Jason Mendelson recently sat down for an interview and revealed why his father was unsure whether 'Peanuts' would succeed at all.
It has been 60 years since A Charlie Brown Christmas was released. While the show turned out to be a massive success, did you know that the show's producer, Lee Mendelson, and director, Bill Melendez, originally worried that they "killed Peanuts" with the distinctive special they made? Well, Lee's son, Jason Mendelson, has now reflected on the same in a conversation with PEOPLE and shared exactly what went down.
Jason Mendelson revealed that his father, Lee Mendelson, who died on Christmas Day 2019 at age 86, agreed to make A Charlie Brown Christmas for CBS before he, Bill Melendez, or Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz even had an idea what it would be. He reflected on how Lee called Charles and told him he'd sold A Charlie Brown Christmas. He stated:
"And Sparky said, 'What's that?' And my father said, 'Something you, Bill, and I have to write this weekend.' It was absolutely imperative for both Sparky Schulz and my father that these be children, that it be authentic, that it be real. In A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was the first special, the story is about children going through emotional, confusing, and deep times."
Jason further shared how 'Charlie Brown' begins the show, saying that, despite the joy he's "supposed" to feel, he always ends up "depressed" at the holiday. He added that while some might have judged such strong dialogues for a kids' show, it made the show enduring. The special's relatively simple story sees 'Charlie Brown' struggle with his feelings as he tries to direct his friends in a Christmas pageant. He added:
"It's what we all feel. We don't all feel the way we think we're supposed to feel, and what do we do with those feelings? That innocence and that truth that I think Sparky required. He demanded it. And the thing, is all of those decisions, the decision to use the child's voices, to use the jazz music, not to have a laugh track, to have the show be very serious and very thoughtful? Lee and Bill thought they may have killed Peanuts."
Jason further shared that when they were done with the special, they sent it to the network. However, they didn't get "great" feedback. "And they were concerned, 'Maybe we hurt our good new friend Sparky Schulz, and we've ruined this,'" Nonetheless, when they told Charles about their worries, he brushed them off, saying it was great and it was exactly what he wanted it to be. Jason says his father often told him that the network would dejectedly tell him after watching a special, "It's too late to do anything about this. We've got to put this thing on the air. We don't really understand what this is going to be."
However, what happened was "the opposite" because A Charlie Brown Christmas was a success at the time and has continued to do well every year since. Jason further shared why the special has resonated so well over the decades, saying it was "incredibly biased," but he thinks the special managed to be "one of the perfect amalgamations of the philosophy of Charles Schulz." He was quoted as saying:
"It was the perfect amalgamations of philosophy of Charles Schulz, of a simple animation everybody can relate to from Bill Melendez, of a production value that my father put together on a shoestring in a few months, and then the music of Vince Guaraldi, which is now ubiquitous with the holiday."
What are your thoughts on Jason Mendelson's revelations about A Charlie Brown Christmas? Let us know.
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