Customer Reviews

A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition

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In the television show, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown searches for the true meaning of Christmas and helps infuse it into all the Peanuts gang. Like many people, he's a little down in the dumps over the upcoming holiday season, but with his good heart he soon finds a way to seek out Christmas in his own way by getting a real tree rather than the artificial one that Lucy sent him for.

If you are like me, you have watched and enjoyed A Charlie Brown Christmas many times since it premiered in 1965. Now, you can have this experience every day with this remarkable keepsake album. Everything about the book is first-class and a joy. Do be kind to your family and friends who like Peanuts and give them this book.

The book contains the whole illustrated script of the show, which brings the experience of watching the show back very literally. You also get the lyrics and music to "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Linus and Lucy." I could hear the music in my head for days after reading the book. You can, of course, play and sing these songs for yourself, as well.

There are also a lot of background sketches, story boards, and production sheets to help you understand the development and production process better. I found these to be interesting and valuable additions to the book.

I also enjoyed learning more about the decision to integrate jazz and classical music into the show. The remembrances about Vince Guraldi, who wrote the music, added to my understanding of why this is a great story.

To me, though, the best parts were the memories of Charles "Sparky" Schulz by producer Lee Mendelson and animator (and voice of Snoopy) Bill Melendez. This material integrates the story back into Mr. Schulz's basic religious values. You also get insights into the characters and their relation to Mr. Schulz. My favorite reference was this quote, "Charlie Brown is the way I am and Snoopy is the way I wish I could be."

After you read and reread this book, I suggest you sit back and plan for how you can have the kind of Christmas that Charles Schulz wanted to encourage with this story. That will be the best benefit of all.

May you always find and enjoy the true meaning of Christmas!

Reading "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on a dark Sunday afternoon in November is a bit like owning a DVD crammed with special features. This gorgeously-designed hardcover, with glossy pages and a heavy silver dustjacket, is a terrific companion to the TV special, and an almost essential shelf companion to "Peanuts: A Golden Celebration".

Anything you'd want to know about the "Christmas" TV special is in this book -- lengthy interviews with producer Lee Mendelson (a veteran of Peanuts anniversary books) and animator Bill Melendez. Charles M Schulz passed away before the book was written, but there are plenty of rarely-seen photos of him taken in the 1960s. There's a chapter on Vince Guaraldi, whose jazz soundtrack defines the lives of many "Peanuts" fans; interviews with some of the children who voiced the characters; and, O happy day, sheet music! The second half of the book contains the complete script for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" itself, along with dozens of photos and animated sequences, taken from the original cels.

"Christmas" is not for small children (unless they're reading it with you), and there are a couple of misprints (including, in my first edition, a caption for a photo that's not in the book!). But it's lovely to look at, and when I put it down finally, reluctantly, I was whistling the soundtrack and hearing Linus's nativity speech (and I'm Jewish!). These days you can buy it for about as much as the DVD costs, and it's a wonderful Christmas gift. Unless, of course, the person you're buying it for already owns it.

I purchased this book yesterday, and it's beautifully done. Includes entire script of film with glossy prints of many cells. Includes sheet music and production notes as well as many wonderful photos and reminicenses of how the film came to be. I'm enjoying it!

This book is for anybody who's seen A Charlie Brown Christmas virtually every year it's been on TV or via VHS or DVD.

It includes storyboards of the Ford commercials which featured Linus and Lucy back in 1962 (3 years before this classic TV special debuted). Not only that, it features advertisements in TV guide, an interview with Bill Melendez, who animated all the Peanuts specials and films up to Charles Schulz's untimely death in 2000), and a few essays from Lee Mendelson, who worked side by side with Melendez on each of the specials. It also features a few words from Peter Robins (the 1st voice of Charlie Brown) and Chris Shea (who played Linus). You also get a tribute to Vince Guaraldi who composed the music (not to mention that it includes the sheet music for "Linus and Lucy" and "Christmastime Is Here"). This book mentions how they came up with the adult "voices" in the specials and Schulz's conditions on working on Charlie Brown Christmas (one was that real children would do the kids' voices, and another was that the Gospel of Luke was present in the script in order to remind the audience the true meaning of Christmas).

Most importantly, this book includes the entire script of Charlie Brown Christmas with stills from the special. In essence, there is enough information for you to cast your own stage production of A Charlie Brown Christmas. There is one slight error in the script, however- the Peanuts gang is not humming "O Little Town of Bethelehem" at the finale but "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" (unless this was written in the original script and changed at the last minute). Finally, turn the pages and you'll see Snoopy cause Charlie Brown to crash into the tree in the one scene that begins the special!

Recommended to all Peanuts collectors and all who love the classic special that started it all for Peanuts animation.

The world's most recognized cartoon character, ever in our national consciousness, comes alive periodically on TV specials, movies, ads, but never more so during the season of Christmas. He stands before us as the plucky everyman to remind us of the most important message in Christmas, that a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger invites us to visit and worship Him.

The background story of how it all came about is as entertaining and instructive as the show itself. The man who turned Charlie Brown and his friends into moving figures, Bill Melendez, says, "This little story and the way it's told is almost as simple and direct as Sparky's cartoon strip. The message is so gentle, there's nothing pompous about the story."

He recalls, "When I first looked at that part of the story, I told Sparky, 'We can't do this. It's too religious.' And he said to Bill, 'if we don't do it, who else can? We're the only ones who can do it.'"

A grateful nation watches it again and again. May the message sink in.

If you always wanted to see music cues or script treatment for this classic, this book is for you. Inclusions of this type are extensive. If you're looking for background, it has that, too. You won't go wrong if you're looking for the real nuts and bolts in great detail. However, if you want a little keepsake picture book, this goes into way more documentation than that. I'm very attached to the program, and enjoyed all the detail included in this book, but it will be overkill for some folks' interest level.

"Charlie Brown Christmas" is the crown jewel of Christmas specials. Heavy on holiday introspection, but with the dry wit and humor you'd come to expect from Charles Schulz's creations.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition" just expands that experience, by outlining how the famed special came to be -- the music, the animation, the voice acting, even the advertisement to get people to watch it. It's a charming, nostalgic little book, and a good accompaniment.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" was spun up quickly, when Coca Cola wanted a Christmas special in less than a week -- and Charles Schulz's lovable loser Charlie Brown seemed to be the ticket. But the special was made very differently from other cartoons -- 2-D animation, no laugh track, uncutesy kids, and (horrors!) a jazz soundtrack. It was doomed to fail, they said.

Well, instead it became a booming hit, and has been running every December ever since. Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez reminisce in here about the much-loved Charles Schulz, and about Vince Guaraldi, who made the distinctive piano soundtrack, and why it's so beloved -- it dares to approach holiday ennui and commercialization, then dashes it away with Linus' description of Christmas' meaning.

As for the "making of" portion, there are storyboards, musical scores, test photos, clips of television reviews, and rare photos like Melendez and Schulz doing the football gag. Finally, there is the entire script of the special, framed by colourful stills from the cartoon.

You couldn't wring this much information from most half-hour animated specials, no matter how much fun they were. But it's a bit different with "Charlie Brown Christmas." It was so completely unusual -- and has proved to be so timeless -- that a book on the making of it, and its effect, seems completely right.

It's a very conversational, reminiscent book. It feels like sitting in a room with Melendez and Mendelson, listening to them reminisce about "Sparky." And we also get input from other people involved in the project, such as Christopher Shea (Linus), who talks about his famous "Second Chapter of Luke" speech, as well as odd bits of trivia (the little girl playing Sally had to be fed her lines).

The Christmas special is more than able to stand on its own, but "Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition" is a wonderful accompaniment. Full of interesting tidbits and history.

I have wondered, sometimes, what it would be like to go through a Christmas without knowing the wonderful, brilliant cartoon "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was going to be on the air. I've never lived in such a world, nor do I think I would want to.

This book is a look into the process of making what is inarguably one of the most-loved Holiday specials ever. Everything about the cartoon is in here -- from the journey to get it on the air to the dangerously abbreviated production time to the perils of casting real children to play the Peanuts gang -- the first time children played children in American animation, by the way, and some of them were too young to even read their lines.

And of course, the piece de resistance, the book includes the complete screenplay, written by the brilliant Charles M. Schulz himself. A sweet, humble man, I doubt he really knew at the time how wonderful his creation was or how important it would become to so many.

This is a fabulous book and seems to be designed as a companion to "Peanuts: A Golden Celebration," which was released a few years ago. Both of them are simply invaluable for anyone who loves Peanuts.

My earliest memories of watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, was when I was in kindergarten. I taped the show that year, and prefer my 1985 viewing over any video for sale. Even so, this book by Lee Mendelson tells us the great back story about making the story. Charles Schulz was instrumental in plenty of great decisions: such as the inclusion of Linus's reciting the "true meaning of Christmas," the use of actual children for the voices of Charlie Brown and the rest of the cast, and the absence of an annoying laugh track. There is even commentary by Bill MElendez, a former Disney animator, who was tasked with prepping and getting the Christmas special ready in 6 months. Even in the beginning, the network executives did not love it, but it ranked #2 in the top 5 of shows after premiering December 9, 1965. We even get insight into Jazz musician Vince Guaraldi, who made the catchy tune "Linus and Lucy," which all of us associate with the Peanuts gang. The book even includes piano music to play, and an illustrated screenplay of the TV show. I'd recommend buying this book along with the Peanuts 50th anniversay book that was written by Schulz, as well as Peanuts 2000, which chronicles the last year of the comic strip.

You don't need to have grown up with Charlie Brown to appreciate this, but of course this will bring back lots of great memories if you did. The book includes reminiscences about Charles Schulz and also lots of glimpses into the creative process (artwork sketches, animation cells, sheet music).

Probably 40 percent of the book (essentially the second half) is the illustrated script for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in its entirety.

Paperback, but thick and almost coffee table book quality.