Charlie Brown's Christmas Miracle

Charlie Brown's Christmas Miracle

By Michael Keane
Unabridged
$16.25 $24.99
Save 35.0%
Quantity:
window.theme = window.theme || {}; window.theme.preorder_products_on_page = window.theme.preorder_products_on_page || [];
Fans of the Peanuts comics included many occupants of the White House including my father, President Ronald Reagan, who had a decades-long friendship with “Sparky” Schulz that began during his days as Governor of California. This book weaves together a marvelous tapestry of personal stories, including my family’s, alongside those of the creators of A Charlie Brown Christmas. A captivating tale of the making of an American classic!
Mike Reagan, President, Reagan Legacy Foundation

Discover the inspiring, unknown, against-all-odds story of how the classic animated holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas almost never made it on to television.

Professor and cultural historian Michael Keane reveals much in this nostalgia-inducing book packed with original research and interviews. Keane compellingly shows that the ultimate broadcast of the Christmas special—given its incredibly tight five-month production schedule and the decidedly unfavorable reception it received by the skeptical network executives who first screened it—was nothing short of a miracle. Keane explains why the show, despite its technical shortcomings, has become an uplifting and enduring triumph embraced by millions of families every Christmas season, even more than fifty years after its premiere.

This gripping and joyful behind-the-scenes story of how the creators of A Charlie Brown Christmas struggled to bring the program to life will also help readers (and loyal fans) understand how America’s favorite Christmas special changed our popular culture forever. Keane masterfully weaves the momentous events of 1965 (the turbulent year of the program’s production) into his story, providing critical context for a profound new understanding of the program’s famous climactic scene, Linus’s spot-lit soliloquy answering the question repeatedly posed by Charlie Brown—"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”