Tuesday, December 06, 2005

"Christmas is not only getting too commercial, it's getting too dangerous."



This is the 40th anniversary of "A Charlie Brown Christmas". I'll be watching it tonight, even though I own the DVD. There's something about watching it live each year, although with the movie from CBS to ABC you lose the Peter Paul Mounds and Almond Joy commercials. But this is the Ultimate Christmas Special: jazz, Jesus, and an anti-commercialization message - not something that would get greenlit today.

In the meantime, here's an article and some Peanuts trivia (courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch):

Q: Do the dancing girls have names?
A: The twin sisters, from the comic strip in the 1960s, are dubbed Three and Four. They have an older brother, Five. Their last name: 95742 - also their ZIP code. Their father so named them to protest the reduction of human lives to statistics.

Q: What does Charlie Brown's dad do for a living?
A: He works as a barber, as did the father of cartoonist Charles Schulz.

Q: How many siblings does Snoopy have?
A: He has a sister, Belle, and four brothers - Spike, Marbles, Olaf and Andy (at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm).

Q: How did the creators give the teachers wahwah voices in the TV specials?
A: They used a trombone with a plunger for a mute.

Q: Who boasts the naturally curly hair?
A: Frieda.

Q: Is the Little Red-Haired Girl ever called anything else?
A: Schulz didn't name or picture her in the comic strip, but the animators of the TV special It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (1977) did - Heather.

Q: How old were the children heard in the Christmas special?
A: Charlie Brown was voiced by 8-year-old Peter Robbins; and Linus, by 7-year-old Christopher Shea. The others ranged from 6 to 9.

3 comments:

spydrz said...

It is indeed a great classic. It's on in the Derbyshire Don's house as well.

Micah said...

Is that what you're calling yourself now? Sounds like something THSE would dub you.

spydrz said...

He did come up with that name.