As long as I can remember, I have been watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas". We will watch it again this weekend, as is our family tradition while decorating the Christmas tree, along with "White Christmas".
Yesterday, I spotted a well done article in the LA Times about the popularity of this wonderful little tradition, and I felt a pang of warmth for a show, and a character I remember fondly. Growing up, I always felt I identified with Charlie Brown - the round headed kid who never got the attention of the pretty red-haired girl, always missed kicking the football when Lucy pulled it out of the way, and who pitched for the worst baseball team in town - the team with a dog playing shortstop.
It seems that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is the home run of television Christmas specials, and made over $5.75 million last year. I find this fascinating. In a world of MTV, reality TV, and the Internet, this simple little 20 minute cartoon still stands very tall in the holiday television landscape, 40 years after it was made. No GCI, no Pixar here. Not even a laugh track, Charles (also known by friends as "Sparky") Schultz would have nothing to do with it. So what is it that is so endearing about this show? For me, it has been the clear proclamation of the gospel, the story of the birth of the Savior. To wit, from the LA Times article:
"Schulz, a Midwesterner who had taught Sunday school, wanted Linus to quote a passage from the Bible about the birth of Jesus to present the "true meaning of Christmas." His collaborators worried it might feel preachy."I was dead set against it," Melendez, now 89, recalled during an interview at his Sherman Oaks office. "It was too religious, too dangerous."Melendez has never forgotten Schulz's response: "Sparky said, 'Bill, if we don't do it, then who will?' "
And so there you have it. An honest, simple man who drew comics brought to us a story that has become uniquely part of our culture. For 40 years. I will always get a lump in my throat when Charlie Brown, at the height of his frustration with a rebel Christmas play cast yells, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about"? And then, Linus responds, "Sure Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about".
Thank you Sparky Shultz, for bringing you Midwestern sunday school morality into the world. And, for a post-modern person's view of all this....look here. Remarkable how history repeats itself.
2 comments:
agree...I was tearing up last night...didn't Charlie Brown seem very postmodern? haaaa
My family and I watched Chuck the other night. Of course, I have seen this since it first aired - some 325 years ago! ha! And, like you said, it tugged at my heart. I could not stop laughing inside at how this very same show, were it produced TODAY, would never be aired - certainly not on a big TV network. They would never take the risk! But because this is a "classic," it continues to be aired - even though it seems to fit better within a Sunday school classroom than on "normal" television. Even my 12 year old son asked me if we were watching Christian TV. I smiled and said, "I think we are..."
I contrast this with my viewing last night of the new "Narnia" movie. Overall, the film stays true to Lewis' book. However, there are a couple of "extra" words here and there - or twists of words - very subtle, but just enough to not be "over the top" with the obvious Christian alagory Lewis wove into the story.
I kind of like Linus' "over-the-top-ness." It was refreshing.
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