A Christmas tradition, of sorts …

A Christmas tradition, of sorts …

Posted on December 24th, 2012 by Jeff McDonald

Even in the days of DVDs, when I could watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” easily and inexpensively, whenever I wanted, I would still wait for the Christmas season to come around, so I could watch the broadcast, just as I did the first time it aired … and have done every Christmas season since then … at least until the last couple of years, when broadcasters made additional cuts to the original program. Made me glad I bought the DVD a while back … I still wait for the Christmas season to come around … I just watch it via a new medium.

I like the humor of the story, with characters and dialogue that doesn’t drive adults out of the room, screaming … and I like the fact that we are allowed to laugh – or not – spontaneously, without the urging of a laugh track.

And I LOVE the music! The soundtrack was composed by the late, great Vincent Guaraldi, and was performed by Guraraldi and his trio. It’s one of my favorite holiday music albums, AND one of my favorite jazz albums.

And I like the idea that a story about Christmas has something to say about Christ … with a wonderful delivery by Linus of Scripture from the Gospel of Luke (King James version, no less), answering Charlie Brown’s question of ‘what Christmas is all about.’

There are some wonderful anecdotes out there about the making (and the near UN-making) of “Charlie Brown Christmas,” and how viewers and critics had the nerve to rear-up and roar-out their opinions of the show … opinions that differed dramatically from what network executives had predicted.

Makes me wonder if such a cartoon special could be produced and aired on a major television network today … I don’t know … maybe not. I remain a big fan of cartoons … but I just don’t see as much respect for viewers young and old as I see demonstrated in something like “Charlie Brown Christmas.” And with contemporary cartoon production being what it is, would we ever again see a gathering of talent such as Charles Shultz (words), Bill Melendez (images) and Vince Guaraldi (music), all of whom were not only creators, but determined advocates for their project? Again … I don’t know … maybe not.

Now, if there was just some way to add those old sponsor plugs for Coca-Cola and Dolly Madison.

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Jeff McDonald

There's a saying around here, something like, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" That's me. I'm a 'dang Yankee from back-east' who settled in the Lone Star State after some extended stays in the eastern U.S., and New Mexico. I worked as an archaeologist for a few years before dusting off my second major in English, and embarking on a 25-year career in journalism. Since then, I've embraced the dark side of the force, and now work in PR for a community college in Midland, Texas.