The program turned Peanuts from a popular comic strip into a multimedia empire not because it was flashy or followed the rules, but because it was sincere.
CBS executives thought the 25-minute program was too slow, too serious and too different from the upbeat spectacles they imagined audiences wanted.
Producer Lee Mendelson got a call from advertising agency McCann-Erickson: Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor an animated Christmas special, leading to the creation of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The cartoonist wanted to tell a story that cut through the glitz of holiday commercialism and brought the focus back to something deeper.
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