The Producer
The Producer
Good Ol’ Lee Mendelson
December 27, 2019
Christmas Time Is Here (Forever)
Where would we be without Lee Mendelson?
Mendelson, the producer of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, has died at the age of 86. His family told the Palo Alto Daily Post that Mr. Mendelson died on Christmas day, saying; “It wasn’t great for us, but to have him pass on Christmas really ties it into his history and legacy.”
Perfectly said.
The story has been told many times, including four years ago to a certain reporter who was working on a story on the 50th anniversary, that Mendelson is the one who told Charles M. Schulz to do the special. Schulz agreed, and they teamed up with animator Bill Melendez and composer Vince Guaraldi to create what has become the sublime holiday favorite.
Mendelson was the producer and he also co-wrote the song Christmas Time Is Here whose opening notes over the first few seconds of animation make you want to sigh, cry and believe the world is perfect and Christmas belongs just to you, while sharing it with the world.
Where would we be without Lee Mendelson? What would Christmas be if he had not convinced Schulz to turn his drawings into a cartoon and if Mendelson hadn’t heard Vince Guaraldi’s music while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge? Christmas, we have heard, did exist before A Charlie Brown Christmas became a smash hit and critical success fifty-four years ago but it’s difficult for some of us to believe that.
We don’t want to think of Christmas without Charlie Brown, or TV without Lee Mendelson.
We wish now that we could recall more specifics of our conversation with Mr. Mendelson four years ago. But it’s enough to say that he was quite kind, sharing, patient, enthusiastic, generous and still so very proud of and humbled by the success of the first and the best of the many Peanuts TV and film efforts which went on to include, of course, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
Lee Mendelson helped create our childhood. Charles M. Schulz created the characters and the Peanuts kids were his children. But Lee Mendelson was the wise and funny uncle. Vince Guaraldi was the cool neighbor. They, and so many others who worked on those programs, took something that was already pure and somehow made it even more precious.
How many hours have some of us spent trying to create something good, much less great, while dreaming of it being beautiful? There are those of us who would settle for merely being able to play Christmas Time Is Here on the piano all the way through just once. Just once with the tenderness and acumen it deserves.
Mendelson said over the phone from California four years ago, “the whole thing has just been serendipity from beginning to end. I feel quite blessed.”
His blessings are ours. --TK
Friday, December 27, 2019