braxton was such a wonderful surprise on [Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year] because the first thing she said to me was Make it sexy. And I was like, OK. So I kinda slowed it down a bit, put a very pretty guitar track in there and I sent her the demo. She loved it and put her vocals to it and its just an amazing version of the song.

Q. What is it about this television special that still resonates 40 years later?

A. Its absolutely timeless. You can look back at lots of other musicals or specials, and they look dated. The message in A Charlie Brown Christmas is so universal and so simple Its what Christmas is all about. My favorite moment in the special is when Linus recites the story of Christmas. Thats the moment that does it for me.

Q. Which Peanuts character do you most identify with?

A. I always see myself as Charlie Brown. Especially when I was a kid. I had one of those childhoods, very much like him. I was never good at sports, my team was the losing team, I was the only kid in class who didnt get a Christmas present [from Secret Santa], and my brothers, they were the surfers and always got the girls. Later in life I became Schroeder. [Laughing] Hes very confident and smart.

A Charlie Brown Christmas has been newly released on DVD ($16.99). The show will air again this season at 7 p.m. Friday on WLS-Channel 7.


Good grief! A low-key tribute to a gentle giant

Museum honours Peanuts creator

December 10, 2005

By Michael Schuman
The Toronto Star

To diehard fans, a glass full of wine will never measure up to a handful of Peanuts.

True Peanuts fans know that the comic strips creator Charles Schulz ate breakfast and lunch religiously at his favourite table in the Warm Puppy Café, part of the ice-skating arena called Snoopys Home Ice near his home in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Schulz moved to Santa Rosa in 1973, and since then this city of 147,000 in the wine country north of San Francisco has been as associated with Schulz as with chardonnay.

The arena and café, gifts from Schulz to the people of Santa Rosa, are still there and across a side street from the Charles Schulz Museum. Hockey-playing Snoopys in stained glass decorate interior windows of the arena and a jaunty Snoopy wearing a chefs hat adorns an outside window of the Warm Puppy Café.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the premiere of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, making it a perfect time to visit Santa Rosa.

Reminders of Schulz abound. His café table, as round as Charlie Browns head, still sits by the hearth, topped with a vase full of flowers and a marker reading PRIVATE. A short walk away is Coddingtown Shopping Center, one of Schulzs favourite places to browse after lunch.

But the centrepiece of Schulz land is the Charles Schulz Museum -- the intent of the museums designers was to make sure Santa Rosa remained Schulz land, not Schulzland. There are no animatronic Snoopys, no help Linus find his blanket computer games. The emphasis here is on one thing Charles Schulzs work. (The cartoonist died in 2000 at age 77).

Those who think Peanuts is just for kids should spend some time taking in the sentiments expressed in the vintage strips on view. Schulzs son Craig said, My dad never saw himself as writing towards kids. The strip was more geared towards adults.

A trip through the museum reminds visitors that Peanuts has always been cutting edge humour, ever since it debuted on Oct. 2, 1950. Lucys psychiatric booth first appeared in the late 1950s when child psychology was a growing field. To social critics, Schulz was mocking the experts by saying their high-priced psychobabble was really worth five cents.

In 1963, when credit cards and postal codes became part of American lives, he introduced a character named 5, whose dad felt that we were all losing our identities anyway, so we might as well call ourselves by numbers.

Even after the Peanuts characters had become stars of television specials and Camp Snoopy theme parks, they were spewing satirical spunk on the comics page. Schulz was a deeply spiritual man, as evidenced by the many times he quoted the Bible in his strip. But he had little patience for those who claimed to have all the answers.

In a 1976 strip, Snoopy is seen writing a book on theology called Has it Ever Occurred to You That You Might be Wrong? Schulz loved that punch line so much he used it again in 1980 when Linus concluded a Bible class by asking the teacher the same question.

Interestingly, Schulz never publicly admitted to making social statements in Peanuts. His good friend Cathy Guisewite, who draws the strip Cathy, said, When people saw all sorts of meanings in his work, he would always kind of roll his eyes and say he was just trying to make his deadline.

But I saw him as writing from the heart and soul. He created something millions of people could respond to in different ways. The whole spectrum of humanity could see something different in what he wrote.


The Voice Of Charlie Brown Reflects

December 10, 2005

By Corwin Haeck
KOMO-TV [Seattle]

For many of us, nothing says Christmas time quite like the annual telecast of the cartoon special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Believe it or not, the show is 40-years-old this week!

Also in his 40s is the boy who put the good into good grief.

Peter Robbins was 8-years-old when he voiced a generations dismay at the creeping commercialism of Christmas.

They tested me for all the parts Linus, Pig Pen, Schroeder. And with my little quirky voice, they gave me the role as Charlie Brown, he told KOMO News.

Something about that quirky voice touched millions of TV viewers as he stood before an empty mailbox and observed stoically I know nobody likes me; why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?

Robbins says the show stands the test of time.

It has such a simple meaning, as Charlie Brown goes around with Linus trying to find out the real meaning of Christmas.

One of the most loved moments in the show made the network very nervous back in 1965.

Linus eloquent speech at the end was basically from the Bible, Robbins recalls. Network executives felt viewers would object to a full minute of Scripture. The same executives also objected to Vince Guaraldis now beloved jazz score and even the lack of a laugh track.

Despite all that, 50 percent of all TVs in use on Dec. 9 1965 were tuned to Charlie Brown. And, after four decades, Robbins still honors the shows simple message.

Its peace on Earth, good will towards men.


Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

December 9, 2005

By Kelly Boggs
The Baptist Press [Nashville, Tennessee]

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- It almost did not air. Network executives thought it moved too slowly for a Christmas special. They also were convinced that the absence of a laugh track, a staple of 1960 era comedies, would be the kiss of death.

To further complicate matters, the man behind the cast of animated characters insisted upon using real kids for the voice-overs. As a result, only a couple of the children who were cast had any acting experience.

However, what most concerned the suits at CBS was the religious content. The climax of the 30-minute program focused on a main character quoting Scripture.

The executive producer even insisted that the Bible could not be read on network television. However, the creator of what has become a Christmas classic refused to edit or otherwise water-down the content.

In spite of network executives concerns, A Charlie Brown Christmas made its television debut on Thursday, Dec. 9, 1965. The result More than 15 million homes tuned in and it captured nearly half of the possible audience.

The week it aired, the show was No. 2 in the ratings. It went on to win critical acclaim as well as an Emmy Award for outstanding childrens program and a Peabody Award for excellence in programming.

The executives at CBS were stunned at the programs success. Lee Mendelson, executive producer of A Charlie Brown Christmas, told USA Today, When I started reading the reviews, I was shocked.... They actually liked it.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, the animated classic that features the Peanuts characters created by Charles Schulz. The storyline not only exposes the crass commercialization that characterizes too much of American Christmas, but it also highlights the real reason for the season. And after four decades, it continues to be popular.

The so-called experts are still scratching their collective heads over the success of Charlie Brown. Explanations for the shows longevity abound.

Some suggest the popularity is due to the genius of Schulz and the popularity of the characters he created. Others insist that it is the craving for nostalgia of the baby-boom generation that fuels the seasonal success of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Contrary to expert speculation about Charlie Browns success, I believe the popularity of Charles Schulzs story about the round-headed boys search for the true meaning of Christmas runs deeper than superficial sentiment for characters or the desire to reminisce. The success of A Charlie Brown Christmas is anchored in truth.

In a society that is on the verge of committing politically correct suicide, Charlie Brown dares to declare the simple truth that the reason for the season is the birth of Jesus Christ.

When Charlie Brown shouts in desperation, Isnt there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about? Linus responds, Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. He then takes center stage and quotes verbatim the King James Version of Luke 28-14.

With simple eloquence, the blanket-clutching character unashamedly announces, For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Linus quotation stands in stark contrast to a popular culture that seeks to ban the Guest of Honor from His own celebration. The message of A Charlie Brown Christmas is the supernatural reality that God sent His only begotten son into the world so the world might through Him be saved.

In the 40 years since Charles Schulz first communicated the simple truth of Christmas through his beloved Peanuts characters, American culture has grown more secular and politically correct. However, the hearts of individuals still yearn for truth and meaning.

In the vast wasteland that characterizes much of the American Christmas experience, A Charlie Brown Christmas is an oasis of truth. Year after year, thirsty souls have taken time to drink deeply the profound truth that God became a man.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Kelly Boggs is pastor of the Portland-area Valley Baptist Church in McMinnville, Ore. His column appears each Friday in Baptist Press.


Previous page...

Next page...






Here's more!



Breaking News

Just the FAQs, Ma'am

Ace Airlines Tours: Sites to Visit

Beethoven's Rhapsodies: The Music (and Musicians) of Peanuts

Shop Till You Drop

Just for Fun

By Derrick Bang

Legal Matters




All PEANUTS characters pictured are copyrighted © by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. They are used here with permission. They may not be reproduced by any means in any form.