Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales
Encyclopedia
Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales is one of many prime-time animated TV specials based on characters from the Charles M. Schulz
comic strip
Peanuts
. It originally aired on the ABC
network in 2002.
to work as a bell-ringer to raise money. At one point, while dressed as Santa, he plays "Oh! Susanna
" on the accordion
, which Lucy comments "isn't very Christmasy" as she and Linus walk by. Upon hearing that, he quickly switches to "Christmas Time is Here". He also attempts to make peace with the ferocious cat who lives next door but it takes a ferocious swipe again.
. When I look at, I hope it'll just fall down." Later, just such an occurrence happens.
was created in 1965, the program was designed as a 30-minute time program. By the 1990s, changes in the delivery of closing credits and increases in advertising minutes on the networks made it impossible for all of A Charlie Brown Christmas to be aired in a half-hour time slot. In 2010, the special ran, with commercials, for 35 minutes.
CBS made several cuts to the program to keep it in the half-hour time slot, including standardizing the closing credits and cutting out the closing song of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
". Fans of the special were angered by the cuts. In response, ABC increased the special to a one hour block when it acquired the rights to the special shortly before creator Charles Schulz's death. However, this left about eighteen extra minutes to be filled. During 2001, the first year ABC aired A Charlie Brown Christmas, the show was followed by a retrospective (hosted by Whoopi Goldberg
) featuring the voice cast and producers of the special. Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales was created to replace that retrospective in rounding out the hour for subsequent airings. It first aired December 8, 2002. It has aired annually on ABC each year since.
When the special aired December 7, 2010, a portion of the special was cut to clear a spot for Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa, a seven-minute short produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Only "Happy Holidays from Snoopy," "Yuletide Greetings from Linus," and "Merry Christmas from Charlie Brown" aired.
for I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
, although not on the UK release or the later Warner Brothers US re-release. Warner Brothers released it on its own DVD, with Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?
as a bonus feature, released on November 3, 2009 as a CVS Pharmacy exclusive and then solicited to the wider market in 2010.
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
. It originally aired on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network in 2002.
Synopsis
The special consists of a series of vignettes, each one starring a different member of the Peanuts gang in various Christmastime situations. The installments are as follows:Happy Holidays from Snoopy
Snoopy tries to get Lucy to ask him to join her in the skating show, but she's only interested in Schroeder. Later, he dresses up like Santa ClausSanta Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
to work as a bell-ringer to raise money. At one point, while dressed as Santa, he plays "Oh! Susanna
Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster . It was published by W. C. Peters & Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1848. The song was introduced by a local quintette at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1847. Foster was said to have written...
" on the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, which Lucy comments "isn't very Christmasy" as she and Linus walk by. Upon hearing that, he quickly switches to "Christmas Time is Here". He also attempts to make peace with the ferocious cat who lives next door but it takes a ferocious swipe again.
Yuletide Greetings from Linus
Linus tries to decide what kind of letter he should write to Santa and toys with the affections of the strange girl at school who keeps changing her name, like "Jezebel", "Susan", and "Rebecca".Season's Greetings from Sally
Sally decides to give everyone paper airplanes for Christmas and she discovers that "Samantha Claus" is actually "Santa Claus", embarrassing herself at school. Later, she decides to "fall down" a tree for Christmas. When Charlie questions her about her plan, she says "I don't know how to cut down a Christmas treeChristmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
. When I look at, I hope it'll just fall down." Later, just such an occurrence happens.
Peace on Earth from Lucy
Lucy struggles with being nice and tries to get Schroeder and Linus to buy her presents.Voice cast
- Wesley SingermanWesley SingermanWesley Steven Singerman is an American voice actor. He is most recognized for his role in the 2007 Walt Disney animated film Meet the Robinsons as Wilbur Robinson. Singerman also voiced Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Valentine, Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales and Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie...
: Charlie BrownCharlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie... - Serena BermanSerena Berman-Biography:Serena began working as an actress from a young age. She attended Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica, California. In her later teen years, Serena focused more closely on her studies at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California, but did have a role in Just...
: Lucy van PeltLucy van PeltLucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,... - Megan Taylor Harvey: Sally BrownSally BrownSally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She was first mentioned in early 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appearance in August 1959.-Appearance:...
- Corey Padnos: Linus van PeltLinus van PeltLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
- Bill MelendezBill MelendezJosé Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
: SnoopySnoopySnoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
and WoodstockWoodstock (Peanuts)Woodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. He is Snoopy's closest friend and, after Snoopy, the most recognized non-human in the strip.-History:... - Lauren Schaffel: Lucy Van Pelt
- Christopher Ryan Johnson: SchroederSchroeder (Peanuts)Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
- Tim Deters: Rerun van PeltRerun van PeltRerun van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.-Introduction:Rerun started as a minor character in the Peanuts universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip...
Origin
When A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
was created in 1965, the program was designed as a 30-minute time program. By the 1990s, changes in the delivery of closing credits and increases in advertising minutes on the networks made it impossible for all of A Charlie Brown Christmas to be aired in a half-hour time slot. In 2010, the special ran, with commercials, for 35 minutes.
CBS made several cuts to the program to keep it in the half-hour time slot, including standardizing the closing credits and cutting out the closing song of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley. This is not the version widely known today. A sombre man, Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the...
". Fans of the special were angered by the cuts. In response, ABC increased the special to a one hour block when it acquired the rights to the special shortly before creator Charles Schulz's death. However, this left about eighteen extra minutes to be filled. During 2001, the first year ABC aired A Charlie Brown Christmas, the show was followed by a retrospective (hosted by Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
) featuring the voice cast and producers of the special. Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales was created to replace that retrospective in rounding out the hour for subsequent airings. It first aired December 8, 2002. It has aired annually on ABC each year since.
When the special aired December 7, 2010, a portion of the special was cut to clear a spot for Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa, a seven-minute short produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Only "Happy Holidays from Snoopy," "Yuletide Greetings from Linus," and "Merry Christmas from Charlie Brown" aired.
Home video releases
This special was also included as a bonus feature on the original Paramount US DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
for I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown is one of the Peanuts made-for-television specials. The hour-long special first aired on ABC on December 9, 2003...
, although not on the UK release or the later Warner Brothers US re-release. Warner Brothers released it on its own DVD, with Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?
Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?
Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? is the 24th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on February 21, 1983.-Plot:...
as a bonus feature, released on November 3, 2009 as a CVS Pharmacy exclusive and then solicited to the wider market in 2010.