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CBS Execs Hated 'Charlie Brown Christmas,' Predicted It Would Flop: Producer

On top of which, CBS wanted adults to voice the kids. Schulz said no. CBS wanted a laugh track. Again, Schulz said no. True, CBS hated it, but they were committed to airing it to the sponsors, Coca-Cola. An Emmy and a Peabody and millions upon millions of viewers later, CBS has been apologizing.
 
This year, it is ABC who should apologize! Tonight, December 2, was the 50th annual telecast of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The scene with Snoopy eating bones was cut. The scene with Sally dictating a letter to Santa was cut. The scene with Lucy claiming that Christmas is a racket run by an eastern syndicate was cut. The scene with Shermy complaining about always playing a shepherd was cut. And why were those four scenes cut? So ABC could run more commercials! Apparently, greed is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
 
Some years ago, ABC made it into a one-hour show, with no cuts of scenes. Yes, it was so they could add more commercials. But they also added more content. Whoopi Goldberg did an introduction, including some of the history of how the show was put together, and a new Peanuts cartoon was added at the end to fill up the second half hour. But I guess ABC doesn't want to do that every year. So that's why some scenes now have to be cut.

There are some dated parts of the original show. For instance, we don't think it's funny that some people see psychiatrists for their problems as was thought in 1965, when people believed "shrinks" were more about vanity and complaining than mental health. But then I grew up with Bugs Bunny cartoons that made all sorts of dated references and included caricatures of 1940s movies stars, never planning for these cartoons to be shown on TV in the 1960s and 70s.

I doubt Schultz or anyone involved thought A Charlie Brown Christmas would continue to run in 2014. Notice they have to fade down the end, where in the original, an announcer talked about Dolly Madison Cakes being the show's sponsor, over "Hark The Herald Angels Sing." We never hear the end of the kids singing the song around the Christmas tree anymore because they don't have the original recording of the song. Now nearly 50 years later, there is no more Dolly Madison Cakes, or at least I haven't seen them for years.
 
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And they cut the entire scene where they go to the Christmas Tree lot to pick out the "poor" tree! I guess that would also seem dated, as shiny aluminum Christmas trees were all the rage in 1965!

They also added a number of new commercial breaks in the show, not just more commercials.
 
CBS was not known for making smart programming choices in the 60s...

Cancelled Hogans Heroes at the top of its ratings, cancelled all the "rural" shows like Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, etc etc due to the "hillbilly cleansing" brought on by a new CEO (though I think some of that was in the 70s)...

AND of course we all know the INFAMOUS mistake...CBS WAS offered Star Trek first....but declined and told Gene Roddenberry, "we have our own sci fi show in the works"...which of course was Lost in Space....and guess who made more money in the long run? and ironic, CBS TV NOW owns the rights to Star Trek original series and Paramount/Viacom unit owns the rights to the other series as well as the movies!!

Yeah CBS made some wonderful choices.....(NOT).

I HATE any of these classic shows being cut....even when MeTV runs a ST:TOS episode with cuts that somewhat sets the tone for later scenes!! ARGH....MeTV says its the distributor...BS!!!.....they run the spots where they need to....funny, on Hulu and other locations, the full uncut versions are there...Thankfully!!

When my ex wife and I 1st got married in 1990, we had recorded some of the Charlie Brown specials on VHS tape for our future kids to watch in case they started to drop it or cut scenes out...since we didnt have kids and divorced (and she took after a guy who spent two terms in Huntsville...NO,........... it was not Barney Joe for those wondering!! AHA, I dont know if she kept the tapes or not...... [The one she ended up with was busted for burglarizing a DPS officers home and was known as one of the biggest drug dealers and user in Cleveland area..coworkers at our then Cleveland office said that personally..one of the clerks' husband was a deputy in Liberty Co and she said there wasnt a drug bust or dope deal that had gone down over the previous 10 years, this being 1993, where HIS name was not mention!! (HOW NICE)...but papa (adoptive) kept paying off local folks to keep him out of jail; papa had a construction company in Cleveland that was making good $$ at the time...was hard to pay off the DPS!!!..so he went to HSP for 7 years but got out after 3 on good behavior then got busted on 5 counts of fraud in Liberty Co and was back at the joint to finish his 7 years out...one more time and he was in there for lifetime...and she could control HIM like she tried to do me...NEVER marry someone who was married to a bad cop and beat them during 4 yrs of marriage!! they had two boys and he croaked from a heart attack....likely due to all the damage from drinking and drugs he did before getting with her (and I heard rumors from ex coworkers he had slapped her around too...would NOT be surprised!)]

BTW she and I had a long running feud about ST and LIS...SHE SWORE LIS was NOT on CBS.....even though I caught an episode on the VCR and at the end it said "Filmed at CBS Television Studios, Hollywood"...OH NO..that did not convince her...evidently, there was something about the Waco TV stations in the 60s where LIS was not on KWTX or she thought KWTX was an ABC affiliate!!!!!?? (she grew up on rural Bremond)..I mentioned at a party about CBS being offered ST 1st and turned it down for LIS and she tried to publicly correct me in front of our friends and coworkers...OH no you dont...especially a rabid ST fan like myself (and someone who KNEW the history of both SciFi shows for MANY years?? Nope nope nope)..

Oh well......She has her life and Im NOT in it.........whew....thankfully we did not have kids for I would have fought for custody to keep them away from that druggie/jailbird....

Now back to............what were we discussing?? :)
 
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This should actually be the 50th anniversary of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Is CBS doing anything special?

Also, is there any kind of website that would tell when certain Christmas movies and specials will be on without having to dig through schedules? I'd like to know when A Charlie Brown Christmas is on again since I just caught the last half, and also How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original cartoon, I've seen the movie listed on ABC Family already). I've already seen Home Alone 1 on TBS and Home alone 2 on AMC, and I know A Christmas Story will be on Christmas eve and day on TBS. But When is NBC planning to show It's a Wonderful Life, and is anyone showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Thanks! :D:
 
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ContinuousWave said:
Cancelled Hogans Heroes at the top of its ratings, cancelled all the "rural" shows like Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, etc etc due to the "hillbilly cleansing" brought on by a new CEO (though I think some of that was in the 70s)...
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They replaced those shows with a bunch of comedies by Norman Lear. Maybe you've heard of them: All In The Family, The Jeffersons, and Maude.
 
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No new CEO. Bill Paley stayed on the job.

What changed was Nielsen started reporting demographics and those "rural" shows skewed old and rural. Even without that, those shows had been on nearly a decade and were showing their age.

In the 1971-72 season, CBS had six of the top 10.
 
Pat Buttram, a co-star of The Gene Autry Show and Green Acres, made the observation that CBS canceled any program that had a tree in it. :)

Captain Rock, here in Los Angeles, the KABC-Channel 7 telecast of A Charlie Brown Christmas included the picking-the-Christmas-tree scene. "Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?" I assumed it was an ABC network telecast. If the scene was cut from the program you saw, perhaps each local affiliate had its own print of the film and was allowed to make its own cuts so more commercials could be run.

Several times when CBS broadcast the Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer special, the scene with the elves singing "We are Santa’s elves, filling Santa’s shelves…" was cut. Later in the film, Santa complains that the "silly elf song" is driving him crazy and, with the original song cut from the film, Santa’s complaint made no sense. I remember one year when CBS advertised a telecast of "the original uncut film," which tells me that the network had gotten a lot of complaints.

And in case anyone is unfamiliar with the rules, let me remind you: "We have dolls that cry, talk, walk, blink and run a temperature. We don’t need any chewing dolls!"
 
They got rid of "Fame and Fortune" from the Rudolph broadcasts years ago as well. I think they have added too many commercials lately. Maybe it will be UNCUT for the 50th anniversary showing.

-crainbebo
 
Regarding the Christmas tree lot scene, someone I know recorded the telecast yesterday from WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Lucy tells Charley Brown and Linus to go get a Christmas tree, "the biggest aluminum tree you can find". The picture fades to black. Then there is a FIVE MINUTE commercial break, ending with a local news promo. Then the program fades up from black with the scene where Charley Brown and Linus walk in with the "poor" Christmas tree.

No Christmas tree lot scene in the entire recorded program.

Is there such a thing as an optional window for local commercials and promos?
 
anotherguy said:
This should actually be the 50th anniversary of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Is CBS doing anything special?
Click to expand...
CBS has been running some bumpers through other shows with Rudolph and the Burl Ives snowman passing by the casts of some of CBS's shows who are giving Rudolph some ups for his 50th anniversary.
 
Captain Rock said:
Regarding the Christmas tree lot scene, someone I know recorded the telecast yesterday from WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Lucy tells Charley Brown and Linus to go get a Christmas tree, "the biggest aluminum tree you can find". The picture fades to black. Then there is a FIVE MINUTE commercial break, ending with a local news promo. Then the program fades up from black with the scene where Charley Brown and Linus walk in with the "poor" Christmas tree.

No Christmas tree lot scene in the entire recorded program.

Is there such a thing as an optional window for local commercials and promos?
Click to expand...

If what you're saying is true, it would seem that WXYZ ran long with its local break (possibly by accident) and covered the Christmas tree lot scene. The scene was included on the network.
 
That little tree had three branches. Then it had six branches. Then the kids put decorations on it and it suddenly looked like a perfect tree! And did you notice the scene of Lucy at her psychiatrist booth? That's the one where the positions of the words on the sign kept changing. Lucy's booth was part of the background cel. The drawings of Lucy showed her from the waist up and were photographed on top of the background cel. In the finished scene, she was supposed to be behind the booth but the drawings were out of register and the bottom portion of Lucy's waist extended below the top line of the booth. That lower portion was outlined in black, too, which made the out-of-register cels even more noticeable. It appeared as though Lucy's body had been cut in half and the top half was resting atop the booth. "I know when I've been insulted!"
 
ContinuousWave said:
BTW she and I had a long running feud about ST and LIS...SHE SWORE LIS was NOT on CBS.....even though I caught an episode on the VCR and at the end it said "Filmed at CBS Television Studios, Hollywood"...OH NO..that did not convince her...evidently, there was something about the Waco TV stations in the 60s where LIS was not on KWTX or she thought KWTX was an ABC affiliate!!!!!??
Click to expand...

Lost in Space was on CBS for three seasons, 1965-68.

Back in the 60's the Waco-Temple market only had two stations, KWTX (primary CBS) and KCEN (primary NBC.) However both stations had secondary ABC affiliations, so they didn't run all their primary network's shows (or had to time shift them) and also split up much of ABC's schedule. This was many years before KXXV went on the air giving Waco-Temple three fulltime network affiliates.
 
anotherguy said:
Also, is there any kind of website that would tell when certain Christmas movies and specials will be on without having to dig through schedules? I'd like to know when A Charlie Brown Christmas is on again
Click to expand...

Info on upcoming airings of Peanuts can be found here: http://www.fivecentsplease.com/tv/peanuts-tv.html#TV-SCHEDULE

If you scroll further up and down that page you'll also find tons of information about all the Peanuts TV shows and movies over the past 50 years.

The overall site is an excellent resource for everything Peanuts: http://www.fivecentsplease.com/

The unedited version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" will air on December 16. I was watching when it originally aired in 1965.
 
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In the last few years, the drill has been, when ABC pairs 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' with some Disney/Pixar special('Prep and Landing' or, this year, a 'Toy Story' show), that's when 'Charlie Brown' is cut. When they re-air it, a week or two later, it's unedited, and is shown in an hourlong slot, with another (later)Peanuts Christmas special filling the rest of the time. ABC always promotes the heck out of the first airing, everybody tunes in and complains they keep cutting the same scenes, and then, a week later, with far less promotion, the whole thing is shown uncut.
And that's what modern TV scheduling is all about, Charlie Brown.
 
Calm down people, ABC recently aired the edited version of Chuck Brown Christmas so they could squeeze in another Christmas cartoon for the back half of the hour.

The full version is scheduled to air on Tuesday, December 16 from 8 - 9 PM.

ABC always had this in mind with the Peanuts special.
 
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