December 9, 1965: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Premieres

December 9, 1965: A Charlie Brown Christmas airs for the 1st time. Charles Schulz had been drawing the comic strip Peanuts since 1950, and CBS was ready to take a gamble on a holiday TV special about Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy, and the other kids in the strip. (It was around this time that such a program began to be called a "special." Previously, it would have been a "spectacular.")

I have a theory, and, as far as I can tell, there is nothing in the images or the script of the special that disproves it. Charlie Brown is depressed during the Christmas season, and everyone else has thrown themselves into the superficial and commercial sides of it, for the same reason: The special takes place in December 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and they want to forget.

Charlie Brown (voiced here by Peter Robbins) wasn't the 1st fictional character to wonder what Christmas was all about, nor the last. Nor was he the first, nor the last, to get his Christmas hopes laughed at.

But, as his best friend Linus Van Pelt (voiced by Chris Shea) points out (after quoting The Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 2, Verses 8 through 14, to remind us of "what Christmas is all about"), like the scrawny little tree that he'd found, ol' Chuck just needed a little love.

The special was a great success, and it remains the most popular Peanuts TV special, maybe the most popular Christmas TV special. And, today, when someone describes a Christmas tree as "a Charlie Brown tree," we still know exactly what that means. It's not about the quality of the tree, it's about the hearts of the people decorating it.

The Halloween special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown premiered on October 27, 1966. It featured the 1st animated sequence of Lucy, Linus' crabby older sister, pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. It also featured the 1st animated sequence of Snoopy as "The World War I Flying Ace," imagining himself taking on Manfred von Richtofen, the German ace known as the Red Baron.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered on November 20, 1973. Again, Lucy is shown pulling the football away from him. In 2021, having watched the special for around the 20th time, I noticed something for the 1st time. When Peppermint Patty suggests that the kids have their own separate Thanksgiving meal at Charlie Brown's house, Lucy doesn't get invited. Her brother Linus does, and, in the spirit of the holiday, helps Charlie Brown with the "cooking." But Lucy isn't invited. Serves her right. (She doesn't crash it, either.)

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown premiered on April 9, 1974. After that, though, they kind of ran out of major holidays, so that was the last special to be considered a classic. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown premiered on January 28, 1975, a little early for Valentine's Day, February 14. On March 16, 1976, CBS kinda pushed their luck with It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.

They redeemed themselves on Memorial Day, May 30, 1983. A sequel to Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back), the 1980 feature film that showed the Peanuts gang as exchange students in France, What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? A Tribute sees them visit battlefields of World War I and World War II. A reference is made to Snoopy as the Flying Ace, but, for the most part, it's deadly serious.

On New Year's Day, January 1, 1986, they aired Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! And on November 27, 1992, the day after Thanksgiving, they came full circle, sort of, with It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. It was a series of short stories featuring the gang in Christmas situations, which would be done again on December 8, 2002 with Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales. That was the 1st special aired after Peanuts creator Charles Schulz died in 2000, ending the strip. It was also the 1st special after the move from CBS to ABC. ABC aired I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown on December 9, 2003.

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December 9, 1965 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the great baseball executive Branch Rickey died. And it was the day the Baltimore Orioles traded Milt Pappas to the Cincinnati Reds for Frank Robinson. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Only 1 NBA game was played that night. The San Francisco Warriors beat the Cincinnati Royals, 110-109 -- in Dayton, Ohio, at the University of Dayton Fieldhouse, now known as the Thomas J. Frericks Center, 45 miles northeast of the Royals' usual home court, the Cincinnati Gardens.

And only 1 NHL game was played that night. The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 7-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Wings pulled off a rare feat, one which might even be worthy of a "Scores On This Historic Day" post all by itself: 7 different goalscorers. Floyd Smith and Doug Barkley scored in the 1st period; Norm Ullman, Gordie Howe and Ab McDonald in the 2nd; and Alex Delvecchio and former Ranger star Andy Bathgate in the 3rd.