Hooray for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- The Show That Almost Never Was

Can you imagine “A Charlie Brown Christmas" without Vince Guaraldi's wonderful jazz background? How about a version with a sophomoric laugh track added or adult actors doing the voices instead of children? And what would you think if network officials had their way back in 1965 and axed Linus' quotation from the Gospel of Luke?

Well, thank God "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was produced just as Charles Schulz insisted and it became an instant and enduring classic. (ABC has promised to keep it going at least until 2015.) But over here at National Review, Lee Habeeb recounts the fascinating story of how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" almost didn't make it to our television screens. Believe me, you gotta' read this.

And just in case you're from another planet and do not remember the climactic scene in the program, here it is.