You're in a Ford Commercial, Charlie Brown!
Monday, July 14, 2014 - 12:00 PM
A Charlie Brown Christmas landed Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters in television history and gave us one of the greatest soundtracks of all time.
This wasn't the gang's debut on TV, though. Five years earlier, the
same animation studio worked on the very first animated versions of
Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang. And they did it
for a Ford Falcon.
"Is this a commercial?" Linus asks. Everyone who grew up watching Charlie Brown wait for the Great Pumpkin on Halloween might be feeling his confusion. He listens politely as the narrator drones on about miles between oil changes (somebody get that guy a muted trombone). "Considering all it has to offer, I think it deserves to be successful," Linus concludes, humorlessly. There's no trace of the gently subversive irony that makes Peanuts so great.
But as crass and un-funny as these commercials are, we have them to thank for those beloved Peanuts specials. A few years after Charlie Brown first hawked Fords, the producer Lee Mendelson was working on the documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown, about Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Mendelson contacted the animator of those commercials, Bill Melendez, to add some animated footage of the characters to the documentary. After that, when CBS hired Mendelson to produce a half-hour animated Christmas special, he called up Schulz and Melendez. A Charlie Brown Christmas came out in 1965, winning an Emmy and a Peabody award (and our hearts!).
Schulz, Melendez, and Mendelson would make dozens of Peanuts specials together. And, of course, the Peanuts characters went on to sell all kinds of grown-up stuff — Snoopy continues to rep life insurance. Had they not first proven their worth hawking product, we would never have heard Schroeder playing "Linus and Lucy" or seen Snoopy dogfight with the Red Baron. But seeing them palling around with that unctuous pitchman with the chocolate cigars is enough to make anyone a little depressed.
Sally talks back to a commercial in this 3eanuts strip.
"Is this a commercial?" Linus asks. Everyone who grew up watching Charlie Brown wait for the Great Pumpkin on Halloween might be feeling his confusion. He listens politely as the narrator drones on about miles between oil changes (somebody get that guy a muted trombone). "Considering all it has to offer, I think it deserves to be successful," Linus concludes, humorlessly. There's no trace of the gently subversive irony that makes Peanuts so great.
But as crass and un-funny as these commercials are, we have them to thank for those beloved Peanuts specials. A few years after Charlie Brown first hawked Fords, the producer Lee Mendelson was working on the documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown, about Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Mendelson contacted the animator of those commercials, Bill Melendez, to add some animated footage of the characters to the documentary. After that, when CBS hired Mendelson to produce a half-hour animated Christmas special, he called up Schulz and Melendez. A Charlie Brown Christmas came out in 1965, winning an Emmy and a Peabody award (and our hearts!).
Schulz, Melendez, and Mendelson would make dozens of Peanuts specials together. And, of course, the Peanuts characters went on to sell all kinds of grown-up stuff — Snoopy continues to rep life insurance. Had they not first proven their worth hawking product, we would never have heard Schroeder playing "Linus and Lucy" or seen Snoopy dogfight with the Red Baron. But seeing them palling around with that unctuous pitchman with the chocolate cigars is enough to make anyone a little depressed.
Sally talks back to a commercial in this 3eanuts strip.
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