10 Things You Didn't Know About "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Because there's no better way to celebrate the Christmas classic's 50th anniversary.
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Since its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has gone on to become required Christmas viewing in homes across America. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated on November 30 on ABC, we've gathered 10 lesser-known facts about the quintessential Christmas show.
Initially, networks weren't interested in a Charlie Brown Christmas special.
It wasn't until the Coca-Cola Company expressed interest that producer Lee Mendelson and creator Charles Schulz got to work. The duo ended up getting an outline of the special together in less than a day, and in the end, had only six months to produce the show before its December airing on CBS.
There is no laugh track, which was uncommon at the time.
Though Mendelson wanted to use one, Schulz was adamant that the show feel as authentic as possible.
Animator Bill Melendez provided the voice of Snoopy.
The producers increased the speed of a tape of Melendez speaking gibberish to make it sound like Snoopy.
But the other members of the Peanuts gang were voiced by actual kids.
Though that might not sound unique, it was actually quite rare back then to use children to voice characters. According to The Huffington Post, Melendez and Schulz were criticized for this decision, but the pair wanted the cast to sound as authentic as possible. Linus and Lucy were the only two characters who were voiced by professional actors.
There were a lot of concerns about Linus' "True Meaning of Christmas" speech.
Mendelson and Melendez were concerned the speech would be controversial, but Schulz insisted the show feature Linus reading from the Bible.
The special debuted second in the ratings for that night.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was viewed in an estimated 15,490,000 homes, but was ultimately trumped by an airing of Bonanza.
The youngest voice actor was just six years old.
Kathy Steinberg, who voiced Sally Brown, was too young to read her lines, so the producers had to repeat them to her sentence by sentence.
The iconic jazz music in the special was created by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
The iconic jazz music in the special was created by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
The soundtrack has gone on to feature some of the most celebrated Christmas music—and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" Stamps Are Now Available
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, USPS released stamp booklets that feature 10 scenes from the classic TV special.
The 50th anniversary special in 2015 was hosted by Kristen Bell.
The special featured performances by Kristin Chenoweth, Matthew Morrison, Sarah McLachlan, and Boyz II Men.
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