I don't know for sure if I watched the very first airing, my guess would be yes -- but honestly, I have no way of knowing.
I grew up in a big city. One where having a fireplace in your living room was something unheard of. Thus, on Christmas Eve, one of the TV stations in town used to run a film of a fireplace, with nice orchestral Christmas music in the background. It was supposed to give you a nice "homey" feeling, sitting before the fireplace (black and white TV) on Christmas eve.
Apprantly, long after I left town, that TV station discontinued the Christmas Eve Yule Log, and there was outrage, OUTRAGE!!! You just don't f*ck with long-held traditions!
Of course, the TV station resumed the Christmas Eve Yule Log, and things go on as they did before. Props to you TV people!
On Tuesday night, ABC TV Network presented this year's showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." We all have our favorite show for the holidays, I know my spouse is partial to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," but Charlie Brown is hands-down my all-time fave. I love our modern age as it is, and I was out on Tuesday night. But I had set the TiVo to record Charlie Brown. No harm, no foul.
That is, no harm, no foul right up until the time I actually *watched* Charlie Brown on Wednesday night.
ABC, which is owned by Disney, decided they needed to sell an extra 4 minutes of advertising during that half-hour, and BUTCHERED "A Charlie Brown Christmas!"
I'm not talking about minor edits here, I'm talking about eliminating major, significant elements of the show!
They took out the entire scene where the Peanuts gang is catching snowflakes on their tongues, where Lucy announces that she never eats December snowflakes. Linus goes on to demonstrate how he uses his blanket to knock a can off the fence with a snowball.
Most significantly, Sally Brown asks her big brother Charlie to help her write her letter to Santa Claus. Charlie goes over the edge when Sally asks Santa to make it simpler on himself, just send cash, how about tens and twenties! This is *huge* in the plot development of the show, highlighting Charlie Brown's frustration with the commercialization of Christmas.
The last significant elimination was the scene with Schroeder and Lucy, where Schroeder presents the music he's selected for the Christmas Play. The scene has three distinct parts. First, Lucy gets under Schroeder's skin by claiming Beethoven wasn't that great because he never had his picture on a bubblegum card; then Snoopy dances on the piano to the great jazz score of the show; and finally (and this is the part that sent me through the roof) Lucy asks if Schroeder can play "Jingle Bells."
ABC chopped this scene to shreds, airing *only* Snoopy's dance to the jazz music, eliminating both the Beethoven and Jingle Bells sequences. This is sacrilege!! You can't eliminate major elements of a show, and still call it the same show!!
It's Christmastime. No, it is *not* the "Holiday Season." It's effing Christmastime.
We learn traditions from the generations before us. Other traditions are created during our lifetimes. The whole appeal of the Christmas season is that those traditions continue year after year after year.
For me, one of most significant of those traditions is sitting and watching Charlie Brown. For ABC just to go bastardize the whole damn thing, is beyond a shame. It should be considered criminal.
When it was all said and done, ABC had eliminated 3 minutes and 45 seconds of a 25 minute show. That's fully 15% of the entire show, gone, not presented to the audience. Bite me.
For those of you who watched, HERE is what ABC didn't show you. Every second of it.
Hey, Merry effin Christmas ABC!
