There’s nothing like watching the Christmas classics. Whether you’re a fan of the live-action nostalgic hits like A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation , or you’re a sucker for the animated legends of our childhood like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer , there’s nothing like curling up and watching our favorite Christmas movies as the reason for the season gets closer and closer.
One of those Christmas classics almost never aired at all, and the reasoning behind it might make you say “Good grief!”
RELATED STORIES
There are a ton of classic holiday cartoons, but *A Charlie Brown Christmas* from 1965 is right up there for me.
The movie has pretty much everything — Snoopy’s fantastic hijinks, the most adorable sad little Christmas tree ever, a heartwarming message, and a great soundtrack. It’s obvious why this film is a go-to for pretty much everyone this time of year.
It almost didn’t make it to broadcast television this year.
Apple bought the rights to It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; and A Charlie Brown Christmas from ABC and originally intended to only have these classics available for streaming through AppleTV.
I barely know how to work my regular cable, let alone figuring out how to stream on AppleTV!
Clearly this didn’t go over well.
There was a TON of pushback, including some very popular petitions , and the specials all ended up airing on PBS this year, thankfully!
But it turns out A Charlie Brown Christmas could have never made it to air all the way back in 1965, and we never would’ve had it at all!
It’s hard to imagine Christmas without *A Charlie Brown Christmas*.
Where would we be without this holiday classic?! What would have taken its place?! I don’t even want to imagine the dark and dreary world we would live in.
It turns out there were a lot of obstacles in the way of the special airing for the first time.
There were a number of reasons why the show’s producers and CBS itself wasn’t very excited about the prospect of the special.
CBS was concerned that the pacing of the movie was too slow (come on, that’s part of it’s charm!), they weren’t fans of using real children to voice the characters (an iconic feature of the film), and there was no laugh track (thank goodness!).
For the producers, they had a different concern.
Some of the film’s producers were worried that the movie was too religious as it included scenes of Linus reading from the Bible!
“Maybe it’s better suited to the comic page,” they were told, according to producer Lee Mendelson .
Lee went on to tell Charles Schulz, Peanuts creator, that “it was a very dangerous place to go into.”
Mendelson remembers Schulz responding, “If we can talk about what I feel is the true meaning of Christmas, based on my Midwest background, it would really be worth doing.”
We’re so glad he stuck up for himself!
The scene remained in the final cut, and the special aired on CBS!
It went on to win an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award, so I’m sure everyone involved was glad that Charles made the push to keep his original vision! It just wouldn’t be Christmas without this classic film!
Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Rae Batchelor
