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 Christmas and Baseball Photo Gallery
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Merry Christmas To All!

Was Willie Mays the Inspiration for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special?

Over the past few years, on each holiday, it’s been my custom to always try to find a connection between the holiday and baseball. So as we celebrate Christmas today (as best we can in this the most dysfunctional year of our lives), whoever thought I’d be able to find a connection between the perennial TV favorite, Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special and baseball!

But find it I did…

At first glance, you’re probably wondering why I chose to run a photo of Willie Mays and Charlie Brown together in this Christmas post. Well, I’d like to thank our reader, Ed Cassidy, for alerting me to an interesting article explaining how the Charlie Brown Christmas Special came about. It turns out the two icons from totally different walks of life have a connection I’m sure you never thought about.

I discovered that none-other-than the great Willie Mays was the inspiration—at least in an indirect way—for the classic Christmas special. It remains one of the most popular animations since its debut five decades ago on December 9, 1965. I’m not sure if Willie is aware of it or not, but if it wasn’t for him, the special may never have come into existence.

Here’s the short version of how it happened:

It turns out Peanuts creator Charlie Schultz was a lifelong Giants fan and Willie Mays was his idol. His Peanuts strip after the Giants lost the 1962 World Series is a classic (see it in the photo gallery). After television producer Les Mendelson created a successful special on Willie Mays in 1963 called, “A Man named Mays,” he had an inspiration.

“If Mays was the best baseball player on Earth, surely Charlie Brown was the worst. So why not make a documentary on his creator, Charles Schulz?”

At first, Schultz was hesitant to give his consent to the project, but after thinking about it and having learned that Mendelson had produced the Mays special, he soon warmed up to the idea. According to the Charles Schultz museum, he is reported to have replied to Mendelson’s suggestion:

 “If Willie can trust you with his life, maybe I can do the same.”

The rest, as they say, is history. A Boy Named Charlie Brown was the result of their collaboration. Soon after, TIme magazine ran a cover on Peanuts as the popularity of the comic strip grew. After their initial success working together, another special was soon in the works. This one grew to become the Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special.

And all because Charles Schultz was a big fan of Willie Mays!

It’s interesting to note that Peanuts first appeared on October 2, 1950 and ran in just seven newspapers. By the time of Charles Schultz’s death in 2000, it was appearing in 2,600 newspapers. 

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy this little story on Christmas 2020. So on behalf of Bill Gutman and all of our other great contributors, I like to wish you all a Merry Christmas…and let’s hope for better things next year.