Today.....years ago Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special, and is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. The program made its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965. In 1965, CBS gambled big on an animated spectacular that’s now become a holiday tradition. This iconic special has earned both an Emmy and a Peabody and has remained a fan favorite for decades. The Peanuts comic strip had become a worldwide phenomenon after its debut in 1950, a

On December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas made its television debut, replacing The Munsters for the night. The special introduced the world to the now-legendary score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose trio performed the music that would forever be tied to the Peanuts universe. The centerpiece of the soundtrack was “Linus and Lucy,” a tune Guaraldi originally wrote in 1963 for an unaired documentary, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. While jazz music in documentaries wasn’t unusual, building an