Obviously without the characters, art and vision of Charles Schulz, The Charlie Brown Christmas Special would never have made it onto television, since Schulz created the Peanuts strips from which the special grew.
But the wonder of Peanuts and Schulz's vision wasn't enough by itself to get the show to air, as it required producer Lee Mendelson for everything from stalwartly defending the choice to cast real children as the voices, to including the passage from Luke, to writing the lyrics of "Christmas Time is Here." Mendelson went on to work on more than 50 Peanuts specials and even a couple of movies, but none of them matched that wonderful first outing.
Mendelson went to help Schulz pitch scripts in the eternal realm, passing away on Christmas Day at 86.
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