Well, maybe not according to CBS execs back in 1965, when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired; seems they thought it was way too religious—and they didn’t like the jazz, either. Apparently, even though they went ahead and ran it, they planned to bury it afterward. But then people loved it, and it won an Emmy, and so it was back the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that . . .

I can just imagine Lucy’s reaction to those network suits who tried to kill “the longest-running cartoon special known to man” 38 years ago: “You blockheads!”