A Charlie Brown Christmas with Alan Siegel • Non-Denominational Holiday Fun Fest IV

Season 7

Dec 23

Good grief. It’s the 60th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)! To celebrate this classic Christmas special, Adam and Nate decided to unpack it through its Simpsons parody in “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace” (S9E10) with Alan Siegel, author of the new book Stupid TV, Be More Funny.

Also in this episode:

Alan’s take on how The Simpsons reinvented TV and molded millennial movie taste like an older brother
Were the Simpsons DVD commentaries podcasts before podcasts?
The many ways Charles M. Schulz inspired the people behind The Simpsons
Why does this moody Christmas special endure today?
Plus, check out our show notes for a complete list of Simpsons references, double feature suggestions, and further reading

(Sorry about the brief mic problems from around the 43 minute mark. If it’s driving you crazy, skip ahead to around 49 minutes.)

After a short holiday break, we’ll be back on January 13th with the daddy-daughter con job movie Paper Moon and its Simpsons parody in “The Great Money Caper” (S12E7).

For more of Alan’s writing on The Simpsons, check out his new book Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television—and America—Forever and his writing about pop culture on The Ringer.

For more Simpsons movie parody content, check out SpringfieldGoogolplex.com, or follow us at @simpsonsfilmpod on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Letterboxd. Discover more great podcasts on the That Shelf Podcast Network.

Every Simpsons Reference to A Charlie Brown Christmas

By our count, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been directly referenced 12 times in the first 13 seasons of The Simpsons. The first reference appears in “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (S1E1) from 1989, 24 years after the release of the movie.

Scene References

Treehouse of Horror IV (S5E5): This Halloween special ends with a non sequitur where the family sings Hark the “Herald Angel Sings” like the kids at the end of this classic Christmas special. As an added bonus, Milhouse accompanies them on a tiny piano like Schroeder, while Santa’s Little Helper dances like Snoopy.

Miracle on Evergreen Terrace (S9E11): When the Simpson family goes to visit Grampa at the Springfield Retirement Castle, they’re surprised to find the residents dancing like the kids practicing for the Christmas pageant. According to Grampa, “the pharmaceutical man come by and shot us full of Christmas cheer!”

Small References

Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (S1E1): When Bart tries to convince his Homer to bet his paycheck at the race track, he says, “If TV has taught me anything, it’s that miracles always happen to poor kids at Christmas. It happened to Tiny Tim, it happened to Charlie Brown, it happened to the Smurfs, and it’s going to happen to us!”

Marge Be Not Proud (S7E11): In Bart’s fantasy about Christmas in prison, Charlie Brown’s crappy Christmas tree can be seen in a corner of the room.

Grade School Confidential (S8E19): When Principal Skinner and Edna Krabappel interrupt their dinner together to make out, they take so long that Edna’s Charlie Brown candle melts down to its shins.

New • Treehouse of Horror IX (S10E4): After the police shoot and kill Homer’s evil hairpiece, Maggie picks it up and sucks her thumb, just like Linus and his security blanket.

New • Sunday, Cruddy Sunday (S10E12): At the Super Bowl, Dolly Parton’s halftime act includes a giant Snoopy head and a jetpack for some reason.

New • Behind the Laughter (S11E22): The Bart t-shirts in this fake documentary episode all feature ripoffs catchphrases from other TV shows, including a play of Charlie Brown’s famous line, “Good grief, man.”

Marge Simpson in: 'Screaming Yellow Honkers' (New • S10E15) & The Computer Wore Menace Shoes (S12E6): Snoopy’s dance moves are parodied multiple times on the show, including when a sloth at the zoo is shot with a tranquilizer dart in “Marge Simpson in: ‘Screaming Yellow Honkers’” and when the Simpson family encounter Santa’s Little Helper doing some fancy footwork in the couch gag of “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes.”

A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love (S13E4): When Mr. Burns takes his new belle to a club, he dances exactly like one of the kids at the Christmas pageant.

New • The Blunder Years (S13E5): The chalkboard gag for this episode reads, “I am not Charlie Brown on acid.”

Bonus: Other Charlie Brown References

While most of the Simpsons references to Peanuts can be traced back to the Chrismas special, 7 others are nods to other specials or the original comics.

Bart Gets an ‘F’ (S2E1) & El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer) (S8E9): On two occasions, Mrs. Krabappel’s voice becomes nonsense sounds like the adults in the Peanuts specials and TV shows after A Charlie Brown Christmas. In Bart Gets an ‘F’, it sounds a little more like generic “blah blahs,” whereas in “The Mysyerious Voyage of Homer,” it uses a nearly identical muted trombone sound to the one in Peanuts.

Treehouse of Horror II (S3E7): In the opening of this Halloween special, a gaggle of kids wearing the same outfits as the kids in It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown can be seen walking by the house.

New • The Boy Who Knew Too Much (S5E20): When trying to avoid telling the truth, Bart pretends to read the newspaper, saying, “Oh, look, Charlie Brown said, ‘Good grief.’ I didn’t see that comin’.”

New • Treehouse of Horror X (S11E4): A couple of Great Pumpkin-like ghost costumes appear again in the beginning of this episode’s second segment. In the end credits, one of the Animation Executive Producers also made his spooky credit “Haloed Great Pumpkin David Pritchard.”

Hungry, Hungry Homer (S12E15): After Duffman drugs Homer, he wakes up lying on top of the family dog house like Snoopy. In a shot mimicking the animation style of Peanuts, Bart comes up to him and says, “Good grief.”