‘Frosty’ Still Hot During Holidays

Back in 1965 when CBS network executives first watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” they didn’t hide their disappointment. The executives thought the program moved too slow, the animation was too simplistic and the jazz music was all wrong.

“If the show hadn’t already been scheduled to air in six days, it might never have been broadcast,” recalled Lee Mendelson, the show’s executive producer.

But “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has been a holiday staple every year since.

Last year, CBS raked in about $5.7 million in advertising revenue for two broadcasts of the classic. On the first showing a year ago, the “Peanuts” program drew 19 million viewers nationwide, according to Nielsen Media Research, CBS’s highest ratings for a Monday in four years for a nonsports show.

But ABC outbid CBS for the Charlie Brown cartoon, and the Walt Disney Co.-owned network plans to pick up the tradition this year by expanding the half-hour show to an hour on Dec. 6 and by packaging the program with a behind-the-scenes story hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

Over the years, CBS hasgrossed more than $100 million in advertising revenue by repeatedly trotting out a collection of animated holiday shows, including the 1964 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” featuring the voice of Burl Ives as a singing whiskered snowman, and “Frosty the Snowman” from 1969.

Despite these reruns, the cartoons remain some of the most sought-after by advertisers. One ad executive said a 30-second spot goes for $150,000 to $200,000, about the same as a highly ranked prime-time show.

“These shows are evergreens that never go out of style,” said Tim Spengler, executive vice president of ad agency Initiative Media. Because the shows are nostalgic, embrace warm values and are telecast at the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, “clients want to be associated with them.”

Kelly Kahl, CBS’s executive vice president for programming and scheduling, said, “They’re valuable properties for us. A special like Rudolph delivers some of our best numbers for the 18-to-49 [age group].”

ABC bought the rights for three years to air the Charlie Brown Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween specials.

Fear of a Flop for ‘Charlie Brown’

The shows are owned by Mendelson, United Media, the heirs of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez, a former Disney animator who directed and animated the films. The partners have made more than $5 million on “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Mendelson estimated.

But in 1965, Mendelson and Melendez feared that the first cartoon they put together in five months, for about $150,000, would be a such a flop that it would tarnish the success of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

Today, retailers continue to cash in on the appeal of the these characters.

This year, “Frosty the Snowman” will anchor Mervyn’s Christmas campaign, and the department store chain has stocked shelves with plush Frosty dolls, sheets, towels and clothing. The retailer hopes the cartoon icon will tug at the hearts of their core shopper: women, typically mothers, age 34 to 54.

“They watched ‘Frosty’ when they were kids, and they will probably sit down and watch it again with their children,” said Steve Moylan, group marketing manager for Mervyn’s. “He’s a playful character, and there’s an element of simplicity and nostalgia that rolls up into a nice neat holiday package for us.”

The Frosty TV programs are owned by Golden Books Family Entertainment, and Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1950 song “Frosty the Snow Man,” plus merchandising rights.

CBS, which is owned by Viacom Inc., has held on to the TV rights to Frosty and Rudolph.

Last year, CBS booked more than $2.7 million in ad revenue for “Frosty the Snowman” and “Frosty Returns,” both half-hour shows, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

“I had no idea that Frosty would last this long,” illustrator Paul Coker Jr. said.

Coker was asked 33 years ago by Arthur Rankin, producer of the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” program, to draw sketches of a jolly snowman for another Christmas TV special. At the time, Coker was working as a designer for Hallmark greeting cards and as a freelancer illustrator for MAD magazine.

Coker was paid about $2,500 for creating the Frosty image. He figured the program would air just once, and Coker has never received any residuals despite the show’s long run. “I didn’t have any leverage to make demands,” Coker said. “But at least I keep getting credit [on the screen].”

‘Rudolph’ Moves Merchandise

The story of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” also was created to move Christmas merchandise.

In 1939, a Montgomery Ward copywriter, Robert L. May, wrote the paperback Rudolph book, which the retailer gave away to customers as a promotional tool. At first, Wards’ executives were nervous about using a character with a red nose, an image often associated with drunks.

But the misfit reindeer took off in a big way.

The song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” became a hit, and in the early ‘60s, Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass produced the animated TV special.

Last year, CBS’s ad revenue for the hourlong Rudolph special topped $3.5 million, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. CBS will broadcast “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Saturday and “Frosty the Snowman” on Nov. 30.

Mendelson, “ “A Charlie Brown Christmas” executive producer, said television’s most popular Christmas specials, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” were all produced in the 1960s.

“The same two-or three-year period was like a gene pool for animated Christmas shows,” Mendelson said. “I think our success was that we used real children’s voices, instead of adult actors, and most of all we used the Midwest values of Charles Schulz--values that we all hold dear.”