In Charlie Brown’s Christmas Miracle, Michael Keane explored how the Christmas special come to be. He is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and an historian. He shared his research and interviews with the key behind the special. Some of these included the producer, Lee Mendelson, The Sponsor, Coca-Cola and J. Paul Austin, The Cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz, The Director, Bill Melendez, The Jazz Musician, Vince Guaraldi, and much more. The book explored the background of each key person and the challenges they faced.
It all begin in 1965 around the time Vietnam was occurring and the civic rights of Black Americans was being finally questioned. Peanuts was released as a cartoon strip in newspapers in 1950. It grew to 60 million people and was published in 700 hundred newspapers. Lee was the one who first tried to sell the Christmas special to networks. Charlie Brown Christmas Special suffered a 6-month delivery schedule. Charles made the decision to stand firm and to show cast the true meaning of Christmas. He wanted to have Linus recite content from the Book of Luke, chapter 2, 8-14. Before this there hasn’t been any cartoons that would touch on religion or God. Warner Bros., Disney, and Hanna-Barbera has never done so. He faced some backlash for choosing to do this. He also wanted to include Jazz as the music featured in the short cartoon. He didn’t want to allow Snoopy to ever speak but he would allow him to use noises. He didn’t want a laugh track to be used and even the suggestion of this caused Charles to walk out of the room.
He also shared how Charles suffered from agoraphobia, depression, and anxiety. He sometimes didn’t want to leave his home. He won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year but he didn’t attend. He couldn’t fly due to his attack of agoraphobia. He ended up putting psychiatric help in his storyline by using Lucy to deliverer the message. Mental health become a topic and readers could connect to it due to post war. He lost 20 pounds and suffered from anxiety but would be revealed to be in good health by multiple doctors. He later made comments on how he believed sadness helped him in creating even better cartoon ideas. The author also shared his own personal thoughts on that he most likely suffered from PTSD. Charles passed away in 2000 from colon cancer at age 77.
The Christmas special ran on CBS until the year 2000. Then it moved to ABC. In 2018, Apple purchased the broadcasting rights and have since moved exclusively to Apple TV+.
I would recommend this awesome book on the Charlies Brown Christmas Special to anyone who is curious about the history of the special. I liked how he explored the director side, audience, the cartoonist, producer, sponsor, agency, and so much more. He looked at the background on them all and how they all fit together. He looked at the backlash and the critics. I haven’t heard some of the events before reading this book and it made me fall even more in love with the message of this cartoon. It was interesting to read about the jazz content and the religion aspect that Charles refused to change. It was also remarkable to read about the different changes they made in the special that aired every year. It makes you question what has been changed over the years that not many noticed. This is a perfect book to read before you watch the special this year.
"I received this book free from the publisher, Hachette Book Group/Faithwords for my honest review.”
If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:
https://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Browns-Christmas-Miracle-Inspiring/dp/1546004904/
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