TUE DEC 6 05

		Sparky Schultz. "Sparky used to say there will always be a market for innocence," says Jeannie Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts comic strip gang, reports Bill Nichols in USA Today. Yes, his friends called him Sparky. Everyone else called him crazy back in 1965 when he insisted that his first-ever television special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would have no laugh track, that non-Hollywood children would provide the voices and that the music would consist of "a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi." The show's producers really thought Sparky was off his nut when he insisted that the show end "with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus." Executive producer Lee Mendelson, now 89, recalls: "We told Schulz, 'Look, you can't read from the Bible on network television.'" What they didn't realize was that they were making Sparky's point: He wanted the show to be about the real meaning of Christmas. Much to everyone's shock it worked. And it worked because of the same "quirky genius" that made the Peanuts comic strip, snoopy.com, work-- it mixed a serious message with a "sardonic, even hip, sense of humor." While Linus was reciting from the Bible, Sparky had Charlie's little sister, Sally, asking for tens and twenties in her letter to Santa. "Just send money," she writes. And when Charlie asks his friend, Lucy, what she really wants, she replies: "Real estate." Sparky also trusted that viewers would know when to laugh without the help of a laugh track and Lee Mendelson had the good sense to go for authenticity by hiring mostly kids under 10 who had no acting experience. "It comes across in the voice of a child," says Jeannie Schulz. Lee Mendelson thought he had ruined Charlie Brown, but the first showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was "watched by almost 50 percent of the nation's viewers" and the critics loved it, too. "Last year, 13.6 million people watched it, making it the 18th most popular show on television the week it aired," and this year -- tonight, at 8 p.m. EST, in fact, marks the 40th year the show will air. The show is now on ABC, not CBS where it started, and it is not sponsored by Coca-Cola, which originally contracted with Sparky to write the program. However, MetLife, which has used the Peanuts gang in its advertising "since 1985, and will continue through at least 2012." All told, "the Peanuts marketing empire ... racks up $1.2 billion in annual retail sales, $350 million of which come in the USA." Ironically, one of the hottest licensed products is a replica of Charlie Brown's "Pathetic Tree," which triggered Linus's emotion-packed reading. Urban Outfitters had it for $24.00, but apparently it is sold out. Tim Manners editor