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| Today in (Television) History: A Charlie Brown Christmas |
| 2008-12-09 |
| What the roomful of executives saw upon the first screening was a shock--a slow and quiet semireligious, jazz-filled 25 minutes, voiced by a cast of inexperienced children, and, perhaps most unforgivably, without a laugh track. "They said, 'We'll play it once and that will be all. Good try,' " remembers Mendelson. "Bill and I thought we had ruined Charlie Brown forever when it was done. We kind of agreed with the network. One of the animators stood up in the back of the room--he had had a couple of drinks--and he said, 'It's going to run for a hundred years,' and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 "And then fall down" > HERESY, HERESY I SAY! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-09 19:37 |
| #5 "Lights please." - Linus An enduring little line from my all-time favorite Christmas special. |
| Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats 2008-12-09 15:01 |
| #4 Merry Christmas Charles Schultz, wherever you are. And may Charlie Brown get a card from the little red haired girl. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-12-09 14:46 |
| #3 It's kinda like grandfathered in there now. They have to keep showing it because it's tradition and people would protest if they didn't. But if they had the decision to make today they'd never show it in the first place. They'd be afraid of a lawsuit by the ACLU or CAIR. Either that or it'd offend their atheist/gay sensibilities so badly they'd throw it out without even getting to the point of thinking about lawsuits. Even the title is wrong. It says A Charlie Brown Christmas. How quaint. These days it'd have to be Charlie Brown Holidays and just never you mind which holiday or what we're celebrating. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-12-09 12:09 |
| #2 'It's going to run for a hundred years,' and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were. Which should've pointed out that the illustrator had more of an understanding of what Americans want then all the Programmers and Vice-Presidents in network television that have driven their audiences into other media for the last 40 years. He was of the plebeians who you exist for, not the patricians who you cater for. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-12-09 10:18 |
| #1 In vino veritas |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-12-09 08:32 |