It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is the 36th prime-time animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

TV special based on the popular comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

, by Charles M. Schulz

Charles M. Schulz

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...

. It originally aired on the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

network on November 27, 1992. It was the first Christmas-themed Peanuts special since the inaugural A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...

in 1965. It is composed of various Christmas-related storylines from the comic strip. After an initial airing on CBS

CBS

in November 1992, the series was released on video twice. This would be the final "new" Peanuts animated special to air on CBS

CBS

Plot

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is composed of several Christmas-themed story lines, all taken directly from the Peanuts comic strip.:

Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...

tries to sell wreaths door-to-door.
Peppermint Patty
Peppermint Patty
Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. A freckle-faced auburn/brunette, she is one of a small group in the strip who lives across town from Charlie Brown and his school friends...

worries about her Christmas book report.
Charlie Brown sells his entire comic book collection in order to buy Peggy Jean
Peggy Jean
Peggy Jean is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts. She was the girlfriend of Charlie Brown during the 1990s. Charlie Brown first met her at summer camp in 1990, and she appeared intermittently in the strip until mid-1999, a few months before the strip ended...

a nice pair of gloves, only to find that she has already bought a pair.
Peppermint Patty and Marcie attend a performance of George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...

.
Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...

and Linus
Linus van Pelt
Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....

try to explain the true meaning of Christmas to Sally (who is convinced that the true meaning of Christmas is "getting all you can get while the getting is good"), but she tunes them out.
The children participate in a Christmas play, where Marcie plays The Virgin Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

, Franklin
Franklin (Peanuts)
Franklin is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African-American character in the strip. He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were...

gets the role of Gabriel, Peppermint Patty reluctantly plays a sheep, and Sally
Sally Brown
Sally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She was first mentioned in early 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appearance in August 1959.-Appearance:...

, who has to say the line "Hark!" in the same play to summon a herald angel, inadvertently Yelled "Hockey stick!". Later, Harold (herald) Angel drops by to visit Charlie Brown, looking for Sally.

Airing history

It was first shown on CBS

CBS

on November 27, 1992, and was the last Peanuts special to have its television premiere on that network. The special no longer airs on American television (it didn't really catch on like the original Charlie Brown Christmas), as both CBS and its successor, ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

, have abandoned it in favor of later specials. In Canada, YTV still airs it as a stand alone special.

A VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

release was made available at Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

gas stations a few months prior, which would make this the first Peanuts special released directly to video

Direct-to-video

Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

. Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

gave it another video release in 1996, and it was later included as a bonus special on the DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

and Blu-Ray of A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...

. It was dubbed by Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

Cast

Jamie E. Smith: Charlie Brown, The Nameless Orange-Haired Boy
John Christian Graas: Linus van Pelt
Marnette Patterson
Marnette Patterson
Marnette Patterson is an American actress who is perhaps best known for her role as Christy Jenkins on Charmed.-Career:Patterson portrayed Nicole Farrell on the NBC series Something So Right....

: Lucy van Pelt, Freida
Mindy Ann Martin: Sally Brown
Phillip Lucier: Peppermint Patty
Lindsay Benesh: Marcie, Patty
Sean Mendelson: Franklin
Deanna Tello: Violet, The Nameless Orange-Haired Girl
Brittany M. Thornton: additional voices
Bill Melendez
Bill Melendez
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...

: Snoopy and Woodstock

Credits

Written and Created by

Charles M. Schulz

Original Music by

Vince Guaraldi

Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...

Music Arranged and Performed by

David Benoit

David Benoit, is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz pianist, composer and producer from Los Angeles, California. He has been nominated for five Grammy Awards...

Executive Producer

Lee Mendelson

Lee Mendelson is an American television producer. He is best known as the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials....

Produced and Directed by

Bill Melendez

José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...

Written by

Charles M. Schulz

Graphic Blandishment

Leonardo Moran

Larry Leichliter

Dean Spille

Salvador Simo

Carole Barnes

Jane Gonzales

Nina Shakan

Evert Brown

Sam Jaimes

Deke Wightman

Utit Choomuang

Leslie Gorin

Jim Pabian

James 'Jim' Pabian was an American screenwriter and director of short films. He co-wrote and directed the Tom and Jerry short The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off. He also co-wrote another Tom and Jerry short, Haunted Mouse...

Hawley Pratt

Hawley Pratt was an American film director, animator, and illustrator. He is best known for his work during the heyday of Warner Bros. Cartoons and as the right-hand man of director Friz Freleng as a layout artist and later as a director...

Bill Littlejohn

Al Pabian

Joe Roman

Sam Flemming

Phil Cummings

Christine Harding

Steve Wahl

Nancy Beiman

Nancy Beiman is a director, character designer, teacher, and animator. She is recognized as the second woman to be credited on a Disney film . She has taught animation at Savannah College of Art and Design, and taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Film & Animation until 2008...

Mike Sanger

Pat Shinagawa

Dave Brain

Rick Leon

Bob Carlson

Roy Morita

Dick Ung

Mike Kaweski

Hank Smith

Hank "Henry" Smith was a cartoon animator, who worked for many Hollywood animation studios during the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. His work includes numerous cartoons for television, including many featuring Mr. Magoo, The Road Runner, Fat Albert, and many of the Peanuts television specials with...

Bob Matz

John Freeman

John Freeman may refer to:*John Freeman , character animator for Disney, Marvel Studios and others*John Freeman , Australian politician*John Freeman , writer and literary critic...

John Gibbs

Lt. John Gibbs is an American settler and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.John Gibbs was born in England with a large family and spent some of his life in the country. He arrived on the ship Supply at Jamestown...

Tom Ray

Thomas Archer Ray was an American animator.-Career:Ray was born in Williams, Arizona. He began work at Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1937. Over the first two decades of his career, he was a junior animator who received no screen credit until Destination Earth in 1956. In 1958, he became a master...

Don Williams

Don Williams , is an American country singer, songwriter and a 2010 inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He grew up in Portland, Texas, and graduated in 1958 from Gregory-Portland High School. After seven years with the folk-pop group Pozo-Seco Singers, he began his solo career in 1971,...

Ken Walker

Kenneth McInnes Walker was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the VFL.Walker was a key position player and a dual Best and fairest winner at St Kilda, with back to back wins in 1942 and 1943. In the fall of 1944, Walker was hit by a truck, while driving home from a party...

Norm McCabe

Art Leonardi

Bob Bransford

Jim Davis

Glenn Schmitz

Bob Richardson

Bob Richardson (animator)

Bob Richardson is a film animator and producer. Richardson has 7 Emmy Award nominations and has won 5 times for the following projects.* Tutenstein - Outstanding Special Class Animated Program - 2004...

Storyboard

Bob Richardson

Bob Richardson (animator)

Charlie Hayward

Charles F. "Charlie" Hayward is a bass guitarist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, now residing near Nashville, Tennessee. For over 30 years, Charlie has been a member of the Charlie Daniels Band....

Backgrounds

Richard H. Thomas

Mary O'Loughlin

Ink and Paint

Jane Gonzales

Cynthia Goode

Eve Fletcher

Janette Hulett

Joanne Lansing

Micky Kreyman

Emaline Seutter

Lee Guttman

Joan Pabian

Teale Wang

Barbara Hiestand

Cookie Tricarico

Patricia Capozzi

Akemi Horiuchi

Catherine Simmonds

Roubina Janian

Martha Sigall

Martha Goldman Sigall is an American inker and painter who worked in the Hollywood animation industry for 53 years.Sigall moved to California from Buffalo, NY, in 1926 and by chance lived around the corner from Leon Schlesinger's Pacific Title and Art company...

Colene Gonzales

Noriko Hawks

Maria Alvarez

Sybil Cuzzort

Evelyn Hairapetian

Joyce Frey

Peggy Gregory

Kim Dahl

Lee Hoffman

Lee Hoffman, born Shirley Bell Hoffman, was an American science fiction fan, an editor of early folk music fanzines, and an author of science fiction, Western and romance novels.In 1950-53, she edited and published the highly-regarded science fiction fanzine, Quandry...

Myria Gibbs

Rita Giddings

Judy Bamber

Carole Barnes

Production Supervised by

Lee Gunther

Lee Gunther was a film editor on more than 85 animated shorts in all.-Career:...

Editing

Bob Gillis

Allan Potter

Joe Siracusa

Rick Steward

Chuck McCann

Chuck McCann is a film actor, television actor, stage actor, and a voice actor from Brooklyn, New York.-Early career:...

Roger Donley

Warren Taylor

In Charge of Production

William L. Hendricks

William L. Hendricks was a former USMCR Colonel who was the key figure in setting up the "Toys for Tots" program. Aside from his USMCR career he also worked in the film industry for many years, initially as a documentary producer for the United States Army, then as a production executive at Warner...

Production Assistants

Carol Neal

Joanna Coletta

Glenn Mendelson

Kristy Mendelson

Animation by

Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd.

Cuckoo's Nest Studio

Cuckoo's Nest Studio is an animation studio based in Taiwan. The company is famous for their work on the Hanna-Barbera series, movies and specials of the 1980s, as well as overseas production for Nelvana's Care Bears franchise, Film Roman's Garfield and friends, DiC Entertainment's Inspector...

Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Graphic Blandishment (Taiwan)

Peter Lin

Wicket Wang

Ego Wang

Danny Yeh

Jessie Lin

Rella Liu

Zoe Lou

Frog Shy

Bunis Yang

Ho Yuehlan

Camera:

Nick Vasu

Dubbing:

Universal Studios Sound

Voice Recording:

Buzzy's Recording Services

Music Recording:

Ocean Way Studios

Engineered by:

Clark Germaine

Color:

Color Correction:

Complete Post

Music

Rather than having a new musical score composed for It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, jazz composer Vince Guaraldi

Vince Guaraldi

's musical scores were redone by jazz pianist David Benoit. It was the first time Guaraldi's music had been used in a Peanuts special since It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown is the 15th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on March 16, 1976. It was released as a bonus feature with DVD release of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on...

, although Benoit had scored an episode of This is America, Charlie Brown
This Is America, Charlie Brown
This is America, Charlie Brown was an eight-part animated TV mini-series, depicting events in American history with characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired from 1988 to 1989 on CBS. These eight episodes, originally released singly on videocassette, were released in a...

prior to this special.

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