Charlie Brown Is a Blockhead, But he Did Get a Nice Tree

Seems appropriate that on this freezing-foggy night at 7, WFAA-Channel 8 will air A Charlie Brown Christmas, augmented with 30 minutes' worth of needless extras: "a series of Christmas-themed animated stories entitled Charlie Brown Christmas Tales, based on Schulz's work, in which each of the beloved PEANUTS characters -- Charlie...

By Robert Wilonsky

December 16, 2008

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Seems appropriate that on this freezing-foggy night at 7, WFAA-Channel 8 will air A Charlie Brown Christmas, augmented with 30 minutes' worth of needless extras: "a series of Christmas-themed animated stories entitled Charlie Brown Christmas Tales, based on Schulz's work, in which each of the beloved PEANUTS characters -- Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and Sally -- star in his or her own charming animated vignette," feh. My affection for the original's no secret: Here, from December 2000, an interview with co-creator Lee Mendelson in which he discusses creating the special that almost wasn't and how he felt about watching the special for the first time without Charles Schulz, who had died in February of that year. And, from 2003, this essay about the 1965 special for NPR's Day to Day.

But how to, you know, localize? To justify its mention on Unfair Park? Easy: From 2000's Electric Ornaments: An Idol Records Christmas Collection, Chomsky's rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here," a bouncier cover than most versions of the yuletide staple but no less affectionate. What say you, Linus? I thought so. Oh, and after the jump is the holiday-party invite that's currently streaming on some local ad agency computer at this very moment. --Robert Wilonsky

Chomsky, "Christmas Time is Here"

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