The (((CBS producers))) thought the Charlie Brown Christmas was too slow, too religious, and didn’t like the music. The truth turned out to be the precise opposite, of course.
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” an exasperated Charlie Brown exclaims. “Sure, Charlie Brown,” Linus reassures him, “I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” And then Linus famously recites Luke 2.8-14, part of the biblical Christmas story.
It’s just seven verses. Read by the innocent voice of real child (rather than an adult voice actor), it’s the highlight of the show for many people.
And yet those seven verses almost got the whole thing canceled.
When Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, was first approached about doing a Charlie Brown Christmas special, he included the Scripture reading in his pitch. One of his producers was instantly hesitant, but Schultz insisted.
“If we can talk about what I feel is the true meaning of Christmas, based on my Midwest background,” the producer later recalled Schultz saying, “it would really be worth doing.” Notice how Schultz had to speak of the Christian faith euphemistically as coming from his “Midwest background.” The producer explained that Schultz was adamant that the Scripture be included, “If we hadn’t gone that way, we wouldn’t have done the show.”
And yet, when the CBS producers saw the first cut of the show, they were really worried. “We thought we had ruined Charlie Brown,” one producer said. Along with thinking it was too slow and not liking the music (they didn’t like the music!), they thought it was too religious.
These are the inversionists who subsequently decided that America wanted every single television show to be set in New York City and Los Angeles, and killed off the most popular shows on TV. Don’t ever mistake what is reported to be “popular” and “successful” as actually being what people want.
Now they’re going to try to convince everyone that no one ever liked Dilbert, one of the three greatest cartoons ever drawn.
UPDATE: Scott Adams reports on the efforts to erase him.
My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist. Still no disagreement about my point of view. My book agent canceled me too.
Build your own platforms and keep the wicked out of them. If you don’t, they won’t hesitate to eject you, your faith, your nation, and everything that is good, beautiful, true, or functional.