You're a Good Magnet, Charlie Brown

In a twist that might make its round-headed hero exclaim, "Good grief," Charles M. Schulz's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" — the animated television special about love conquering materialism that aired last night on ABC — now fuels a $1.2-billion-a-year global publishing, merchandising and marketing machine.

Millions of Americans tuned in, as they have every December for 40 years, to watch Charlie Brown and his gang learn that friendship and faith are more important than presents.

And this year, as every year, advertisers clamored to buy time during the cartoon to hype their holiday movies and toys. So many advertisers, in fact, that ABC had to turn some away.

Those who got into the coveted program paid as much as $200,000 for each 30-second spot, which is more than what advertisers have paid for such hot new hits as ABC's "Commander in Chief."

That is just one reason Schulz's estate, the Charles M. Schulz Creative Assn., earned an estimated $35 million in 2004, according to Forbes magazine. Powered by "Peanuts"-related products that include clothing, cosmetics, dishes, toys and stationery, Schulz has become the second-most-profitable "dead celebrity," Forbes found, with only the estate of Elvis Presley collecting more.

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