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John Lennon wrote this song as a satirical attempt to damage the gun industry and it is truly ironic that this post which was scheduled weeks ago comes out less than 24 hours after the shooting on air of two journalists in Virginia that has sparked a national debate on guns.(I personally find gun control ineffective since Chicago has the most restrictive gun control ever and Hiuston has most unrestricted yet the murder rates per person are double in Chicago than Houston).
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The Beatles loved Christmas time so this post is going to have a Christmas theme and I am making the link because John Lennon evidently was familiar with the 1962 book HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY by Charles Schulz the creator of PEANUTS because he named a song in 1968 HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN. Charles Schulz did his first PEANUTS TV CHRISTMAS Special in 1965 and he received an immense amount of pressure from CBS executives to drop the long quotation from the Gospel of Luke concerning the meaning of CHRISTMAS. The song HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN is filled with many references to sex and drugs which was two of the same paths that other young people of the 1960’s were taking. No wonder in the video THE AGE OF NON-REASON Schaeffer noted, ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings.”
How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason)
Francis Schaeffer pictured below:
The Beatles – Christmas Time is Here Again
Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmas Time
Uploaded on Dec 23, 2007
1979 Classic Paul McCartney and Wings Christmas Song.
John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Uploaded on Dec 7, 2010
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is a Christmas song by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band.
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Happiness is a Warm Gun – John Lennon [Beatles]
“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
She’s not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do do do, oh yeah
She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane
The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National TrustDown
I need a fix ’cause I’m going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown
I need a fix ’cause I’m going downMother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gunHappiness is a warm gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
When I hold you in my arms (Oo-oo oh yeah)
And I feel my finger on your trigger (Oo-oo oh yeah)
I know nobody can do me no harm (Oo-oo oh yeah)Because happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Well, don’t you know that happiness is a warm gun, mama? (Happiness is a warm gun, yeah)^ Nice pictures. Here are some of John and Yoko.
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded:23, 24, 25 September 1968
Producer: Chris Thomas
Engineer: Ken Scott
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, backing vocals, lead guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Available on:
The Beatles (White Album)
Anthology 3
Featuring one of John Lennon’s best vocals on the White Album, Happiness Is A Warm Gun was made up of four distinct song fragments, and took its title from a gun magazine, The American Rifleman, which John Lennon saw in the studio at Abbey Road.
George Martin showed me the cover of a magazine that said, ‘Happiness is a warm gun’. I thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you’ve just shot something.
John Lennon
Anthology
The first section of the song was made up of phrases thought up by Lennon and Apple’s publicist Derek Taylor during an acid trip the pair experienced along with Neil Aspinall and Lennon’s childhood friend Pete Shotton.
The opening line was a Liverpudlian expression of approval, and the ‘velvet hand’ line was inspired by a fetishist Taylor and his wife met on the Isle of Man.
I told a story about a chap my wife Joan and I met in the Carrick Bay Hotel on the Isle of Man. It was late one night drinking in the bar and this local fellow who liked meeting holiday makers and rapping to them suddenly said to us, ‘I like wearing moleskin gloves you know. It gives me a little bit of an unusual sensation when I’m out with my girlfriend.’ He then said, ‘I don’t want to go into details.’ So we didn’t. But that provided the line, ‘She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand’.
Derek Taylor
A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner
The lizard on the window pane was a recollection from Taylor’s days living in Los Angeles. The man in the crowd, meanwhile, was from a newspaper report about a Manchester City football fan who had been arrested after inserting mirrors into his footwear in order to see up the skirts of women during matches.
The hands busy working overtime… referred to a story heard by Taylor about a man who used false hands as an elaborate shoplifting technique.
The final part of the verse was perhaps the most abstract, but came from earthy origins.
I don’t know where the ‘soap impression of his wife’ came from but the eating of something and then donating it to the National Trust came from a conversation we’d had about the horrors of walking in public spaces on Merseyside, where you were always coming across the evidence of people having crapped behind bushes and in old air raid shelters. So to donate what you’ve eaten to the National Trust was what would now be known as ‘defecation on common land owned by the National Trust.’ When John put it all together, it created a series of layers of images. It was like a whole mess of colour.
Derek Taylor
A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner
The second part of the song (‘I need a fix ’cause I’m going down’) contains Lennon’s clearest reference to heroin while in The Beatles, although he later denied the line was about drugs.
Happiness Is A Warm Gun was another one which was banned on the radio – they said it was about shooting up drugs. But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it. It wasn’t about ‘H’ at all.
John Lennon
Anthology
The double-speed ‘Mother Superior jump the gun’ section, meanwhile, was inspired by his infatuation with Yoko Ono. Mother Superior was a name he used for her, and ‘jump the gun’ could be interpreted as a sexual metaphor.
On, well, by then I’m into double meanings. The initial inspiration was from the magazine cover. But that was the beginning of my relationship with Yoko and I was very sexually oriented then. When we weren’t in the studio, we were in bed.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
An early acoustic version of the song, recorded at George Harrison’s home in Esher, Surrey in May 1968 found Lennon reworking the words and chords of this section, at one point simply singing Ono’s name.
The final part introduces the title phrase over the conventional doo-wop chord sequence (I-vi-IV-V) and a number of changes between 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures. The song’s complexity led to The Beatles spending 15 hours and recording 95 takes before being satisfied.
In the studio
On 23 September 1968 The Beatles began recording the song, with the working title Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand. They taped the first 45 takes of the song, with Lennon on lead guitar and guide vocals, McCartney on bass, Harrison on fuzz lead guitar and Starr playing drums.
The following day the group recorded takes 46-70. At the end of these it was decided that the first half of take 53 and the second half of take 65 were the best, and the two were edited together on the evening of 25 September.
With the edit in place, the group began overdubbing later that night. Lennon’s lead vocals were supported by backing vocals from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Other additions were an organ, piano, snare drum, tambourine and bass.
During the mixing stage it was decided that the first instance of the ‘I need a fix’ line should be left out. The word ‘down’ can be heard on the final version, however, when the vocals were faded up slightly too early.
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John Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” lasted 14 months in Los Angeles and was filled with many nights of sex and drugs:
The Beatles really were on a long search for happiness, meaning and fulfillment in their lives just like King Solomon did in the Book of Ecclesiastes. He looked into learning (1:12-18, 2:12-17), laughter, ladies, luxuries, and liquor (2:1-2, 8, 10, 11), and labor (2:4-6, 18-20). Obviously the Beatles went through this list of “L” words pretty fast and the song HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUM is filled with references to drugs and sex which Solomon tried a lot too in his day (I imagine getting drunk 3000 years ago is the only thing that could be compared to a drug trip in modern times and in the area of sexual exploits nobody could compare to Solomon’s fathering over 1000 children). The true secret of happiness and satisfaction is not found in drugs or sex but in a relationship with the Christ of Christmas and Charles Schulz emphasized that in his film A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS. Below is the tie in with the title of HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN to Charles Schulz.
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Writing and inspiration[edit]
According to Lennon, the title came from a magazine cover that producer George Martin showed him: “I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun.’ It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something.”[2] The title is one of many 1960s riffs on Charles M. Schulz‘s axiom that “happiness is a warm puppy”, which began in the Peanuts comic strip and became the title of a related book.[citation needed]
11.29.2012
November 1962: ‘Happiness is a Warm Puppy’
“Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz’s small book of gentle joys is published by Determined Productions. It took its title and concept from the last panel of his daily comic strip of April 25, 1960. The book quickly became a best-seller.
* “Special Report on Happiness” (Life magazine, December 14, page 23): @
* “Schulz and Peanuts” (David Michaelis, 2008): @
* Charles M. Schulz Museum: @
Posted by rtr at 5:48 AM
Charles Schulz said, “Happiness is a warm puppy.”
Charles Schulz was the creator of the comic series Peanuts and John Lennon got the name of the Beatles’ song.
Beatles – Happy Crimble (A Beatles Christmas Greeting)
A Biblical Response to ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
Well Done, Linus
BY CP GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
December 11, 2009|5:01 pm
(Photo: ABC)
On Tuesday, countless households tuned in to watch as Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang pondered the meaning of Christmas. I admit that I have watched the show from my youth, and have always enjoyed both the characters and the special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
The Christmas special, originally believed to be a failure in the minds of those bankrolling the project back in 1965, has become as much a part of “Christmas Americana” as other well known favorites like, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Even conservative Christians who believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired, plenary (look it up), infallible, authoritative Word of God show excitement when this favorite returns to the airwaves. How can this be, you ask, when these people are typically known for having a disdain for most things secular? I believe it all hinges on 60 seconds of footage toward the end of the cartoon.
After being terribly frustrated with the consumer mentalities around him, not to mention how badly things are going with the Christmas play, blockhead-turned-director Charlie Brown asks the pivotal question: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
To the credit of Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez, the show’s main creative forces, Linus responds by stepping onto the stage, and reciting Luke 2:8-14 from his King James Bible, reminding us of the true “Reason for the Season,” that being the virgin birth of the promised One, the Messiah, the Lamb of God: Jesus Christ.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
I still get shivers up and down my spine when Linus shares the gospel with his cartoon friends. While I do have some sentimental feelings toward this classic, I have to press a hard question: So what? What good came out of Linus sharing the truth of the coming Messiah to Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang?
The rest of the story shows that little to no change of heart happened in the lives of his friends. Sure, there was renewed hope for the little tree, and they sang, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” together as the credits rolled, but no one responded biblically to the gospel. No one repented of their sins. No one accepted the reality of their lost condition before a holy and righteous God. Sadly, no one was saved by grace through faith in Jesus.
We can be sure that Schulz and Melendez did all they could to bring these biblical truths to their Christmas special. Under the conditions in which they were working, it is surprising that any Scripture made it to the viewers at home. Turning people away from their “consumer Christmas” mentality, though, isn’t enough. We need to remember that, unless our loved ones understand of their great need of the Savior, and turn to faith in Christ, a fiery eternity apart from God awaits them.
The beloved “Charlie Brown Christmas” special has once again come and gone, but the Great Commission is still before us. May we, like little Linus Van Pelt, be faithful to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to our family and friends. May we be committed to the hard thing, the uncomfortable thing – for the sake of He who was committed to the most difficult of things when He allowed Himself to be scourged and slain so that sinners might be saved – and share the Father’s wonderful plan of salvation with our loved ones this Christmas season.
“Peanuts” comic strips
Posted by Calvary Comics on May 27, 2014 at 4:10pm in STORYTELLING/WRITING
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This world famous strip by Charles Schulz needs no introduction. Have a look at these…
A Charlie Brown Christmas — Ending Restored!
Peanuts, Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology
Posted on July 20, 2011by Eric Vanden Eykel
A brief commentary on the separation of the theological disciplines:
10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
By Danny Gallagher
Read More: 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ | http://thefw.com/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-a-charlie-brown-christmas/?trackback=tsmclip
Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ characters have become timeless classics, thanks to their long-lasting presence in newspapers and their many animated TV specials. (“It’s Arbor Day Again, Charlie Brown!”) A big part of the characters’ success is thanks to the classic ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ TV special.
Since it first aired in 1965, the beloved special has practically become required viewing for families celebrating the holiday season. Its message of anti-commercialism and good will towards man mixed with Schulz’s trademark humor of caustic kids in a cynical world is a perfect remedy for the holidays that can get sappier than your aunt’s homemade egg nog.
At the time of its airing, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ received rave reviews, record ratings and an annual presence on television and home video for decades to come. And yet 46 years later, few fans know about its rocky beginnings that were fraught with much frustration and cynicism by the network executives who commissioned it and the producers who fought so hard to preserve Schulz’s humor and pathos. In celebration of the special’s annual TV airing, here are some things you might not know about ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’
Hulu
Hulu
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Linus’ “True Meaning of Christmas” speech was almost cut
Sparky was also a religious man and, according to his biography, “the life of Jesus remained for him a consuming subject.” He also insisted in the early days of production that the script feature some religious overtones, particularly a passage from the St. Luke gospel about the birth of Jesus Christ, to bring some meaning to the holiday that “had been lost in the general good-time frivolity.” The producers agreed to include a Nativity scene to represent Sparky’s feelings, but by the time the script was finished, Mendelson realized he had included an entire minute-long speech directly from the New Testament. This led to the biggest arguments between Sparky and the producers, with Mendelson insisting that the special was an “entertainment show” and the speech would scare off advertisers by narrowing its audience. Thankfully, the now iconic speech survived the final cut and has aired in the special every year since.
Hulu
6
The network execs and sponsors hated the special and wanted to bury it
Linus’ famous speech was just one of the complaints the network executives and Coca-Cola, the special’s chief sponsor, had with the final cut of the cartoon. They expected a TV comedy with a laugh track, and got instead a wry, melancholy commentary on the holiday season. (The network also objected to real children voicing all of the characters.) The brass was particularly wary of the religious overtones that Sparky insisted the special carry on the air. According to Mendelson, the executives agreed to air it “once and that will be all.” Of course, we all know what happened next.
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The producers thought it would be a flop and that they “ruined Charlie Brown forever”
If the network executives were a tad bit too hard on their first screening of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ the show’s producers were downright cynical. Mendelson and Melendez were more pleased with the final product than the network, but they feared the public would not embrace it, let alone watch it. They also thought it would forever tarnish Sparky’s characters and comic strip. Mendelson said in an interview, “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.”
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Hulu
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It is the second longest-running Christmas special of all time
The drunken animator turned out to be the smartest person in the screening room. The first broadcast on Dec. 9, 1965 garnered more than 15.4 million viewers, received rave reviews by almost every major television critic and earned Schulz and Mendelson an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program. CBS immediately commissioned more ‘Peanuts’ specials. Since then, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ has aired every year during the holidays on CBS and ABC, who scored the rights in 2001. The broadcasts still earn the highest ratings in their time slot. Even more impressive, it has become the second longest-running Christmas special of all time behind ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.’ Poor Charlie Brown never comes in first.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (The Meaning of Christmas)
A Charlie Brown Christmas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the album of the same name, see A Charlie Brown Christmas (album).
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Based on
Peanuts
by Charles M. Schulz
Written by
Charles M. Schulz
Directed by
Bill Melendez
Theme music composer
Vince Guaraldi
Country of origin
United States
Originallanguage(s)
English
Production
Producer(s)
Bill Melendez
Running time
25 minutes
Productioncompany(s)
Lee Mendelson Film Productions
Bill Melendez Productions
Distributor
United Feature Syndicate
Budget
$96,000[1]
Release
Original channel
CBS
Original release
December 9, 1965
Chronology
Preceded by
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1963)
Followed by
Charlie Brown’s All-Stars(1966)
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a musical animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965. In the special, lead character Charlie Brown finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. Lucy suggests he direct a school Christmas play, but he is both ignored and mocked by his peers. The story touches on the over-commercialization and secularism of Christmas, and serves to remind viewers of the true meaning of Christmas (the birth of Jesus Christ).
Peanuts had become a phenomenon worldwide by the mid-1960s, and the special was commissioned and sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company. It was written over a period of several weeks, and animated on a shoestring budget in only six months. In casting the characters, the producers went an unconventional route, hiring child actors. The program’s soundtrack was similarly unorthodox: it features a jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi. Its absence of a laugh track (a staple in television animation in this period), in addition to its tone, pacing, music, and animation, led both the producers and network to wrongly envision the project as a disaster preceding its broadcast.
A Charlie Brown Christmas received high ratings and acclaim from critics. It has since been honored with both an Emmy and Peabody Award. It became an annual broadcast in the United States, and has been aired during the Christmas season traditionally every year since its premiere. Its jazz soundtrack also achieved commercial success, going triple platinum in the US. Live theatrical versions of A Charlie Brown Christmas have been staged. ABC currently holds the rights to the special, and broadcasts it at least twice during the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Plot[edit]
The special begins on a frozen pond, put to use as an ice rink by the Peanuts cast, who skate and sing “Christmas Time Is Here” over the opening credits.
It’s Christmas season, and Charlie Brown is depressed. He confides in Linus this fact, citing his dismay with the over-commercialization of Christmas and his inability to grasp what Christmas is all about; Linus dismisses it as typical Charlie Brown behavior at first. Brown’s depression and aggravation only get exacerbated by the goings-on in the neighborhood. Though his mailbox is empty, he tries sarcastically to thank Violet for the card she “sent” him, though Violet just uses the opportunity to put Brown down again. Eventually, Charlie Brown visits Lucy in her psychiatric booth. Deciding that he needs more involvement, she recommends that he direct a Christmas play, to which he agrees. On his way to the auditorium, he finds his dog Snoopy decorating his doghouse for a neighborhood lights and display contest. En route to the rehearsals, he runs into his sister Sally, who asks him to write her letter to Santa Claus. When she tells him to put in a request for money (“tens and twenties“), Charlie Brown becomes even more dismayed.
Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsals, but he is unable to control the situation as the uncooperative kids are more interested in modernizing the play with dancing and lively music, mainly Schroeder‘s rendition of “Linus and Lucy.” Thinking the play requires “the proper mood,” Charlie Brown decides they need a Christmas tree. Lucy takes over the crowd and dispatches Charlie Brown to get a “big, shiny aluminum tree.” With Linus in tow, Charlie Brown sets off on his quest. When they get to the tree market, filled with numerous trees fitting Lucy’s description, Charlie Brown zeroes in on a small sapling which is the only real tree on the lot. Linus is reluctant about Charlie Brown’s choice, but Charlie Brown is convinced that after decorating it, it will be just right for the play. They return to the auditorium with the tree, at which point the children (particularly the girls and Snoopy) ridicule, then laugh at Charlie Brown before walking away. In desperation, Charlie Brown loudly asks if anybody really knows what Christmas is all about. Linus, standing alone on the stage, states he can tell him, and recites the annunciation to the shepherds scene from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 through 14, as translated by the Authorized King James Version:
“8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.”
“…That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”[2]
Charlie Brown quietly picks up the little tree and walks out of the auditorium, intending to take the tree home to decorate and show the others it will work in the play as an “O Tannenbaum” instrumental plays in the background. On the way, he stops at Snoopy’s decorated doghouse, which now sports a first prize blue ribbon for winning the display contest. He puts an ornamental ball on the top of his tree; the branch, with the ball still on it, promptly flops over to one side instead of remaining upright, prompting him to declare “I’ve killed it” and run off in disgust at his perpetual failure. The rest of the gang, Linus included, have quietly arrived outside Snoopy’s doghouse. Linus goes up to the tree and gently props the drooping branch back to its upright position, wrapping his security blanket around the tree. After they reconsider their previous stance, they add the remaining decorations from Snoopy’s doghouse to the tree and start humming “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” When Charlie Brown sees what they have done with the tree, he is surprised and the kids give him a Christmas greeting before singing the song, as Charlie Brown joins in. The closing credits then roll.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
By the early 1960s, Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts had become a sensation worldwide.[3] Television producer Lee Mendelson acknowledged the strip’s cultural impression and had an idea for a documentary on its success, phoning Schulz to propose the idea. Schulz, an avid baseball fan, recognized Mendelson from his documentary on ballplayer Willie Mays, A Man Named Mays, and invited him to his home in Sebastopol, California to discuss the project.[4]Their meeting was cordial, with the plan to produce a half-hour documentary set. Mendelson wanted to feature roughly “one or two” minutes of animation, and Schulz suggested animator Bill Melendez, with whom he collaborated some years before on a spot for the Ford Motor Company.[5]
Writing[edit]
Charles M. Schulz in 1956. His goal for the special was to focus on the “true meaning of Christmas.”
Schulz’s main goal for a Peanuts-based Christmas special was to focus on what he deemed “the true meaning of Christmas.”[8] He desired to juxtapose this theme with interspersed shots of snow and ice-skating, perhaps inspired by his own childhood growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota.[8] He also created the idea for the school play, and mixing jazz with traditional Christmas carols.[8] Schulz was adamant about Linus’s reading of the Bible, despite Mendelson and Melendez’s concerns that religion was a controversial topic, especially on television.[10] Melendez recalled Schulz turned to him and remarked “If we don’t do it, who will?”[3] Schulz’s estimation proved accurate, and in the 1960s, less than 9 percent of television Christmas episodes contained a substantive reference to religion, according to university researcher Stephen Lind.[11]
Schulz’s faith in the Bible stemmed from his Midwest background…
Television broadcasts[edit]
Although originally broadcast on the CBS network from 1965 until December 25, 2000, in January 2000, the broadcast rights were acquired by ABC, which is where the special currently airs, usually twice, in December.
The original broadcasts included references to the sponsor, Coca-