Sixty years ago this evening was the first of many, many airings of A Charlie Brown Christmas. This video purports to offer "15 Weird Facts You Didn't Know!" about the show. None of them seem that weird to me but let's skip over that.
Several of you have sent me a link to this to tell me, first of all, that I'm briefly glimpsed in it and, secondly, to ask me if those fifteen facts, weird or not, are all true. To the best of my knowledge: Yeah, pretty much. I think they exaggerate the direct contact that Charles Schulz had with the CBS executives. My understanding is that most of it was through Lee Mendelson in his role as Producer and Middle Man.
But yes, there were arguments and yes, CBS didn't want to air the show but its sponsor insisted. It's indicative of how television has changed since that day that I don't think any one sponsor — even if it was Coca-Cola — could have that much say-so now. Basically though, the video is correct and I would underscore one point. The zillions of people who tuned in for that first airing had no idea how much they would love the content of the special and how it would become something they'd demand to see every year or their Christmas season wasn't complete.
They tuned in just because they loved the comic strip. It's one of my best arguments for why Peanuts is the most beloved newspaper strip ever.