A Charlie Brown Anti-Christmas



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As I’ve said before, I’m an admirer of cartoonist Charles Schulz.  I’ll never decide if my favorite Peanuts cartoon is A Charlie Brown Christmas or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  But it’s Halloween, so I’ll say it’s The Great Pumpkin.  Let’s listen to “Great Pumpkin Waltz,” by Vince Guaraldi, transferred from a wonderfully warm-sounding, but slightly-warped, LP.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/OCT06/pumpkinwaltz.mp3]

Here’s a comment by Charles Schulz, as recalled by Lee Mendelson in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic.

 

You know, I’ve always been ambivalent about Santa Claus.  It must be very hard for a lot of [poor] families … a lot of kids.  And, secondly, when a kid finally finds out that there is no Santa Claus, he must wonder how many other things he has been told that are not true.
 

This raises an interesting discussion topic.  A Charlie Brown Christmas plainly states who, other than Santa, there is to believe in.  And it’s Linus who articulates that belief so poignantly in the show.  But it’s also Linus who believes in the obviously non-existent Great Pumpkin.

The Great Pumpkin fabrication was intended by Schulz to be a Halloween counterpart to the Santa Claus character.  The name of the Halloween counterpart to Jesus isn’t given in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Here’s a screen shot from Friday night’s showing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  It’s strange to see the ABC-TV logo in the corner, because in my mind the show is indelibly associated with CBS.  But at least they aired it.  The show is, after all, 40 years old!

Also, take note of the “G” rating and the blurb promoting the Harry Potter movie.  It wasn’t too many years ago that religious groups were in an uproar over Harry Potter.  Perhaps they still are.

For me, and I mean this sincerely, Christmas is about Birth (or, if you prefer, Life) and Halloween is about Death.  The symbolism is undeniable.  I admire Schulz for dealing so deftly with the always-touchy subject of Faith in his Christmas and Halloween cartoons.

8 thoughts on “A Charlie Brown Anti-Christmas”

  2. And the MUNSTERS was on, too! Holy mackeral, Andy! This had to have been a Thursday night, because I remember that when that show came on, I always thought, “Only one more day of school, and then it will be the weekend!”

  3. Is it Acton? I remember that Channel 4 was WBZ, and Channel 5 was CBS, Channel 2 was PBS, etc. Remember Natalie and Chet, the married couple, on the Channel 5 news? She had a couple of kids before I married Bilious and moved away. I think Pat Collins from WBS ended up at CNN or something.

    Yes! And let’s embarrass Dougie some more! Once when “Next time on ‘Lost in Space'” came on, and it was a RERUN!, he burst into tears!” Try and deny it, but I have witnesses! OK, so Marianne may be too young to remember ….

  4. Jean, I’m surprised you didn’t comment on the city for the TV Guide listings. The channel lineup gives it away!

    Ah, the old days. Having to choose between one channel and another, knowing it would be MONTHS before you could catch the other show in re-runs. And there were some shows that weren’t re-run, because summer replacements cut the season short.

    No DVD, no VCR… but oh, that sense of anticipation, knowing that something special was coming up. It wasn’t until high school that I’d seen The Wizard of OZ enough times in color to not care if I missed it.

  7. My husband is five years older than me Iborn 1950) and doesn’t even like the Beatles, so forget him! However, he was quick to point out all the great shows that were ALSO playing that night: F Troop! Honey West! STAR TREK! He even remembers watching that particular episode, with Michael J. Pollard, when if first came out, so he had to have passed by Charlie Brown. TRAITOR! Actually, Tom doesn’t like Christmas much and, for personal reasons, has even less reason to like the holidays now.

    As for ME! Even at 11, I got the analogy between Linus’s naive but steadfast belief in the “Great Pumpkin” and kids everywhere still believeing in “Santa Claus.” In fact, at 51, I STILL belileve in Santa Claus, not as a real flesh-and-blood entity, but as a wonderful part of Christmas, the spirit of giving. Of course, the spiritual meaning of Christmas is the most important, never more beautifully put than by Linus in his loney spotlight on the first special. That part STILL brings me to tears!

    Yes, CBS carried ALL the Charlie Brown specials for YEARS, along with the Dolly Madison cupcake commercials. When Molly was about four, I taped her watching “The Great Pumpkin” after coming back from trick-or-treating. She’s wearing a bride’s costume, I think, and is so totally wrapped up in the show, she doesn’t even know I’m taping her!

    One final comment: “I got a rock.”

  8. The most interesting part of this blog post is what comes up when clicking on the picture of the TV Guide promo for the show!

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