Category: Charles M. Schulz

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The comment was made for my previous post about “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that there are some pink walls. Well, yes, that does indeed appear to be the case. The video clip has the entire show run in 30 seconds, but it’s backwards, with a corporate logo superimposed over the image.

It’s backwards because the Laserdisc scanning was smoother that way, and I didn’t feel like spending the money to enable the reverse playback feature in Pinnacle Studio. Even if I had paid, the logo would still be there because I didn’t want to pay to license the audio dub feature!

Tonight is the annual showing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on network TV. The show was quite a breakthrough when it first aired in 1965, which is something I couldn’t fully appreciate until I became an adult.

Schulz makes an unabashed plug for his Christian faith and The New Testament, and I would be disingenuous if I claimed it never had an influence on me. He also offers another message, which is IT’S OK TO BE DEPRESSED DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Click here here to go to the gallery to see an adaptation of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” published by Family Circle magazine in 1977. Be sure to click “full” to enlarge the images.

Vince Guaraldi’s music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the subject of a feature on NPR that can be heard by clicking here.

Just what is “graphic blandishment,” anyway?

First click here to watch a video I posted of Charles Schulz from 1963…

…then come back here and watch an interview from 1985, to see an older Schulz with his daughter Jill. Note how in ’63 Schulz insisted he was Charlie Brown, and in ’85 he denies it!

I was a bit surprised by today’s reprint of Peanuts. It’s from November 5, 1959.

Doesn’t it seem out of character for Charlie Brown to be making fun of somebody else, especially Linus?

Click picture to see complete image

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.

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.