For many, there’s no better holiday tradition than watching one of the many Charlie Brown specials. A Charlie Brown Christmas is a particular fan-favorite, but like the other Peanuts specials, there’s also a bit of controversy surrounding it. Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that a scene from the original version of A Charlie Brown Christmas appears to have been edited out. As Huffington Post noted back in 2017, there have been a couple of changes to the original 1965 version of the program.
According to the publication, in one of the earlier scenes in the special, all of the kids can be seen ice skating near the pond. When Charlie Brown and Linus attempt to join in, Snoopy grabs hold of Linus’ blanket, which then causes the two boys to get entangled by the piece of fabric. Snoopy then spins Charlie Brown and Linus and subsequently sends the two boys flying in different directions.
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Charlie Brown ends up hitting a tree and getting covered by snow, and the title card, reading “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” is then displayed. However, it’s unclear where Linus ends up after the shuffle. According to the Huffington Post, viewers don’t get to see where he falls as the scene has since been edited out. Why? Well, because in the original version of the special, Linus ends up hitting a sign that advertises Coca-Cola.
That wasn’t the only scene that has since been edited. The publication went on to report that at the end of the program, when the kids sing, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” a voiceover comes on to say, “Merry Christmas from your local Coca-Cola bottler.”
Later, for another Charlie Brown special in 1966, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars, Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts characters, sparked a deal with Dolly Madison snack cakes for them to sponsor the program with Coca-Cola. Huffington Post noted that Dolly Madison didn’t want Coca-Cola to be the only brand featured in A Charlie Brown Christmas so the earlier scene (with Linus and the Coca-Cola sign) was edited out. Additionally, a Dolly Madison voiceover was added to the end after the “Merry Christmas from your local Coca-Cola bottler” bit. The voiceovers were later removed from the program.
These sponsored bits were later removed from the programs as it became too expensive for one specific sponsor (such as Coca-Cola or Dolly Madison) to sponsor the entire show. Now, you’ll see that numerous brands can sponsor the program, and their commercials can be seen when you watch the specials on TV.
So, as it turns out, the version of A Charlie Brown Christmas that fans watch every year is actually a little different from the original. Although, it’s still just as fun to watch.
