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Show Should you notice a natty little man prowling around your childs playground, hold on before calling the cops. If all he does is listen, stare, and mutter things like, "another Lucy perhaps . . or maybe a Marcie," it's probably just Lee scouting television talent "Weve been doing the Peanuts specials since 1965 and the original Charlie Brown is in medical school, he points out. We go through a cast of kids in about two years. So Im always listening for new She of Charlie Are you an Amen-03I asked, somewhat defensively We dont have a TV, she said Go away. AND SINCE Lee Mendel-son- , voices. Last Monday, I was edging around a family at the San Francisco airport. Their little boy had a marvelous, sad, funny voice . . . maybe even a Charlie Brown voice. The mother had her eye on me, so I finally moved in and $ V ly Peter Corner introduced myself and gave her my card. Chicago Tribune Writer She is not your stereotyped, pushy, Hollywood producer, he meekly complied His personality, though, does mesh ideally with that of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, the shy sage of Santa Rosa, Cal , and for 14 years the partnership of Schulz, Mendelson, and animator Bill Melendez has been making a quiet kind of magic on television. Last weeks What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown on CBS marked their 18th new Peanuts special in 14 includyears. The shows Youre a ing the Good Man, Charlie Brown have been repeated 60 times, and 57 of them have won their time period in the ratings. With the exception of Bob Men-delso- n wasnt impressed. Hope, the team 0 40, . 3 never heard Brown for the longest-running- accounts , series of specials in TV history EACH TIME the late Vince Guaraldi's jaz piano signals the Peanuts gang, at 40 least percent of the viewing public watches, and as the shows are repeated, the ratings keep rising Mendelson has other projects and has won three Peabody Awards, but his heart belongs to Peanuts. In 1963, he was just another young independent producer hustling around trying to make it. His first attempt, an hour documentary on Willie Mays, went over very well. So I called Sparky Schulz and said Id done a show about the worlds greatest ballplayer, so now I wanted to do the worst Charlie Brown. We got together and filmed an hour documentary about Schulz and his world, highest-rate- d which also contained about three minutes of animations. Sparky already had been approached by Hollywood to bring Peanuts to television, but he didn't want the strip ' Holly woodized "WE HIT it off very well and became personal friends He apparently felt he could trust my dealings w ith the networks and potential sponsors. For a while, though, his trust seemed Q. Who was Perry Comos deepvoiced announcer? WORD SEARCH Hidden are words to circle. Words go across, and backward. down, diagonally, upside-dowCAN YOU FIND THEM? 15 n t ir I n; J March Spring Wind Thaw Robin 1. What it the difference between an umbrella and a person who never stops talking? Warm 2. Who was the first to have a mobile home? Growth Rebirth Sunshine 10. Flower 3. What do you call an Indian woman who complains a lot? 4. Why do themselves? dogs 11. Bloom 12. Green scratch 13. Fresh 14. Rose 5. How can you say rabbit without using the letter R? 15. Nature 6. Who takes longer to get ready for a trip on elephant or a rooster? Auo qiuoo sq sei qj eimM tjunz; e iprd 0) stq h jueqdeie am Auung oun seqoii ) Aaqi oqM sauo Auo eq) s y einnj y dn jnq eq uo vejqiun eqx joisooj 9 s fr jai(-Mnb- z 'I SU3MSNV because for two years I couldnt sell that documentary. Nobody, but nobody, wanted it. Finally, one day the peocalled ple from Coca-Col- a and said they had seen the show. They didnt want to buy it either, but asked if Schulz and I had an animated Christmas show they could buy. Funny you should ask, I said, because weve been working on one for months. This was on a Friday, and they said they needed the script outline the following Monday in Atlanta. I hung up and quickly called Schulz. We must give them our Chris, mas show by Monday, I said. What Christmas show? he asked. The one you will write this weekend. I just read in Time magazine that youre a genius. So prove it. All day Saturday he wrote, and we talked back and forth. On Sunday, I wired the outline to the sponsors. There had been no time to mail it. They bought it off a telegram. This turned into A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Charlie Brown team produces no more than two new specials each year. First, a story is worked through with Schulz, who does all the writing and s dialog Melendez then The Salt Ijjke com-pile- a Pul this word up to what it says a mirror and see s page storyboard filled with pictures of the action. Then he and his staff begin to animate in the classic manner, one cel (celluloid overlay) at a time. Each show requires some 36,000 5, n cels that are photographed one frame after another. Meanwhile, Mendelson is out searching schools for voices. He aver- T ages 500 children to come up 17 with a winner, he said, nand-draw- eaflia3TA3 Aaid 'jajeeiix eSeis T0 H8JJ3V iSJeMtuy 1978 jj |