Handsome Xmastime
two years ago:
from:
In 1963, TV producer Lee Mendelson filmed a documentary about Charles Schulz and the daily process involved in creating his Peanuts comic strip. The Peanuts
documentary never sold, but Coca-Cola execs happened to see it and
asked Mendelson if he’d be interested in doing an animated Charlie Brown
Christmas special. Within a few days, Mendelson and Schulz had the
outline of a script ready, with notes like “sad Christmas tree,” “school
play,” and “ice skating” scribbled in the margins.
What
the fuck - whatever happened to that original documentary footage shot
by Mendelson? Surely I'm not the only person who would love to see this?
I know, I know - stop calling you Shirley!!
While it may not answer that question,
here's a brief interview with Mendelson from 2011:
In 1963, I did a documentary on Willie Mays, the world’s best baseball
player and one on Charlie Brown, the world’s worst. We sold the Mays
documentary, but never sold the Charlie Brown documentary. Three years
later, TIME Magazine put the [Peanuts] characters on its cover and we
got calls from advertisers and networks asking if we were still thinking
of doing an animated show, and that’s what led us to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
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