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Saunders: 'CB,' pals deserve an encore

Published December 6, 2006 at midnight

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There's something seriously wrong with network television when the best of the annual Christmas specials is aired Nov. 28.

ABC could at least have waited until we turned over our calendars to December before broadcasting the repeat of A Charlie Brown Christmas, the 1965 animated classic.

This half-hour says more about the holiday spirit than all the upcoming new productions, which will attempt to get viewers in the Christmas mood, while pitching expensive holiday gift suggestions.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a gentle reminder about how easy it is for adults and kids to get caught up in what cantankerous Lucy calls "a big commercial racket." It ends with Charlie Brown and Linus eventually finding the true meaning of Christmas.

Despite its awkward early timing, A Charlie Brown Christmas still displayed enormous popularity.

When premiering Dec. 9, 1965, the animated classic drew 15.4 million viewers on CBS, making it the second most-watched TV attraction of the week behind NBC's Bonanza.

The Nov. 28th airing drew 13 million in this much more competitive era.

I'm in good shape regarding this TV classic, since I've got the half-hour on tape.

And one of the highlights of our family's Christmas season is playing the CD, featuring the rhythmic Vince Guaraldi jazz score while we decorate the tree.

Still, there are many potential viewers who missed this year's early showing.

Could ABC find a half-hour between now and Dec. 25 to repeat the whimsical emotional journey of Charlie and Linus?

Airing Friday on CBS is another holiday favorite designed for kids - Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (7 p.m., CBS 4), which premiered Dec. 16, 1964.

How long ago was that?

Here's the television perspective: The regular schedule listed Lassie, Ed Sullivan, Wagon Train, The Red Skelton Show and Lawrence Welk.

Lawrence Welk? Wasn't he recently on KRMA-Channel 6?

Maybe he'll show up for a Christmas special.

PLANNING AHEAD: The next series for FX cable network, which produces on-the-edge drama, is Dirt, premiering Jan 2.

Starring Courteney Cox (Friends) this weekly hour purports to look inside the world of tabloid journalism.

Cox portrays the editor-in-chief of two national magazines "which control the fates of celebrities."

Cox and her husband, David Arquette, are executive producers.

On-the-edge FX series include Rescue Me, about rowdy (to-say-the least) New York firemen; Nip/Tuck, set in the unscrupulous Miami world of plastic surgery; and The Shield, the award-winning drama often centering on renegade Los Angeles cops.

• Crossing Jordan, NBC's drama starring Jill Hennessy as a pathologist who solves crimes, returns to the weekly schedule Sunday, Jan. 21. The Sunday lineup, minus NFL football, also will feature a new version of The Apprentice, set in Los Angeles

• Criminal Minds, CBS' popular Wednesday night crime show will be featured in the key post-Super Bowl time period Feb. 4.

• And of course you planned ahead to see the premiere of Dirty Dancing (8 tonight on the WE cable network). The series tagline: "18 will dance. One will have the time of her life."

It's about time TV came up with some sort of dancing show competition.

BROADCASTING NAMES: Jessica Jamison has left her weather forecasting job at Denver's 7 with no immediate TV plans.

• The irrepressible Aaron Harber, whose political antenna is always up, has a one-on-one interview with governor-elect Bill Ritter at 7 p.m. Monday on KBDI-Channel 12.

• Dick Wolf, the prolific creator of the three Law & Order series, set in New York, is heading West. He's one of the two executive producers of an HBO film, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, based on the controversial book by Dee Brown.

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On Dec. 6, 1976, NBC aired a TV production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which starred Laurence Olivier, Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner and Maureen Stapleton.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcasting critic. or 303-954-5137