In his (rather self-serving) autobiography "Think BIG!," little-person actor Dick Beals recalls test-recording with Bill Melendez to play both Charlie Brown AND Lucy (!), only to have the tapes rejected by Schulz (who Beals refers to only as "What's-His-Name, the creator"...) who insisted that "only kids sound like kids."
Imagine how the show would have sounded with those (over-) familiar radio and cartoon "kid voices" like Beals, Walter Tetley, Janet Waldo, maybe June Foray or Lucille Bliss. All due respect to their talents, but the whole feel would've been completely different. Beals said Melendez did hire him to direct the childrens' voices; Melendez used to joke that he didn't direct voices himself because he was afraid they would end up with his Mexican accent!
It's easy to harp on the show's technical flaws, but it had heart and soul, and it touched people and still does. Today's CGI animation seems to me a high-tech orgy that's all slick surface, aimed at video gamer fanboys who snark "drawn animation sucks, huh-huh, huh-huh..."
