Lee Mendelson, the longtime executive producer of numerous specials for the TV animated series "Peanuts," has died, his family said.
The producer, 86, passed away at his San Francisco Bay Area home on Christmas Day, his son Jason Mendelson told CNN.
He died of congestive heart failure after a long battle with cancer, his son said.
Mendelson, originally from San Francisco, was known for his work in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the first animated special featuring "Peanuts" characters. The producer wrote the lyrics to the special's song "Christmas Time is Here."
"We are very sad to lose our wonderful father, but Lee would have said it was serendipitous to pass on Christmas when the song he wrote with Vince Guaraldi is being heard everywhere and the program he created with Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez is being celebrated around the world," Jason Mendelson told CNN.
"While it was not a great time for us, it was not a bad time for him to pass," he added.
The special, which first aired on December 9, 1965, was an immediate critical and commercial hit, and it has since become a perennial holiday favorite.
"They said, 'We'll play it once and that will be all. Good try,' " Mendelson told Pop Matters.
He and director Bill Melendez "thought we had ruined Charlie Brown forever when it was done. We kind of agreed with the network. One of the animators stood up in the back of the room -- he had had a couple of drinks -- and he said, 'It's going to run for a hundred years,' and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were."
The special has aired for more than 50 years.
Mendelson produced dozens of specials featuring "Peanuts" characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, specials for the animated series "Cathy," as well as numerous shows and over 100 episodes of the animated series "Garfield and Friends."
He is survived by his wife, Ploenta, his children Glenn, Lynda, Jason, Sean; her stepson Ken; and eight grandchildren.
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