Making Christmas Specials: A Charlie Brown Christmas
St. Andrew’s Stars Episode:
Psalm 107:1-16, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, John 17:13-19
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lmost exactly fifty years
ago today (think about that for a moment!) On Thursday, December 9, 1965,
viewers who were just settling in to watch their favourite television show on
CBS, the Munsters, were in for a surprise. The show had been pre-empted,
replaced with a brand new television special: A Charlie Brown Christmas. For
the very first time the popular comic strip was brought to life through the
magic of animation.
And the executives down at CBS were huddled in fear.
They were bracing for what they were sure would be an embarrassing failure. And
they had some very good reasons for that fear. The special had been made on a
shoestring budget and had definitely suffered for it. The animation was very
poor quality. It was jerky and repetitive. The sound was hardly better. The
film was poorly edited as well and the action cut from one thing to another in
strange and unexplained ways.
Part of the problem was the pure
bullheadedness of the writer: Charles Shultz. He had insisted on a number of ridiculous
things. He’d insisted on using child actors for the voices – children who had
no experience at all. Some of them couldn’t even read! The producers had to
read the lines to the kids and have them repeat them back and then they had to
splice the dialogue together. (Which is actually how we tape our St. Andrews
Stars episodes.) The result, in the pre-digital age, was dialogue that was
choppy and didn’t sound good.
Shultz also wanted the soundtrack to be
played by a jazz trio which everyone considered to be quite inappropriate for a
children’s show. Even worse, he absolutely refused to add a la
ugh track. The
executives tried and tried to make him see how foolish this was. They even made
up an alternate version with the
laugh track, hoping that he would change his mind at the last minute but Shultz
would not budge.
But the worst thing of all – the thing
that they were sure would lead to a total disaster – Shultz had included in his
script a reading from the Gospel of Luke. And the executives were certain that
when Linus stepped forward and began to quote from the King James Version of the Bible, people everywhere would turn off
their televisions in disgust. Perhaps they would never tune into CBS ever
again. Oh, it was awful!
Well, as we all know now, those television
experts in their high towers were all wrong and the lowly cartoonist was
completely right. The special was a smash hit both with the general audience
and with the critics. It won an Emmy and a Peabody award the next year. It
became an instant classic and still remains one to this very day. For many
people, Christmas would not be Christmas if they didn’t get to see it. And,
what’s more, the very things that the executives were worried about – the
things that Shultz had insisted on – were the best things about it. The amateur
child actors lent a sense of sincerity to the whole thing. People just loved
Vince Guaraldi’s music. When the cd
came out several years ago, it was the top seller of the season. And Linus’
recitation from the Gospel of Luke was hailed as “quite simply, the dramatic
highlight of the season.”[1]
“But
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong.” That is what the Apostle Paul wrote
to his friends in the church at Corinth centuries ago. Perhaps if Paul had
written it in 1965 he would have said, “But God chose the cartoonists of the
world to shame the high-powered executives.” It is a wonderful gospel
principle. And it is so true. God has this uncanny way of using the very people
that everyone else looks down on and despises to accomplish his greatest works.
Who but God would think of creating a nation out of two people who had no
children and were already so old that they had one foot in the grave? Who but
God would chose a ragged band of shepherds to spread the news that the Messiah
had been born? Who but Jesus would think of starting a new religious movement
by choosing some fishermen and a few tax-collectors and troublemakers?
And this eternal principle was put on
display yet again when Charles Shultz created his beloved television special. What’s
more, the very same principle was on display in the plot of the special. I’m
sure that we all know the story. Charlie Brown is upset as Christmas
approaches. He is afraid that he has lost the true meaning of Christmas in the
midst of all the glitz and glamour and especially the commercialism of the
season. The special tells the story of his struggles.
It is amazing when you think of it but
somehow the story has remained very current for over fifty years. Charlie Brown’s
struggles with the Christmas season are still the very same struggles that
people have to this day. Take this exchange between Charlie Brown and his
little sister, Sally. Sally has asked her brother to write a letter to Santa
for her. And this is what she dictates: “Dear Santa Claus, How have you been?
Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year,
so I have a long list of presents that I want.” “Oh brother,” says Charlie
Brown. “Please note the size and color of each item,” says Sally, “and send as
many as possible. If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself: just
send money. How about tens and twenties?”
“Tens
and twenties?” cries Charlie Brown, “Oh, even my baby sister!” “All I want
is what I have coming to me,” replies Sally. “All I want is my fair share.”
That exchange could just as easily be
written today as it was fifty years ago. But if anything it has all gotten
worse since the 1960’s. For so many people today, Christmas is all about making
sure that they get what’s coming to them. And it’s not just the kids; it has
spread to every area of our society. The culture of Christmas seems to have
become ever more a culture of everyone getting what’s coming to them.
In the Christmas special, the symbol of
the commercialism and greed of the season is the artificial aluminum Christmas
tree. The fake trees are beautiful and awe inspiring and the little natural
tree that Charlie Brown chooses instead of them is, by contrast, so plain and
disappointing. But the message of the special is that the simple, plain and
seemingly unimpressive things have a power and a meaning that goes a lot
further than the glitz and glamour of the commercial products.
That’s why, at the end, the Peanuts gang
learns to respect and even love Charlie Brown’s little tree. In the same way,
Linus’ simple recitation of the plain old simple Gospel story of a plain old
simple birth has the power to touch everyone’s heart. The message of the
special, when you get right down to it is that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose
what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and
despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that
are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”
Friends, that is the message, not only of
a fifty year-old television special, it is and has always been the message of Christianity
and especially of Christmas. Now, I know that the big money-making juggernaut
that is Christmas can be pretty overwhelming at times. Those who are out to get
whatever is coming to them seem to be in charge no matter what we may have to
say about it.
If we fail to go along with that
prevailing wisdom, people might laugh at us and call us foolish. Politicians
demand positive economic indicators and economists look for growth in the Gross
Domestic Product, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to politicians
and foolishness to economists.
But somehow I believe that once all of
that economic wisdom has passed away and been sent to the recycler like so many
gaudy aluminum Christmas trees, our simple and lowly little natural tree of
faith will still be standing and still be inspiring hope and life. For “God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”
Sermon Video
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