Lee Mendelson was a young man in a hurry. He broke into television while still in his twenties (it was a local station in San Francisco, but still ...), and he formed his own production company at thirty. At first Mendelson Films did documentaries, but that quickly segued into animated cartoons.
The glide path was simple. Mendelson Films had done a documentary on Charles Schulz, which led to Coca-Cola approaching Lee M. about doing an animated Christmas special using "Peanuts" characters. Mendelson contacted Schulz; Schulz contacted an animator named Bill Melendez with whom he had worked on commercials. Lee M. thought some jazz music would be good for the show, and went looking for a musician who could lay down some tasteful tracks. Two referrals later, he was given the name Vince Guaraldi and he filled the bill.
The project came together quickly, but Lee Mendelson had doubts that the resulting half-hour was very good. As he explains below (along with other things) two high-level CBS execs dampened his spirits further ...
It isn't dwelled on much, but Lee Mendelson had a long, golden career as an animation producer. Dozens upon dozens of "Peanuts" half-hours. Garfield specials and then a long-running series. Four Peanuts animated features. And a partnership with the Film Roman resulted in the production of a multi-season run of Bobby's World.
And on top of all that, Mr. Mendelson was the co-writer of the holiday standard Christmas Time Is Here (Guaraldi the music; Mendelson the lyrics). And you know how it is with Christmas standards. Every twelve months, they make boatloads of money.
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